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Wondering what that billboard on U.S. Highway 93 in Jerome County that reads "You are not alone" is all about? Jeff Ricks will tell you it's an invitation. Ricks, 54, was raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints... That changed in 1993 when a business venture in Idaho Falls went under and he lost faith in the church's teachings about tithing. He expected blessings from paying a full tithe, not the hardship that came from losing his home and business. "Everybody who leaves the church leaves for different reasons," Ricks said..."Everyone has a trigger that brings them...

Video On-Demand: October 09 Gerneral Conference TalksClick on desired talk to view

While much has been said about the heartache of plural wives living in 19th-century Mormonism, these unions could also bring happiness and unusual independence, according to a prominent religious scholar. During a lecture Thursday before a packed house at the LDS Tabernacle, Kathleen Flake said that often only the negative side of polygamy is emphasized. “I am always suspicious when I only hear one side of an argument,” added Flake, who teaches religious history at Vanderbilt University. This suspicion lead her to research polygamy in Utah during the pioneer era, a time when about 25 percent of Latter-day Saints were...

Holladay » Barbara Whipperman was a pious teenager, a defender of the faith. When her parents bought a can of coffee, before they even could brew a pot, she saved them from themselves. "I tossed the whole can," the 76-year-old recalls, laughing raucously. "I was a good little Mormon girl. Oh, they were mad!" How that good little Mormon girl from Sugar House came to be Sister Mary Joseph, a Catholic -- and a nun, no less -- is a story she tells with relish. A member of the Carmel of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a cloistered monastery that...

Church members were encouraged to reach out and help others each day during the Sunday morning session of the 179th semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "Those who live only for themselves eventually shrivel up and, figuratively, lose their life, while those who lose themselves in service to others grow and flourish — and in effect save their life," President Thomas S. Monson, president of the church, said during Sunday's morning conference session. He stressed that church members should step back from the "busy-ness" of their lives and take a good look at their...

Eternal life is a divine promise that is possible to achieve, said Elder Jorge F. Zeballos of the Seventy during the Saturday afternoon session of conference. "From a purely human point of view at first, this seems to be an impossible task; however, it begins to appear possible upon understanding that in order to achieve it, we are not alone." Recognizing that eternal life is made possible by a forgiving Eternal Father and the selfless sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, Elder Zeballos spoke of the rewards and possibilities available for all who work, sacrifice and give the best of...

Controversial talk show host Glenn Beck is certainly making waves from his Fox News TV and syndicated-radio bully pulpit, nationwide appearances and, best-selling books. Beck is also, for better or worse, drawing attention to his church and fellow Mormons. The Christian Science Monitor recently wrote: "If Glenn Beck were a soldier, he'd be General Patton. If an athlete, Roger Federer four days of the week and Michael Phelps the other three. If a rock musician, the Beatles -- all four of them. The guy is everywhere, getting more ink than that other media star, Barack Obama. "Cover of Time magazine...

Focusing on minor weaknesses of the Prophet Joseph Smith misses the mark, the man and his mission of restoring the gospel, said Elder Tad R. Callister of the Seventy. SNIP He noted that the first thing Joseph learned was that God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ are two separate and distinct beings, a truth confirmed by the Bible. The second truth he discovered was the Father and the Son have glorified bodies of flesh and bones. Third, Joseph learned that the heavens are not closed, that God still speaks to man today. This is achieved by asking if...

MIDWAY, Utah -- LDS filmmaker Kieth Merrill says he picked the background for "The Testaments" by default, and if he had it to do over, he would have sought locations in North America rather than Central and South America. Speaking Friday at the Book of Mormon Prophecies Conference at the Zermatt resort, Merrill said he believes evidence supports a North American backdrop in the "promised land" for the Book of Mormon stories, wars and visits from Jesus Christ. "I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I can't say I know where it all took place," Merrill said as...

You might think that the Mormon people celebrate Christmas like a good Christian denomination would. But a doctrinal issue broods over the Mormon people, a historic issue that prevents many Mormons from appreciating the Christian meaning of Christmas. Indeed, it is an issue that prevents Mormons from having a saving relationship with the real Jesus Christ. Just who is that Jesus in the manger? How was he conceived? And what kind of salvation does he freely offer to those who want eternal life and the forgiveness of sins?One of the fundamental tenets of Christianity is that Christ was born of...

