Free Republic

What's up with the French? We're referring specifically here to a recent story by The Washington Post. In the spirit of the travel warnings the U.S. State Department issues for other countries, The Washington Post documented any number of U.S. cities to avoid. And what a list it is. Cities the French government tells its citizens to avoid are: Boston, New York City, Washington, Baltimore and more. Have we left anyone out?snip Salt Lake City: Headquarters of the LDS Church, this town is lousy with Mormons -- an annoyingly friendly people. And because many of them served missions abroad, an...

Borrowing an ancient Hebrew word from an Old Testament text, one of America’s leading evangelical Christian scholars told nearly 2,000 young Mormons at Utah Valley University Friday that his faith and their faith, often at odds with each other through the years over doctrinal disparities, “need to find ways we can work together” to find “shalom,” or peace. “God has placed us in the world, in this nation, and calls us to seek the shalom together,” said Dr. Richard J. Mouw, president emeritus of the Fuller Theological Seminary and noted author of such books as “Uncommon Decency: Christian Civility in...

Thousands of Hawaiians missed school and work, waited in line to testify as their cars were towed, endured daily rule changes by lawmakers and otherwise battled uphill to provide state representatives with more than 50 hours of testimony that mostly opposed a same-sex “marriage” bill. Lawmakers ignored them, voting for the “gay” agenda anyway. But they may not be able to ignore the next step. WND has learned of a plan to request a temporary restraining order preventing the law from taking effect, pending a trial on what voters meant in a 1998 vote on marriage. Prior to the vote...

He used to be named Muhammad, and changing his name to Tito led to him being imprisoned in Egypt for 15 years. Tito Momen, as he is now known, is a UVU student. He spoke to a group of about 250 students and others who took the time Wednesday to hear about his experiences. As he and Jeff Benedict, co-author of the book "My Name Used to be Muhammad," spoke, the audience members were nearly silent as they heard of his trials and experiences. That the name change is the title of the book is significant. It was that action...

A Roman Catholic scholar and former philosophy and religion professor has released a new book that defends Mormonism as "one of the youngest branches on the Christian tree," and claims that Christians can learn from the Mormon religion. Stephen H. Webb, former 25 year professor of religion and philosophy at Wabash College and author of the book, Mormon Christianity: What Other Christians Can Learn From the Latter-day Saints, told The Christian Post that, among other things, "Mormon theology teaches us to think of matter in new and creative ways." "Traditional theology teaches that matter is lifeless, without the soul it's...

What a horrifically EXPONENTIAL amazing time is just before us in which the world of today is absolutely oblivious to (1 Thess. 5:2-3). The Day of the Lord is at hand in which the godlessness, lawlessness and violence of man will reach its EXPONENTIAL zenith (2 Thess. 2:2:8-12, Rev. 6-19)! What is amazing is that the very world leaders we see today raging and conspiring against Israel and Almighty God's RIGHTEOUSNESS most likely will be the very ones who will give their power and authority to the upcoming beast (aka- Anti Christ - 2 Thess. 2:3-12, Rev. 13, 17:12-17). These...

CEBU CITY, Philippines — When calamity strikes, charity crosses religions. This was the case with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, popularly known as the Mormon Church, joining hands with the Roman Catholic Church to distribute relief goods to earthquake victims in Bohol. The Latter-day Saint (LDS) Charities, the Mormon Church’s humanitarian arm, has vowed to help Catholics rebuild their Spanish-era churches that were destroyed by the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck Central Visayas on Oct. 15

Two suspected terrorists are being held in Kosovo after a Nov. 3 attack on two American women serving as missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A total of six men were arrested Nov. 5 in connection with an alleged terrorist plot "inspired by extreme Islamist ideology." Two of the six are suspects in the investigation of the attack on the LDS missionaries, a senior police official involved with the investigation told the Associated Press. The attack took place in Pristina, Kosovo's capital. "We can confirm two sister missionaries were beaten in Kosovo and have been moved...

Police in eastern Idaho say they're investigating after vandals defaced three Mormon churches in the small town of Chubbuck. Gov. Butch Otter condemned the vandalism in a written statement released Sunday. Here is the governor's full statement: "Defiling or defacing houses of worship — of any faith or denomination — is an attack not just on religious beliefs or even our law, but also on our culture and our values. It disturbs the sanctuaries of our spiritual well-being. These are not merely the acts of misguided individuals. They speak to a more fundamental disregard for sacred places, social order and...

