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27 April 2012
UNC Newspaper Notes Star Player’s Decision to Be Mormon Missionary
April 26, 2012
Stilman White, the University of North Carolina (UNC) freshman basketball player who rose from third-stringer to NCAA tournament starter last season, has decided to leave the basketball court this summer to be a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon).
The Daily Tar Heel, UNC’s campus newspaper, published a 2,600-word feature on White’s decision to take a two-year hiatus from one of the United States’ most prestigious college basketball programs. Journalist Kelly Parsons writes about how the Church decides where to send missionaries and also gives a glimpse into the excitement and eagerness future missionaries have for their coming service.
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/unc-stilman-white-mormon-missionary
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Different dreams, 1 mission for UNC’s Stilman White
April 25, 2012
Daily Tar Heel (North Carolina)
A member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, White will leave the life he knows this summer and embark on a two-year-long mission, during which he’ll spend his days studying scripture, serving the community and spreading the gospel.
Though the righteous road could take him far from Chapel Hill, what he knows and his recent success, White doesn’t second guess himself or his decision to go. Because soon the 19-year-old will be able to say he’s accomplished not just one life dream but two.
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Fr Dwight Longenecker Asks, Does Mitt’s Mormonism Matter?
April 27, 2012
Catholic Online
Most Americans are unaware of just how peculiar the beliefs of Mormons are. They are familiar with the charges of polygamy and racism, but “they don’t do that anymore do they?” Are Americans aware of just how strange the story of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young are? Do they realize that this religion doesn’t even come close to being orthodox Christianity? Are they aware of the scandals, hoaxes and fraud of the Mormon founding fathers? Do they know about Mormonism’s exclusivity? It’s secretive rituals? It’s strange doctrines? Probably not.
Even if they do know all the shady and weird stuff about Mormonism, do most Americans care? Should they care? With the possibility that their next president is a Mormon does it matter?
http://www.catholic.org/politics/story.php?id=45945
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Three kinds of Mormons? Catholic priest is one kind of wrong
April 27, 2012
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
This so-called “Mormon moment” has spawned lots of stories by folks who consider themselves experts on the Utah-based faith but may know very little.
Take the case of Father Dwight Longenecker, priest of Our Lady of the Rosary parish in Greenville, S.C.
In a column posted at Catholic Online, the good father asks if “Mitt’s Mormonism matters”?
He starts by dividing the 14 million members in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints into three categories: maniac, moderate and modernist.
The maniacs, Longenecker writes, are “weird extremists” like convicted pedophile/polygamist FLDS leader Warren Jeffs. Note to Catholic columnists: Most Mormons do not consider Jeffs and the other “wide-eyed and wild fundamentalists” to be Mormons at all. They have, in fact, been barred from the Utah-based church to which Romney belongs.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsfaithblog/54004466-180/mormons-categories-catholic-church.html.csp
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Romney’s religion: Who are evangelicals to question Mormonism?
April 27, 2012
Baltimore Sun (Maryland)
Jokes about polygamy and funny long underwear aside, Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith has not been, and will not become, a factor in the presidential campaign of 2012.
I have a friend who wishes that were not so. She thinks it’s creepy that Mormons comb genealogical records to find people to retroactively baptize into the church — people who were not Mormons when they were alive and probably would not want to be Mormons if they still were. Knowing that the one constant in Mr. Romney’s otherwise malleable set of beliefs is his religion, my friend cannot understand why the Obama campaign has not raised the oddities of Mormonism as an issue.
It is not going to happen. The Obama campaign gurus are wise enough to know there is nothing to gain by opening up the can of very fat worms that is religion.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-horsey-romeny-text-20120427,0,893495.story
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Mitt Romney and the Mormons
April 27, 2012
ABC (Australia)
He’s been described as the Republican Presidential candidate from central casting. Good looks, lots of money and powerful connections. But Mitt Romney is a Mormon and there are many, even inside his own political party, who say they simply can’t vote for him. This week Four Corners presents a BBC investigation into an organisation that may yet destroy Mitt Romney’s attempt to become the most powerful leader in the world.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) has been described by some as the ultimate American religion. Based on the Christian tradition, it was founded by Joseph Smith Jnr in the early 19th Century in the United States. However, some claim the Mormons act more like a cult than a religion. BBC reporter John Sweeney investigates claims that the organisation brainwashes its members and targets people who leave the faith – keeping dossiers on them and telling their families, who remain in the church, to shun them.
