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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...

First Baptist Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress has denounced former Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's accusation that he's a "religious bigot." "Robert Jeffress says 'you can't be saved by being a Jew,' and 'Mormonism is a heresy from the pit of hell.' 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," Romney tweeted on Sunday. In an interview with Fox Business host Lou Dobbs Monday night, Jeffress said he took issue with Romney's claims and asserted, "I am not a bigot." "Many of those comments [in...

Former Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney lashed out at the decision to have a controversial evangelical leader give a blessing at the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem Monday, calling him a "religious bigot." The Senate candidate from Utah criticized the inclusion of the Rev. Robert Jeffress — the pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas who is also an an adviser to President Donald Trump. The president recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital last year. "Robert Jeffress says, 'You can't be saved by being a Jew,' and 'Mormonism is a heresy from the pit of hell,'" Romney wrote in...

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, May 9, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – The Mormon Church has announced that it will end all association with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and other worldwide Scouting programs, a week after the BSA announced it would cut “boy” from the name because it now accepts girls. “Effective on December 31, 2019, the Church will conclude its relationship as a chartered organization with all Scouting programs around the world,” the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) announced on May 8. Instead, next year it plans to launch its own youth programs to “help all...

Mormon church-owned Brigham Young University ended a six-decade ban Thursday on the sale of caffeinated soft drinks on campus, surprising students by posting a picture of a can of Coca-Cola on Twitter and just two words: "It's happening." The move sparked social media celebrations from current and former students, with many recalling how they had hauled their own 2-liter bottles of caffeinated sodas in their backpacks to keep awake for long study sessions. "I drank a lot of caffeinated beverages while I was here but none of them was purchased on campus," said Christopher Jones, 34, a visiting BYU history...

SALT LAKE CITY — The LDS Church, the oldest and largest charter organization of the Boy Scouts of America, will drop Scouting from its Young Men's program for boys ages 14 through 17. Effective Jan. 1, the move will carve about 180,000 Mormon boys from the Varsity and Venturing Scout programs in the United States and Canada, replacing them with activities created for boys in those age groups by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church will continue to sponsor Cub Scouts for boys 8 to 10 and Boy Scout programs for those 11 through 13 in...

“I want to speak to you about something that may be controversial. And it’s not something that I have said when I have been out for Ted [Cruz] and now Mike [Lee]. But it’s something that this crowd needs to hear – that Utah needs to hear. The body of the priesthood is known to stand up when the Constitution hangs by a thread,” Beck said. ... “I joined many times. What held me through was the prophesy that the Constitution will hang by a thread, and this People would remember what our Founders did. It is our responsibility to...

Jackie Biskupski, the openly gay mayor-elect of Salt Lake City, isn't happy that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a group better known as the Mormons, clarified its stance on its membership requirements. Under policies disclosed last week, the LDS Church won't accept as members or missionaries children of same-sex couples. She now wants a meeting with church leaders to discuss "policies." The move evoked echoes of Houston's Mayor Annise Parker who, in a two-year battle over a human rights bill, at one point subpoenaed sermons from local pastors opposed to the measure and sought a public vote....

Search-and-rescue teams trudged through muddy streambeds on Tuesday in a small polygamous town on the Utah-Arizona border, looking for people who were missing after a devastating flash flood that killed at least 15 people. With more rain in the forecast, men in helmets were perched at high points along the route, watching carefully for any more floodwaters that could suspend the search in Hildale, the secluded community that is the home base of Warren Jeffs' polygamist sect. Only one person was still missing Tuesday afternoon out of 16 people - three women and 13 children - who were in two...

Eugene Volokh relates an action by the Westminster Magistrate's Court in England that would be chilling if it were funny. It seems that the court is summoning a leader of a major religion to prove whether the doctrine of his church is true. The court is summoning Thomas Monson, the current President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to answer charges under the Fraud Act levied by two disaffected ex-Mormons.

