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12 May 2012
Ground Broken for Provo, Utah’s Second Temple
12 May 2012
Newsroom
Ground was broken today for the Provo City Center Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), the Church’s second temple in Provo and 16th in Utah. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles presided over the morning ceremony.
“What an absolute stunning site!” declared Elder Holland. “It is a picture perfect day in Utah County. The temple site is filled with faithful people making history.” He said he was deeply touched today. In fact, “You can tell people Elder Holland was downright giddy today about the temple groundbreaking.”
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/ground-broken-for-provo-utahs-second-temple
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Mormon Church breaks ground for new temple on Provo Tabernacle site
May 12 2012
The Salt Lake Tribune
When the Provo Tabernacle caught fire in 2010, thousands of people came to the site to mourn the landmark’s loss.
On Saturday, thousands again gathered to the tabernacle’s burned-out remains, but this time with joy in their hearts. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints formally dedicated the site as the home of the new Provo City Center Temple.
“I think it was fantastic,” Provo resident Kurt Brown said of the groundbreaking ceremony. “I think it is really neat to have the tabernacle converted into a temple.”
Brown, who lives down the street from the tabernacle, remembered seeing the building in flames and was happy to be among the 6,000 people who gathered in Tabernacle Park to watch Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and other church officials break ground for the new temple.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/utes/54100693-78/tabernacle-temple-provo-church.html.csp
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Romney opposes gay marriage, appease evangelicals
May 13, 2012
Firstpost
In a speech at conservative Christian Liberty University – where it is taught that Mormonism is a cult – Romney stressed their common goal of service to God and declared his opposition to gay marriage, a position essential for winning the majority of evangelicals in November.
“People of different faiths like yours and mine, sometimes wonder where we can meet in common purpose, when there are so many differences in creed and theology,” the presumptive Republican nominee said in a commencement speech, addressing his Mormon faith.
“Surely the answer is that we can meet in service, in shared moral convictions about our nation stemming from a common worldview,” said Romney to warm applause. Mormons, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, view themselves as Christians.
Romney went right at the latest hot-button issue, bringing much of the audience to its feet in cheers by declaring: “Marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman.”
Many students and parents said that while they are wary of Romney’s religion, they would rather he occupy the White House than President Barack Obama who announced his support for same-sex marriage this week.
http://www.firstpost.com/world/romney-opposes-gay-marriage-appease-evangelicals-307543.html
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Romney speech in Lynchburg heavy on faith, light on politics
May 13, 2012
The Roanoke Times
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney focused on faith and family Saturday in a much-anticipated commencement address at Liberty University, telling graduates of the evangelical Christian school that “culture — what you believe, what you value, how you live — matters.”
Just days after President Barack Obama publicly endorsed same-sex marriage, Romney drew his loudest and longest ovation when he said: “Marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman.”
Romney never mentioned Obama’s name in his speech to more than 6,000 Liberty graduates and a nearly packed house at sun-splashed Williams Stadium. And, save for his statement on marriage and a brief reference to the economy, he largely steered clear of issues that have dominated the presidential campaign.
Romney, a Mormon, instead emphasized religious freedom and Christian virtues that transcend differences in faith.
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/308736
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School secretary accused of sex with teen boy
May 12, 2012
Daily Herald
Prosecutors say Barney was working at Mt. Nebo Jr. High School in 2010 when she befriended a boy who returned to his former school to visit friends.
Barney is accused of engaging in sex acts with him outside a Mormon church and in phone sex. At the time, Barney was 47 and the student was a 16-year-old high school student.
Police say the allegations recently came to light when the boy told a church leader about the relationship.
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Mommy dearest
May 12, 2012
New York Post
Maureen Callahan’s too quick in her pronouncement that Mormonism is a Christian religion and that its prophet’s role is akin to the pope’s (“A Mormon in the White House,” PostScript, May 6).
Mormons believe in the materiality of God the Father and that the three persons of the Trinity are not one being — for them there are three gods.
This radically conflicts with the Nicene Creed (325 AD), which has always served as the standard for authentic Christianity.
