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7 September 2012
Mormon Newsroom Provides Answers to Questions about Mormonism
It’s the primary job of Mormon Newsroom to deliver facts, statistics, background information, video and audio — and especially context — to journalists reporting on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Newsroom has become a key stopping-off point for everything from a quick fact check to a deeper understanding of Church beliefs and practice.
Whether you are a journalist, a blogger, a leader in another church, staff to a member of Congress or simply an interested observer, MormonNewsroom.org is a valuable — and official — resource providing news stories, commentary and insights about issues of public interest in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormon-newsroom-provides-answers-questions-mormonism
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Genealogy Volunteers Index Mammouth 1940 U.S. Census in Record Time
September 7, 2012
More than 132 Million names from the 1940 U.S. Census are now searchable on The Church’s FamilySearch website. The work, which was supposed to take a year, was completed in just four months thanks to the successful partnership between a consortium of national genealogical organizations, FamilySearch.org and more than 163,000 volunteers.
The indexing project, a cooperative effort between the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives.com, FamilySearch.org, findmypast.com, ProQuest and numerous genealogical societies, utilized the efforts of volunteers to complete the process in an exceptional manner. Begun in April, the project was not expected to be completed until October. The efficiency of the cooperative effort led David Ferriero, archivist of the United States, to praise the project as “a perfect example of crowdsourcing.”
“The magnitude of this volunteer transcription effort is really unprecedented,” said Michael Judson, who helped coordinate the volunteer effort on behalf of FamilySearch. “Millions of records were indexed every week from April to August. On one record-setting day, more than 46,000 volunteers processed more than 10 million records.”
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/genealogy-volunteers-index-mammouth-1940-census-in-record-time
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How do followers feel about ‘Book of Mormon’s’ popularity?
September 7, 2012
Los Angeles Times (California)
“I’m about to do it for the first time,” chirps goofy Mormon missionary Elder Cunningham. “And I’m gonna do it with a girl!”
The young man in a white shirt and tie isn’t singing about a lusty encounter, but a holy rite of passage in “Baptize Me,” a bubbly show tune in the Broadway phenomenon “The Book of Mormon.”
“I just died during that part,” said Joanna Brooks, author of “The Book of Mormon Girl: Stories From an American Faith,” recalling the first time she heard the cast album. “It’s hard to see baptism, something so sacred to me, sexualized like that.
“It’s never easy being the minority in a room when everyone else is laughing at your culture.”
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-mormon-mormons-20120907,0,3559693.story
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Mormon site doctors photo, adds sleeves to girl’s dress
September 6, 2012
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
LDS officials apparently have a problem with seeing naked shoulders and upper arms, but only when it comes to female members. That’s even true for 7-year-old girls.
A photo in the June 2012 LDS Church News, illustrating an article about serving in the Primary, the Mormon children’s program, showed a young Salt Lake City girl sitting on the lap of an adult woman. The girl was wearing a sundress with wide straps.
When the same photo was republished recently on the official LDS website, however, the girl’s dress now had a white T-shirt under it.
The altered image falls in line with a policy laid out by the church for all pictures submitted for publication in church magazines or online.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/entertainment/54843931-180/lds-mormon-photo-church.html.csp
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Mormon presence in Missouri comes full circle
September 7, 2012
Word and Way
Acceptance of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Missouri has come almost full circle since they first tried to settle in the state in the 1830s.
Called Mormons, church members migrated to Jackson County in June 1831, with founder Joseph Smith leading one of three groups from Ohio. At first, the newcomers were accepted as industrious and hard-working.
But as their numbers began to climb, established settlers began to resist them. A new temple erected earlier this year in Clay County and formally dedicated on May 6 symbolizes “a time of healing,” Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said, and a new era of acceptance.
http://www.wordandway.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2703&Itemid=53
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Trey Parker, Matt Stone On Kimmel: Mormons Think ‘Book Of Mormon’ Is Their ‘Fiddler On The Roof’ (VIDEO)
September 7, 2012
Huffington Post
Parker and Stone told Kimmel that they’ve actually invited GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney to come see the show, but he has yet to claim his tickets. Other Mormons, however, have been loving the risque musical. They see it as “Their ‘Fiddler On The Roof,’” Stone said, to a big laugh from Kimmel’s audience.
