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5 October 2012
Church’s 182nd Semiannual General Conference Approaches
October 4, 2012
More than 100,000 Church members, friends and invited guests are expected to attend the 182nd Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Millions more will watch or listen to conference proceedings via television, radio, satellite and Internet broadcasts. Five sessions of the conference will be held Saturday and Sunday, 6-7 October 2012, in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City.
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/182nd-semmiannual-general-conference-approaches
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Mormonism in the News: Getting It Right | October 5
October 5, 2012
Today we feature stories that highlight the Church’s political neutrality (CNN), the importance of learning about the Church from actual Mormons (WCPO-TV in Cincinnati), the role of women in the Church (ABC 50 in New York), the fact that Mormonism is a global faith (RIA Novosti) and the importance of temples for Latter-day Saints (Calgary Herald).
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormonism-news-getting-it-right-october-5
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Thousands of Mormons travel to Utah for conference
October 5, 2012
CBS 5 (Arizona)
Tens of thousands of the Mormon faithful are descending on Utah’s largest city for the semi-annual general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
The general conference in Salt Lake City allows Mormons to hear gospel-centered talks about faith, family and mission work from senior church leaders.
This conference also could be particularly festive given the upcoming presidential election, with Republican candidate Mitt Romney the first Mormon to gain the nomination from a major party.
http://www.kpho.com/story/19751014/thousands-of-mormons-travel-to-utah-for-conference
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Young Mormons on a Mission: Rare Look at Church’s Next Generation
October 5, 2012
ABC News
The two-year mission is a rite of passage for most young Mormon men.
“We get new missionaries every six weeks,” said Baton Rouge Mission President Jim Wall, “and every six weeks, we have missionaries go home. And the contrast is incredible.”
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the fastest growing religion in the U.S., and more than 55,000 missionaries serve throughout the world. For the most part, they are young men about 20 years old. For “Nightline,” the LDS church gave ABC News’ Bob Woodruff rare behind-the-scenes access to missionaries in Louisiana over a two-day stretch that included door-to-door proselytizing, work on service projects and teaching.
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Why Romney’s Mormonism Matters
October 5, 2012
Counter Punch
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka the Mormons), with its history of religious severity, appears to be a perfect fit for the über-orthodoxy of the Tea Party-controlled GOP. Despite misgivings that many non-Mormon Republicans may have (most Christian groups don’t consider the Mormons to be Christians), the history and doctrine of the Mormon faith seem to go hand in hand with the kind of derelict bigotry and racism that the current GOP espouses.
Mitt Romney is a lifetime member of the Mormon Church, with deep roots that stretch back to the earliest days of Mormonism. Romney’s great grandfather practiced polygamy in Mexico in Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua, where many Mormon polygamists fled to evade the Edmunds Act of 1882. Romney has served in leadership positions in the church throughout his life, including being a bishop (the pastor of a church) as well as spending 30 months proselytizing in France as missionary from 1966-1969. These are all well-known facts that can be found through a variety sources, as well as from statements made by Romney himself. However, many facets of his involvement with the notoriously enigmatic sect remain completely unknown not only to most Americans but to many Mormons as well.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/10/05/why-romneys-mormonism-matters/
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Thousands of Mormons travel to Utah for conference
October 5, 2012
East Valley Tribune (Arizona)
Tens of thousands of the Mormon faithful are descending on Utah’s largest city for their church’s semi-annual general conference to hear gospel-centered talks about faith, family and mission work from senior church leaders.
Five general conference sessions of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are scheduled on Saturday and Sunday in a center that seats 20,000. Millions more are likely to watch live television and Internet feeds around the world.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/arizona/article_d6e4f0be-0f5b-11e2-9b58-0019bb2963f4.html
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Area LDS members prepare for conference
October 5, 2012
St. George Spectrum (Utah)
While those who are not members of the LDS Church may look for greater significance in this conference because of Romney’s candidacy, some Southern Utahns heading north to Salt Lake City for the conference are just looking forward to the chance to hear messages from their church leaders in person.
