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  First Book of Nephi Wadi Sayq, near the border between Yemen and Oman on the Gulf of Aden (1989). Areas with vegetation such as this along the southern coast of the Arabian peninsula match the description of the place where Lehi and his group built their ship (1 Nephi 17:5), but they were unknown to Westerners until after the Book of Mormon was published. Courtesy Warren Aston.by Rulon D. EamesWritten by Nephi1, an ancient prophet who fled Jerusalem with his father, Lehi, and Lehi's family shortly after 600 B.C., this book tells of their travels under divine guidance to...

Most faithful members feel their testimony wouldn't falter if they heard something negative about the church. It has been observed, however, that some stalwart members with real testimonies have fallen away -- and continue to fall away -- because of information that conflicts with how they understand the gospel, scripture, revelation, prophets and prophecy or church history. Having periods of doubt isn't a sin and it isn't abnormal. Statistics show that while about 95 percent of Americans believe in God, nearly half -- including those who consider themselves to be religiously devout -- seriously question their faith from time to...

In less than 200 years The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has grown from a handful of converts in a farm house in Fayette, N.Y., to a world-wide church of more than 13 million members with an average increase of about one million new members every three years. While the LDS Church is the fourth largest Christian denomination in the U.S., more than half of the members live outside of the U.S. Although hundreds of thousands of new converts join the church each year, there are also members who leave the church every year. Why do some people...

The requirements for earning an 'A' in Philip Barlow's religious studies classes include an unusual strand. Students must teach the Utah State University professor something he doesn't already know. "I find in my classes that if I do it right -- if I manage to convert my students, not to a particular faith or lack of it, but to how crucial the study of religion is -- it will change their consciousness and will therefore change what they see about reality," said Barlow, a professor of Mormon history and culture and the Leonard J. Arrington Chair. "If I ignite or...

Hugh Hewitt, a political pundit radio personality, wants the Mormon presidential election runner Mitt Romney in the Whitehouse—very badly. He casts his pre-election vote in writing A Mormon in the Whitehouse? (Regnery, 2007). In defense of Romney, Hewitt also defends Mormonism better than some Latter-day Saints (LDS). This is strange for a Presbyterian, as what Hewitt claims for himself. It is possible and logically consistent that Hewitt could defend Romney as a republican without defending Mormonism, but he chooses otherwise. The reason that I find this strange is that Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, claimed that God appeared to...

    The Remarkable Doctrine and Covenants Robert J. Woodford, “The Remarkable Doctrine and Covenants,” Ensign, Jan 1997, 42 The central figure in the book is the Lord Jesus Christ. In it he reveals light and truth promised through the prophets of old.The Doctrine and Covenants is a unique book of scripture, standing as a witness that God reveals his will to mankind through living prophets today. It is, as President Ezra Taft Benson pointed out, “the only book in the world that has a preface written by the Lord Himself.” 1 Through this book, our Father in Heaven revealed himself...

Santa Clarita, CA (BlackNews.com) - It's the fourth largest and fastest growing church in America, which has now tabulated greater membership abroad than in the US, with over 13.5 million members world wide, and its greatest growth in Africa. They donate more goods and services to charity than any other organization in the world, and have an impressive focus on family and education that is refreshingly rare and unmatched. But if you ask them why Blacks were restricted from the Priesthood and temples until 1978, and is dark skin a curse, you'll receive blank stares or answers that don't fit...

The LDS Church reached a milestone last week when we ordained our first black African general authority. Elder Joseph W. Sitati of Nairobi, Kenya, was admitted to the First Quorum of Seventy. During General Conference, Sitati was presented for a sustaining vote of the entire church membership, including those of us watching from home with a bag of Doritos. It was such a momentous occasion that I thought a second vote was required. "All those who can sustain the idea that this sort of thing was about dang time, please manifest by ..." Sorry. That was irreverent, I know. It's...

An infidelity dating service on the Internet, for people "looking for a little something on the side," has launched an ad campaign to attract Utah clients, but one Salt Lake City radio station yanked the company's ads only hours after they first aired. The company, The Ashley Madison Agency, boasts 3.4 million members in the United States and Canada -- many of them married or in a relationship, but looking to hook up with someone else. Noel Biderman, president and CEO of Ashley Madison, said the company has seen a spike in interest from Utah, with 3,280 new members in...

Joseph Sitati grew up as a Quaker in Nairobi, Kenya, but felt no great affection for the faith. Its sermons were too political, he felt, leaving him thirsty for spiritual satisfaction. -SNIP- Some 23 years later, Sitati, a Mormon superstar in Kenya, has now arrived where Carmack was -- in the First Quorum of Seventy. He is the first black African to join that august body, the church's second most important tier of leaders. -SNIP- The appointment is also symbolically important. After all, the LDS Church did not allow men of African descent anywhere to be ordained to its all-male...

