Free Republic

One of the most celebrated portraits of the Renaissance has traveled from London to New York to take its place in a jewel of an exhibition. What is this celebrated portrait? It’s not the Mona Lisa, and it’s not Henry VIII. It’s not the portrait of a Roman pope or a Venetian doge. And it’s not by Raphael, Michelangelo or Dürer. It’s of a tailor standing at a table. He holds a pair of glinting black shears in his right hand and the corner of a black cloth, marked with chalk lines, in his left. He’s about to cut the...

From the time he was a child in Peru, the Mormon Church instilled in Jose Loayza the conviction that he and millions of other Native Americans were descended from a lost tribe of Israel that reached the New World more than 2,000 years ago. "We were taught all the blessings of that Hebrew lineage belonged to us and that we were special people," said Loayza, now a Salt Lake City attorney. ... Loayza said, his faith was shaken and his identity stripped away by DNA evidence showing that the ancestors of American natives came from Asia, not the Middle East....

SNIP In later visions and revelations, angelic visitors revealed lost teachings and authority to Joseph. The first of these was the angel Moroni, a deceased prophet of the ancient Americas. He prepared Joseph for 4 years... SNIP

CHAPTER 10 A testimony of the Book of Mormon comes by the power of the Holy Ghost—The gifts of the Spirit are dispensed to the faithful—Spiritual gifts always accompany faith—Moroni’s words speak from the dust—Come unto Christ, be perfected in him, and sanctify your souls. About A.D. 421 1 Now I, Moroni, write somewhat as seemeth me good; and I write unto my brethren, the Lamanites; and I would that they should know that *more than four hundred and twenty years have passed away since the sign was given of the coming of Christ. 2 And I seal up these...

Yemeni airliner crashes in Indian Ocean 150 people reportedly on board; fate unknown BREAKING NEWS o MORONI, Comoros - An airliner belonging to Yemeni state carrier Yemenia Air crashed in the Comoros archipelago in the Indian Ocean with 150 people on board, a senior government official said Tuesday. "We don't know if there are any survivors among the 150 people on the plane," a senior government official told Reuters.

In 2Ne5:5 Nephi and his family and friends separate from the Lamanites 12 years after landing in the Americas. They quickly develop a complex metallurgical culture that other civilizations in history required centuries to create. Here are the cast of characters: *Nephi and family - wife and possibly a possibly some children *Zoram and his family - wife and possibly some children *Sam and his family - again a family *Jacob - a young man or boy *Joseph - an even younger man or boy *Others of Nephi's sisters - perhaps as many as 3-4 women. *"and all those who...

Ancient writings unearthed in the last century and a half, primarily in Egypt, are lending support to doctrines and teachings of Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Brigham Young University professor of antiquities said Sunday. C. Wilford Griggs, who has written extensively on Egypt and is working on excavating Christian burial grounds in Egypt, said scholars are now admitting that "Joseph Smith got into the antiquities" before experts in the field began their discoveries, but they won't accept his explanation. Smith, an uneducated farm boy, claimed he translated the Book of Mormon...

Over the last several months, I have noticed a huge increase of hyjacked threads on all the Mitt Romney posts. It seems eveyone wants to talk about his religion, good or bad, but rarely in any contexts that are relevant to the election. So I'm posting a few references from LDS scriptures and doctrine that speak to the heart of the matter. Please, let's keep this discussion about the political ramifications of Mormon doctrine regarding our inspired Constitution and this great nation. Thanks,- Sevenbak And, in my opinion, this first one is what Mitt should quote again and again if...

Romney 'unlikely' choice of evangelicals Posted on Jun 21, 2007 | by Rachel Waligorski KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)--The "overarching and primary concern" why evangelicals likely will not vote for a Mormon for president is the Mormon claim to be the only true Christian church, a Southern Baptist seminary president said during the International Society of Christian Apologetics' annual meeting in Kansas City, Mo. If Mormons were to call themselves "a new religious movement," that would be one thing, said R. Philip Roberts, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, which hosted the June 1-2 meeting. "But I have a very difficult...

(AP) SALT LAKE CITY -- Mitt Romney said Saturday that criticism of his Mormon religion by rival GOP presidential campaigns is happening too frequently. “Clearly, any derogatory comments about anyone’s faith—those comments are troubling. The fact they keep on coming up is even more troubling,” Romney said during a fundraising trip in the home state of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Mormon church is one of the fastest-growing religions and claims about 12.5 million members worldwide. But many evangelical Christians in crucial primary states such as Iowa and South Carolina consider the faith a cult. Romney’s...

TAYLORSVILLE, Utah - For a coffee shop, T-shirts of a Mormon angel with java flowing into his trumpet are selling well. But they don't have the blessing of religious leaders...

Woman testifies Jeffs pressured her into marrying at 14. A young woman who said she was ordered to marry her cousin at age 14 by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs testified in court Tuesday that she repeatedly begged Jeffs to let her out of the union. Jeffs refused, she said, telling her the marriage was God's will. During a felony preliminary hearing for Jeffs under tight security in Washington County, Utah, District Court, the woman, now 20, gave her first public account of her arranged marriage to a first cousin. "I told him (Jeffs) I just wanted two years before I...

An encounter with a Bedouin robber in a desert valley has led to what one Israeli archaeologist described as one of the most important biblical finds from the region in half a century. Professor Chanan Eshel, an archaeologist from Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv, said yesterday that the discovery of two fragments of nearly 2,000-year-old parchment scroll from the Dead Sea area gave hope to biblical and archaeological scholars, frustrated by a dearth of material unearthed in the region in recent years, that the Judean desert could yet yield further artefacts. "No more scrolls have been found in the...