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30 March 2012
Millions to View Mormons’ 182nd Annual General Conference
March 30, 2012
Millions of Church members, friends and invited guests are expected to view the 182nd Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon). All five conference proceedings will be held Saturday and Sunday, 31 March and 1 April 2012, in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City and can also be viewed live via television, radio, satellite and Internet broadcasts.
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormon-general-conference-april-2012
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Mormon missionaries remember that dreaded ‘Dear John’ letter
March 30, 2012
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
Brian Jackson still remembers it.
Taped to the wall of his kitchen in Botswana, where Jackson served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was a typewritten letter that had belonged to a missionary who lived there before him. It was an apologetic breakup note from his girlfriend.
Jackson doesn’t recall exactly what the correspondence said. But he does remember what that missionary had scrawled at the bottom of it, as if in response: “Get amoebic dysentery and die.”
It’s a memory that still makes Jackson, now an English professor at Brigham Young University, laugh a little, though he recognizes that for the missionary who wrote the rejoinder, it was also probably a way to release pent-up anger and hurt.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/53812409-78/dear-john-letters-mission.html.csp
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David Archuleta begins Mormon mission
March 30, 2012
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Washington)
Mormon pop star David Archuleta has paused his music career to begin his missionary service in South America, telling fans, “I will see you all in two years.”
The “American Idol” star is stepping out of the spotlight to carry out his religious duties as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
http://blog.seattlepi.com/people/2012/03/29/david-archuleta-begins-mormon-mission/
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Hicks: ‘American Idol’ star David Archuleta headed on a Mormon mission to South America
March 29, 2012
Mercury News (California)
“American Idol” runner-up David Archuleta has a farewell YouTube video to fans as he prepares for a two-year Mormon mission in South America.
The 21-year-old singer says in a video blog posted Wednesday that his contact with fans will be limited while he’s in the undisclosed country.
Radio station KSL reports he entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, on Wednesday as a precursor to the assignment.
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David Archuleta announces two-year career hiatus
March 29, 2012
Entertainment Weekly
David Archuleta fans will have to start counting the days until 2014.
The American Idol runner-up is now starting that previously reported two-year break from his career to serve as a Mormon missionary in South America, he announced in an emotional video posted on YouTube yesterday.
Archuleta says he spent a “very emotional last week” with friends and family before going on to thank his fans for their support and to say goodbye (for now).
http://music-mix.ew.com/2012/03/29/david-archuleta-mormom-missionary-hiatus-south-america/
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The Mormon factor won’t go away for Romney
March 30, 2012
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania)
Mitt Romney has a persisting Mormon problem. Less certain is whether this is limited to the Republican primaries or it’s a general-election worry, too.
“This nomination would be in the bag if it weren’t for the Mormon factor,” says John Geer, a professor of political science at Vanderbilt University who works on the intersection of religion and politics.
The exit polls from a plethora of primaries confirm that. Mr. Romney, a devout leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, gets clobbered among white evangelicals and those who believe the religious views of a would-be president matter a great deal. This has caused him to lose a few primaries and denied him decisive wins in others.
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Judge Morality, Not Theology
March 29, 2012
Townhall
Some voters appear to hold Romney’s Mormon faith against him, but core principles of pluralism demand acknowledgement that theological disagreements don’t amount to bad character. Meanwhile, doctrinal differences haven’t stopped Mitt Romney and millions of other Mormons from living productive, patriotic and deeply moral lives.
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/michaelmedved/2012/03/29/judge_morality_not_theology
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Two new memoirs by women consider falling back into, and out of, the church.
March 29, 2012
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
When Joanna Brooks sat down to write The Book of Mormon Girl, she was stung by a publisher’s rejection of her previous manuscript about the interfaith family life she shared with her Jewish husband and two daughters.
“He said it was too weird because it’s Mormon. It won’t sell,” Brooks said by phone from her San Diego home. “I laughed. If a Mormon story still seems weird to mainstream America in the 21st century, then there’s lots of room for Mormons to write our own stories.”
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/entertainment/53809797-81/brooks-mormon-pearson-book.html.csp
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Mormon scholars: Internet spotlights LDS taboos
March 30, 2012
Provo Daily Herald (Utah)
Online exploration of formerly taboo subjects is changing how Mormons talk about their faith, both officially and socially. What this means to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members was the subject of a UVU conference which launched on Thursday.
Joanna Brooks, an award-winning religious scholar and writer, gave the keynote address of the “Mormonism and the Internet” gathering on Thursday morning.
“One of our big challenges right now is that young people do have a lot of access to information about our history that is not discussed at home and at church,” Brooks said. “That is a big frontier for us.”