Mormons contend that divine revelation resumed with Joseph Smith and continues in his successors. Christians hold that divine revelation ceased with the death of the last apostle.
Unlike the Mormon prophet, the pope cannot change or add to the original Deposit of Faith. He can only safeguard what has been handed on by the Twelve Apostle.
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With or without Romney, D.C. a surprising Mormon stronghold
May 12th, 2012
CNN
A few hundred Mormons filed into a chapel just outside the Washington Beltway one recent Sunday to hear a somewhat unusual presentation: an Obama administration official recounting his conversion to Mormonism.
“I have never in my life had a more powerful experience than that spiritual moment when the spirit of Christ testified to me that the Book of Mormon is true,” Larry Echo Hawk told the audience, which stretched back through the spacious sanctuary and into a gymnasium in the rear.
Echo Hawk’s tear-stained testimonial stands out for a couple of reasons: The White House normally doesn’t dispatch senior staff to bare their souls, and Mormons hew heavily Republican. It’s not every day a top Democrat speaks from a pulpit owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
And yet the presentation by Echo Hawk, then head of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, is also a perfect symbol of a phenomenon that could culminate in Mitt Romney’s arrival at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue next year: The nation’s capital has become a Mormon stronghold, with Latter-day Saints playing a big and growing role in the Washington establishment.
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Lifetree Cafe to Host Discussion on Mormon Beliefs
May 12th, 2012
SOP
What Mormons really believe will be explored at Lifetree Café community forums from coast to coast during the week of May 13, 2012.
The Lifetree event will encourage various views from the community. It may also provide a glimpse into how the religious vote may swing during the November presidential election, according to Lifetree representative Craig Cable. Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney is a Mormon.
The program, titled “Mormons: Christian? Cult? What Do They Really Believe?” includes filmed interviews with someone who left the Mormon church as well as someone who joined it.
http://thesop.org/story/20120512/lifetree-caf-to-host-discussion-on-mormon-beliefs.html
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‘Sister Wives,’ Mormon Reality Show, Launches Its Third Season
05/12/2012
Huffington Post
With Gov. Romney the clear favorite to win the Republican nomination, the question of a Mormon president in the White House will be a hot topic this election season. One of the most prominent displays of Mormonism is TLC’s popular reality show “Sister Wives,” in which an openly polygamist Mormon family shares their life and faith with the world.
While The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has officially rejected polygamy, the Brown family openly continues with the practice.
“Well, we’re abiding by it because we believe the ancients used to,” Kody Brown, the 44 year old father of 17 children and husband to four wives told The Huffingtonpost in a phone interview. “I mean all the cool guys in the Old Testament had more than one wife. It didn’t make them righteous. They had to be righteous in spite of it.”
When asked how they believe Romney’s practice of Mormonism differs from their own, Meri, the first wife, said “He’s in the Mormon LDS faith, and we are in the Mormon fundamentalist faith. Both of the faiths have same origins but the Mormon church abandoned the practice of polygamy over 100 years ago.”
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Despite odds, LeFavour says this is a race to win
May 12, 2012
KHQ
LeFavour says her sexual preference isn’t a major hurdle, even in Idaho where voters in 2006 passed a gay marriage ban.
In eastern Idaho’s deeply Mormon country, she says, some people have misgivings about gay marriage but no rancor toward gay people.
http://www.khq.com/story/18364614/despite-odds-lefavour-says-this-is-a-race-to-win
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Young Mitt Romney, odd man out
05/12/2012
The Washington Post
The Romney I talked to that day was looser and more accessible than the one I see campaigning this year. So I asked him what it was like growing up Mormon in a state where there were few of them.
He insisted to me that he had always found a way to fit in with his friends as a teenager.
“My faith was not a burden for me. I didn’t smoke and drink, and that was about it,” in terms of distinguishing him from his classmates, he said. Romney did allow that there had been some “boyhood indiscretions,” but when I pressed him, he laughed: “I won’t elaborate.”