The Mormon Church has officially renounced the belief that dark skin is a sign of disfavor, or curse. On the official website for The Mormon Church, www.lds.org, a statement has been posted titled "Race and the Priesthood," where blame for the belief that dark skinned people were inferior to whites is placed on the establishment of the church coming in 1830, a time of great racism in the United States. The Church points out how previous leaders, most notably President Brigham Young, restricted Blacks from priesthood in the Church, receiving the temple endowment, or allowing them to be married in...

...For eight years, I had been a professor at Brigham Young University... I looked down on Christians...They had part of the gospel, but I had the fullness of it. I kept the laws and ordinances of Mormonism. Three weeks before the end of his two-year mission, Micah called to tell us he was being sent home early—a horrific disgrace in Mormon culture. He had been reading the New Testament. There he encountered a different Jesus than the one I was taught about in Mormonism—a God of grace, not of works, so that no one can boast... To a roomful of...

A federal judge last week struck down part of Utah’s ban on polygamy – the state can no longer prosecute adult men and women who “cohabitate” in numbers larger than the traditional pair. Critics suggested the ruling was a natural next step after the success of same-sex marriage campaigns and lawsuits in recent years. But Kody Brown, the fundamentalist Mormon “Sister Wives” star whose case sparked the ruling, proclaimed it a victory for religious freedom. Is polygamy inevitable? Are we headed down the slippery slope? Joel Mathis and Ben Boychuk, the RedBlueAmerica columnists, debate the issue. Joel Mathis What’s sacred...

...Latter-day Saint scripture and teachings affirm that God loves all of His children and makes salvation available to all. God created the many diverse races and ethnicities and esteems them all equally... ...for much of its history—from the mid-1800s until 1978—the Church did not ordain men of black African descent to its priesthood or allow black men or women to participate in temple endowment or sealing ordinances. SNIP In 1852, President Brigham Young publicly announced that men of black African descent could no longer be ordained to the priesthood, though thereafter blacks continued to join the Church through baptism and...

From the video, "Lesson in Compassion".

A Roman Catholic scholar and former philosophy and religion professor has released a new book that defends Mormonism as "one of the youngest branches on the Christian tree," and claims that Christians can learn from the Mormon religion. Stephen H. Webb, former 25 year professor of religion and philosophy at Wabash College and author of the book, Mormon Christianity: What Other Christians Can Learn From the Latter-day Saints, told The Christian Post that, among other things, "Mormon theology teaches us to think of matter in new and creative ways." "Traditional theology teaches that matter is lifeless, without the soul it's...

Police in eastern Idaho say they're investigating after vandals defaced three Mormon churches in the small town of Chubbuck. Gov. Butch Otter condemned the vandalism in a written statement released Sunday. Here is the governor's full statement: "Defiling or defacing houses of worship — of any faith or denomination — is an attack not just on religious beliefs or even our law, but also on our culture and our values. It disturbs the sanctuaries of our spiritual well-being. These are not merely the acts of misguided individuals. They speak to a more fundamental disregard for sacred places, social order and...

<p>The Mormon church stands to own nearly 2 percent of Florida by completing a deal to buy most of the real estate of the St. Joe Co. for more than a half-billion dollars.</p> <p>The megapurchase was announced jointly Thursday by a corporate representative of church, which owns the nearly 295,000-acre Deseret Ranches in Central Florida, and by the real-estate and timber business, which has built several communities along the Panhandle coast.</p>

The chill seemed to begin to thaw for some in 2004 when Mouw introduced Ravi Zacharias at the LDS Church's Salt Lake Tabernacle. Mouw spoke for seven minutes and apologized for evangelicals who had "misrepresented the faith and belief of Latter-day Saints." "Let me state it clearly," Mouw said. "We evangelicals have sinned against you." Mouw didn't flinch despite criticism of the apology by other evangelicals and published a book last year titled "Talking with Mormons: An Invitation to Evangelicals." He practices “convicted civility,” which he says is different from what he calls the “ ‘anything-goes’ compromised relativism so popular...