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1 October 2012
Women Gather for Annual General Relief Society Meeting
October 1, 2012
Women of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints heard counsel to “care for one another and to teach each other” from President Henry B. Eyring of the Church’s First Presidency. “In our time, bands of valiant sisters across the earth have turned their faith into action.” President Eyring said, “What you have done remarkably well together is to cherish, watch over and comfort each other.”
The general Relief Society meeting, held annually, convened in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Saturday, 29 September. Satellite broadcasts to locations in the United States and Canada and a cable link from BYU television provided additional coverage of the proceedings. The meeting is currently available on LDS.org. In addition to President Eyring, members of the recently called general Relief Society presidency — Linda K. Burton, Carole M. Stephens and Linda S. Reeves — spoke. A choir of young single adult women from Salt Lake City provided music.
“Each of you is in a unique place in your journey to eternal life,” President Eyring explained. “Some have years of experience, and others are early in their mortal discipleship. Each is unique in her personal history and her challenges. But all of you are sisters and beloved daughters of our Heavenly Father, who knows and watches over each of you.”
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/women-gather-for-annual-general-relief-society-meeting
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Nominate the Mormon FAIR-Cast for the People’s Choice Podcast Awards!
October 1, 2012
FAIR Blog
FAIR’s podcast, knows as “The Mormon FAIR-Cast” won the People’s Choice Podcast Award for Best Podcast in the Religious Inspiration category in 2011. Please help us win again in 2012.
The Nomination Process: Starting on 1 October 2012, you can go to podcastawards.com to submit your nomination. There are a variety of categories. (Please note that you only get to fill this nomination ballet out one time, if you leave categories blank you cannot go back later and submit those additional categories a second time!) You may not nominate the same show in multiple categories, so only nominate the Mormon FAIR-Cast in the Religious Inspiration category.
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Mormonism being used as false issue
October 1, 2012
CT Post (Connecticut)
Now that Mitt Romney is running for the presidency, the biased, liberal mainstream media and a comparatively minuscule number of false prophets of the clergy have demagogued his Mormon religion.
Is it compatible with the Christian faith? Is it a cult? Will some single-issue voters vote against Romney due to his Mormonism?
I say to the self-anointed and the holier-than-thou: Mormonism is just as evangelical as your religion — if you profess to have one.
http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Mormonism-being-used-as-false-issue-3910571.php
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Choose the left? ‘President’ Romney would attend a Democratic Mormon ward
October 1, 2012
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
If Mitt Romney should ever take up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., he and his wife, Ann, would immediately be assigned to attend the LDS Third Ward.
Mormons are divided into congregations of about 200 or more members based on their addresses, and the Third Ward is the one nearest the White House.
Funny thing is most members of that ward are Democrats, according to a story by Michelle Boorstein in The Washington Post.
It’s unusual in other ways, too, Boorstein writes. “Up to half of the congregation is nonwhite, including a large, Spanish-speaking population and converts from French-speaking Africa. The ward includes openly gay leaders, not typical for a socially conservative faith. There are also many converts and missionaries.”
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsfaithblog/55004392-180/ward-romney-president-mormons.html.csp
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Discussion of Mormon faith at Memorial United Methodist Church Oct. 14
October 1, 2012
Avon News (Connecticut)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS, or the Mormons), Avon Ward, will have a panel present at Memorial United Methodist Church, 867 West Avon Road, to explain Mormon beliefs Sunday, Oct. 14 at 3:00 p.m.
“This is an informational and education session for people of all faiths,” said Anne Fitzgerald, administrative board chairperson of Memorial United Methodist Church.
http://www.foothillsmediagroup.com/articles/2012/10/01/avon/news/doc506a2966138fe465096932.txt
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Brigham Young biography portrays a great leader and an unpleasant man
October 1, 2012
Standard Examiner (Utah)
Closing the book after reading, “Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet,” the new biography by George Mason University religious studies professor John G. Turner, published by Belknap Press of Harvard University (here), causes some swirling emotions for this Latter-day Saint reader. From reading Turner’s fantastic — and it is by far the best that has been written of Young’s life — biography, it’s easy for a faithful Mormon to agree that God called Young to the task of moving 20,000-plus Mormons across the plains to Utah territory and over a generation-plus, to set up hundreds of Mormon settlements. No man in U.S. history was ever that successful in those endeavors. On the other hand, while admiring Young’s organizational skills, I don’t much care for Brigham Young the man.
