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19 July 2012
Pioneer Day Concert Features Renowned Welsh Mezzo-Soprano
July 19, 2012
Making her first visit to Salt Lake City, Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins is excited to be involved. “It’s a huge honor to sing with the choir,” said Jenkins during a news conference with choir president Mac Christensen and conductor Mack Wilberg.
She will perform with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for the annual Pioneer Day concert 20-21 July 2012 at 8:00 p.m. in the Conference Center.
Jenkins became more familiar to American audiences recently as she competed on ABC’s 14th season of Dancing with the Stars. She said the invitation to sing with the choir came when she was participating on the popular television program. She said she was “absolutely thrilled” with the opportunity to perform with the choir. “I was well aware of the choir and its Welsh roots and thought it would be a lovely thing to do.”
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/pioneer-day-concert-features-renowned-welsh-mezzo-soprano
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Boise Idaho Temple Open House, Rededication Dates Announced
July 19, 2012
The First Presidency has announced open house and rededication dates for the newly renovated Boise Idaho Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). The public is invited to visit the temple during an open house from Saturday, 13 October through 10 November 2012, excluding Sundays. Free reservations for the open house can be made through the www.boisemormontemple.org website in the coming weeks.
The temple will be formally rededicated on Sunday 18 November 2012 in three sessions. In conjunction with the rededication of the temple, there will also be a cultural celebration featuring music and dance on Saturday, 17 November 2012.
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/boise-idaho-temple-open-house–rededication-dates-announced
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Mormons for Obama Say Romney Doesn’t Represent Them
July 19, 2012
ABC News
Mitt Romney is arguably the most high-profile Mormon in the United States right now, but a small group of Seattle-based bloggers are hoping to let people know that not all Mormons are the same – and they’re not all voting for Mitt Romney.
“I would say just like Mitt Romney is not your average American, he’s not your average Mormon, he doesn’t represent every Mormon in America,” said Laura Saganac, spokesperson for Mormons For Obama, a blog that hosts pro-Obama posts written by a small group of Mormons living in Seattle.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/seattle-mormons-say-romney-doesnt-represent-them/
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Mitt Romney’s Mormon Heritage Linked to Adolph Hitler
July 19, 2012
OpEd News
A new book [cover pictured above] is soon to be available at Amazon Books, Kindle and Barnes and Noble. The cover features the Mormon Washington, D.C Temple where Romney would routinely recommit his [superior] allegiance to Mormon Leaders
Unknown by Americans and members of the Mormon faith born later than 1945 is the fact that Mormon leaders and Adolph Hitler held mutual admiration for each other’s philosophy, ideals and struggles in the early days of the Third Reich [1933].
Probably the most significant factor was Hitler’s understanding of the Mormon Quest for World Empire arising out of a religious organization begun in 1830–1844 and appearing to end after the death of Brigham Young in Utah Territory in 1876 when in reality it was still active [seditious by nature] during Hitler’s time out-surviving him to the present.
http://www.opednews.com/Diary/Mitt-Romney-s-Mormon-Heri-by-Douglas-A-Wallace-120719-896.html
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Jesse Walker on Anti-Mormon Paranoia
July 19, 2012
Reason
For many Americans, Mormons are scary, or weird, or at least not the sort of folk you’d want marrying your first lady. Last year a Gallup poll found that 22 percent of the country would not support a Mormon candidate for president. MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell claimed in early April that Mormonism “was created by a guy in upstate New York in 1830 when he got caught having sex with the maid and explained to his wife that God told him to do it.” Newt Gingrich had to fire his Iowa political director for describing rival candidate Mitt Romney’s religion as “the cult of Mormon.” Texas Gov. Rick Perry had to do some public squirming when a prominent Baptist backer, the Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress, announced that Romney is “not a Christian” and that Mormonism “has always been considered a cult by the mainstream of Christianity.”
But as Senior Editor Jesse Walker explains, all of this obscures something important: By historical standards, Mormonism enjoys an amazing level of acceptance in America today. The Republican Party, an organization whose first presidential platform denounced Mormon polygamy as a “relic of barbarism” comparable to slavery, is about to nominate a Mormon bishop as its presidential candidate. And while you can still hear strange conspiracy theories about the church today, we are a long way from the 19th century, when the popular perception of the faith featured a wild mélange of mind control, assassinations, secret sexual lodges, and plots to subvert the republic.
http://reason.com/blog/2012/07/19/jesse-walker-on-anti-mormon-paranoia
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Does Mormon Matter?
