Free Republic

Is Mormonism Christian? Richard John Neuhaus TAKEN FROM: WWW.FIRSTTHINGS.COM That is not the only interesting question, but it is probably the most important. Most non–Mormons have little occasion to think about Mormonism, and those who do tend toward distinctly negative thoughts. Although there is this curious thing of recent years that many conservative Christians warmly welcome Mormons as allies in various cultural tasks. To cite but one recent instance, it was an alliance of Catholics, evangelicals, and Mormons that was instrumental in persuading the people of Hawaii to reject same–sex marriage. Yet a few issues ago we published an article...

It looked like a stunning reversal: the same church that helped defeat gay marriage in California standing with gay-rights activists on an anti-discrimination law in its own backyard. On Tuesday night, after a series of clandestine meetings between local gay-rights backers and Mormons in Salt Lake City, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced it would support proposed city laws that would prohibit discrimination against gays in housing and employment. The ordinances passed and history was made: It marked the first time the Salt Lake City-based church had supported gay-rights legislation.

With a historic endorsement from the Mormon church, the Salt Lake City Council unanimously passed a pair of ordinances making it illegal to discriminate against gays in housing and employment. Tuesday's action was the first time the Utah-based church — which has been steadfast in its opposition to gay marriage — has publicly supported gay rights legislation. "The church supports these ordinances because they are fair and reasonable and do not do violence to the institution of marriage," Michael Otterson, the director of public affairs for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said. The vote makes Salt Lake...

Tipping its hat to the power of the Internet, Deseret Management Corp. is creating a new business unit to manage the Web sites and other operations of digital-media properties owned by the LDS Church, including DeseretNews.com. Deseret Digital Media will take over the online sites of Deseret Book, Deseret News , KSL television and KSL NewsRadio. The sites are deseretbook.com, deseretnews.com, ldschurchnews.com, mormontimes.com and ksl.com. The creation of Deseret Digital Media "is driven by a belief that we can be more effective in growing our Internet businesses if we set them up in a separate division," Mark Willes, president and...

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....

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...

There is a serious threat against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It has a name. The name is Andrew Price. He belongs to an evangelistic group that goes about teaching against all other churches. This group has a website and on this website you can click on a myriad of different religions and read what this church teaches against any specific religion. The name of the online church is being withheld because this article will not be used as a forum for that church. Several different ministers, preachers, pastors,in other words, paid clergy for that church...

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...

Dear Editor, The Guyana political opposition is all up in arms about the story of the group of Mormons who have clearly broken the country’s immigration laws. Interestingly, the lawbreakers are all Americans and opposition activists are keenly playing up this aspect rather than seeing their departure as merely a procedural aspect of law and order. The government has said that the church may send in replacement missionaries provided their paperwork is intact. Recently, the opposition has taken to cozying up to anything American, even writing to the American government and asking the Obama administration to meddle in local politics....

The massive exodus of advertisers from Glenn Beck’s television show appears to be taking its toll on the host. Beck went on a paranoid rant about Media Matters and liberal bloggers attacking him. Beck said, “What they have to do is break my legs. What they have to do is silence me. What they have to do is Sarah Palin me." Here is the audio from Media Matters: (AUDIO AT LINK) After falsely claiming that Media Matters is funded by George Soros, and fear mongering about Obama’s “civilian national security force,” Beck got to the root of his concern, “Unless...

Mormons: The Most Conservative Religious Group In America That's according to a new report from Pew, released today and based on data from the group's 2007 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey. More Mormons (60 percent) identify themselves as conservatives than any other religious group; they also lead every other group in GOP party identification (at 65 percent)--much higher than the general population in both categories.

A gay rights group plans to stage a mass kissing demonstration outside the San Diego Mormon temple as a show of support for a gay couple cited for trespassing in Utah after sharing a kiss on church property. The Empowering Spirits Foundation says the "kiss-in" is intended as a peaceful rally to encourage dialogue between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. The event is scheduled for Wednesday evening at the temple near La Jolla, Calif. "It's an opportunity for us to stand up for two members of our community that...

