Free Republic

From the New York Times: It’s Official: Mormon Founder Had Up to 40 Wives ... Mormon leaders have acknowledged for the first time that the church’s founder and prophet, Joseph Smith, portrayed in church materials as a loyal partner to his loving spouse Emma, took as many as 40 wives, some already married and one only 14 years old. ... The biggest bombshell for some in the essays is that Smith married women who were already married, some to men who were Smith’s friends and followers. This is perfect: Joseph Smith may be disappointing many Mormons right now, according to...

As LifeNews previously reported, pro-abortion Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid lost his position when pro-life candidates took over the U.S. Senate. This is very good for the pro-life movement because Reid has repeatedly supported pro-abortion President Barack Obama. He’s also refused to allow pro-life bills to come to a vote in the Senate. In 2013, after the passage of the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R 1797) through the U.S House of Representatives, Reid said that we shouldn’t focus on “fringe issues” like late abortion. However, he failed to realize it is those who support late abortion that are...

Mormon leaders have acknowledged for the first time that the church’s founder and prophet, Joseph Smith, portrayed in church materials as a loyal partner to his loving spouse Emma, took as many as 40 wives, some already married and one only 14 years old. The church’s disclosures, in a series of essays online, are part of an effort to be transparent about its history at a time when church members are increasingly encountering disturbing claims about the faith on the Internet. Many Mormons, especially those with polygamous ancestors, say they were well aware that Smith’s successor, Brigham Young, practiced polygamy...

Though done in a lighthearted manner, this 4-minute video is a fairly accurate depiction of standard Mormon doctrine. It would be nice if Mormon missionaries explained Mormonism as clearly as the characters in this video do, but I imagine that would not foster strong LDS Church growth. Mormon Secrets: What the Missionaries Don’t TellBy Saved XMormon

A Mormon bishop in Los Angeles is under fire for his assertion that Sen. Harry Reid is unworthy to enter the faith’s temples because of his support of Democratic Party positions.

American actor Shia LaBeouf has been making headlines over the past year for several stunts unrelated to his previously blossoming career. Between announcing his retirement from the public eye, claiming "I am not famous anymore," to hosting an art exhibit a la Marina Abramovitch to hiring a skywriter to apologize for plagiarizing Daniel Clowes, LaBeouf has been called everything from eccentric to insane.

This is my response to the Plural Marriage in Kirkland and Nauvoo essay posted last week to LDS.org. A couple of years ago I was talking to my 16-17 year old Sunday School class about polygamy. They raised it – not me. Our conversation was about the early practice of Mormon polygamy and how it came about. The girls in the class turned up their noses and looked aghast while one boy responded to Joseph Smith’s revelation on polygamy with a snort, and a, ‘Yeah right! That’s convenient!’ To say that polygamy has been a singular nuisance to the...

Will the real Joel Osteen please stand up? October 28, 2014 Joel Osteen, Pastor of the biggest congregation in America, Lakewood Church, appears to be an Obama fan, despite the fact that Obama's agenda goes against everything true Christians believe. Those of us who are intelligent and observant were not really surprised, as we have known for a long time that Osteen's “I'm okay, you're okay” milk toast sermons are far from Bible-based and do not reflect in any way the beliefs of his father, John Osteen, who started Lakewood Church and preached the uncompromising message of Christ for multiple...

SALT LAKE CITY – A new church essay reveals Mormon church founder Joseph Smith had an underage bride and was married to other men's wives during the early days of the faith when polygamy was practiced. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says most of Smith's wives were adults, but one was a 14-year-old girl who was the daughter of Smith's close friends. Research shows the marriage might not have involved sex.

Hilarious video from the point of view of a Lutheran Pastor. Among the highlights is this exchange: "You can know the Mormon church is the One True Church, because we always have twelve living Apostles!" "Let me get this straight...according to the Mormon church, the Apostle John never died and is fact still roaming this Earth?" "According to Section 7 of Doctrines and Covenants, that is correct." "Patrick - is St. John the Evangelist currently an Apostle in the Mormon church? You're telling me that, after eighteen hundred years with no church to worship in, no fellow believers to gather...

The mental image of a thoroughly Communist Dorothy Day, who remained committed to Marxist notions of the overthrow of government, might be shocking.... [Yet] she maintained her Communist and anarchist views, promoted them, and brought them into the Church Christ founded.... Her goal... was to contribute to the eventual overthrow of the American government, and ... of the Catholic Church hierarchy..... I still remember trying to understand how [Day’s periodical, "The Catholic Worker"] could be both Communist and Catholic.... by the 1970s the FBI dossier on the Catholic Worker Movement was some 581 pages long. The list of Communist revolutionaries,...

