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Mormon families who tried to expose cases of sexual abuse within their communities have alleged they were 'silenced' and threatened with disciplinary action by church leaders, DailyMail.com can reveal. In one instance, two Idaho members claim they were warned they could be punished after the pair alerted others in their congregation to the fact that their former bishop faced child sex abuse charges dating back 10 years. In another case in Minnesota, a church member and social worker claims he was stripped of his positions within the church after he spoke out about a registered sex offender who had been...

A man has revealed how he escaped a polygamous Mormon cult before its former leader was sentenced to life behind bars for child sex offences. Ben, based in Utah, appeared on a recent episode of the Cults to Consciousness podcast to share what it was like growing up in the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints Church (FLDS) with two moms, who were sisters, and 28 siblings. FLDS was a break away group which branched off from the original Mormon church when the mainstream religion ceased practicing polygamy. Ben laid bare the strict rules that were imposed by former self-appointed leader Warren...

The Mormon church is being sued by three men who claim that it took $348,000 in donations they believed were for charitable causes, then used the money for its own investments. The trio, who filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday, are seeking to make their case a class-action suit, and want an independent entity to oversee collection and use of donations made to The Church Their lawsuit is separate from, but similar to, one filed by James Huntsman, the scion of a prominent Mormon family whose brother Jon was the governor of Utah and a presidential candidate, and U.S. ambassador...

A man who grew up in an incestuous, polygamist, Mormon cult with 14 mothers and 163 siblings has opened up about the horrors that he was subjected to by its abusive leader. Val Snow, 35, grew up in Utah in a strict Mormon community called the Kingston Group - officially known as the Davis County Cooperative Society and internally as The Order. The Order is a cult that was started during the Great Depression which promotes polygamy and incest to keep bloodlines 'pure.' Val is the oldest of 12 children that his mother gave birth to in the cult, and...

‘The Chosen’ Director Dallas Jenkins has responded to fans wanting him to include the transfiguration of Jesus in his hit TV show about the life of Jesus, saying he’s confused why fans would think it would be an important scene to show, particularly because it wouldn’t “serve our story.” We’ve written about Jenkins in the past, with our posts Dallas Jenkins Says Mormons are Saved : ‘I’m Going to Die on That Hill’, as well as Dallas Jenkins Doubles Down on Controversial Mormon Comments, Straight up Lies and Dallas Jenkins Affirms Mormons are Christians in ‘Definitive, Final’ Video.’ Jenkins made...

Despite unequivocal top-down condemnations of polygamy, the church's continued theological affiliation with plural marriage is not lost on its members. In perhaps the most thorough and effective treatment on this issue to date, The Ghost of Eternal Polygamy, LDS author Carol Lynn Pearson lays out the ways in which plural marriage continues to shape the teachings and practices of the modern church. She discusses the fact that LDS men are still allowed to become eternally sealed (i.e., married) in the temple to multiple women if their previous wife or wives have died.

Joseph Smith: An Apostle of Jesus Christ By Elder Dennis B. Neuenschwander Of the Seventy   Dennis B. Neuenschwander, “Joseph Smith: An Apostle of Jesus Christ,” Ensign, Jan 2009, 16–22Adapted from a presentation to the Seventy.   In the Doctrine and Covenants we read that Joseph Smith was “called of God, and ordained an apostle of Jesus Christ” (D&C 20:2). The call of an Apostle is first to witness or testify of Jesus Christ. Old Testament prophets testified of His coming. The New Testament Apostles bore personal witness of Christ’s being and of the absolute reality of His Resurrection. This apostolic witness was...

The current size of Ensign Peak’s holdings remains a tightly held secret. The firm, based in Salt Lake City, was incorporated in 1997. Under SEC rules, it must disclose some types of investments, like U.S.-listed stocks, that it manages directly, which amounted to roughly $40 billion on Sept. 30. The remainder of the portfolio is made up of investments such as fixed-income securities, private companies or funds. Ensign Peak had an estimated $100 billion of holdings in 2019.

The man arrested in the Colorado Springs gay nightclub shooting appears to have links to the Mormon church through his mother. One post in July last year came weeks after Aldrich was arrested for allegedly threatening to harm his mother with a bomb and weapons. "Hello Sisters. Does anyone know of a fantastic defense attorney? I ask this with a heavy heart but my family really needs some help at this time. We have cash to retain good counsel. Thank you," she wrote. In February, Voepel asked if anyone could recommend "a great trauma/ptsd therapist?" In a comment, she said...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Tuesday it would back proposed federal legislation to safeguard same-sex marriages, marking the latest show of support for the measure from conservative-leaning groups. The nearly 17-million member, Utah-based faith said in a statement that church doctrine would continue to consider same-sex relationships to be against God’s commandments. Yet it said it would support rights for same-sex couples as long as they didn’t infringe upon religious groups’ right to believe as they choose. “We believe this approach is the way forward. As we work together to preserve the principles and practices of...