Mormon sisters share a husband While sisters are known for their love of sharing, Mormon siblings Katie and Priscilla Churcher have chosen to share more than most in their choice of husband Travis. 15 Jul 2009 The pair live with their husband and eight children in a large house in Salt Lake City in the American state of Utah and insist they are very happy with their choice. They have three cars, a big garden, wardrobes full of stylish clothes and a mountain of toys for all their offspring. "People might think it's weird to share your husband with your...

SALT LAKE CITY -- A gay couple say they were detained by security guards on a plaza owned by the Mormon church and later cited by police, claiming it stemmed from a kiss on the cheek. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said that the men became argumentative and refused to leave after being asked to stop their "inappropriate behavior." The men say they were targeted because they are gay. Matt Aune said he and his partner, Derek Jones, were walking home from a concert nearby on Thursday night, cutting through the plaza near the Salt Lake City...

MEXICO CITY — A top member of a breakaway Mormon sect was dragged from his home by marauders and killed early Tuesday in a village founded and named for the American families that settled the remote community in the northern Mexican desert. Benjamin LeBaron, 31, and Luis Widmar, 29, a brother-in-law who tried to help him, were grabbed by at least 15 commandos shortly after midnight in Colonia LeBaron, which is about 200 miles southeast of El Paso, witnesses said. The bodies of the men, both naturalized U.S. citizens with five children each, were found nearby shortly afterward, each shot...

SALT LAKE CITY — An activist who worked alongside slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk announced plans Sunday for a march on Washington this fall to demand that Congress establish equality and marriage rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Cleve Jones said the march, planned for Oct. 11, will coincide with National Coming Out Day and launch a new chapter in the gay rights movement. He made the announcement during a rally at the annual Utah Pride Festival. "We seek nothing more and nothing less than equal protection in all matters governed by civil law in all...

A new poll of the potential 2012 GOP primary field from CNN/Opinion Research Corp. shows a log jam of three candidates at the top. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, and current Alaska Governor Sarah Palin are in a statistical dead heat according to the survey conducted May 14-17 with a 4.5% margin of error: Huckabee 22 Palin 21 Romney 21 Gingrich 13 Jeb Bush 6 Someone Else 10 In related news, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who announced today he would not be seeking a third term, dodged questions today about running in 2012 while adding...

As more states take up the debate on same-sex marriage, some advocates of legalization are taking a very specific lesson from California, where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints dominated both fundraising and door-knocking to pass a ballot initiative that barred such unions. With the battle moving east, some advocates are shouting that fact in the streets, calculating that on an issue that eventually comes down to comfort levels, more people harbor apprehensions about Mormons than about homosexuality. "The Mormons are coming! The Mormons are coming!" warned ads placed on newspaper Web sites in three Eastern states last...

The infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre, inscrutable enough just on the basis of the known facts, has been clouded over the past century and a half by myths and misconceptions. Some such myths surround the 1875 and 1876 trials of John D. Lee, the only man ever tried and convicted for his role in the 1857 mass murder of Arkansas emigrants near Cedar City, Utah, by Mormon militia men. In a May 22 session at the 44th annual Mormon History Association Conference meeting this year in Springfield, Robert H. Briggs, an attorney from Fullerton, Calif., and an author of articles on...

At Daily Kos, there is a blog today on how to repeal Prop 8 in the future. LINK BELOW. Keep black and Hispanic turnout low, and counter Mormon Money... The title of the blog is "To Repeal Prop 8, Keep Black and Hispanic Turnout Low, And Counter Mormon Money." Does this sound to you like libs/Dems cherish black and hispanic votes? Does this sound to you like libs/Dems are against suppressing the minority vote? Don't libs/Dems want every vote to count? Could it be that libs/Dems only care about advancing liberalism and socialism and really don't care what they have...

Cybill Shepherd Blames the Mormons & Catholics for the Passing of Proposition 8 Tennessee-born beauty Cybill Shepherd definitely isn’t one to waste words -- and had she no qualms in speaking out about who she thought was to blame for the passing of Proposition 8 in California's last election, which led to gay and lesbian marriage rights being overturned. "The Mormons and Catholics," she told Tarts at the recent L.A Gay & Lesbian Center’s "An Evening With Women" celebration in Beverly Hills. "Most of the money came from Utah, it’s very unfortunate." However Shepherd does feel that President Obama is...