With the decision by the Iowa Supreme Court and an enactment of a statute Vermont Legislature sanctioning same-sex marriage, a great deal of commentary, filled with understandable but unwarranted optimism, has appeared on the possibility of same-sex marriage being legislated in additional states, including New Jersey. Advocates are dismissive of the slippery-slope argument — that is, by allowing same-sex couples to marry, then any restrictions on a parent marrying his child or his couch will logically fall. Such views are easily ridiculed if not rebutted, but the next logical step in this debate — namely, polygamy — is not readily...

Utah is known nationwide for the wrong reason. "Utah has a pharmaceutical drug problem," said Jeffery Sweetin, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration special agent who oversees Utah. Sweetin and other police and health workers met Wednesday to introduce the latest attempt to curb prescription-drug use and sales in Utah, which a 2007 report said had the country's highest rate of nonmedical painkiller abuse. Called the Utah Pharmaceutical Drug Crime Project, the task force is pairing local police with federal agents as well as health workers. Representatives at a press conference Monday said the intent is to better communicate with one...

  "The Book of Mormon: The Great Purveyor of the Savior’s Peace" Neil L. Andersen,  Liahona, Jan 2008, 19–23We need only approach the Book of Mormon prayerfully and with faith, and the Savior’s peace will permeate our searching.Before the rededication of the São Paulo Brazil Temple in 2004, the temple doors were opened to many notable leaders from government, business, and education. As I accompanied a highly respected, elected leader through the temple, I noticed that his attention was acutely focused. It wasn’t until we reached a sealing room at the end of our visit that I fully understood...

The Do's, Do not's and the how-to's of correctly attending a mormon service. Click Here

Salt Lake City, Utah – Honorable people throughout the world who are open to religious faith are often discouraged, or confused by incorrect doctrine, according to an Apostle who spoke to the 179th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One issue has been particularly troubling, according to Elder Quentin L. Cook, a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles. "They have a difficult time reconciling the correct doctrine that we have a loving Father in Heaven and the incorrect doctrine that most of mankind would be doomed to eternal hell," Elder Cook explained to...

An American cult is what happens when radical individualism meets religion and philosophy. A cult becomes cut off from the mainstream of traditional religion and the global community of faith. It begins to converse only with self. This dangerous isolation is an important topic, as American religious communities such as the Episcopal Church drift in this direction. Mainstream global Christians do not delight in this drift as they recognize the temptations of the cult all too well from their own temptations to isolation. Extreme stories litter the paper every day that show the consequences of isolation. Cults begin to delight...

SALT LAKE CITY -- With Proposition 8, the show "Big Love," temples and political candidates, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been high-profile nationally in the last six months. On the eve of the Church's annual General Conference, that national attention isn't likely to go away any time soon. Shortly after the end of October's General Conference came the General Election and reaction to the passage of California's Proposition 8. Huge protests in that state and in Utah targeted Latter-day Saints' organized, heavy participation in the gay marriage issue. This put the faith on the front page....

Greetings from Orem, Utah, where I'm attending a conference on "Mormonism in the Public Mind" at Utah Valley University. I'm here because I was the keynote speaker yesterday, talking about Mormonism and the media, and I'll have more to say about that, and some of my travels through Mormondom this week, a bit later. But first, some liveblogging. This morning, a panel of three scholars took a look at Mormonism and politics, trying to extract lessons from three episodes -- the Romney campaign for president, the Proposition 8 campaign in California, and the quixotic campaign of a Utah Valley University...

Neil L. Andersen has been selected as the LDS Church's newest apostle. President Thomas S. Monson announced Andersen's selection just as the first session of the 179th General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints got under way in Salt Lake City this morning. "That's the longest walk you'll ever take," Monson said after inviting the new appointee to join the other apostles on the first row of the leadership tier in the giant Conference Center in Salt Lake City. Andersen -- who had been serving as a member of the presidency of the Seventy -- is...

Elder Tyson Boardman sits before the computer screen at the LDS Missionary Training Center, discussing Mormonism with Jason and Travis in two Internet conversations at the same time. Why do people say Mormons aren't Christian? What does it mean to be baptized for the dead? How do Mormons view Jesus? Why do you have a prophet? Answering these and many other LDS-related queries is Boardman's full-time assignment as a two-year missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he loves it. "I've had questions from Canada, England and every part of the U.S.," Boardman says. "It's...