Any claim of revelation is outrageous. It presumes that God exists, that God speaks and that all is not lost when human beings translate that speech into ordinary language. But time mutes the outrage, or muffles it. Many of us greet the miracles of Jesus with a shrug, and there is little scandal any more in claiming that the Bible is the word of God. -SNIP-So we probably know more about the production of the Book of Mormon, which is holy writ to the world's 14 million Mormons, than we do about any other scripture. The product of over...

    179th Semiannual General ConferenceThe 179th Semiannual General Conference of the Church will be held in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday and Sunday, October 3-4, 2009. For information on worldwide broadcast times and options, see the broadcast schedule.For additional information about general conference, see the Events page.

Reid: No Columbus Day Recess By Jessica Brady Roll Call Staff Sept. 30, 2009, 11:51 a.m. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced Wednesday that the chamber will not take a recess next month in order to plow through a heavy legislative agenda that includes passing a host of appropriations bills and perhaps health care reform.

  June 26, 2009: Temple ordinance information is no longer updated in the International Genealogical Index (IGI). Church members who wish to verify completed temple ordinances for their deceased ancestors may contact a family history consultant, or visit a local family history center for assistance. Caesar Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus (27 February c. 272 – 22 May 337), commonly known in English as Constantine I, Constantine the Great, or (among Eastern Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Christians) Saint Constantine, was Roman emperor from 306, and the undisputed holder of that office from 324 until his...

The Lord Speaks Again: Ancient Temple Patterns in D&C 124 On 19 January 1841 the Lord issued an important revelation through the Prophet Joseph Smith which is now known as Doctrine and Covenants section 124.1 There are many verses within this revelation where the Lord describes concepts associated with the Nauvoo temple. These concepts can be placed under five general categories so that they can be more easily evaluated: The Lord’s People, The Lord’s Commands, The Lord’s House, The Priesthood, and The Ordinances. This article is calculated to help students of the past more accurately understand what (and how...

As members of the church we recognize that the Book of Mormon was written for us and for our day and age. No earthly Nephite, other than Mormon, and perhaps Moroni, ever read the Book of Mormon in its entirety. It was edited by the Prophet Mormon under the direction of the Savior with the intention of articulating doctrine, events and experiences that relate to our times and circumstances. We live in a time of endemic warfare, and as Joseph Smith prophesied on Christmas Day 1832, from that time forth, "war shall be poured out upon all nations" until the...

History: Orderville's utopia was nearly perfect -- for about a decade

An informal survey shows there are 38,000 fundamentalist Mormons in the U.S., Canada and Mexico -- up by 1,000. "It is a conservative figure but that's the approximate figure for now," said Anne Wilde, a co-founder of the advocacy group Principle Voices, which conducts the periodic survey. Estimates for organized groups are provided by group leaders or council members. The count includes children and adults, living in both monogamous and polygamous families. Wilde said about half are in plural families. "It's been kind of generally increasing but not in thousands, maybe in 50s or 100s," Wilde said. "There is the...

A friend of my daughter recently said she could not understand why Mormons baptize children at such a young age, 8 years old. This got me thinking. ...We do not baptize infants or little children because, as taught in section 29 of the Doctrine and Covenants, "little children are redeemed" through Christ and "cannot sin, for power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children until they begin to become accountable before me." But why do we baptize at the young and tender age of 8? Why not wait until they are older and, as some would argue, more...

The LDS Church - and many of its members - objected last spring when HBO's hit series "Big Love" depicted a plural wife participating in a temple ceremony, calling the episode an offensive act that trivialized a sacred practice. But an entire context is needed to sanctify an image, gesture, ritual or event, said Alex Caldiero, and without its unique context, the sacred cannot be violated. "The sacred sort of protects itself against any inappropriate, any misuse or any foul play by being so protected and encased in a context," said Caldiero, artist-in-residence at Utah Valley University in Orem. "What...

Dear Seeker of Truth, I am a former Mormon missionary and apologist (defender of the faith). I wrote a book defending the Church against anti-Mormon attacks ("The Gainsayers" 1989). I spent many years of my life in research, hoping to find evidence for The Book of Mormon, and to counter anti-Mormon claims. I studied Book of Mormon archaeology and also Mormon history far more intensively than 99% of other Mormons. I did this because I wanted to defend the Church. Ultimately, I discovered the truth. I resigned from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1996. For those...