<p>SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Mormon church officials say they've canceled church services in Mexico City until further notice because of the swine flu outbreak.</p> <p>The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is also delaying sending new missionaries to that country.</p>

A member of a polygamist sect that runs a ranch in West Texas was in the hot seat at a state House committee hearing Tuesday when the panel's chairman asked him: Were underage marriages tolerated at the ranch? The sect member, Willie Jessop, paused and then said, repeatedly, that he wasn't sure — that it would be inappropriate for him to speculate on an entire church group. The chairman, Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, wasn't convinced. "I just don't believe you, that you don't know the answer to that question," Rose told Jessop.

Beverly Smith looked like a movie star Thursday afternoon, surrounded not by body guards but by the four Mormon missionaries she credits with getting her to safety during a three-alarm fire. The 83-year-old woman was among several residents forced from their homes when a blaze destroyed a 16-unit building at the River Ranch apartments in southwest Fort Worth, behind Hulen Mall. At least 40 people were displaced, and five apartments in a nearby building were damaged, officials said No injuries were reported. "I was screaming for help, but no one heard me," said Smith, who has lived at the complex...

This afternoon, D.C. Councilman David Catania, who voted in favor of legislation to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states, and Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, participated in an online discussion on the D.C. Council's vote, as well as the Vermont legislature's vote to permit gay marriage in that state. Highlights follow, and the entire discussion is available here. "Arlington, Va.: The question popping up on the blogs I have visited today is, how will the conservatives try to spin the Vermont legislature's decision? When other states have had courts decide that same-sex marriage is...

OREM, Utah -- Kirk Jowers has an answer for whether Mitt Romney's presidential bid was lost because of Mormonism: "I can unequivocally tell you that the answer is 'yes, no and maybe.'" owers' comment elicited laughter at the "Mormonism in the Public Mind" conference on Friday, April 3, at Utah Valley University. He is director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah and associate director of the Institute of Public and International Affairs. According to Jowers, in October 2007 many pundits were saying Romney was on his way to winning. He had focused on the early...

I just finished watching this season’s second to last episode of HBO’s Big Love soap opera, and I believe there may be another hidden reason that the show makes Mormons uneasy. Much of the media’s attention has been on the fact that this episode portrayed a scene in a Mormon temple, however, the show did have one line that caught me: the main character expressly claimed that the Mormon church was just as corrupt as the show’s main antagonists who are practicing polygamy and generally in trouble with the law. This theme has underlined the entire season of the show....

Have a Coke and a tax. That's what Rep. Craig Frank wants his colleagues in the Legislature to consider. Frank, R-American Fork, has asked lawmakers over the next year to study the potential for taxing caffeine, a response to proposals this session to hike the tax on cigarettes - all of which failed. Frank said his intent initially was just to target caffeinated sodas and other cold beverages, but he has decided to look at the substance more broadly. "Some feel [the cigarette tax is] a tax on those who are addicted to a substance that frankly they enjoy [but]...

Associated Press - March 6, 2009 5:45 PM ET SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is revamping its business arm, the Deseret Management Corp., a holding company for commercial enterprises ranging from restaurants at Temple Square to real estate across the country. Executives say Deseret Management Corp. will become an active operating company that takes more control of its seven subsidiaries. Deseret Management's new president and CEO, Mark H. Willes, will become chairman of the board of each subsidiary, with their CEOs reporting directly to him rather than their own boards.

There was at least one 2012 presidential contender missing from the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington this weekend, traditionally a testing ground for any Republican even remotely considering a White House bid. That could be in part because Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. risked getting booed off the stage for some of his views. -SNIPAfter running for governor in 2004 as a supporter of a ballot measure that year that not only banned gay marriage but also civil unions, Huntsman made national news earlier this month by saying that he had changed his mind on civil unions. Largely under...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that a Utah city can refuse to put a religious group's monument in a public park near a similar Ten Commandments display. The justices unanimously sided with the city of Pleasant Grove, which had said a ruling for the religious group would mean public parks across the country would have to allow privately donated monuments that express different views from those already on display. The Summun religious group, founded in Salt Lake City in 1975, sought in 2003 to erect a monument to the tenets of its faith, called the...

Samuel L. Jackson is the latest Hollywood star to voice his opposition to the Mormon Church's support of Proposition 8.