July 19, 2012
Pacific Standard (California)
Critical to these issues is the assumption that Mormon elected officials actually behave differently from those of other religious backgrounds. It turns out they do: when it comes to making policy, Mormons take a backseat to no one on conservative ideological purity.
We examined the voting records of every Mormon United States senator serving from 1976 through the early years of the 21st century. (The behavior of senators can give us a good approximation of the decisions that a future president might make because senators routinely deal with issues of national and international importance that governors and even members of the House of Representatives don’t.) There have been a total of 11 Mormon senators–eight Republicans and three Democrats–from seven states since 1976. On average, they are quite a bit more ideologically conservative than their non-Mormon colleagues.
http://www.psmag.com/politics/does-mormon-matter-43380/
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Road Trip: Mormon-in-chief? Latter-day Saints talk about what a President Romney would mean to them
July 19, 2012
ABC News
“I don’t think Mormons are ready for a Mormon president,” Kim Gardner told Yahoo News when we visited her in Arlington, Va., last month. “I don’t know if the country is either. To me it seems like the craziest long shot to have a Mormon in the White House. It seems crazier than having a woman in the White House, or having a black man in the White House.”
Some 10,000 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints live in Northern Virginia, a crucial battleground region in what is expected to be one of the most tightly contested states of the 2012 presidential campaign. Situated next to the nation’s capital, the area is a hub for politically active Mormons in their 20s and 30s. With Mitt Romney on the verge of formally becoming the presidential nominee of the Republican Party, we traveled to Northern Virginia in June to talk to these voters about what that historic moment–the first Mormon to be nominated for president by a major American political party–will mean to them.
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Mormon ‘Niceness’
July 18, 2012
Patheos
Indeed, the trope of “Mormon niceness” has seen considerable play in recent years. Parker and Stone have invested heavily in the concept, but others–often comics–have cashed in as well. Several months ago, before Mitt Romney had locked up the Republican presidential nomination, Saturday Night Live needled him in a skit with his doppelganger competing lamely for attention with a far more ingratiating Chris Christie. Facing petulance from the crowd, a flustered Romney gave the dire warning that “I’m about to get angry. And not regular angry…we’re talkin’ Mormon angry.” It was a threat that drew laughs because everyone knows that Mormon lack the capacity for rage. Even if they did, it would be very much like the fussy explosion of “shucks,” and “darn” and other euphemisms that the skit projected. And in his “Mortal Kombat” mock-up of debate back-and-forth between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, Jon Stewart summed up Romney’s getting tough by pronouncing, menacingly: “No more Mr. Nice Mormon!”
It’s hard to say how much truth there is in the niceness stereotype. It’s not uncommon for people to praise Mormons as exceptionally friendly. Social research indicates shown that by some measures, religious people tend to be more congenial and “nicer” generally, and Mormons fall on the upper end of the religiosity spectrum. And according to Pew Forum research, Mormons are among those most friendly to other faiths. Yet, like any group, we also assuredly have our grouches.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/peculiarpeople/2012/07/mormon-niceness/
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The New York Times’ Obsession With Mormonism
July 19, 2012
Patriot Post
In “Gentle Dissent in Mormon Church on Gay Marriage,” times columnist Jack Healy touts the “vanguards of a new movement of Mormons challenging their church’s staunch opposition to homosexuality,” adding that “the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints played a pivotal role in financing and supporting a ballot measure that outlawed same-sex marriage in California,” and that “gay and straight Mormons are making increasingly vocal calls for church leaders to reconsider their stance on gay marriage and welcome openly gay congregants back into the church.” Conveniently omitted was the fact that Californians of all stripes approved Prop 8 banning gay marriage by a 52-48 margin — meaning the issue transcends Mormonism.
Ross Douthat’s Times column, “Playing the Mormon Card,” notes that attempts by the Obama campaign to present Romney as an outsider due to his religion could prompt charges of bigotry, and that reality presents a “dilemma” for the White House. Douthat, one of the few conservatives writing for the so-called paper of record, reveals where the administration’s media allies are likely to go, noting that “the White House probably needs the media to play the Mormon card for them,” and that “there’s no way to tell the Mormon story comprehensively without bringing up issues (polygamy, race, the Book of Mormon’s alternative pre-history of the Americas) that highlight the distance between the Latter Day Saints and other forms of American Christianity.”
http://patriotpost.us/opinion/14162
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Mormons and money: the business of a religion
July 19, 2012
Bureau of Investigative Journalism
And as a religious organisation, the church can claim tax breaks – for example, it is often exempt from paying tax on properties it leases out, even when the properties are rented to commercial businesses. Winter quotes a Reuters report that Romney and other senior staff at Bain Capital donated millions of dollars worth of stock, including holdings in Burger King and Pizza Hut, which the church would then have been able to sell on without paying capital gains tax.