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Notebook stolen from Mormon Church contains data on Armenia’s political opposition – newspaper
March 30, 2012
News.am (Armenia)
“There was a burglary at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) in [Armenia's capital] Yerevan, on March 26. Unidentified men had stolen the Church’s computer (notebook).
According to Zhoghovurd’s sources, the stolen computer contains fairly interesting information on some forces which carry out activities in Armenia’s [political] opposition and on their financial actions,” Zhoghovurd daily writes.
http://news.am/eng/news/99210.html
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Gay and Mormon: BYU students speak on panel
March 29, 2012
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
Bridey Jensen is a student at Brigham Young University. She’s also a lesbian. The 23-year-old knows some of her peers see these as mutually exclusive identities, but next week, she hopes to clear up any misunderstandings about what it means to be gay and a devout Latter-day Saint during a panel discussion on her Provo campus.
“Both of these things are just a fundamental part of me that I never chose,” said Jensen, one of three students expected to be part of the panel. “Just because I accept [that I am gay] doesn’t mean I believe in the gospel any less.”
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/53810073-78/gay-byu-jensen-students.html.csp
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Mormon Apostles’ Most Important Duty: Testify of Jesus Christ
March 30, 2012
KCSG (Utah)
In a commentary on Patheos.com, James Faulconer, a professor of religious understanding at Brigham Young University, explains the role of an apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and their primary duty, which is outlined in the New Testament and other Latter-day Saint scripture.
“The most important part of what they do as apostles is the testimony that they bear of the reality that Jesus is Christ, the Messiah,” Faulconer says. “His resurrection was the first testimony to the world of his messiahship. The apostles’ testimonies spread that first and fundamental testimony. Beyond whatever else the Church might need contemporary apostles to do, that witness to the Church and to the world is their first responsibility.”
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Former Mormon bishop pleads not guilty to fraud
March 29, 2012
Standard Examiner (Utah)
A former Mormon bishop has pleaded not guilty to charges he cheated investors including members of his congregation out of more than $400,000.
Julius Blackwelder of Utah, who was bishop of the Bridgeport ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, pleaded not guilty Thursday in federal court in New Haven. He is accused of using the money to pay back earlier investors in the pyramid scheme, build a waterfront home in Stratford and repay personal bank loans.
http://www.standard.net/stories/2012/03/29/former-mormon-bishop-pleads-not-guilty-fraud
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Mormon Prom celebrates 7th year
March 29, 2012
Orange County Register (California)
Southern California youth from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints attended the Mormon Prom on March 17 at Soka University in Aliso Viejo. Youth from the Rancho Santa Margarita, Mission Viejo, San Clemente, and Laguna Niguel congregations, ages 16-18, were invited to join the annual event.
Jordan Procuniar, of Portola Hills, asked his mother, Anne, if she could help plan a dinner for him and his seminary class. He thought it would be good to be together before the dance and there wouldn’t be a large expense. Anne Procuniar asked other mothers for help and together they put on a dinner for 36 teens.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/prom-346843-youth-anne.html
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Mormons and Charity
April 9, 2012
National Catholic Weekly
Whether Mitt Romney wins the Republican nomination for the presidency or not, his serious-contender candidacy has sparked an explosion of empirical research on Mormons in the United States. In due course, this research should serve not only to enhance public respect for the Mormon minority, but also to give Catholics some clues about how to strengthen their own faith community.
In a report issued in January 2012, “Mormons in America: Certain of Their Beliefs, Uncertain of Their Place in Society,” a research team representing the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that most Mormons are regular churchgoers and that more Mormons (73 percent) believe that “working to help the poor” is “essential to being a good Mormon” than believe the same thing about “not drinking coffee and tea” (49 percent).
http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=13355
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Utah’s Bohme Boutique: The business story behind the fashion
March 29, 2012
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
Vivien and Fernanda Bohme, two sisters from Rio de Janeiro, first opened a temporary Bohme Boutique in Fashion Place Mall for the holidays in 2007. They were aiming to sell clothing around the idea of “sexy modesty” aimed at Mormon women. “When we opened our shop, everybody but Mormons came, a Playboy bunny came, all sorts of dancers,” Vivien Bohme said. “Of course, LDS people would come, but it wasn’t enough.”
They had the sexy part down, but the rest of the concept wasn’t working. That’s when the Bohme sisters noticed when they displayed denim, “it would fly out of the store,” so they adjusted their strategy to focus on sexy modest denims and tees.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/entertainment/53810319-81/vivien-bohme-opened-store.html.csp
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