Turner’s biography portrays an often unpleasant man, with a foul mouth — his preferred cuss word was “shit” — and a spiteful, vengeful nature. He had a caustic sense of humor, which perhaps mitigates some of his casual comments that seemed to support violence. He ruled the Salt Lake Valley as an absolute dictator, and harbored longtime grudges against apostles who dared to criticize his particular beliefs, such as blood atonement, the Adam-God doctrine, and the United Order. While no evidence exists that Young ordered the Mountain Meadows Massacre, his messages to Native Americans that they could steal from non-Mormon settlers, the atmosphere of settler-animus that pervaded 1857 Utah, and Young’s successful efforts to stymie an initial investigation into the massacre, harm the image of the LDS Church’s second modern-day prophet.
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Forget the Flip-Flopping, it’s Romney’s Nationalism That Worries Me
October 2, 2012
Huffington Post
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, just like any other religion, should not be subject to the brevity of synopsis that I am about to give it, but it is important to shed at least a little light on the Mormon history. Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, believed that America is the earthly home of the Garden of Eden, and that a resurrected Jesus showed himself there to restore gospel. It is also where he will return again in the future.
Marion G. Romney, cousin of Mitt, and a leading authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has spoken in the past of the “final, great and glorious destiny” of the United States where “Zion is to be established and the New Jerusalem is to be built”. It is from there that the law of God can be brought to all nations.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/justin-cash/mitt-romney-nationalism_b_1926655.html
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Email urging Mormons to fast, pray for Romney goes national
October 1, 2012
KCRA (California)
“I’m simply a woman with faith,” she told CNN. “I am just a woman who believes that God loves this country and his hand is in whatever happens.”
It’s common for faithful Mormons to fast for a day each month while offering prayers for a particular purpose.
And for Williams, who works as an aide to special needs kids, it’s prayers — not money — that she has to give to her candidate of choice.
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What science says about Mormonism’s health code
October 1, 2012
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
While the Word of Wisdom also advises against “hot drinks” — defined by LDS leaders as coffee and tea — it’s harder to say that Mormons gain many health advantages from avoiding those beverages.
The LDS health code also promotes healthy behaviors — eating fruits, vegetables and grains and limiting meat — but fewer members follow that advice, according to another study by LDS Church-owned BYU.
Maybe they should. Mormons are heavier than those outside their faith, according to a separate BYU study.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/54897327-78/health-coffee-disease-tea.html.csp
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Councilmember Ewin Talks Mormon Faith, Doesn’t Reveal Romney Vote
October 1, 2012
LaMesa–Mount Helix Patch (California)
In a recent e-mail interview with La Mesa Today, La Mesa city councilmember Ernie Ewin opened up about his Mormon faith, and how important a declaration of faith is to political candidates.
Ewin’s membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints aligns him, religiously at least, with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
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Romney’s ‘Elitist’ Mormon Faith
October 1, 2012
Utah Policy
In a lengthy New York Magazine piece, Benjamin Wallace-Wells says Mitt Romney’s service among Cambodian refugees as a stake president in the Boston area reveals Mormonism’s dark side: that it cultivates an attitude of spiritual and social elitism among its most successful adherents.
Through the lens of religion, there is something sublime about Romney’s work to convert others, whether in Bordeaux or in Lynn, where extreme missionary efforts were required to save a single soul. But viewed through the lens of this presidential campaign, the narrowness of Romney’s empathy is striking. What he offered was salvation via a rule book, a recipe for getting ahead in America that had less to offer the doubters, the uncommitted, the foreign. In Lynn, at least, the right culture wasn’t just something that the church could teach you. In some ways, you needed the right culture to belong at all.
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Do We Really Want a Mormon President? Part Two
October 1, 2012
Pagosa Daily Post (Colorado)
Having identified the definition and role of ideology, the next question then is, can we choose our ideology, and if so, how can we assess, or evaluate, specific ideologies? I will address this subject in Chapter Seven, suggesting that we can, indeed, choose our ideology, that we can then identify criteria to judge specific ideologies, and, finally, that we can then evaluate specific ideologies. I also include a discussion on examples of ideology gone wrong. This will lead to the assessment of the Mormon ideology in Chapter Eight, explaining why we do not want a Mormon President.
http://www.pagosadailypost.com/news/21604/Do_We_Really_Want_a_Mormon_President?_Part_Two/
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Mitt’s Stake
September 23, 2012
New York Magazine
Every church re-creates itself in each generation, a kind of call-and-response between its doctrine and its congregants. In Boston during the eighties and nineties, when Mitt Romney was the church official in charge of more than a dozen congregations, Mormonism was engaging modern America–ethnic diversity, feminist claims, identity politics–and trying, however uneasily, to make some accommodation with it. Romney sent a management consultant named Paul Dredge to run the church in Lynn and a podiatrist named Doug John to minister to its young men. Romney sent them to try to train some of the refugee teenagers as leaders, capable of one day running a church steeped in the habits of the American middle class–the endless bureaucratic meetings, the emphasis on voluntarism and leadership, the youth programs based on scouting. “I think part of the interest in the church was, what is this American thing about, anyway?” Dredge remembers.