Hollywood icon Tom Hanks is sorry for calling Mormons who supported California’s gay marriage ban “un-American.” “Everyone has a right to vote their conscience; nothing could be more American. To say members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who contributed to Proposition 8 are ‘un-American’ creates more division when the time calls for respectful disagreement. No one should use ‘un-American’ lightly or in haste. I did. I should not have.” Hanks concluded his sensitive remarks by saying, “To show how much I love Mormons, I’d like to buy every one of them a beer.” He didn’t...

Readers are unforgiving of even the smallest mistakes in religion news reports and often attempt to draw religion writers into debates, according to two reporters who regularly cover the LDS Church. Peggy Fletcher Stack, Salt Lake Tribune religion reporter, and Jennifer Dobner, who covers the LDS Church for the Associated Press, spoke at an event sponsored by the student chapter of Society of Professional Journalists at Brigham Young University Thursday. "(Reporting on the LDS Church) is very challenging, very frustrating and enlightening at the same time," Dobner said. Readers often inundate religion reporters with e-mail complaints and comments about religion...

In the movies, he’s the nice guy. Which proves he’s a great actor. Because in real life, Tom Hanks isn’t such a nice guy. He’s actually kind of nasty. At least that’s the clear impression after some recent comments he made about the Mormon Church. Basically, he called Mormons “un-American,” a claim that is both innaccurate and – coming from Tom Hanks – hypocritical. More about that later. First, the history. Tom Hanks has been causing trouble for the Mormon Church in recent years through his HBO series “Big Love.” The series – which Tom Hanks makes – depicts a...

om Hanks says he's sorry he told FOXNews.com that Mormons who supported California's constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage were "un-American." "Last week, I labeled members of the Mormon church who supported California's Proposition 8 as 'un-American,'" the actor said in a statement through his publicist. "I believe Proposition 8 is counter to the promise of our Constitution; it is codified discrimination."

BY BOB BERNICK, JR.The Deseret News Former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee says he loves Mormons and believes they make the most effective public servants in America. "Utah doesn't need to think there is a problem with me," Huckabee told the KSL Radio Doug Wright show Friday morning. Huckabee has received some criticism in Utah for comments he has made about fellow former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and about some of the church's religious beliefs. Romney received 90 percent of the vote in Utah's Republican Party presidential primary...

SALT LAKE CITY-Bishop's Storehouse looks like any other grocery store at first glance: The shelves are neatly lined with canned goods and the smell of fresh bread wafts through the aisles. But there are no cash registers. The fruits and vegetables, just-made cheeses and milk are free — a safety net for those in need provided by the 13 million members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "We like to call it the best food money can't buy," said Jim Goodrich, who oversees the storehouse and other facilities on the church's 13-plus-acre Welfare Square. Mormons may be...

If 2002 was Mormonism's debutante ball, 2008 may go down as its first semester of college. The Utah-based church made new friends, endured back-stabbing from would-be friends, joined some clubs, got a taste of fame and had a few wrenching exams. From the possibility of a Mormon in the White House to a stream of Latter-day Saints on reality television, from being attacked as belonging to a cult (or mistaken for a polygamous sect in Texas) to participating in California's bitter battle for traditional marriage, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would see their faith in...

Two missionaries with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints received a scare on the night of Dec. 2 when they saw what they think was a set of sasquatch footprints outside of their Burns Lake home. Tyler Beck and Brad Blazzard are in B.C. for two years, rotating in different communities throughout the Smithers and Burns Lake area for the past seven months. "The first thing we thought was that someone was playing a trick on us," Beck said."But we don't know anyone our age who would do that and our house in on the southside, so...

Frankly, I could care less who Obama has speaking at his inaugural. I know it'll take a superhuman effort to avoid any of the fawning media coverage when the time comes. Anyway, news comes that Rick Warren, who I couldn't have picked out of a lineup before this summer, will be delivering the invocation at The Messiah's inaugural. The selection of Warren, whose Saddleback Church in California was the site of a candidate forum with Obama and Republican presidential nominee John McCain in August, is an early taste of the Democrats' post-election effort to reach evangelical Americans. The effort continues...