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2012/04/27/3490298.htm
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MormonVoices Lauds Rev. Jeffress for his Support of Romney
April 27, 2012
Houston Chronicle (Texas)
Rev. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, was a supporter of Governor Rick Perry’s bid for the presidency when Jeffress referred to Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s religion as “a cult.” Therefore, his more recent Mitt Romney”>endorsement of Romney was hailed as an important step forward in Mormon-evangelical relations by MormonVoices. “It is important to recognize,” said Scott Gordon, a managing director of MormonVoices, “that Mormons and evangelicals often share many common interests, and despite some theological differences, they can cooperate as friends and neighbors when those interests align.”
In 1997, evangelical scholar Craig Blomberg and Mormon scholar Stephen Robinson asked “How Wide the Divide?” in their book of the same name, which explored theological differences between Mormons and evangelicals. However wide the theological divide may have been in the past, it seems that the cultural divide between evangelicals and Mormons has narrowed with Jeffress’s support for Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney.
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RGOD2: An ex-Mormon remains skeptical that church is changing attitude toward gays
April 27, 2012
San Diego Gay and Lesbian News (California)
Mormon support for Prop 8 was not unquestioned within the church. Since then, there’s been a slow trend of individual Mormons speaking in support of LGBT equality. BYU still bans public same-sex affection but now allows a gay student club, which recently released an It Gets Better video that received national attention.
A handful of public advocates and supporters have emerged. My friend, columnist Joanna Brooks, has written about a recent conference in Washington, D.C. that discussed “the diversity of approaches to being a gay Mormon and on claiming LGBT affirming spaces within this deeply-held faith.”
Author Carol Lynn Pearson, who lost her husband to AIDS years ago, is a beloved and staunch advocate for LGBT rights.
One more opportunistic gay Mormon has used his daytime corporate PR skills to press release and spin his volunteer church job of keeping a local lay pastor’s appointment calendar into columns and fawning interviews with the national gay press, to whom he claims to be a Mormon “leader” (he’s not) whose church work as an out gay man is “unprecedented” (it’s not, a friend of mine did the same thing long before, serving quietly with no personal publicity) and makes him an example of Mormon “progress” (he’s not). Other leaders of gay Mormon groups counsel patience, predicting that the church must eventually change and accept gay couples.
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Christian Minister Says Voting for Romney Will Promote Mormon ‘Cult’
April 27, 2012
Christian Post
While Mitt Romney is well on his way to becoming the GOP candidate to face President Barack Obama in the general election this November, one Christian minister, Bill Keller of LivePrayer.com, has suggested that by voting for Romney, people are “supporting” Mormonism, which he calls a cult.
The former Massachusetts governor has remained reluctant to make faith and religion the focus of his campaign, but he has faced criticism from some Christians about his belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which many insist falls outside of orthodox Christianity.
Keller, an Internet evangelist, has spoken out against the rise of the Mormon “cult” in the past, and has gone so far as to claim that voting for Romney will “lead millions of souls into hell.”
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Are Democrats more likely to be anti-Mormon?
April 27, 2012
Christian Century
“Between now and Election Day,” writes Peter Beinart, “anti-Mormonism is going to be the Democratic Party’s constant temptation for one simple reason: there are votes in it.” I’m not sure I’d call it the party’s “constant temptation,” but Beinart is certainly right that bigotry against Mormons remains a politically potent force in the U.S., and that the Democrats aren’t above exploiting it.
But is Beinart right that the Democrats have a bigger religious bigotry problem here than the Republicans do? The Gallup data he highlights is startling: more Democrats than Republicans say they wouldn’t vote for a Mormon. Of course, it’s hard to imagine that these results aren’t at least partly a reflection of our political moment, at which a) partisanship continues unabated and b) one of the two parties is about to nominate a prominent Mormon for president. (When the poll was taken last summer, Romney already wore the mantle of presumptive nominee.) Most Democrats aren’t willing to vote for Mitt Romney, and naturally that’s who they think of when a pollster asks them about Mormons.
http://www.christiancentury.org/blogs/archive/2012-04/are-democrats-more-likely-be-anti-mormon
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Mormon Helping Hands Host Day of Service Saturday
April 27, 2012
San Clemente Times (California)
The San Clemente Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints will join with 70,000 fellow church members throughout California and Hawaii in an annual day of service, known as Mormon Helping Hands Saturday, April 28.
From 9 a.m. to noon, more than 100 volunteers will meet a city botanist at Forster Ranch Park at 3207 Camino Vera Cruz to learn about the ecology of the plant selection for the renovation, then proceed to plant trees and shrubs, mulch planter areas and paint the restroom building and picnic structures. Volunteers are encouraged to bring their families, and the local “Pirate Park” playground will serve as grounds for young children who have come to help.