But the craziest part about how much Mormons like the musical that mocks them is that the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints has actually paid money to put ads in the playbook. That’s right, a play that says “F**k you God” about a dozen or more times is now being used to recruit young religion-seekers. You reallly can’t make this stuff up.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/07/trey-parker-matt-stone-kimm-book-of-mormon_n_1864934.html
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Mormon website digitally adds sleeves to sundress of seven-year-old girl to maintain standards of ‘modesty’
September 7, 2012
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)
A Mormon website has digitally altered a picture of a seven-year-old girl to add sleeves to the wide straps of her sundress.
LDS Church News originally published the picture in June to illustrate a story about serving in the Primary, a children’s programme for members of the faith, but when it was used again for the official website, the photograph had been doctored.
The previous image that exposed the bare shoulders of the Salt Lake City resident as she sat on the lap of an adult mentor, was deemed inappropriate by LDS.org‘s standards, according to a page on its site.
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Look who’s advertising in ‘Book of Mormon’ playbill — the LDS Church
September 7, 2012
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
The LDS Church has figured out that it’s better to exploit the popularity of the Tony Award-winning “Book of Mormon” musical than to attack it.
To wit: the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has purchased ad space in the playbill for the Los Angeles run of the production.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsfaithblog/54852206-180/book-mormon-church-lds.html.csp
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It’s Official: Coke and Pepsi are OK for Mormons
September 6, 2012
Houston Chronicle (Texas)
Maybe now, reporters, bloggers, outsiders and even many Mormons will accept that the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not forbid drinking cola.
The LDS church recently posted a statement on its website saying that “the church does not prohibit the use of caffeine” and that the faith’s health-code reference to “hot drinks” “does not go beyond (tea and coffee).”
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Romney’s faith takes center stage
September 7, 2012
Associated Baptist Press
So the Romney campaign needed to combat this message by showing that while he may be worth $200 million he is someone who feels compassion just like the rest of us. When neighbors are hurting, he is there for them. And, it is important to note, it is his faith that guides him in this manner. Let us not miss how often he speaks of his “faith” and how little his speaks of Mormonism or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Romney himself mentioned “Mormon” once in his acceptance speech and some of the Mormon speakers who spoke before him on the final night of the RNC opted for the language of “pastor” – a more familiar term with evangelicals – as opposed to “bishop” – the proper term for his lay leadership position.
The Romney campaign has become more comfortable talking about his faith, this is evidenced by its prominent final night role at the RNC, but there are two aspects that must continue to be nuanced about this conversation. First, Romney seems to have gotten comfortable just as they are sure they have solidified the evangelical vote. Many conservative evangelicals who in the past have vowed never to vote for a non-Christian are planning on voting for a Mormon – a huge win for the Romney campaign considering 42% of white evangelicals do not consider Mormonism a Christian faith. Second, the Romney campaign is not oblivious to the reluctance of many white evangelicals to vote for a Mormon, hence the language of “faith” instead of “Mormonism,” the language of “pastor” for “bishop” and so on.
http://www.abpnews.com/blog/public-policy/romneys-faith-takes-center-stage-2012-09-07/#.UEq6bLKPWbU
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The Gun and the Cross. The religion of America in John Ford, Mitt Romney and Clint Eastwood
September 7, 2012
Guatemala Times
According to Mormonism, America was originally settled by one of the lost tribes of Israel, whose modern-day ancestors are North American Indians. In an interview in 2007, Romney stated quite blithely his Mormon belief that at the second coming Christ would go to Jerusalem – as well as to Missouri – and that those Jews who did not convert to Mormonism would be massacred. (That this announcement did not cause outrage amongst Israeli Jews in particular was probably because of Romney’s close relationship with Netanyahu.)