http://nymag.com/news/features/mitt-romney-mormonism-2012-10/
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Mormon Glenn Beck Tells Nancy Pelosi She’s Not A Real Catholic And Should Quit
October 1, 2012
New Civil Rights Movement
Glenn Beck is telling House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Vice President Joe Biden they are not real Catholics and should quit the Catholic Church. Beck, himself a convert to the Mormon faith — which many Catholics and Christians do now accept as being a part of the Catholic faith — made the comments to a reported 143,000 Catholics last week via a conference call sponsored by CatholicVote.org.
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Christ School alum cleared at Clemson
October 1, 2012
Asheville Citizen-Times (North Carolina)
Former Christ School standout and ex-BYU guard Damarcus Harrison has been granted an NCAA waiver to play basketball at Clemson this fall.
The school said it was told of the NCAA’s decision last week. Without the waiver, Harrison would’ve had to sit out this season before playing for Clemson.
Harrison is from Greenwood, S.C., and played one season at BYU. He chose to transfer after learning his planned Mormon mission had been delayed and the Cougars didn’t have a scholarship for him to play there this season.
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Ken’s Dream House: Plastic Mitt Romney needs emotion, spark for chance to win presidency
October 1, 2012
New York Daily News
This campaign for President was supposed to be about so many things, most of them involving the job performance of the incumbent. One issue was even supposed to be the Mormon religion of the challenger.
Only the problem for the Mitt Romney campaign as we approach the first debate on Wednesday night isn’t that he’s a Mormon, it’s that his slapstick campaign seems to have been conceived by the guys who wrote “The Book of Mormon.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ken-dream-house-article-1.1171770?localLinksEnabled=false
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Dirty Tricks In Pennsylvania?
October 1, 2012
Utah Pulse
A group called Catholics for Obama is making push poll phone calls to voters in Pennsylvania, asking, among other things, “How can you support a Mormon who does not believe in Jesus Christ?”
http://utahpulse.com/bookmark/20332976-Dirty-Tricks-In-Pennsylvania-
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Obama Supporters’ Dirty Tricks to Win the Catholic Vote
September 27, 2012
US News and World Report
On Wednesday Hudson also revealed that a group calling itself Catholics for Obama had been making push poll phone calls in support of the president’s re-election bid. Among the questions being asked, he said, was “How can you support a ‘Mormon’ who does not believe in Jesus Christ?”
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Is That What You Did in the War, Mitt Romney?
October 1, 2012
Chicago Now (Illinois)
During the Viet-Nam War Mitt Romney served two years in France trying to sell magic underwear…I mean working as a Mormon missionary. It was no bed of roses. The fields of faith had been neglected for centuries. The weeds of agnosticism and nihilism had become widespread and firmly fixed. For an idealistic 19-year-old, it was a daunting challenge.
http://www.chicagonow.com/quark-in-the-road/2012/10/mitts-war-record/
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Marie Osmond on sharing a religion with Mitt Romney: “I don’t care what they believe … I vote for the person”
October 1, 2012
CNN
The 52-year-old singer and actress is a member of the Mormon faith, the same religion practiced by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. But simply because the former Massachusetts governor shares Osmond’s religion, that does not mean he can automatically count on her vote:
“I don’t care what they [the candidates] believe,” she tells Piers Morgan. “I vote for the person.”
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Would Romney be ‘most religious’ president? What about Carter?
October 1, 2012
Los Angeles Times (California)
“If elected,” Lemann wrote, “Romney, scion of an old, distinguished Mormon family (his ancestors had a direct connection to Joseph Smith and Brigham Young), would arguably be the most actively religious president in American history.”
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-romney-most-religious-president-20121001,0,2753726.story
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36 Days Till Minnesota Votes on My Family
October 1, 2012
Huffington Post
I was remembering years ago, when my now-16-year-old kid was about 5, and I went to the neighborhood potluck back in Washington DC, where we used to live. I knew I’d see Ruth, my Mormon neighbor, there, because I always did. Ruth was perpetually happy, friendly, and positive. As always, I prepared myself to be a little bit kinder and more positive around her than I really felt–figuring that I served as her sole representative to lesbianism and Unitarian Universalism. We never said much beyond hello to each other.
But that evening Ruth said something astonishing. She came up to me and said, “I wanted to tell you that I’ve left the Mormon Church. I just couldn’t be there anymore.” I gasped back, “Could I hear the long version of that story?”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-meg-riley/xx-days-till-minnesota-vo_1_b_1926276.html
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