On this date in 1942, 17-year-old Helmuth Hübener was executed at Plotzensee Prison for listening to the BBC. Huebener was a Mormon youth with the political perspicacity to abhor fascism from a very young age: the former Boy Scout (Mormons really take to scouting) ditched the Hitler Youth after Kristallnacht, which happened when Huebener was only 10 years old. As Germany forged ahead towards worse horrors in the years, conscientious people of all ages had moral dilemmas to resolve. Mormons in Nazi Germany weren’t persecuted per se and to keep it that way that small community generally kept its head...

The man suspected of killing six people and wounding more than a dozen others during a July 4th parade in Highland Park is a Donald Trump-supporting rapper with a seemingly-successful music career. Robert 'Bobby' Crimo III, 22, goes by the moniker, Awake the Rapper, in his music career. According to his Spotify page, he boasts more than 16,000 listeners per month and has a net worth of $100,000. The rap career has taken on a chilling relevance in the wake of the shooting. So far, synagogue teacher Jacki Sundheim, a married mother, and grandfather Nicolas Toledo, 78, have been named...

Utah Governor Spencer Cox said that he plans to veto legislation passed on Friday that would ban transgender student-athletes from competing in girls sports within the state. Without his support, Utah is unlikely to join the 11 other states, all Republican-led, that have recently enacted bans on transgender girls wanting to compete in school sports leagues that correspond with their gender identity. In vowing to veto the bill, Cox directly addressed transgender student-athletes, who he said found themselves the subject of political debate through no fault of their own. I just want them to know that it's gonna be okay....

Harry Reid, political pugilist and longtime Senate majority leader, dies Former Sen. Harry Reid (Nev.), one of the Senate’s longest-serving majority leaders and a Democrat who played a central role in enacting President Obama’s biggest legislative accomplishments, died Tuesday at age 82. The death was announced by longtime political reporter Jon Ralston, who called Reid "probably the most important elected official in Nevada history."

Dallas Jenkins, son of “Left Behind” author Jerry Jenkins, and Director of the smash-hit TV show The Chosen appeared on a Mormon podcast LDS Living (Latter Day Saint Living) where he offered up why Mormons and are saved and why he considers the many Mormon folks to work on his show to be believers. Morgan Jones 1 Well, I am so excited about this. I am honestly such a big fan of “The Chosen,” so this is a treat for me. And I’ll be honest with you, I introduced a good number of people to your show because I love...

In a Mormon(LDS) blog interview,1 Jenkins defended not only the Mormon owned Vid-Angel distribution and the filming of “The Chosen” in Utah on an LDS set, but he also defended the idea that Mormons follow the “same Christ” and that there is no significant difference between Mormons and Evangelicals. He further admitted that many LDS people are working on the project and influencing his thinking. Jenkins’ defense against criticism was quite telling. Hear it in his own words: “So even if you are listening to this right now as an evangelical and are horrified to hear me say some of...

Brian Murray knows just how fierce an opponent Arizona's Sen. Kyrsten Sinema can be. The Republican strategist saw his candidate lose to Democrat Sinema in their 2012 race for the House. Calling the experience "unpleasant," Murray admits his candidate, Vernon Parker, was flawed, but "flawed candidates win all of the time. Kyrsten, however, was an absolute machine." Sinema, along with fellow centrist Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, has recently become the epicenter of American politics largely because she insists on siding with the interests of her constituents instead of the demands of her party. Over the past few...

A Utah man was arrested for firing a gun at his father after he came home with the wrong order of chicken wings, according to officials. Alika Unga Suliafu, 31, started an argument with his father when he returned to their Davis County apartment with a batch of wings that he did not like in October, according to court documents obtained by Fox 13. The father-son argument escalated until at one point, investigators say Suliafu retrieved a gun from another room and pointed it directly at his father, who begged him not to shoot. Just as Suliafu fired, his father...

“Doomsday” mom Lori Vallow’s brother told detectives he believes that she murdered her third husband, who reportedly died of natural causes, in addition to her fourth husband and two children, new court documents revealed. Vallow’s brother Alex Cox told detectives he believes that Vallow and Alex murdered Vallow’s third husband Joseph Ryan, who had purportedly died of a heart attack in 2018. Alex had killed Vallow’s fourth husband, Charles Vallow, in July 2019 shooting in what he said was self-defense. She faces a charge of conspiracy to commit murder in Arizona in connection with his death.

A member of a cartel blamed for the 2019 massacre of nine United States-Mexico dual citizens has been arrested. Uriel '18' Valles Domínguez was apprehended by security forces in the northern Mexican municipality of Chihuahua City on Wednesday, two years after the barbaric incident that left three mothers and six children of a tight knit Mormon community dead. Officials have yet to say what charges he faces, or his suspected links to the mass-slaughter.