Mormonism sacralised America – that is why Harold Bloom, the famously high-brow Eng Lit professor, considers its visionary founder, Joseph Smith, to equal in imaginative power to Melville or Whitman. The broader sacred mission, however, was embodied in the cowboy. He is the pioneering independent spirit who brings justice, law and order, just as Aeneas did in the Roman Empire’s great founding myth the Aeneid.
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Google Data: Interest in Mitt Romney’s Mormon Faith Higher Than Ever Before
September 7, 2012
US News and World Report
According to Google, interest in Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith is higher now than it has ever been before.
Searches for the GOP presidential candidate’s religion have ebbed and flowed in the months leading up to the presidential election, with a single uptick during the Iowa Caucus. But in August, searches for the term “Romney Mormon” saw a significant spike, Google Insights for Search shows.
That spike came on the heels of a controversial Bloomberg BusinessWeek cover about Mormonism, and as prominent Mormons called for Romney to open up about his faith. The increase also came in the weeks before the Republican National Convention, when Romney opened up about his religion to Parade Magazine and allowed a reporter to accompany him to church. (In his convention speech, Romney briefly mentioned his faith by name.)
Searches for “Romney Mormon” have decreased somewhat in September, but interest in the topic remains at its highest level yet. And it surpasses current interest in any other topic Democrats have used to attack Romney in 2012.
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This weekend in Salem
September 7, 2012
Boston Globe (Massachusetts)
Amatuer historian Debra Benvie and Tomm Chapman, director of the Cambridge LDS Institute of Religion and scholar of Mormon history, will lead a tour that tells the history of a substantial group of Mormons who lived in Salem in the early 1800s before migrating West to Utah.
One of the most notable was Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the religion commonly known as Mormon. Smith convalesced in Salem as a boy and returned in 1836 as he campaigned for president on an abolitionist platform.
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/salem/2012/09/this_weekend_in_salem_5.html
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A Mormon tour of Salem this weekend
September 7, 2012
Salem News (Massachusetts)
This is a big year for the Mormon church.
Although Mitt Romney talks more about being governor of Massachusetts, savior of the 2002 Winter Olympics and head of Bain Capital, his religion and family are at the center of his life. Romney is an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a generous benefactor.
Although it may be coincidental, the religion of the Republican nominee for president will take center stage here this weekend. “The Mormons in Salem” is the subject of a Sunday walking tour by Historic Salem Inc.
http://www.salemnews.com/local/x550068473/A-Mormon-tour-of-Salem-this-weekend
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Reid works to increase number of Mormon Democrats
September 7, 2012
Las Vegas Review-Journal (Nevada)
It might be the toughest political sales job in Nevada: increasing the number of Democrats who are members of the LDS faith.
Contrary to popular belief, they do exist outside a family named Reid. While Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s LDS membership garners more attention, fellow church member Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid isn’t shy about trying to grow the diminutive demographic of Mormon Democrats.
http://www.lvrj.com/news/reid-works-to-increase-number-of-mormon-democrats-168886766.html
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Supreme Court mystery unlocked from BYU’s vaults 75 years later
September 7, 2012
The explanation for a Supreme Court justice’s motivations in one of the most mysterious and important decisions in U.S. history has been hiding deep in the vaults of BYU’s Special Collections. It’s been tucked away for decades, but no one knew it until now. This spring, communications professor Ed Carter unearthed the key to the mystery while digging through materials from the late Merlo J. Pusey, a Mormon Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.
http://phys.org/news/2012-09-supreme-court-mystery-byu-vaults.html
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Anti-Mormonism and the 2012 election
September 7, 2012
Washington Post
Anti-Mormonism may be the X factor in the 2012 election. Little-studied and hard to quantify, it is a potential drag on Mitt Romney’s candidacy but pops into public consciousness only sporadically. A couple of weeks ago, British author Martin Amis and journalist Jacob Weisberg shared a grin at what Amis called Romney’s “weird” faith in a video interview on Slate.com.
Hill and his fellow ministers passed around a one-page chart contrasting “Biblical Christianity” with Mormonism. They agreed to produce a voter education guide based in part on this document.
Romney, of course, professes the divinity of Christ, whom the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints considers “the savior of the world and the son of God.”
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