<p>The Mormon church stands to own nearly 2 percent of Florida by completing a deal to buy most of the real estate of the St. Joe Co. for more than a half-billion dollars.</p> <p>The megapurchase was announced jointly Thursday by a corporate representative of church, which owns the nearly 295,000-acre Deseret Ranches in Central Florida, and by the real-estate and timber business, which has built several communities along the Panhandle coast.</p>

<p>PROVO, UTAH – A jury convicted a doctor of murder early Saturday in the death of his wife six years ago, bringing an end to a trial that became the nation's latest true-crime cable TV obsession with its tales of plastic surgery and philandering, betrayal and family feuding, jailhouse snitches and a courtroom prop: a jetted bathtub.</p>

SALT LAKE CITY — Politico reported Wednesday night that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had said The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members are changing their views on gay rights. The church reacted Thursday evening by issuing a statement that indicated its doctrine about traditional marriage has not changed... ..."As the church has said before, elected officials who are Latter-day Saints make their own decisions and may not necessarily be in agreement with one another or even with a publicly stated church position..." "...On the question of same-sex marriage, the church has been consistent in...

The chill seemed to begin to thaw for some in 2004 when Mouw introduced Ravi Zacharias at the LDS Church's Salt Lake Tabernacle. Mouw spoke for seven minutes and apologized for evangelicals who had "misrepresented the faith and belief of Latter-day Saints." "Let me state it clearly," Mouw said. "We evangelicals have sinned against you." Mouw didn't flinch despite criticism of the apology by other evangelicals and published a book last year titled "Talking with Mormons: An Invitation to Evangelicals." He practices “convicted civility,” which he says is different from what he calls the “ ‘anything-goes’ compromised relativism so popular...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon) has a network of food canning and distribution centers around the nation, where volunteer church members donate time to can food grown on the church’s farms and orchards or purchased from other sources. The purpose of this network of canneries is to provide food to those who have been caught in disasters or just caught short by an ever-declining national economy. Millions of pounds of food are prepared for distribution annually in the LDS canneries. Recently, we have heard rumblings that the federal government has been paying very close...

Last month, after being sure to get his caffeine fix at Starbucks, Southern Baptist leader Richard Land went where few evangelicals had dared to go before: the Provo campus of Brigham Young University, the intellectual heart of Mormonism. After lecturing on "family, faith, freedom and America," Land attended a BYU football game with LDS leaders and joined them to hear James Taylor sing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Days later, George O. Wood, the general superintendent of the Assemblies of God, also visited BYU, followed by the Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptists’ flagship seminary. Is there...

Yes Grant Wilson is the co-founder (with Jason Hawes) of The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS). TAPS is based in Warwick, Rhode Island. He is also the co-star and co-producer of "Ghost Hunters", a Syfy channel reality program that follows a group of people as they investigate paranormal phenomena and hunt for ghosts. Wilson recently left the TV show. He is married and has three sons. He is also a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In defiance of Deuteronomy 17:17, Matthew 19:4-6, and other Biblical passages, the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, endorsed the practice of polygamy. However, the largest Mormon church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), later outlawed the practice. This presents a problem for LDS theology. In verses 61-63 of Section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants, Joseph Smith reveals a "revelation" about polygamy supposedly given to him by God. The verses teach that a man "cannot commit adultery" -- even if "he have ten virgins given unto him by this law" of polygamy -- as long as his...

Rebecca Musser...19...was forced to marry Warren Jeffs' 85-year-old father

To: the New York Times Dear Editors, I am a [choose one: Catholic, Evangelical, Mormon, Orthodox Jewish] conservative, who is well known in the conservative movement as a [choose one: magazine editor, think-tank president, scholar, activist] and public intellectual. Despite my longstanding opposition to [choose one: same-sex marriage, abortion], next week I will be coming out publicly in favor of [choose one: marriage equality, a woman’s right to choose], and was wondering whether you might be interested in informing your readers of this important development in the world of [choose one: Catholic, Evangelical, Mormon, Orthodox Jewish] conservatism. My statement will...

A now-former DirecTV customer recently called the company to cancel his service because it has refused so far to offer TheBlaze in its channel lineup. Better yet, he recorded the entire interaction and posted the audio on YouTube. Scott, presumably a big fan of TheBlaze, showed incredible discipline as he turned down special offer after special offer, choosing instead to stand by his principles. He even turned down NFL Sunday Ticket, which provides viewers access to every single NFL game. He admits that one was hard to turn down — but he did anyway.