Hurricane resident Ky Hathcock and his wife will attend the Saturday morning session at the church’s 21,000-seat Conference Center in Salt Lake City. The last time they attended the conference in person it was held in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, so he says they are looking forward to the Conference Center experience.
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What they believe
October 5, 2012
World Magazine
Earlier last month, Christ Covenant senior pastor Mike Ross wrote a letter to his congregation about an unprecedented dynamic: “More than any time in my 30 years of pastoral ministry, people are talking to me about whom to vote for,” he wrote.
In a phone interview from his office in Matthews, N.C., Ross said one concern prevails for many in his predominantly conservative congregation of 2,500 members: “They’re really not happy that Mr. Romney is a Mormon.”
http://www.worldmag.com/2012/10/what_they_believe
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New president called to serve Mormon Tabernacle Choir
October 5, 2012
Standard Examiner
He was in the 11th month of a 23-month mission in Frankfurt, Germany, working in the public affairs office, when he got the call from the prophet to serve as the new president of the choir.
“I would say it was a huge surprise,” Jarrett said in a phone interview.
He now has been serving in the calling for about seven weeks and is learning quickly about his duties and responsibilities.
http://www.standard.net/stories/2012/10/05/new-president-called-serve-mormon-tabernacle-choir
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Tickets on sale Monday for Mormon Tabernacle Choir
October 5, 2012
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (Wisconsin)
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir will perform in Milwaukee in June, the first time in 20 years. And tickets go on sale Monday.
Details aren’t yet available, but a spokesman for the area Mormons’ South Stake said, “We intend to develop this rare opportunity into a strong interfaith event.”
The famed choir will take the stage at 7:30 p.m. June 17 at the Milwaukee Theater. It will also perform the following night at the Overture Center in Madison.
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/172697411.html
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Jabari Parker’s list down to five
October 5, 2012
ESPN
Smith understands BYU is the one school that seemed out of the ordinary on Parker’s list. Smith said Parker, who is Mormon, didn’t include BYU out of generosity.
“All five schools are schools he’s really interested in and really thinking about attending,” Smith said. “He’s really thinking about BYU. I know his faith has a lot to do with it. The coaching staff has been great with him. They’ve been a winning program. That’s one of his choices.”
http://espn.go.com/chicago/story/_/id/8466577/top-recruit-jabari-parker-narrows-list-five
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Jabari Parker includes Duke in final five, eliminates North Carolina from consideration
October 5, 2012
Fayetteville Observer (North Carolina)
BYU is appealing to Parker because he is Mormon, and cutting DePaul was tough because it’s in his hometown. He received the Gatorade Boys Basketball Player of the Year, a national award, after leading Simeon to its third straight state championship while averaging 19.5 points and 8.9 rebounds as a junior.
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Simeon’s Parker narrows college list to 5
October 5, 2012
Galesburg Register-Mail (Illinois)
Religion also plays a big role in Jabari Parker’s life. He is a devout Mormon, just like his mother Lola Parker, and he rises at 5 a.m. three days a week to attend a Bible study at his church before school.
Soon, Jabari Parker will have a big decision to make.
http://www.galesburg.com/features/x21086134/Simeons-Parker-narrows-college-list-to-5
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The souls they save
October 5, 2012
Orange County Register (California)
Sending an American Mormon lad to Buddhist Thailand in 1973, into the backyard of the Vietnam War, doesn’t sound promising if you measure success by souls converted.
But Ross Palfreyman, a Laguna Beach attorney, says to this day the impact of that mission upon on him remains profound. Years later, when his old daily journal fell from a shelf, tangled with his sweatshirt, he turned it into a book and chronicled his transformation.
Palfreyman’s book, “Two Years in God’s Mormon Army” (www.mormonarmy.net), offers as much information as inspiration. Today missionaries and Mormons are a hot topic due to Mitt Romney’s presidential candidacy and a zany hit musical, “The Book of Mormon.”
Palfreyman makes a strong point that two years of service to something other than one’s self can be a very good thing.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/palfreyman-373713-mormon-missionaries.html
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This weekend on Utah TV: Would you believe a reality show about Mormon missionaries?