Dear Seeker of Truth, I am a former Mormon missionary and apologist (defender of the faith). I wrote a book defending the Church against anti-Mormon attacks ("The Gainsayers" 1989). I spent many years of my life in research, hoping to find evidence for The Book of Mormon, and to counter anti-Mormon claims. I studied Book of Mormon archaeology and also Mormon history far more intensively than 99% of other Mormons. I did this because I wanted to defend the Church. Ultimately, I discovered the truth. I resigned from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1996. Below is...

The Book of Mormon has undergone thousands of changes through the years as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has corrected typos, grammatical errors and mistaken words. Brigham Young University professor Royal Skousen highlights some of the most significant changes in his latest book, The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text. Several examples are listed below: 1 Nephi 13:24"It contained the fullness of the gospel of the Land." (original manuscript)"It contained the fullness of the gospel of the Lord." (printer's version, 1981 edition)"It contained the fullness of the gospel of the Lamb." (BYU Critical Text Project)1 Nephi 17:48"Whoso...

The 8th Article of Faith states: "We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God." In the title page of the Book of Mormon, we read, "...if there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn not the things of God." Lastly, we read the words of Moroni shortly after he took over his father's record: "Condemn me not because of mine imperfection, neither my father, because of his imperfection, neither them who have written before him...

...The Joseph Smith Papers, Revelations and Translations, Volume 1: Manuscript Revelation Books will be in bookstores on Sept. 22. It is the second book to be released in the anticipated 30-volume comprehensive scholarly set that will cover more than 2,000 documents in the Prophet's personal papers. Of necessity, the latest volume is larger and more expensive than the others. This is because it contains a full-color photo image of each page of two important manuscript collections produced by the Prophet and his scribes: the Book of Commandments and Revelations and the Kirtland Revelation Book. "Coupling them together, we're presenting one...

SNIP Sharing testimonies is an important part of the Latter-day Saint experience. We bear testimonies in many settings — in the home with family and among friends and associates or in missionary experiences. In Church, one Sunday is set aside every month for the bearing of testimonies during sacrament meetings. SNIP In his address at the October 2004 general conference, Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve...said that his experience throughout the Church leads him to worry that too many members' testimonies linger on "I am thankful," and "I love," and too few are able to say...

Bob Bennett has a challenge for those who reject The Book of Mormon as a fanciful work of fiction...In a new book, Leap of Faith: Confronting the Origins of The Book of Mormon, the lifelong Mormon and grandson of a church prophet, argues that the foundational book of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints cannot be dismissed so easily. SNIP ...Terryl Givens, a Mormon and a professor of literature and religion at the University of Richmond, notes that The Book of Mormon has not undergone much if any scrutiny by scholars outside the faith. "The story of its...

Phoenix » Some north Phoenix residents are voicing strong opposition to a proposed Mormon temple, saying it would be an eyesore and would disrupt their mountain views. The four-story, all white, 9,500-square-foot temple would rise from the desert floor near 51st Avenue and West Pinnacle Peak Road.

We Mormons have our own personal religious lore; one that tops the list is the Three Nephites. A healthy percentage of members who make it to church more often than not either have their own personal Three Nephites tale or can relate at least one that has been passed onto them. The Three Nephites are mentioned in The Book of Mormon as disciples of Jesus Christ who ask to remain on earth until Jesus Christ returns and convert souls for him. Christ says yes, which is the same answer he gives to John the Beloved in the New Testament. (I...

Sept 17, 2009 — Readers of this headline may say it is not news to say that intelligent design has been found in DNA. Others may be ready for a fight on that issue. But in this case, the design has been verified beyond any shadow of doubt. The designers are not who you may be suspecting. They are...

.Some time ago, I called needhim.org to discuss the Trinity and find out if I’m missing something or if Christians really just can’t count. The lady who answered the phone, Donna, described the Trinity as “really cool”, and told me that the Father = God, the Son = God and the Holy Ghost = God. I was a little confused and tried to explain the biblical narrative in these terms. The Holy Spirit (God) has sex with the Virgin Mary to impregnate her with Jesus (God). Later, Jesus (God) is sacrificed by the Father (God) to save us from… God?...