The business holdings are run by senior Mormons, and like individual members the businesses pay 10% of their income in tithes. McMullin tells Winter that occasionally the businesses can turn to the church as a source of cash. He says this rarely happens, but gives ‘recession’ as an example of a time when the church’s for-profit enterprises might receive such support.
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/07/19/mormons-and-money-the-business-of-a-religion/
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USA Today Magazine Features The Secret Mormon Temple Ceremonies (Romney & Wife Have Made)
July 19, 2012
The Paramus Post (New Jersey)
The author of the book, Tricia Erickson, has been through the same secret Mormon Temple Ceremonies, as a young bride at the age of 19, that Mitt and Ann Romney participated in. She reports that the rituals were mind controlling and threatening as she followed the symbolic signs to slit her throat, her guts, pull her tongue from her mouth, rip her heart out of her chest, and repeated the words “suffer my life to death”, after every action, if we broke any of the covenants to the Mormon Church. Mitt and Ann Romney do NOT have the choice, as prominent members of the Mormon Church, to put country first. The Mormon Religion, the Mormon Prophets and the Book of Mormon have to be adhered to first, before anything else in their lives. Mitt and Anne’s very exaltation to Mormon Godhood depends on it.
http://www.paramuspost.com/article.php/20120719163610532
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Gay, Mormon and Happily Married with Children
July 19, 2012
ABC News
Josh and Laurel “Lolly” Weed seem to have it all — three beautiful kids, a wonderful home and a deep and unflinching devotion to their Mormon faith.
But on their tenth wedding anniversary this summer, they decided it was time to unleash a secret so sensitive, so personal, they weren’t sure what the church’s reaction would be.
“I just thought, ‘he is wanting to be more authentic about this part of his life,’” Lolly said, and remembered telling her husband, “I think you need–you want, to be more open about this.”
http://abcnews.go.com/US/gay-mormon-happily-married-husband-father-puts-faith/story?id=16806146
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Josh Weed, Gay Mormon Husband And Father, Says He’s Happily Married To A Woman
July 19, 2012
Huffington Post
A decade after tying the knot and starting a family, one devout Mormon father of three is opening up about his sexuality in a sure-to-be-controversial “Nightline” interview.
As ABC is reporting, Josh Weed came out publicly as gay in a 6,000-word blog posting on his website — with his wife (and childhood sweetheart) Laurel “Lolly” Weed’s blessing. “I am Mormon,” wrote Josh. “I am married to a woman. I am happy every single day. My life is filled with joy. I have a wonderful sex life. And I’ve been married for ten years, and plan to be married for decades more to come to the woman of my dreams.”
In both the interview and their blog, the couple offer seemingly frank answers to the countless questions Josh’s admission generates. Calling himself a “traditionalist at heart,” Josh — who says he first came out to his parents at age 13 — explains in the blog, “I wanted to raise children that were biologically the product of me and the one I love. Thankfully, Lolly was willing to marry me, and we found ourselves able to conceive children.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/19/josh-weed-gay-mormon-nightline-interview_n_1687151.html
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Josh Weed: Momon, gay, heterosexually married and living an admirable lie
July 19, 2012
Examiner
Tonight on “Nightline” at 11:35p.m. on ABC, a story about Josh Weed, his wife Laurel “Lolly” Weed- -three children and a haunting gay lie will be shown. Well, maybe haunting is the wrong choice of words. According to an article published online at ABCNews.Go.com, the decade long happy couple that started out childhood friends has been comfortable and accepting of Josh’s being gay for quite a while. With this statement now thrown out there, the big question is, can a gay individual be truly happy in a heterosexual marriage?
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A Pageant of Mormon History and Mirth
July 19, 2012
Wall Street Journal
The Hill Cumorah Pageant is a very different sort of production from Broadway’s “The Book of Mormon.” The songs are not as snappy, and it’s not a comedy. On the other hand, the pageant is free, the seating is ample, and those who attend will learn a great deal more about the Mormon religion and culture.
