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19 September 2012
Catholic Bishop Urges Interfaith Dialogue During Speech at Mormon Institute of Religion
September 19, 2012
Speaking yesterday at an interfaith gathering at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Institute of Religion at Utah Valley University, the Most Reverend John C. Wester, Catholic Bishop of Salt Lake City, said Mormons and Catholics share the “mutual desire to stand shoulder-to-shoulder as we give witness to Jesus Christ as His disciples.”
A respect for the diverse beliefs and unique contributions of all the world’s faiths is taught and emphasized in Mormonism. Echoing this sentiment, Bishop Wester said in a Deseret News report of the event that “learning about each other — how we are different, and how we are alike — is an important step that must be taken before the marathon of interfaith relations can be run.”
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/catholic-bishop-mormon-institute
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Mormon FAIR-Cast 107: Mesoamerican Connections to the Book of Mormon
September 19, 2012
FAIR Blog
Professor Mark Alan Wright reflects on a number of Mesoamerican practices and their possible connection with the Book of Mormon, including “day-keepers,” Shamanism and divine investiture, taking the countenance of a god by wearing deity masks, and the Maya calendar system and prophecy. For Dr. Wright’s presentation on Nephite Daykeepers, see this YouTube video.
Mark Alan Wright earned his BA in Anthropology at UCLA and his MA and PhD in Anthropology (with a subfield of specialization in Mesoamerican Archaeology) from UC Riverside. His dissertation is entitled “A Study of Classic Maya Rulership.” He regularly conducts research in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Belize. Dr. Wright is Assistant Professor of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University.
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Reality of Mormon Life More Complex Than Romney Image
September 19, 2012
Voice of America
Republican candidate Mitt Romney has avoided mentioning his religion for much of the presidential campaign. But now he is emphasizing the close-knit nature of Mormon families and communities — in the hope that it will help both him and his faith.
Iconic temples, a world-famous choir, and clean-cut missionaries sent worldwide by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. But a visit to suburban Salt Lake City shows how members of the church, or Mormons, live out their faith at home.
Tami Larsen says family is sacred to Latter-Day Saints. “We believe that we will be a family forever not just until death,” says Larsen.
http://www.voanews.com/content/reality-of_mormon_life_more_complex_than_romney_image/1511027.html
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Mormons helping Mittens with ‘Meet the Mormons’ activities?
September 19, 2012
Death and Taxes
One has to admire the Mormon Church’s eagerness to please, not to mention their zeal to convert. They are matched only by their brother in cult-dom, Scientology, as well as the various tentacles of the mega-cult Christianity.
As I strolled down a street this morning in Brooklyn, I noticed a line of fliers (pictured above), advertising the Mormon Church’s a attempt to win over the heathens with a meet-up on (held Tuesday), a games night this Friday at McCarren Park, and a kickball, ultimate frisbee and “other sports” meet-up at McCarren Park on Saturday. With such a magnificent sub-headline as “Truth is stronger than fiction,” I’m almost tempted to attend, if only to encounter religious delusion up close. Perhaps I will–undercover, naturally.
http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/188719/mormons-helping-mittens-with-meet-the-mormons-activities/
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Mitt Romney Is Not the Face of Mormonism
September 19, 2012
Huffington Post
When the news of Mitt Romney’s Florida video broke on Monday evening, I was incensed — but not for its political implications. His arrogant and out-of-hand dismissal of half the population of this country struck me at a visceral level, for it sullied the religion that he and I share — the religion for which five generations of my ancestry have lived and sacrificed, the religion whose official mantra is “to take care of the poor and needy throughout the world.” My first impulse was to rent an airplane towing a banner: “Mitt Romney is Not the Face of Mormonism!”
I was a supporter of Romney 1.0. That was in late 2007, when we had far more in common. We are both Mormons and we both served foreign missions for our church at the same time, he in France and I in Brazil. Some of my best friends had been some of his best friends for decades. Although I am a registered Democrat, his accomplishments as Governor of Massachusetts appealed to me. I contributed the maximum amount to his early presidential primary bid.
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Mormons and Mitt: The Myth About Separation of Church and State
September 19, 2012
Huffington Post
For the first time in American history a Mormon is the presidential nominee for a major political party. And while the Romney campaign has swiftly dismissed questions about his religion as inappropriate and irrelevant, it may seem that much of the media have tiptoed around this topic and have discussed the LDS church in glossy, broad terms. But here’s why Mr. Romney’s religion is relevant: For Mormons, there really is no such thing as separation of church and state.
