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Courtesy of Vox Cantoris, we are alerted to the astonishing end of the encyclical, Laudato Si. I wonder if any paragraph worse than this could have been written by any Pope. The text is below. This is not a draft. It is the official version from the Vatican site. 246. At the conclusion of this lengthy reflection which has been both joyful and troubling, I propose that we offer two prayers. The first we can share with all who believe in a God who is the all-powerful Creator, while in the other we Christians ask for inspiration to take up...

IN A village called Shalyar, near the oil city of Kirkuk, an officer tries to explain where his tiny community fits in Iraq’s religious mosaic. Imam Ali, the martyred hero of Shia Islam, adorns his wall. But Major Farhad Nazar is not Shia; nor, unlike most fellow Kurds, is he Sunni. He speaks for the Kakai, a small, secretive group which is monotheistic and reveres Imam Ali but (unlike most Muslims) accepts reincarnation. That mix makes them a big target for Islamic State (IS) which proclaims a violently puritanical Sunni line. Major Nazar, who was jailed in 1993 as a...

Jimmy Carter severed his ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, but apparently is still a Baptist (Maranatha Baptist Church). Josh Duggar and the Duggar family are Independent Baptist. Some will say that neither of them go to the right Baptist church or the correct one and thus neither of them are truly Baptist, just as some Methodists will say that other Methodists don't go to the right Methodist church and thus truly aren't Methodist. Some Jewish people may say that other Jews, (although quite orthodox in their beliefs) aren't quite Orthodox enough and thus aren't truly Jewish when it comes...

SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region — After over a millennium, the Zoroastrian faith is returning to its original habitat. The Ministry of Religion in the Iraqi Kurdistan capital Erbil has registered the religion, locally known as Zardashti, and suggested to the Kurdish government the ancient faith should be given its own directorate general and its believers be allowed to build new temples. “Now it’s time,” says Nouri Sharif, one of the initiators of the movement that established a Zoroastrian organization in Europe in 2006 and in March announced in Erbil its official return to Kurdistan. In April, a Supreme Council of Zoroastrians...

In 2001, 1 in 7 Americans accepted polygamy as a "family" form (7%); by 2015, it's jumped to 1 in 6 Americans (16%). Source: Shocker: Morality Goes Out the Window, Americans Embrace Social LiberalismAs of last week, three of the dozen "apostles" of the Mormon Church – 1 in 4 -- were well ahead of that cultural curve and indeed, per Mormon doctrine, were headed for eternal polygamy.Allow me to explain: Seven years ago this Spring, the Salt Lake Tribune published an article that mentioned how "Three of the church's current apostles, for example, were widowed and remarried. Each will...

I am not equation homosexuality or heterosexuality with pedophilia, nor am I saying that Josh Duggar ever committed homosexual acts at any point in time in any way, shape. form or fashion. The point of this thread is like all of the others threads that I have written, and it is not meant to bash Josh Duggar. The point is to look at this situation and use it as a catalyst to continue on with other threads that I have started that deal with the following: "What constitutes salvation?" "Who is truly saved?" "Do we go by Arminianism or Calvinism?"...

Saint Louis University has removed a statue on its campus depicting a famous Jesuit missionary priest praying over American Indians after a cohort of students and faculty continued to complain the sculpture symbolized white supremacy, racism and colonialism. Formerly placed outside the university’s Fusz Hall in the center of the private Catholic university, the statue will go to the university’s art museum, a building just north of the bustling urban campus. The statue features famous Jesuit Missionary Pierre-Jean De Smet S.J. praying over two American Indians dressed in traditional clothing. Last Monday, just two days after graduation, it was removed...

...Latter-day Saint literature to a Mother in Heaven...Since the 1840s, this cherished doctrine has been an important, although relatively obscure, part of the Latter-day Saint understanding of the premortal origins and divine nature of mankind... As Elder Erastus Snow (Quorum of the Twelve, February 12, 1849–May 27, 1888) avowed: “What,” says one, “do you mean we should understand that Deity consists of man and woman?” Most certainly I do. If I believe anything that God has ever said about himself...I must believe that deity consists of man and woman...There can be no God except he is composed of the man...

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Nearly 50 years after Mormons opened small churches here converting Buddhists, animists and other Thais, they have now announced plans to construct their first big temple in Thailand, enabling their families to be "sealed" together for eternity, posthumous weddings for dead ancestors and other "highest sacraments."

Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. • What's the worst thing Helaman Barlow did as a marshal of the polygamous towns here on the Utah-Arizona border? He knew men who took 16-year-old girls as plural wives. The marriages were sanctioned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, so Barlow didn't report them. He looked up license plates for church security so they could track dissenters and their families. He obstructed the FBI when it came to town. When a church leader said he wanted another marshal demoted, Barlow watched for and reported a minor transgression made by...

