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“It is oppressive to live in the city of St. George as a non-Mormon,” St. George City Council applicant Tara Dunn announced to a crowd comprised of some of Southern Utah’s most influential people, many of whom are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her words seemed to hang in the air on Jan. 23 during the brief but tense pause that followed her speech in the St. George City Council chambers. Many were shocked to hear such strongly worded criticism of Latter-day Saint culture. Some were offended at what they felt was an attack on...

Yesterday, Mormon leaders announced a kind of via media on gay rights. In a public statement, leaders agreed to …support legislation where it is being sought to provide protections in housing, employment and some other areas where LGBT people do not have protections, while ensuring that religious freedom is not compromised.In other words, the church proposes to give a little in order to get a little. If I understand their statement of principles correctly, they are now willing to acknowledge sexual orientation as a protected class along with religion, race, and sex. They are willing to do this in certain...

Clint Eastwood's "American Sniper" had another jaw-dropping weekend, reaching an impressive $200 million at the domestic box office. Despite the film's colossal success, liberals like former DNC chairman Howard Dean and director Michael Moore just won't let "American Sniper" go. Over the weekend, Moore invoked Jesus in a slew of incendiary tweets aimed at dishonoring American soldiers and the Iraq war. One tweet stated "Tomorrow's Sunday School (1 What Would Jesus Do? Oh, I know what he'd do --hide on top of a roof and shoot people in the back!" He followed that tweet with: Sunday School: (2) But What...

AMRITSAR: Within days of the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, some unidentified people vandalized a gurdwara in Canada and defaced it walls. Legal counsel of World Sikh Organization (WSO) Balpreet Singh Boparai told TOI over phone from Canada on Saturday that Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara in South Edmonton bore the brunt of "racist vandalism", with some unidentified people spray-painting its walls with 'leave Canada' and '**** Indians' graffiti. "I can't say the incident is a reaction to the Charlie Hebdo attack, but it is worrisome nevertheless. Unfortunately, there are many people who still mistake the Sikhs for Muslims," Boparai...

Check out this 2-part Viewpoint on Mormonism podcast series originally airing in October 2012 by clicking on the following links: Part 1 Part 2When the Constitution “Hangs by a Thread” – The White Horse Prophecy in Modern MormonismFollowing the Mormon expulsion from Missouri in 1838, Joseph Smith made a trip to Washington, D.C. “to present to the National Congress the petition of the Saints for a redress of their grievances, suffered in Missouri” (History of the Church 4:xxvi). Arriving in November 1839, Smith met with several powerful politicians of that day, including President Martin Van Buren, and left Washington in...

<p>TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida's Capitol has displayed a Pabst Blue Ribbon Festivus pole, atheist banners and even a tribute to the Flying Spaghetti Monster. But a display showing an angel falling into flames with the message "Happy Holidays from the Satanic Temple" was too much for one woman.</p>

Celebrated birthdate of Jesus Christ: December 25 Celebrated birthdate of Joseph Smith: December 23 Needless to say, some seasonal "competition" has arisen between the two through the centuries! #1: Christmas Carol Joseph Smith Usurpation: O Little Town of Jerusalem? Birthplace of Jesus Christ: BethlehemBook of Mormon recorded birthplace of Jesus Christ: Jerusalem (Alma 7:10) Note: The 1830 Book of Mormon author (Joseph Smith) was apparently so scornful of Bethlehem receiving its Old Testament Micah 5:2 prophecy recognition that Jerusalem negated Bethlehem's place within Biblical history! #2: Christmas Carol Joseph Smith Usurpation Vignette: Only One Angel (Heard) From on High? 1840....

Zelphless NOM Dec 01, 2014 This is kinda funny actually. The Exec Sec of our ward just sent out this announcement for the ward Christmas Party: Quote: As a Bishopric we would like to take this opportunity to invite everyone to come to the Ward Christmas Celebration...The theme this year will be "Christmas in Nauvoo" and will feature an 1843 Christmas in Nauvoo with the Joseph and Emma Smith family. Everyone is invited to come as you are, or dress in period clothing. The main dinner will be provided and if you wish you may bring your favorite holiday dessert...

Rain... I've not heard of "smithmas" before, but as soon as I saw this title I knew what the term meant because for years I did see/hear far more about Joseph Smith in church than about Christ in December and it really irked me... Rain #47   In 2005...And then from there it continued throughout 2006. Talk after talk was centered on his life. I could count months when Jesus was only mentioned in the prayers. So much so that when I moved in 7/2006 I very much struggled to be obedient when I was asked to give a talk...

...mdfxdb Senior Member Posted 16 October 2014... I posted because I had never even heard of it until I moved into my new ward about a year and a half ago. It turns out it is a real thing and there are active members with callings and stuff that celebrate it. They do a cake and everything... Backroads...Posted 20 October 2014 You celebrate the birthday of someone present. Celebrating the birthday of ssomeone not present takes on a different tone that, yes, does cross into "worship" territory for me. I'm trying to understand why people would celebrate this, but in...