October 5, 2012
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
“In this unscripted, actor-less documentary series, viewers will meet eight young men and women who serve LDS missions in San Diego, California, as well as the diverse characters they come across each day – from hospitable investigators to hostile passersby.”
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogstv/55031883-63/cbs-tbs-makes-reality.html.csp
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Sidewalk artwork acts as a visual guide for Mormon…
October 5, 2012
Houston Chronicle (Texas)
Elder Ryan MacCarthy draws sidewalk art in parks, neighborhoods and public areas hoping people will inquire and give him an opportunity to talk about the LDS church.
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Notre Dame’s revival can be traced to arrival of humble Hawaiian Te’o
October 5, 2012
CBS Sports
Since then Te’o has been an athletic and spiritual beacon. He came to a Catholic stronghold in a region with a small Mormon population. He did not take the traditional two-year Mormon mission. He stayed, even though Weis, Polian and the rest of the staff that recruited him were fired after his freshman season. He stayed for 2012, his senior season, although no one could have blamed him for going pro.
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Preparedness Fair set at Mormon Church
October 5, 2012
Contra Costa Times (California)
RANCHO CUCAMONGA – An Emergency Preparedness Fair will be held Oct. 13 by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
It will be from 2-5 p.m. at the Stake Center, 6829 Etiwanda Ave.
Hands on information shared at this event, which is free to the public, includes gardening, 3 month food supply, budgeting/debt reduction, employment, LDS Church farm program, bread making, Honeyville grain, CERT training, storing water, 72 hr. kits and using dry milk. Rancho Cucamonga residents and those in surrounding communities are invited to attend.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_21707381/preparedness-fair-set-at-mormon-church
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Lodi’s Cliff Kerr recalls sharing an apartment with Mitt Romney during mission in the 1960s
October 5, 2012
Lodi News-Sentinel (California)
Lodi has a resident who knew presidential candidate Mitt Romney up close and personal. Cliff Kerr, a 39-year Lodi resident, shared an apartment with Romney for two months in the 1960s when they were Mormon missionaries in France. But he had no idea that Romney would ever run for president of the United States.
http://www.lodinews.com/news/article_a1d1d58c-e578-59f8-b93d-d26c93730be1.html
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A Look Back: Early Mormon prophets, Relief Society leaders
October 5, 2012
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
The Salt Lake Tribune occasionally presents images from its archives or from the Utah Historical Society in a special series called A Look Back. Today’s installment is a collection of images of early LDS prophets and Relief Society presidents in the late 1800s to the turn of the 20th century.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/55028831-78/http-lake-salt-bit.html.csp
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Letter: Facts are facts
October 6, 2012
Anderson Independent Mail (South Carolina)
Anyone who knows both faiths (Protestant and Mormon) knows Mormons are not Christians. Even Mormons, including one who wrote a column for CNN online, acknowledge the difference.
The letter writer should do a little Mormon research.
If he has to have a Christian as president, Obama is his only choice.
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2012/oct/06/letter-facts-are-facts/
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Lying For The Lord
October 5, 2012
Akron Beacon Journal (Ohio)
Let’s see what Brigham Young’s great, great, granddaughter has to say about the topic. Her name is Sue Emmett. She is currently a non-Mormon, but having come from Mormon royalty, as it were, she has insights that others may not have. Like this…
Emmett says she thinks Romney’s biggest fault is that he has a “serious problem telling the truth. There is flip-flopping, which he has done more than any politician in modern history, and then there is out and out lying,” she says. “This kind of thing has sadly been a part of the church from the very beginning. Some modern apostles actually taught that it is not always the best thing to tell the truth if it interferes with preaching gospel.”
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Romney Gets Emotional In Florida
October 5, 2012
BuzzFeed
For the first time in public since announcing his bid for the White House, Romney told the story himself of a 14-year-old dying boy, David Oparowski, who asked for the help of “Brother Romney” in drawing up a will. The boy’s mother, Pat Oparowski, a member of Romney’s Mormon ward, told the story of Romney assisting her son settle his affairs at the GOP convention in a story that left much of the hall in tears. Dozens could be spotted wiping their eyes as Romney retold the story himself.