From as early as I can remember, I was taught in church that the framers of our Constitution were directly influenced by God to create a nation where Jesus Christ could come to Earth and his true gospel could be restored. Essentially, Mormons believe that the United States was chosen and created specifically by God as the Promised Land where Earth’s one true religion — Mormonism — could finally be discovered and then flourish.
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Writer sheds light on Mormon pioneer women
September 19, 2012
Pueblo Chieftain (Colorado)
These women were strong, brave and hard-working, but few people know about them.
Sherry Johns hopes to change that with her lecture, “Women of the Mormon Battalion in Pueblo,” at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at El Pueblo History Museum. Her talk is the first in the museum’s new Gail Pitts Lecture Series.
Johns, a Penrose resident and the author of three books on Fremont County, said historians have written about the Mormon Battalion but few have focused on the women.
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Catholics, Mormons stand together, bishop tells Utah audience
September 19, 2012
Catholic Culture
Catholics and Mormons should stand “shoulder to shoulder as witnesses of Jesus Christ,” Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City told an audience of Mormon students.
Speaking at Utah Valley University, the bishop said that despite serious theological differences, Catholics and Mormons are natural allies in defense of human life, marriage, and natural law.
Bishop Wester observed that the invitation extended to a Catholic bishop to address a Mormon audience was a “wonderful sign of the ongoing collaboration between our faiths.” He remarked that Thomas Monson, the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has routinely attended fundraising events from Catholic Community Services in Salt Lake City, as another sign of that practical cooperation.
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=15650
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Atheist/Christian discussion, can we tolerate a Mormon President of the USA?
September 18, 2012
Examiner
Truman Smith tried to make the point that Mormonism is very easy to falsify. For example, Joseph Smith said he translated some Egyptian papyrus into what he called “The Book of Abraham.” He did this by the power of God, he claimed, since no one could translate ancient Egyptian in his day. But today, modern translators are able to translate it, and now we know that Joseph Smith’s so-called translation is total fantasy. If Romney hasn’t investigated his Mormon religion close enough to know this, and he has been a high leader in his church, what does that say about his critical thinking abilities? If he can miscalculate on such intense personal-related issues, such as religion; what can we hope to get from him on huge global issues that any President of the USA would have to face (Mideast policy, international wars, etc.) ?
Dennis Marcellino responded that theological differences between Mormons and other Christians aren’t that significant, and that the USA Presidency doesn’t have to have anything to do with religion. He also thought that Obama is not a Christian as he claims. By analyzing Obama’s work, Marcellino thought that Obama was really more of a Secular Humanist. In addition, Marcellino thinks that Obama is destroying the country (very high unemployment rate, trampling on religious freedoms, extensive deficit borrowing etc.).
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Mission complete, BYU’s Haws a new man
September 19, 2012
CBS Sports
When Tyler Haws left Provo after his freshman season in April 2010, Jimmer wasn’t a verb, Brigham Young was still in the Mountain West and Brandon Davies was anonymous. “A lot has changed,” Haws admitted.
That’s an understatement. Not just with BYU, either. Haws spent the past two years on a Mormon mission in the Philippines, much of it in Quezon City just outside of Manila, where he spread the word of the Mormon church and religion.
“Stepping away from basketball gave me a new perspective on life,” Haws said. “I’ve come a long way.”
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Sam Harris On the Freedom to Offend an Imaginary God
September 19, 2012
Daily Beast
Consider Mormonism: many of my fellow liberals would consider it morally indecent to count Romney’s faith against him. In their view, Mormonism must be just like every other religion. The truth, however, is that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has more than its fair share of quirks. For instance, its doctrine was explicitly racist until 1978, at which point God apparently changed his mind about black people (a few years after Archie Bunker did) and recommended that they be granted the full range of sacraments and religious responsibilities. By this time, Romney had been an adult and an exceptionally energetic member of his church for more than a decade.
Unlike the founders of most religions, about whom very little is known, Mormonism is the product of the plagiarisms and confabulations of an obvious con man, Joseph Smith, whose adventures among the credulous were consummated (in every sense) in the full, unsentimental glare of history. Given how much we know about Smith, it is harder to be a Mormon than it is to be a Christian. A firmer embrace of the preposterous is required–and the fact that Romney can manage it says something about him, just as it would if he were a Scientologist proposing to park his E-meter in the Oval Office. The spectrum between rational belief and self-serving delusion has some obvious increments: it is one thing to believe that Jesus existed and was probably a remarkable human being. It is another to accept, as most Christians do, that he was physically resurrected and will return to earth to judge the living and the dead. It is yet another leap of faith too far to imagine, as all good Mormons must, that he will work his cosmic magic from the hallowed ground of Jackson County, Mo.