“HI, we’d like to talk to you about Jesus Christ!” Standing tall, two young and well-dressed American boys at my door broke the ice instantaneously. Happy to see them, I said that we were Christians too. What happened next, however, took me by surprise and left me scrambling for words. Stating that they were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they said they wanted to talk about a prophet and a book given to the prophet by God. Though a little shaken, I refused to hear their ideologies — they left only to return another day...

What Nick Vujicic lacks in stature, he makes up for in faith. Vujicic, a 26-year-old man born without arms or legs, spoke about hope and faith in Jesus Christ to approximately 5,000 people at the Salt Palace Convention Center on Saturday night. Vujicic is using his unique situation to spread the message of being born again in Christ. An Australian native, Vujicic now resides in California where he runs his Christian ministry Life Without Limbs. “The world sees something special in a man without arms and legs,” Vujicic said. “I love being able to be used by God.” People’s reasons...

Spanish Fork » Joseph Smith may have called The Book of Mormon the "most correct of any book on Earth," but that doesn't mean it couldn't use some correcting -- even now, 179 years after it first came off the press. Regarded by a worldwide faith of nearly 14 million members as Holy Writ, the book is not wholly without errors -- typos, omissions, grammatical goofs and altogether wrong words. Mistakes have crept into the text since LDS Church founder Joseph Smith dictated the original manuscript, which he says he translated with God's help from gold plates. Truth is, the...

Settlement papers show Mormon church leaders agreed to return more than $202,000 in tithing money paid by a man convicted of bilking investors out of more than $142 million. U.S. District Court filings show Val Southwick paid The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints $202,761.74 between 2001 and 2006. In 2008, the LDS Church Corporation of the Presidency agreed to return the money as part of a Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement action. Spokesman Scott Trotter says the church has a policy of not profiting from alleged ill-gotten gains. Southwick was convicted of securities fraud and is serving nine...

by Kent Ponder, Ph.D.          Many say that religious faith and reason are essentially incompatible -- that theological faith and sensible reason function as largely separate modes of mental and emotional behavior. LDS people, though, very often say that the Mormon faith is unusually reasonable and sensible.         Is it? As a test, let's consider the Jaredites and their ocean-going barges, described in Ether of the Book of Mormon. If you've read it, did you do it with the "eye of faith," or with the "eye of reason" (and common sense)? The LDS...

When I was growing up in Utah, Calvin Rampton and Scott Matheson were our Governors, Frank Moss was one of our Senators, and Gunn McKay was our Congressman. All were Mormon Democrats. My father was a steelworker who believed that the Democrats were the party that ended the Depression, won the War, and fought for the rights of working people. Evidently many Utah Mormons agreed with him. It was not until the mid- to late-1970s that the Democratic party fell out of favor among Utah Mormon voters. That shift resulted, I believe, because the public debate about morality became more...

I came across some interesting Book of Mormon geography theories. Some of which I was familiar with and a few that were new to me. I found them interesting to read through. I’m sure there are more theories out there, but here are a few for you to read through. I’ve included links for more information on each theory on the titles of the theory. Mesoamerica Theory 1: Isthmus of Tehuantepec As you can see in this map, this theory is the one in which people believe the main location for the Book of Mormon is in Central America and...

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (GINA) -- Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon at a post-Cabinet press briefing on Thursday said that the Mormons are not the only persons who have flouted immigration laws, by overstaying their time in Guyana. He recalled that similar issues had arisen in the past with Hindu and Muslim Missionaries. Guyana's Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon Luncheon asserted that much idle speculations surrounded an action that is taken regularly in every country in the world, once immigration laws are breached. He maintained that “if you flout immigration laws, this course of action will be applied.” He...

In 1916 a church asked the Salt Lake City Council to allow them to build a huge cross, "the symbol of Christianity," on Ensign Peak. "We would like to construct it of cement, re-enforced with steel, of sufficient dimensions that it can be readily seen from every part of the city," the request read. That request came from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The cross was to honor the Mormon pioneers. Even though the proposal was approved by the City Council, the monument was never built. Today, there are no crosses on Mormon temples. Yet two are...

September 11th marks the gruesome day when 152 years ago, some 120 men, women, and children were slaughtered in cold blood by a group of Mormons. The Mountain Meadows Massacre would be the "worst incident of organized mass murder of unarmed civilians" until the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995. To understand how this happened, we must understand the relationship between the early Mormons and the rest of the nation Shortly after being organized as a church, Joseph and his two hundred or so followers settled in Kirtland, Ohio. The church grew, but by 1837 many had begun to lose faith....