Friendly Atheist reports this week on plans by a member of the Satanic Temple to challenge Missouri's requirement for a 72-hour waiting period for abortions by asserting a religious freedom claim. Missouri has a Religious Freedom Restoration Act (MO Rev. Stat Section 1.302.1). Missouri law (MO Rev. Stat. Section 188.027.1) requires that: "The physician who is to perform or induce the abortion or a qualified professional shall provide the woman with the opportunity to view at least seventy-two hours prior to the abortion an active ultrasound of the unborn child and hear the heartbeat of the unborn child if the...

The Mont Order, a possible revival of several much older and more powerful secret fraternities bearing names like “La Montagne”, “The Inner Order”, “Group Zero”, or simply “The Order”, has proven to have greater influence than anyone expected during 2014. My earlier articles documented some of the first initial reports of this mysterious group’s existence, leading up to this development. Currently, the best existing source compiling all information on the Mont Order society into a single dossier has been put together by author Liam Quaid and is available at a new website called the Mont Order Conspiracy Observatory. An explanatory...

Chapter 38: Eternal Marriage [SNIP] Eternal Marriage Is Essential for Exaltation• What is the Lord’s doctrine of marriage, and how does it differ from the views of the world? Many people in the world consider marriage to be only a social custom, a legal agreement between a man and a woman to live together. But to Latter-day Saints, marriage is much more. Our exaltation depends on marriage...[SNIP] Heavenly Father has given us the law of eternal marriage so we can become like Him. The Lord has said: “In the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees; “And in order...

Requirements for Exaltation[SNIP] To be exalted, we first must place our faith in Jesus Christ and then endure in that faith to the end of our lives. Our faith in Him must be such that we repent of our sins and obey His commandments. He commands us all to receive certain ordinances: ... 3. Brethren must receive the Melchizedek Priesthood and magnify their callings in the priesthood. 4. We must receive the temple endowment. 5. We must be married for eternity, either in this life or in the next.In addition to receiving the required ordinances, the Lord commands all of...

...let me say just a bit more about...marriage. This may sound a little bit bold to urge marriage for those...past the marriageable age;...we are shocked to know that some men are delaying marriage until their later thirties or into their forties, and they have never talked of marriage. [SNIP] ...I have a letter here from a sister that pinpoints something...these girls are going through...There is a man who has been dating her for years and he comes especially at meal time... Here is another one who says, “I am a 40-year-old single woman.” Another one says, “I am a 30-year-old...

This is the third and final post on B. Carmon Hardy’s Doing the Works of Abraham: Mormon Polygamy: Its Origin, Practice and Demise (Arthur H. Clark Co., 2007). The simple story of the end of LDS polygamy is that it ended in 1890 with the Manifesto. The not-so-simple story involves a Second Manifesto in 1904, which raises the obvious question, “If the First Manifesto ended polygamy, why the need for a Second Manifesto?” The First Manifesto did not end the officially sanctioned LDS practice of polygamy. In fact, it took twenty years to fully execute that momentous institutional change of...

As Mormonism enters its third century, it faces a Goldilocks dilemma: Too much tension with the surrounding culture invites scorn; too little threatens its uniqueness. But finding just the right balance to ensure a thriving — and distinctive — faith won't be easy. {SNIP} So, what are the Baby Bear options in Mormonism's future? Too much conflict with the wider society, say on gay rights or women's roles, premier Mormon sociologist Armand Mauss argues, would bring "not only popular disdain but even repression and persecution." {SNIP} Female elders? • Third, the LDS Church runs into much debate and even clashes...

Perhaps you will find no issue reflecting a greater divide among Utahns that whether LDS Church leaders have too much influence in the Utah Legislature. A new UtahPolicy poll by Dan Jones & Associates finds that three-fourths of the faithful members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints say their church has “about the right amount of influence” on state lawmakers’ political decisions. But when you ask the same influence question of non-Mormons, you find super-majorities – 79 percent of Catholics, 84 percent of Protestants – say the Mormon Church has too much influence on Capitol Hill. Now,...

As many of you that visit this channel know, the Jehovah's Witness religion does not allow people to have freedom of thought and belief. If a person changes their viewpoint and questions the JW hierarchy and leadership then they will be sanctioned. If a member adopts an "unacceptable" opinion or conviction and dares to speak of it, then the local religious leaders (called Elders) will come after them, using an iron fist in a velvet glove to bring them back in line. If that fails, then they will cut the person off and ostracize them before everyone, announcing them from...

“Blessed Be, Aho, and Amen,” aren’t the words members of the Iowa House of Representatives are accustomed to hear at the closing of the invocation marking the House’s opening ceremonies, but that’s just what happened yesterday when a Wiccan priestess delivered the prayer. "We call this morning to God, Goddess, Universe, that which is greater than ourselves to be here with us today,” said Deborah Maynard, who delivered the first prayer by a Wiccan in the assembly. “By the Earth that is in our bones and centers us, may all here remember our roots and those whom we are here...