666 has meaning behind it. John the Revelator was Hebrew. He would have known that each Hebrew letter of the alphabet (which is a number too) has a meaning and/or symbol to it. In the scripture it was written as six hundred and sixty six. Not 666. I find the meaning of this is to be "in the end times, a head will emerge, Satan (snake), and will hook people into sin(disbelief in my book). Allow me to show you how it works by viewing this: I believe that the letters used to write six hundred and sixty six would...

Why would intelligent, successful people give up their careers, alienate their friends, and cause havoc in their families...to become Catholic? Indeed, why would anyone become Catholic? As an evangelist and author who recently threw my own life into some turmoil by deciding to enter the Catholic Church, I've faced this question a lot lately. That is one reason I decided to make this documentary; it's part of my attempt to try to explain to those closest to me why I would do such a crazy thing. Convinced isn't just about me, though. The film is built around interviews with some...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Court decisions this week paving the way for same-sex marriage to become legal in dozens of states, including Mormon strongholds like Utah, Idaho and Nevada, have emboldened a growing group of Latter-day Saints who are pushing the conservative church to become more accepting of gay members. The church's stance toward gays has softened considerably since it was one of the leading forces behind California's ban on gay marriage in 2008, but high-ranking leaders have reiterated time and again the faith's opposition to same-sex unions....

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says its doctrine on marriage will remain unchanged despite Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that effectively legalized gay marriage in five states, including Utah, and opened the door for legalization in six more. “As far as the civil law is concerned, the courts have spoken,” the church said in a statement reacting to the Supreme Court’s decision. “Church leaders will continue to encourage our people to be persons of good will toward all, rejecting persecution of any kind based on race, ethnicity, religious belief or nonbelief, and differences in sexual orientation.” In...

Once again, some clergy are hanging out with Planned Parenthood, united for a cause that surely opposes God’s cause for life. Held at Evergreen Presbyterian Church (PC-USA, a supporter of abortion) in Memphis , TN, the event opposing the upcoming ballot Amendment 1, a pro-life amendment, was attended by varying clergy who argue that women should have the choice to kill. In fact, Amendment 1 is rather innocuous, saying only this: “Shall Article I, of the Constitution of Tennessee be amended by adding the following language as a new, appropriately designated section: “Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a...

In student papers, year after year, I’ve seen the same mechanical errors repeated and, year after year, I’ve felt compelled to correct them and to explain why they’re wrong. I’ve devoted entire class periods to subject-verb agreement, the use of apostrophes, consistency in verb tenses and lists, and fundamental logical fallacies. Unfortunately, having to address such simple but important mistakes steals valuable time from the actual topics of my classes on Islam and the Middle East. So I was delighted, several years ago, to reread William Strunk and E.B. White’s little classic, “The Elements of Style,” and to realize that...

"I was a schoolgirl by day and a sex slave at night" - this is how Annabelle Forest describes her situation back when she was forced by her own mother, Jacqueline Marling, to participate in a satanic sex cult led by Colin Batley. The two were already sentenced in 2011 for their abuse of Forest. However, their sentencing was not enough to bring Forest at peace. She wrote her memoir titled, 'The Devil on the Doorstep: My Escape From a Satanic Sex Cult' published August 14.Forest revealed that she was introduced to the Satanic sex cult when she was just...

[SNIP] Well, if ISIS is not Islamic, then the Inquisition was not Catholic. The fact is that there are no defensible criteria for whether a faith is “true,” since all faiths are man-made and accrete doctrine—said to come from God, but itself man-made—that becomes integral to those faiths. Whatever “true faith” means, it doesn’t mean “the right religion: the one whose God exists and whose doctrines are correct.” If that were so, we wouldn’t see Westerners trying to tell us what “true Islam” is. No, if “true” means anything, it must mean “true to some principles.” As far as I...

According to Latter-Day Saints (LDS, Mormon) President Orson Hyde, Jesus was married to several women, including Mary Magdalene, and had biological children. "..[In John 2,] Jesus was the bridegroom at the marriage of Cana of Galilee, and he told them what to do. Now there was actually a marriage; and if Jesus was not the bridegroom on that occasion, please tell who was. ... We say it was Jesus Christ who was married, to be brought into the relation whereby he could see his seed, before he was crucified. ... I do not despise to be called a son of...