Joseph Smith was just one of a proliferation of preachers and prophets who found God along the stony ridges and narrow lakes of western New York in the first half of nineteenth century. It was a place and a time of intense interest in religion: pathways to paradise ran in all directions. Prospective pilgrims had a choice, and many a wanderer journeyed a little way down first one path and then another testing alternate routes to heaven. The story of the strange systems and unusual faiths that resulted is essentially a record of unsuccessful experiments with religion. Some survived for...

WASHINGTON-- When it's time to relax, some senators play golf. Others pour themselves a drink. But Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, isn't inclined toward the greens and his faith preaches against alcohol. Instead, he's spent time on and off for the last seven years building a defense of the Book of Mormon, one of the key tomes of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The three-term senator whose job puts him at the center of political power has now delved into a different debate: whether the book Mormons believe was revealed by an angel to their founder Joseph Smith...

Today, Mormons work hand-in-hand with other faiths at the Food Bank Coalition of San Luis Obispo County to feed the hungry throughout an area of some 280,000 people. But it has not always been that way. In 1992, Kristina Manning approached the "Loaves & Fishes" organization and asked to be a volunteer. But Manning, a new LDS convert, was turned down. Two members of her bishopric at the time in the Paso Robles 1st Ward of the San Luis Obispo California Stake paid a visit to Loaves & Fishes and tried to resolve the situation. After being told they were...

In his commencement speech at Brigham Young University Thursday, Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints urged Latter-day Saints to...avoid being defensive. “In our interactions with others are we expecting always to have to defend ourselves? If so, I think we need to make a course correction.” Elder Ballard said. “It is inconsistent with where we are today..." Elder Ballard referred to recent research that suggested Mormons can sometimes appear defensive to those who are not members of the Church. The study said that when Mormons are...

There are wolves in sheep's clothing and I want to bring up two specifically. One is an organization called MormonThink.com. Okay. I don't know if you're familiar with it. I bring it up only as a warning voice. MormonThink.com presents itself as an open environment where we can discuss principles of the gospel and the teachings of the gospel from an open perspective where the truth is really found out, let the chips fall where they may. I will tell you right now that there is an agenda of those that operate that website. Their objective is not to give...

Six years. In the thousand-year span of the Nephite people, that’s the time on stage for a prideful group known as the king-men. The last fourth of the book of Alma, in which the king-men story is imbedded, is a sharp break from the doctrine-laden chapters of the first three-fourths of the book, as Mormon turns to stories about war strategy and political happenings. Why did Mormon include this story of arrogance? Is it a parallel for our time, a warning, something we should learn? I think so. Because Mormon saw our time, what he decided to include in his...

The idea for this talk came from reading some critics about the Book of Abraham. The critics were discussing an Egyptological issue on the internet. You all know these type of critics, the ones who have not the courage of their convictions sufficient to sign their real name to their opinions. [SNIP] Contemporary hostile non-Mormon eyewitnesses (surely the gold standard of evidence for present-day hostile non-Mormon critics) as well as Mormon eyewitnesses identify the Book of Abraham as coming from the long scroll in Joseph Smith's possession. The eyewitnesses force us to focus on the long roll, whichever that may...

I want to talk...about the reliability of Mormon history produced by the Church. I think there has been in years past the sentiment that the Church hedged on the way that it did business; that it was not forthright in what was published; that it was afraid of its past and unwilling to hold our heritage and our historical past up to the kind of scrutiny that other disciplines were subjected to. [SNIP] (Q:1) A major recurring criticism we see is that the church doesn't discuss difficult or controversial historical events in classroom manuals and even, for example, discourages the...

Cultural Christians. Captive Christians. American Jews. Pantheists. Muslims. Spiritual Skeptics. Mormons. The U.S. can be broken down into seven main faith groups, according to the pollster George Barna in his latest book — “The Seven Faith Tribes” — which is at least his 40th. Even he may have lost count. “These have more to do with lifestyles and values and draws parallels with faith inclinations,” Barna said in a recent phone interview from his office in California, where he oversees The Barna Group, a research organization. The faith groups are not the nation’s seven largest but are rather clusters of...