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What is the world teaching us today?
September 19, 2012
Knox News (Tennessee)
Bret Stephens in the Wall Street Journal draws a striking contrast between the reaction to the Broadway hit “The Book of Mormon” and the inflammatory film, “The Innocence of Muslims.” Stephens provoking thought:
So let’s get this straight: In the consensus view of modern American liberalism, it is hilarious to mock Mormons and Mormonism but outrageous to mock Muslims and Islam. Why? Maybe it’s because nobody has ever been harmed, much less killed, making fun of Mormons.
Meanwhile, Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals and a few feisty Anglicans stormed Harvard Yard today after a Harvard professor produced a piece of papyrus that, according to the prof, says Jesus was married. No wait. That didn’t happen. Never mind.
http://blogs.knoxnews.com/johnson/2012/09/what-is-the-world-teaching-us.html
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Proposed Mormon Church in Mineola Still Stands Vacant
September 19, 2012
Mineola Patch (New York)
There seems to be a less sense of imperative timing for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to move into a Mineola location than was previously purported.
About 18 months ago, representatives from the Mormon church came before the Mineola Village Board for a special use permit to construct a new church at the old Salvation Army building at 111 Willis Avenue.
“At that hearing the LDS church seemed to express great urgency,” resident Dennis Walsh said at the village hall during the September 5 meeting of the village board. “They said they needed the church right away, they said their community was outgrowing the smaller facilities that they were in.”
http://mineola.patch.com/articles/proposed-mormon-church-in-mineola-still-stands-vacant
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Utah’s Radical History
September 19, 2012
Salt Lake City Weekly
For a long time, the idea was that Utah history was mainly the story of one people, one experience and one point of view; everything else was sort of not particularly important and confined to the margins and didn’t really amount to much. It’s easy to accept that view of things and not challenge it. It’s also the view that serves certain interests. There are certain individuals and groups who have an interest in promoting and supporting a certain view of the past. That is, a view of the past that argues that the way things are now is the way they ought to be. And if you challenge that, that can seem dangerous.
For me, one of the most important chapters in the book are the chapters on the response of the Mormon church in the early 20th century to the socialist movement. And the point is that they were very much opposed to it for a whole bunch of reasons. The idea that the Mormon people might support socialism rather than capitalism seemed very dangerous to church leaders.
http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-16481-utahs-radical-histor.html
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David Jordan Took 9 Years to Talk, But Dreamed Big
September 19, 2012
Belmont Shore-Naples Patch (California)
David was a baptized Mormon and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of LDS (Latter Day Saints). That’s where his viewing will be held at 9 a.m. Saturday, his grandmother said. A funeral will follow at the Long Beach Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries.
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African-American Christians Waver Over Vote
September 19, 2012
Sacramento Observer (California)
Some black clergy see no good presidential choice between a Mormon candidate and one who supports gay marriage, so they are telling their flocks to stay home on Election Day. That’s a worrisome message for the nation’s first African-American president, who can’t afford to lose any voters from his base in a tight race.
The pastors say their congregants are asking how a true Christian could back same-sex marriage, as President Barack Obama did in May. As for Republican Mitt Romney, the first Mormon nominee from a major party, congregants are questioning the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its former ban on men of African descent in the priesthood.
http://sacobserver.com/2012/09/african-american-christians-waver-over-vote/
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Surgery, Injuries to End BYU Forward Chris Collinsworth’s Career
September 19, 2012
Rant Sports
It has been a long and difficult path for BYU forward Chris Collinsworth.
After beginning his career for the Cougars back in 2007, Collinsworth averaged 4.8 points and 3.2 rebounds per game as a freshman before making the decision to take his two-year Mormon mission.
Collinsworth returned to the court in 2010-11, averaging 5.9 points and 5.6 rebounds per game as a sophomore, but injuries and surgeries have hobbled him ever since.
“It’s been really hard physically and mentally, and it’s time to move on,” Collinsworth told CBS Sports. “When the door on one opportunity closes, others open and I’m ready to move on and explore those other options.”
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Trent Hills Mormon group responds to prime minister’s appeal
September 19, 2012
Northumberland Independent (Canada)
A local church responded to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s call for a National Day of Service by cleaning up a section of the Trans-Canada Trail last Saturday.