One of the most significant ongoing tributes to the Prophet Joseph Smith is the annual Joseph Smith Memorial Firesides...These...began in 1944 and have been held each year since, as close as possible to December 23, Joseph Smith’s birthday...Brother Chase...published a ...volume titled Joseph the Prophet, As He Lives in the Hearts of His People. SNIP ...William E. Berrett...“It is an appropriate thing to remember the birthday of...Joseph...This is the birthday of our greatest countryman. Joseph Smith is the only American whose birthday is heralded around the world...People of every land and of every race are coming to honor the birthday...

...When ushered into the master bedroom of the Mormon patriarch Brigham Young at his winter home in St. George, Utah, a few years ago, I felt duty-bound to ask an obvious question: Where did the other women sleep? Other women? The church tour guide blushed, and laser-stared me as if I’d blasphemed the Mormon Moses. I wondered about arrangements and jealousies, the conjugal timing of a man who was married to 55 women, by most accounts. I didn’t ask about the sexual acrobatics of the great pioneer, just the spreadsheet logistics of managing all those spouses. ...The Church of Jesus...

Pursuing interreligious dialogue and opening hearts and minds to others are the way to face troubled times, stressed participants in the Third Catholic-Muslim Summit held this week in Rome. “Our meeting here, I would think, is a sign of hope for our troubled world. It is a message to all humanity, especially to us, the members of the great family of Abraham – the Jews, the Christians, and the Muslims,” said Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, following the conclusion of the Dec. 2-4 meeting, which was themed “Christians and Muslims: Believers living in Society.”...

PROVO — Police at Brigham Young University are investigating whether any laws were broken after professors discovered a voice-activated recording device stuck under a chair in a lecture hall on campus. Two professors were working on a PowerPoint presentation in the Joseph Smith Building two weeks ago when they discovered a digital recorder stuck to the bottom of a stool with Velcro, police said. After attempting to play back the recordings, they grew concerned and began searching other classrooms in the building. Upon discovering similar Velcro setups under chairs in other classrooms, the professors called police. The investigation, however, has...

The two sets of inscribed plates that Strang claimed to have found in Wisconsin and Michigan beginning in 1845 almost certainly existed. Milo Quaife's early, standard biography of Strang reflects that, while Strang's angelic visitations "may have had only a subjective existence in the brain of the man who reported them, the metallic plates possessed a very material objective reality." And they were almost certainly forgeries. The first set, the three "Voree" or "Rajah Manchou" plates, were dug up by four "witnesses" whom Strang had taken to the plates' burial place. Illustrated and inscribed on both sides, the Rajah Manchou...

As the new essay unintentionally hits the fan, Mormons are reeling and responding with their classic denials, claim of victim-hood and their typical repertoire of logical fallacies. Soon, their favorite defender, the straw man argument will be in full regalia, culminating in a passive aggressive indirect platitude statement (such as doubt your doubts, you have to go around the BOM, etc.) in the next general conference to which members will cling to for life. Already I have been contacted by members with their "straw man babies". So I have compiled a list of the quorum of the 15 straw men...

On October 22...LDS.ORG posted three essays dealing with the practice of plural marriage by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints between the 1830s and 1904... Several major controversies have been generated in conjunction with the introduction of plural marriage in Nauvoo in the early 1840s. All of these are briefly discussed in the introductory essay, Polyandry (paragraphs 20–23, endnotes 29–30). The essay acknowledges that “Joseph Smith was sealed to a number of women who were already married,” estimating the number of these sealings at 12–14 (endnote 29)... Fanny Alger... Sexuality... Children with plural wives... Number of...

Mormon Church Finally Admits Founder Joseph Smith Was Polygamist With 40 wives Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints admits its founder was a polygamist, having long glossed over his marital history Emma Hale Smith was the first of 33 wives of Mormon founder Joseph Smith Philip Sherwell 11 Nov 2014 The Mormon founder Joseph Smith married as many as 40 women, including a 14-year-old girl, church leaders have acknowledged for the first time in a surprising revelation about their most important prophet. Although the Mormon church was closely associated with polygamy during its first decades, its teachings had long...

A Mormon bishop in Los Angeles is under fire for his assertion that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is unworthy to enter the faith's temples because of his support for Democratic Party positions. Mark Peredes' blog, titled "Good Riddance to Harry Reid, the Mormon Senate Leader," has drawn criticism from the church and Mormon Democrats. [SNIP] Reid spokeswoman Kristen Orthman on Saturday released a letter from a Mormon Democrat in Las Vegas to Paredes. "Our comment to this is to show you one of many comments Sen. Reid has received from his friends," Orthman said. The letter was written by...

...FOR FAITHFUL LATTER-DAY SAINTS, the temple endowment ceremony is one of the most...powerful ordinances received in mortality. One authoritative source called it the temporal stepping stone which all people must pass to achieve exaltation with God the Father and Jesus Christ...1 ... 1 Gospel Essentials, rev. ed., sunday school manual (Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), 1979, 247. [SNIP] Another element of literalism disappeared in 1927 when kissing over the altar during vicarious sealings for the dead was abolished.129 Probably the greatest twentieth-century catalyst to increase the number of vicarious endowments was Heber J. Grant's emphasis...