“It’s better to marry than burn with passion,” declared St Paul. But now marriage itself seems to have become a burning issue - or at least, gay marriage. The re-banning of gay marriage in California earlier this month with the passage of Proposition 8 has been presented by gay marriage advocates as a vicious body-blow for gay rights. Angry gay people and their allies have protested across the US, some reportedly even rioting. The timely release of the Gus Van Sant movie Milk, about the murder in 1977 of Harvey Milk, the US’s first out elected official, has fuelled the...

San Francisco's Roman Catholic archbishop says he invited leaders of the Mormon Church to get involved in the campaign to pass a gay marriage ban in California this year at the request of his fellow bishops. Archbishop George Niederauer wrote in a column to be published in a diocesan newspaper Friday that he wanted to address the "many misunderstandings and hard feelings" resulting from Proposition 8's adoption. It's the first time the archbishop has commented on how churches organized to help push through the initiative, which overturned the California Supreme Court's decision to legalize same-sex nuptials. Mormon leaders had given...

Mormons -Mormons - Same-Sex Marriage, Family, Abortion and the Secular Churchand the Secular Church (5 min video) Elder Neal A. Maxwell discusses the fundamental beliefs of Mormons and religion and contrasts it with the aspiring state religion: The Secular Church. "Since the people of California voted to reaffirm the sanctity of traditional marriage between a man and a woman on November 4, 2008, places of worship have been targeted by opponents of Proposition 8 with demonstrations and, in some cases, vandalism. People of faith have been intimidated for simply exercising their democratic rights. These are not actions that are worthy...

In the social circles of the New York Times editorialists, it's OK to have one kid. Two is pushing the envelope. Three or more is tacky, and a threat to the survival of the planet. That being so, there's really no reason to let any car bigger than a Prius be built. Doing so just encourages the unenlightened to overbreed. And so it is that in its editorial of today, the Grey-but-barren Lady suggests that as a condition of the Detroit bailout, "Congress could consider demanding that Detroit simply phase out S.U.V.’s and vans by a certain date."

An Ugly Attack on Mormons The easiest targets for an organized campaign against religious freedom of conscience. By Jonah Goldberg Did you catch the political ad in which two Jews ring the doorbell of a nice working-class family? They barge in and rifle through the wife’s purse and then the man’s wallet for any cash. Cackling, they smash the daughter’s piggy bank and pinch every penny. “We need it for the Wall Street bailout!” they exclaim. No? Maybe you saw the one with the two swarthy Muslims who knock on the door of a nice Jewish family and then blow...

It’s a national turning point. A figurative call to arms for the queer community. The cross-country response to the passage of California’s Proposition 8 and other anti-gay ballot initiatives is among the greatest and loudest rallying cries for equality ever heard from the LGBT community. Journalist Rex Wockner is calling it “Stonewall 2.0” Others are talking about a new wave of inspiration and the death of a “passive era” of LGBT lobbying and advocacy. Writer Andrew Sullivan says groups like the Human Rights Campaign are becoming increasingly irrelevant in the face of the need to adapt to new realities and...

Mormons have a reason to be nervous. I didn't fully appreciate it two years ago, when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints first came under an intense political spotlight. In 2006, Mormon officials had begun making the media rounds, prepping for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's expected try for the Republican presidential nomination. This protective measure stood out. No evangelical contingents were giving theological primers in anticipation of Mike Huckabee's run. Few officials were warning Catholics to not do as Rudy Giuliani does on abortion before his run. Why did the Mormons need to do advance work? We...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is becoming a potent political force. Last year's story was that Mormons had risen to some of the highest offices in America -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid belongs to the church, as does former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. This year's headline is that, with the encouragement of their religious leaders, Mormons gave loads of money and man-hours to pass Proposition 8 in California, which banned same-sex marriage in the state. Indeed, they were probably the most organized and consequential force behind the measure's passage. But in the face of post-election protests...

Park Township, MI — The elections are over, the people have spoken (or perhaps more accurately, the people have grumbled) and we no longer have to endure endless political ads. On a whim, I drove by our local Democratic headquarters yesterday, and to my surprise, I noticed that it was quiet. All the windows were still intact, the cars parked there still had inflated tires, signs hadn’t been defaced, and there was not a single protester marching in front of their door. Weird. I drove down Eighth Street and was amazed to find that there were no pickets in front...