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Open Letter to Notre Dame President Concerning Our Youth via the DREAM Act
April 26, 2012
Tucson Citizen (Arizona)
I am a mere Mexican-American immigration activist living in the State of Arizona where there is a stronghold of Mormonism. I knew I could do only one thing as I felt utterly powerless and helpless when I saw Republican leaders support this restrictionist law, so I wrote an open letter to Mormon Prophet Thomas S. Monson. I paralleled the Mormon Missouri extinction order to Arizona’s SB 1070 anti-immigrant and self-deportation law. Just as Mormon families were driven out of the state of Missouri in early American history via mass exodus, I witnessed Arizona mass exodus and families being driven out, too.
While I do not see the beautiful crucifixes that typically adorn Catholic Churches at Mormon Churches or Temples, I did see what some might call the “power of the cross” come into play when Mormon leadership in Salt Lake City, Utah, brought forth the principles of the Mayflower Compact via the Utah Compact (with help from Catholic leaders). The Mormon Church and members of the LDS church boldly stepped up to the plate and their leaders took a compassionate stance on immigrants in the State of Arizona – and now we are hoping members of the Catholic Church will step up to the plate in the State of Indiana, too. It is an emergency to have your help.
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The Fate of Arab Democracy Faced With Religious Conflicts
April 27, 2012
Huffington Post
For one of those competing for the presidency of the United States to be the black son of a white American Christian woman and of an African Muslim man, while the other is from the Mormon community, a controversial religious minority, at the very least due to its practice of polygamy, is only evidence that America is an exceptional country. Indeed, this country, to which immigrants flock in search of freedom and of the opportunity to make something of themselves, is a great country because of its ability to accept a reality in which Barack Hussein Obama is facing Mitt Romney in the race to the White House. This in effect leaps over racism and discrimination against minorities, regardless of the extremism, arrogance, bias, intolerance and prejudice that can be found in the American popular base. Neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney bears a name of the type of “John Smith.” Both their names are rare and have a strange pronunciation, and American voters are being surprised and are adapting.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raghida-dergham/the-fate-of-arab-democracy_b_1458603.html
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Views From the Right
April 27, 2012
Alvin Sun-Advertiser (Texas)
I’ll be honest, I do consider Mormonism a Sect, as I do any religion that has a book or set of principles other than, or in addition to, the Bible.
That being said, I have Mormon friends, some of whom believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
They want what’s good for the U.S., unlike Islam, which intends to destroy Israel, and kill Americans.
I had a long-term business relationship with a Mormon, a loyal American, a loving individual, and I believe I will see her in Heaven.
Maybe Mormons believe I have to be a Mormon to be saved, but they won’t cut off my head if I don’t agree with them.
http://www.alvinsun.net/articles/2012/04/27/opinion/editorials/doc4f9b03115b277339289416.txt
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Why are Romney SuperPac Donors Shy?
April 26, 2012
Religion Dispatches
Wealth means status in the world of Mormonism, as it does just about everywhere else. But Mormon culture and church tradition emphasize privacy and even anonymity in giving. There are no “named giving opportunities,” no plaques bearing donor names affixed to Mormon chapels or temples. Plates are not passed down the row during Sunday services. Donations happen privately: pre-printed envelopes and donation slips handed quietly to the local bishop on Sunday morning, or in private meetings, or online. People may know who the big givers are in Mormon communities, but it would be a breach of cultural etiquette to advertise one’s own contributions.
http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/joannabrooks/5922/why_are_romney_superpac_donors_shy/
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Haley Barbour Takes On Andrea Mitchell In Contentious Battle Over Obama Vs. Romney
April 27, 2012
Mediaite
“That’s not about policy,” Barbour said. He listed the number of personal attacks that Mitt Romney has been targeted with including attacks on him for putting his dog on the roof of his car prior to a 12-hour trip and for being a Mormon.
Mitchell objected to the assertion that the Obama campaign has gone after Romney for being a Mormon, to which Barbour insisted that Obama surrogates have levied such attacks. “Governor, if you want to get into which surrogates or which supporters of the President or of Mitt Romney have said what, that’s a very dark tunnel to get into,” said Mitchell.
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EXCLUSIVE interview: Sen. Joe Lieberman
April 26, 2012
Washington Post
We then shift to the presidential election. He is staying out of it, he tells me. That said, last year he did weigh in on the pages of The Post with a piece on religion and politics, and specifically on the constitutional prohibition on a “religious test” for office, defending Mitt Romney against attacks on his Mormonism.
In the case of Romney, Lieberman specifically rebukes Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s comments about polygamy: “He went over the line.” Lieberman says, “The rest of us have an interest in not standing idly by” in the face of either direct attacks on a candidate’s religion or in the case of a “whispering campaign.” He says he remains “particularly interested ” in the issue because he was “treated so fairly” in the 2000 race.