The pageant dramatizes Mormonism’s founding scripture. After a processional that brings the entire cast on stage, the story begins with Lehi, an Israelite who receives visions of Christ and then sails for the New World before Jerusalem’s destruction at the hands of the Babylonians. Lehi’s descendents divide into two warring groups, named respectively for his righteous son Nephi and rebellious son Laman. Jesus appears to the Nephites and Lamanites after his ascension from Jerusalem, and his ministry ushers in a brief era of peace. Eventually, however, the Nephites and Lamanites resume their warfare.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444330904577536774199980182.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
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“A Spirit of Persecution”
July 19, 2012
Slate
When I got out my camera, a Mormon security guard made it clear that he didn’t like what I was doing. “Excuse me sir,” he said. “Please don’t feed the trolls.”
The “trolls” were the anti-Mormon protesters carrying anti-Mormon signs and yelling anti-Mormon slurs–some of them using bullhorns. They amass at dusk on the seven nights in July when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints puts on its annual Hill Cumorah Pageant. It’s here, on a tree-lined hill that rises above the flat farmland of western New York state, that the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, claimed to have unearthed metal plates from which he translated the Book of Mormon. And for each of the last 75 years–except during World War II–Mormons have staged an elaborate production dramatizing the Book of Mormon’s sacred history of a Pre-Columbian Christian civilization.
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Italy grants Mormon church new tax status
July 19, 2012
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
All that remains is the signature of Italy’s president, and the LDS Church will be recognized officially as a “partner of the state.”
This week the Italian Senate approved the Utah-based faith’s push for an “Intesa con lo Stato,” the culmination of a decades-long effort to successfully establish relations with the Italian government.
Few faiths have successfully negotiated an “intesa” – or enhanced – status with the Italian government.
In 1993, the government formally recognized The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a legal entity, but only as a charitable institution, says Salt Lake City attorney Michael Homer, who served an LDS mission in Italy and has followed its politics ever since.
“This recognition enabled the LDS Church to own and inherit property (through purchases, wills, trusts and estates) as well as certain other tax advantages,” Homer detailed in an email. “It also enabled LDS ministers to perform marriage ceremonies subject to Italian law concerning civil marriages.”
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsfaithblog/54522757-180/church-lds-italian-homer.html.csp
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Departing Mormon Mission President describes his 3 year assignment
July 18, 2012
Examiner
Being assigned by the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be a full-time mission president in Texas in 2009 was a life changing event for Greg Saylin. His entire family would move to Houston and he would put his professional life as an attorney on hold for three years.
Now at the end of his missionary service, it’s been three years of very demanding yet very fulfilling work. 70 hour weeks are the norm and the pace is fast and non-stop.
http://www.examiner.com/article/departing-mormon-mission-president-describes-his-3-year-assignment
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CNN’s radical approach to discussing Mormon faith
July 18, 2012
Examiner
The CNN show Out Front with Erin Burnett did a radical thing on Wednesday. They had a discussion about Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith and they actually invited a real live member of the Mormon Church to the segment to talk about it!
What a revolutionary idea! No pundits, no outside observers, no disaffected Mormons, no academics who have studied the church from a distance for years, but someone who actually knows what they are talking about because they live and practice the faith.
http://www.examiner.com/article/cnn-s-radical-approach-to-discussing-mormon-faith
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Mormons OK’d to build large church
July 19, 2012
Queens Chronicle (New York)
Despite unanimous opposition from Community Board 7 and Borough President Helen Marshall, the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals on Tuesday unanimously approved an oversized building for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Flushing.
The Mormon church wants to build a two-story house of worship at 145-15 33 Road with 55 underground parking spaces and a nine-story steeple in a mostly residential community. The project is almost twice the size permitted under the R2-A zoning.
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Don’t use phony religious claims to sway voters
July 18, 2012
Springfield News-Leader (Missouri)
We have a Christian running against a Mormon. Down here in the Bible Belt, the religious fundamentalists tend to be Republicans. To have a non-Christian Mormon as their candidate puts many in a head-scratching quandary.
Of course, some folks will argue that Mormons are Christians, but that is a bit of a stretch. The wacky “birthers” will say the president is a Muslum, which is as ridiculous as their claim that he wasn’t born in Hawaii. They may not know Hawaii is a state.
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