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Nine members of a Mormon family were killed on the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border, and authorities are investigating whether the attack was the result of mistaken identity. The slain victims include three women, four small children and two infants, family member Alex LeBaron said from Mexico. He said all nine were dual US-Mexican citizens. The victims were "all shot while in vehicles while driving," LeBaron told CNN. Investigators believe three vehicles traveling between the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua were ambushed by criminal groups Monday evening, Mexican authorities said.

A wonderful family and friends from Utah got caught between two vicious drug cartels, who were shooting at each other, with the result being many great American people killed, including young children, and some missing. If Mexico needs or requests help in cleaning out these..... ....monsters, the United States stands ready, willing & able to get involved and do the job quickly and effectively. The great new President of Mexico has made this a big issue, but the cartels have become so large and powerful that you sometimes need an army to defeat an army! This is the time for...

Three mothers and at least six children with Utah ties were killed Monday in Mexico, according to the victims’ families. Three other children suffered bullet wounds, said Lafe Langford Jr., a relative of some of the victims. He said doctors from across the Mexican state of Sonora were coming to help, though they would prefer to fly the wounded and others to the United States.

Jana Riess, 49, is a popular LDS blogger who has degrees from revered school such as Princeton Theological Seminary and Columbia University, where she earned her Ph.D. in religion. She is a senior columnist for Religion News Service. MRM’s Viewpoint on Mormonism has produced shows on more than a half dozen of her articles, as she has an interesting perspective, even when we disagree.Her newest book is titled The Next Mormons: How Millennials are Changing the LDS Church. It is a scholarly research book published by Oxford University Press in March 2019. While this book is not as “layperson” oriented...

Affixing blame for the Mountain Meadows Massacre SEPTEMBER 21, 2019 BY DAN PETERSON This is not a photo of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. We have none. So I went for a cheerier note. This is a photo (by James Jordan) of director Mark Goodman working just a few days ago with extras in Old Sturbridge Village, Massachusetts, for the “Witnesses” film project. I note that I’m being accused by a small handful of people of blaming the Mountain Meadows Massacre on “anti-Mormons.” First, two preliminary observations: 1) When I write anything for the public, at least some people will misread...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has issued a warning to members that coffee is prohibited no matter how fancy the name, that vaping is banned despite the alluring flavors and that marijuana is outlawed unless prescribed by "competent" doctors. The new guidance in the August issue of a church youth magazine does not include fundamental changes to the religion's strict health code, but clarifications are significant and seem to reflect growing concern about young Latter-day Saints' adherence to the rules. The article says it aims to clear up issues that could be confusing for young people within...

For the first time since it opened in 1964, a mysterious Mormon landmark in the San Francisco Bay Area will be open to the public for a limited time before its rededication. The newly renovated Mormon Temple in the Oakland Hills section of Oakland, California, is having an open house for a few weeks. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints kept the temple closed for the past 14 months in order to complete renovations. The landmark, which was first built in the 1960s, also serves as an FAA beacon which helps incoming planes navigate their landings, according...

Children of LGBT parents can now be blessed or baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, church officials declared in a new policy on Thursday, dramatically reversing a 2015 decision that excluded those children from the rituals until they were 18. The church will also update its handbook for leaders, removing the label of “apostasy” for same-sex marriage.

A Utah man who repeatedly made headlines around the world in the 1970s has died. Melvin Dummar was a gas station operator in Box Elder County in 1976 when he suddenly seemed to be on the verge of becoming a multi-millionaire. He was named an heir to the fortune of eccentric and secretive billionaire Howard Hughes. Dummar's name was contained in a handwritten will discovered in the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. The document became known as the "Mormon Will" because someone had mysteriously dropped it on a desk at the...

A s a mother of six and a Mormon, I have a good understanding of arguments surrounding abortion, religious and otherwise. When I hear men discussing women’s reproductive rights, I’m often left with the thought that they have zero interest in stopping abortion. If you want to prevent abortion, you need to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Men seem unable (or unwilling) to admit that they cause 100% of them. I realize that’s a bold statement. You’re likely thinking, “Wait. It takes two to tango!” While I fully agree with you in the case of intentional pregnancies, I argue that all unwanted...