He concludes, “Romney is running as an American, not a Mormon. He’s not going to call the elders in Salt Lake” for political advice. If it does become necessary for Romney to speak on the issue (he did in the 2008 primary), Lieberman, with his characteristic smile, says Romney should have confidence “in the fairness of the American people.”
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Mormons who fear Mitt
April 27, 2012
Salon
Mormon leader Marlin Jensen has recently acknowledged that Latter-day Saints are leaving the fold in droves. The former church historian spoke frankly to a group of students at Utah State University, saying, “We’ve never had a period of — I’ll call it apostasy — like we’re having now.”
Church leaders never anticipated the Internet generation would access their history online. Joseph Smith used magic stones to see into the past. Today, young Mormons use Google. When they discover that their founding prophet wedded several teenage girls, it is often a traumatic revelation. Mormons experience a crisis of trust, if not outright betrayal, from their leaders.
Though the actual numbers of defections have not been published, anecdotal stories abound throughout Utah. It’s not just Joseph’s sex life that causes many Mormons to mistrust their leaders, but also the church’s persistent commitment to right-wing politics.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/?shva=1#inbox/136f5df583be14de
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Dustin Lance Black to be grand marshal for Utah Pride Festival
April 27, 2012
Q Salt Lake
Black was raised by his parents in the Mormon faith but has said he knew he was gay from a young age and felt conflicted. Depressed and sometimes suicidal, Black said he felt as though God was going to punish him for being gay. But after moving to California and learning more about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected representative in the U.S., he saw a real role model.
“When I first heard Harvey’s story at 13, I was a closeted kid living in a conservative Mormon, military home. It was a rough time for me. Hearing Harvey’s story not only gave me the hope he talked so often about, it very likely saved my life,” Black said in a 2009 press release.
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Christian rock finds acceptance in the secular world
April 27, 2012
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
“People ask me why I don’t write songs about Mary,” said Maher, whose first two concerts were festivals that included Spinal Tap, Bryan Adams and Extreme. He said he strives to not write literally, but crafts songs that appeal to all Christians — including followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“I would love it if [Abravanel Hall] was filled with Mormons, so we can worship together.”
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/entertainment/53978776-81/third-abravanel-hall-band.html.csp
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Photoluminescent Magic Romney Underwear T-Shirts Unite Republicans, Democrats and Independents
April 26, 2012
Sun Herald (Mississippi)
It all started with a simple tweet. When New York Times columnist Charles Blow made a reference to Mitt Romney’s faith and sticking something in his “magic underwear,” referring to a Mormon tradition of wearing a temple garment under the clothing, it gave three businessmen and friends the idea of creating a fun and “magical” T-shirt that Democrats, Republicans and Independents would love.
Combining their varied business skills, the fraternity brother friends from 20 years ago developed a T-shirt featuring text and graphics depicting “Magic Romney Underwear.” Utilizing patented photoluminescent ink that enables the graphics to brightly light up the dark, the T-shirt glows in a magical way in the dark. Available in adult sizes S, M, L, XL, the T-shirts are printed on a high quality navy blue background color featuring white and orange photoluminescent graphics that “glow” in the dark utilizing the same type of advanced photoluminescent technology used by firefighters to increase visibility in the dark and prevent disorientation. The shirts are available online at www.magicromneyunderwear.com for $24.95.
http://www.sunherald.com/2012/04/26/3908777/photoluminescent-magic-romney.html
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Brother Romney: Commitment To Mormon Church “All Encompassing”
April 26, 2012
Buzz Feed
Mitt Romney has been reluctant to discuss his Mormon faith on the campaign trail — and his defenders routinely cry foul when when Democrats and journalists bring it up. When he’s pressed to respond details about his church’s theology and history, Romney often dismisses them, arguing that he’s “not running for pastor-in-chief.”
But in a 2002 interview with the Mormon newspaper Church News, Romney was much more forthright about the extent to which he is influenced by his faith. The glowing profile of “Brother Romney,” as he’s referred to throughout the story, was published shortly before the Winter Games kicked off, and just as his national star was rising.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/brother-romney-commitment-to-mormon-church-all-e
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NOTE: This is posted for those who are interested in keeping abreast what is being said around the world about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members. MormonVoices cannot and does not guarantee the validity or truthfulness of any information reported. The responsibility for the interpretation and use of this information lies with the reader. As all information comes from other news sources and has not been independently verified, MormonVoices cannot guarantee or be responsible for the security of links in the clipping service. MormonVoices will attempt as much as possible to exclude news articles containing strongly offensive language or which lead to offensive images, but cannot guarantee that some will not slip through.
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