Ten members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, wearing the church’s yellow Helping Hands vests, spent a few hours picking up trash along the trail near Burnbrae Road.
They filled 12 large garbage bags and collected three tires and a living room carpet in less than a kilometre, Tim Holt reported afterward.
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History on its side: BYU and the state of Idaho go way back
September 19, 2012
Fox 9 (Idaho)
Before Bronco fans talk too much smack to Cougar alumni in town for the BSU-BYU game under the lights on the blue Thursday night, they might be wise to brush up on their history.
“Brigham Young sent settlers all over the western United States,” Boise-Meridian LDS spokesman Chad Ward said.
One of the first places he directed those pioneers? Yup, Idaho.
“In fact,” Ward said, “the first permanent community in the state of Idaho was a Mormon settlement called Franklin.”
http://www.kivitv.com/news/local/170442436.html
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Welfare Wasn’t Always A Dirty Word In The Romney Family
September 19, 2012
National Public Radio
The presidential nominee’s great-grandfather Miles was asked in the late 1880s by Mormon officials to go to Mexico to create a colony where Mormons could practice polygamy far from the harassment of U.S. officials. It was there that Mitt Romney’s grandfather Gaskell and father, George, were born into an increasingly prosperous family and Mormon community.
But in 1912, George, then 5, and his family fled, with thousands of other Mormons, to the U.S. — chased out by Mexican rebels and largely leaving their wealth behind.
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The End Of WASP-Dominated Politics
September 19, 2012
National Public Radio
“Romney as a Mormon is part of a group that used to be thought of as the outside, but they’ve become assimilated in ways not unlike Catholics,” Hollinger says.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/09/17/161295588/the-end-of-wasp-dominated-politics
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Roanoke Man Remembers Times With Mitt Romney
September 19, 2012
ABC 13 (Virginia)
One of Mitt Romney’s biggest fans lives in the Roanoke Valley. He’s a friend whose history with Romney goes back all the way to the late 60′s. That’s when Romney was a Mormon missionary serving in France.
Dr. Dane McBride says he believed by the time he and Romney were in college following their mission work, that Romney was presidential material.
In 1968, a much younger Romney sat with fellow missionaries in France as part of all young men’s commitment to their church, which includes two years of service spreading the word of Mormon to anyone that will listen.
http://www.wset.com/story/19588246/roanoke-man-remembers-times-with-mitt-romney
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Jesus Was Married?
September 19, 2012
Slate
Certainly some of the people I went to church with growing up believed that Jesus was married. That’s because I grew up Mormon. And while the LDS Church does not have any official doctrine regarding Jesus’s marital state–he may or may not have been married, as far as Mormonism is concerned–some high-profile early Mormons believed that he was. And, judging from my personal experience, at least some Mormons today believe this as well. Those who do are probably nodding their heads at the news of this finding.
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In rural Missouri, Mormons visit the place “where Adam dwelt’
September 19, 2012
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
Jose Rangel got out of his minivan and stretched before helping his elderly mother from the passenger seat.
Rangel’s wife and children spilled out of the side door into the manicured parking lot. What could be a scene from any American family’s summer visit to a state park was actually a spiritual pilgrimage. The Rangels were at Adam-ondi-Ahman, a mysterious plot of land 70 miles north of Kansas City that is owned and maintained as a sacred site by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/lifestyle/54926757-80/adam-mormons-ahman-ondi.html.csp
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Airline CEO and Romney friend: Claims that Romney doesn’t care are “nuts”
September 19, 2012
CBS News
Friend of Mitt Romney’s and fellow Mormon, David Neeleman came to the GOP presidential nominee’s defense on “CBS This Morning” Tuesday in the wake of backlash over the nominee’s comments in a secretly taped video of Romney describing “47 percent of the people” as Obama supporters who depend on government and believe they are victims.
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An idea for Mitt Romney: Better ads…
September 19, 2012
Daily Caller
…Grant Bennett, a former assistant to Romney who described how Romney, as a Mormon pastor in the late 1970s, devoted 15 to 20 hours a week visiting sick members of his congregation, delivering meals or shoveling snow for the elderly.
There was Ted and Pat Oparowski, an elderly couple who recalled how Romney befriended their 14-year-old son David in the seven months before he died of Hodgkin’s disease in 1979, when Romney was a pastor at their church.
And there was Pam Finlayson, who described how Romney sat with her in the hospital when she feared her premature daughter was on the brink of death.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/19/an-idea-for-mitt-romney-better-ads
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