Over at the Institute for Family Studies, Nicholas Wolfinger, a sociologist at the University of Utah, has found that Americans who have only ever slept with their spouses are most likely to report being in a “very happy” marriage. Meanwhile, the lowest odds of marital happiness—about 13 percentage points lower than the one-partner women—belong to women who have had six to 10 sexual partners in their lives. For men, there’s still a dip in marital satisfaction after one partner, but it’s never as low as it gets for women,... (Skip) In an earlier analysis, Wolfinger found that women with zero...

Don Leo Delaun Heaton, better known to the pro wrestling world as "The Mormon Giant" Don Leo Jonathan, has died. He was 87 years old. At the end of August, Heaton was admitted to a hospital in British Columbia, and never left. Throughout his lengthy career, Don Leo Jonathan was one of the top wrestlers in the world, period. At 6-foot-6, at usually 280-320 pounds, he was both hulking, but also fast and agile, able to do a nip-up. Contrasting his size was his voice, which was squeaky and high-pitched, yet measured and thoughtful, menacing when it needed to be,...

The well-known Mormon Tabernacle Choir was renamed Friday to strip out the word Mormon in a move showing the faith’s new president is serious about ending shorthand names for the religion that have been used for generations by church members and previously promoted by the church. The gospel singing group will now be called the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said in a statement. It’s a nod to the home of the choir for the last 150 years, the Tabernacle, located on church grounds known as Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake...

Complete Headline: President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued the following statement Thursday afternoon regarding the name of the church "The Lord has impressed upon my mind the importance of the name He has revealed for His Church, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We have work before us to bring ourselves in harmony with his will. In recent weeks, various Church leaders and departments have initiated the necessary steps to do so." [Snip] The term "Mormonism" is inaccurate and should not be used. When describing the combination of doctrine,...

The Mormon missionary jailed in Venezuela over bogus claims of government espionage has spoken of his prison hell and how his new wife was electrocuted and tortured to elicit a false confession about her American husband. In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Josh Holt said he's 'grateful to God' he and Venezuelan wife Thamy Caleno, who was also jailed, survived their two-year ordeal. Speaking from his home in Riverton, Utah, Josh tells how callous Venezuelan intelligence operatives roughed him up and terrified him with staged fake executions.

Failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney issued a vicious statement condemning Dr. Robert Jeffress, one of the nation’s most prominent evangelical ministers and a spiritual adviser to President Trump. [Snip] "Robert Jeffress says 'you can't be saved by being a Jew,' and 'Mormonism is a heresy from the pit of hell,'" Romney wrote on Twitter. "He's said the same about Islam. Such a religious bigot should not be giving the prayer that opens the United States Embassy in Jerusalem." [Snip] Jeffress, who is a regular guest on my nationally-syndicated radio show, was stunned by Romney's ugly remarks. "Historical Christianity has taught...

The LDS Church is ending its relationship with the Boy Scouts of America. The expiration date for the remarkably robust, 105-year alliance is Dec. 31, 2019, according to a joint statement released Tuesday night by BSA and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The decision by LDS leaders is part of a broader restructuring of the church’s programs for all Mormon children ages 8 to 18.

With tender feelings we announce that Thomas S. Monson, president and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died this evening at 10:01 pm in his home in Salt Lake City. He was with family at the time of his passing. He died at age 90 from causes incident to age. President Monson, who has served as president of the Church since February 2008, leaves behind a legacy of service and good works. A successor is not expected to be formally chosen by the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles until after President Monson’s funeral. To the...

The very serious problems of abiogenesis and technological intelligence and the mathematical odds against finding intelligent extraterrestrials explain why we’ve never been able to detect extraterrestrial intelligences—and probably never will. We can all sleep soundly at night without worrying that aliens are going to come down from the sky to destroy or invade us. This then brings us to what is usually ignored in science: God. Since I am a Christian, this article is limited to the Christian worldview, which is centered on Jesus Christ. (Note: This section does not imply the biblical text is necessarily “true,” only that this...

In my humble opinion Pontius Pilate was not only NOT evil but he will probably be saved at the judgment. He certainly had the potential to be a very good man. The Jews at the time of Christ were the only people in the history of mankind that were so wicked they would crucify their own God. This fact plays into God's plan for our salvation. Jesus would come to earth, gain a physical body, learn through mortal experiences pain, anquish, temptation, and joy. He would overcome all things, suffer to pay the price for sin, then His body would...