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BuzzFeed Politics Distorts Facts to Smear Liberty University Students
5/12/2012
Breitbart
In advance of Governor Romney’s speech at Liberty University today, McKay Coppins at Buzzfeed Politics wrote an article titled “At Liberty, Mormon Cultist for President” in which he expounds on the general intolerance of Liberty University.
His evidence? A single Liberty University course:
Theology 678–Western and New Religions.
‘The history, doctrines, and present state of the major cults such as Mormonism, Christian Science, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventism. The course will also include a study of the Occult Movement. Emphasis is placed on the errors of these groups and on methods and materials for confronting them effectively.’
Coppins takes that isolated course to craft this: [emphasis added]
The course is just one reminder that when Mitt Romney takes the stand on Saturday to deliver the commencement speech at Liberty U, he will be addressing more than 2,000 evangelical students who have been taught that his Mormon faith is a cult that must be defeated.”
Can they really support a heretic for president?”
Wow.
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Evangelicals will propel Romney into White House, new poll says
May 12, 2012
National Post
Republicans have feared that Romney’s Mormonism will mean even fewer Evangelical votes for their candidate in November. They cite a November 2011 Pew Forum poll that found 15 percent of Evangelicals saying they would refuse to vote for Romney simply because he is a Mormon.
Now there is fresh evidence that Evangelicals in swing states are more numerous than ever, and prefer Romney to Obama by a wide margin. A March 26-April 9 poll of Virginia residents conducted by the Institute for Policy and Opinion Research at Roanoke College found that 58 percent of the Virginia population is Evangelical, and white Evangelicals prefer Romney by a 36-point spread (65 percent to 29 percent).
Not surprisingly, Virginia Evangelicals are ambivalent about Romney’s religion. More than twice as many Evangelicals as non-Evangelicals in Virginia (37 percent to 16 percent) think Mormons are not Christians, and 74 percent of the Evangelicals (vs. 61 percent of non-Evangelicals) say Mormonism is “very different” from their own faith. Sixty-one per cent of Evangelicals think the Mormon religion is not Christian or are unsure if it is Christian, compared to only 39 percent of non-Evangelicals.
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Is Mitt Romney’s love for America a Mormon thing?
May 11
The Washington Post
But what Romney doesn’t say is that, for followers of his made-in-America religion, Mormonism, exceptionalism isn’t political metaphor. It’s theology.
The faith’s sacred text, the Book of Mormon, describes the United States as “a land of promise . . . a land which is choice above all other lands.” It describes Jesus coming down from heaven, to America, and teaching to people there. Joseph Smith, Mormonism’s founder and prophet, quotes God as saying that he established the U.S. Constitution. Mormons’ Garden of Eden is in Missouri. Their version of the hajj begins in Upstate New York and ends in Illinois.
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Romney To Buy Wife Ann a Clothes Washer for Mother’s Day
11 May 2012
The Spoof (satire)
Likely Teapublican presidential candidate Mitt Romney revealed that he will be purchasing a new clothes washer for wife Ann this week. “I think it’s the ideal gift for a stay-at-home mom like Ann,” said Romney during a break from the campaign trail. “Up until now, she’s been using a washboard and tub like most LDS [Mormon] wives. But with me running for president, she didn’t have enough time to do a proper job washing my skivvies, and with Mother’s Day coming up, I thought I’d surprise her.”
http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s2i106747
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U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for May 12
May 12, 2012
The Sacramento Bee
It seems like a simple device, really — that row of numbers on the speedometer that measures how far your car has traveled since it was new, or how many miles you’ve covered on a trip. Called an odometer, it was used for the first time on this date in 1847 by a Mormon pioneer named William Clayton, who was crossing the plains in a covered wagon. Up until his invention, elapsed miles were calculated by tediously counting the revolutions of a rag tied to the spoke of one of the wagon’s wheels. Today, most of us regularly drive a lot of miles. Smaller cars, light trucks, vans and SUVs average nearly 10,500 miles annually. Larger vehicles cover more than 15,000 miles a year. Trucks drive about 26,000 miles on average each year. Profile America is beginning its 16th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/11/4484839/us-census-bureau-daily-feature.html
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