“I went to David’s bedside and got a piece of legal paper, made it look very official,” Romney recounted. “And then David proceeded to tell me what he wanted to give his friends. Talked about his fishing rod, and who would get that. He talked about his skateboard, who’d get that. And his rifle, that went to his brother.”
http://www.buzzfeed.com/zekejmiller/romney-gets-emotional-in-florida
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Romney, Ryan faith and ‘least of these’
October 5, 2012
Marietta Daily Journal (Georgia)
“We have pure love when, from the heart, we show genuine concern and compassion for all our brothers and sisters,” adds the Mormon Gospel Principles.
Mormon author and former Romney supporter Gregory A. Prince must have been thinking about these teachings when he ripped into the GOP presidential candidate in a recent blog:
“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 whose official mantra is ‘to take care of the poor and needy throughout the world,’” Prince wrote.
“I agree with him,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Mormon, told a Utah interviewer. “(Romney) is coming to a state where there are a lot of members of the LDS Church … They understand that he is not the face of Mormonism.”
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2012 General Conference For the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
October 5, 2012
Beaufort Observer (North Carolina)
The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles invite all members and the Public to participate in the 182nd Semiannual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (The Mormons) on Saturday and Sunday, October 6 and 7, 2012.
Messages will be given by the First Presidency, members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and other General Authorities and general officers of the Church.
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Faith & Works | Presidential candidates’ faith fair game for questions, panel says
October 5, 2012
Louisville Courier-Journal (Kentucky)
Keller had drawn criticism — including from Sullivan — for a column he wrote last year saying candidates should be asked such things as whether they believe the Bible is literally true.
It matters, Keller said, if a candidate sees “the Bible or the Quran or the Book of Mormon as overriding the Constitution.” And, he said, candidates who believe in a literal biblical account of creation and early human events raise questions about whether they believe in “serious science and verifiable history.”
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Maybe Romney And I Agree
October 5, 2012
KFI (California)
My mom went with me to the show this week. Poor lady. She wanted to sit close to the stage. I did not want to spend a lot of money on tickets, so she said she’d make up the difference for me. She said the only reason she didn’t leave at intermission was because she had spent so much money.
My mom and I were left stupefied – what did we not get that everyone else seemed to? Why did we hate this show so much??
Trust me when I say I’m not above dumb humor (“Dude, Where’s My Car?” was delightful cinematic fare) or offensive humor, because “Springtime for Hitler” from “The Producers” is a catchy ditty. But you gotta have an amazing artistic vision to overcome unnecessary F-bombs, poop humor and jokes about baby rape. Just sayin’.
http://www.kfiam640.com/pages/NEWS.html?article=10473632
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Mitt Romney: born to run?
October 5, 2012
Financial Times
For his supporters, Romney has long been a natural leader – energetic, capable and gracious, and as effortlessly able to raise his family and play a leadership role in the Mormon church as he was making his fortune in business.
After just a few months working alongside Romney in the early 1980s, Philip Barlow, now Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State University, remembers phoning his mother to tell her his colleague “could be president of the United States”. Romney, then in his mid-thirties and immersed full-time in launching his career in finance, worked with Barlow as lay clergy at their church parish in Boston. Together they arranged rosters for the hymns at Sunday services, helped Mormons moving in and out of the area and counselled families with problems such as illness or drugs. More than his dedication, it was Romney’s sheer class that struck Barlow. “He could be in his swimsuit or an unbuttoned shirt but there was still a certain elegance and polish about him,” he says. “It’s not a performance.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/352e3aa8-0db9-11e2-97a1-00144feabdc0.html#axzz28URQEHlU
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NOTE: This is posted for those who are interested in keeping abreast what is being said around the world about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members. MormonVoices cannot and does not guarantee the validity or truthfulness of any information reported. The responsibility for the interpretation and use of this information lies with the reader. As all information comes from other news sources and has not been independently verified, MormonVoices cannot guarantee or be responsible for the security of links in the clipping service. MormonVoices will attempt as much as possible to exclude news articles containing strongly offensive language or which lead to offensive images, but cannot guarantee that some will not slip through.
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