Welcome to MormonVoices. Our volunteers respond to public discussions and comments from public figures that misrepresent The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We encourage and direct Mormons to get involved in online discussions and thereby help shape the public understanding and perceptions of the Church. Please join your voice with ours, and become a member of MormonVoices.
MormonVoices is an independent organization that is supportive of, but not
controlled by or affiliated with, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
search the site
9 October 2012
Surprise Mormon announcement could open doors for more women missionaries
October 9, 2012
CNN
By 21, many Mormon women are either too deep in their search for a husband, if not already married, or too entrenched in their education or career path to step away for a Mormon mission, Brooks said. With the lowered age requirement, they have more choice. They, too, can go out in the world, study their faith intensely, follow spiritual callings and grow as individuals before they marry. And, Brooks said, they can be viewed more as equals when they return and start dating.
The surprise announcement by President Thomas S. Monson, who’s considered a “prophet, seer and revelator” by Latter-day Saints, left Brooks in tears. She wasn’t alone. The Universe student newspaper at Brigham Young University reported that dorm halls “filled with shrieks, tears and disbelief.” The announcement was made Saturday morning at the semiannual LDS Church General Conference, as more than 20,000 gathered in a Salt Lake City conference center to hear from church leadership. Millions of other Mormons tuned in via satellite, the Internet and television.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Matters of the Latter Day: Ideas for Addressing Mormonism in the Classroom
October 9, 2012
New York Times
Is the United States experiencing a “Mormon Moment?” The 2012 presidential election is the first in history to see a Mormon candidate — the Republican nominee Mitt Romney — on a major party’s ballot, and Mormons have been the subject of numerous news stories, documentaries and even a popular Broadway musical.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormon Church is officially called, is the second fastest growing religion in the United States and expanding rapidly worldwide. Yet, despite the recent surge in media interest and coverage, Mormonism remains one of the least understood and most debated religions in the United States.
Because issues of personal faith and religious identity may be too sensitive to address in the classroom, we offer the following five ways to examine Mormonism in broader cultural, historical and political contexts with your students.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Mormonism, voter enthusiasm concern evangelicals
October 9, 2012
Associated Press
In poll after poll, evangelicals have overwhelmingly said they would back the Republican presidential nominee despite theological differences with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But what had been thought of as a hypothetical question for American evangelicals for years, Southern Baptist leader Al Mohler said recently, is now a reality with this election and is being tested in a contest that will likely be decided by slim margins.
“The fact is that Mitt Romney is a Mormon, and many of our people are very, very uncomfortable about voting for a Mormon, as I am. I supported somebody else in the primary. But, hey, we have no option,” said Steve Strang, an influential Pentecostal publisher, in a conference call with pastors last week.
Strang was speaking to participants in Pulpit Freedom Sunday, an annual challenge to IRS rules on churches’ political activity. While arguing that the government regulations had the effect of silencing pastors, he also cited Mormonism as one reason clergy haven’t more forcefully urged congregants to vote this year.
“The Mormons are good, God-fearing people in their own way,” Strang said. “We have to be sure our people don’t stay at home.”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A revolution in the evolution of Mormonism’s ‘sister missionaries’
October 9, 2012
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
Though the LDS Church’s missionary effort dates to the start of the Mormon movement in 1830, throughout the entire 19th century there were fewer than 200 females pitching the faith full time, Radke-Moss writes at the Mormon history blog, The Juvenile Instructor.
The Utah-based church called its first full-time single female missionaries in 1898, Radke-Moss writes, “to counter persistent negative stereotypes about Mormon women, especially in the decade of the post-polygamy transition.”
The number of female LDS missionaries ebbed and flowed, depending on what was going on in the male world, especially with military duties.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsfaithblog/55052550-180/missionaries-sister-moss-radke.html.csp
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Romney’s Mormon Generation Gap
October 9, 2012
ABC News
There you have it. Yes, the Mormon faith – officially the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints – is not immune to America’s political generation gap.
Although the vast majority of Mormons identify themselves as Republican, the younger generation is not necessarily voting with their parents. In this election, religion is not the driving force behind at least some of the Mormon youth vote.
According to a recent Gallup poll, More than 84 percent of registered Mormon voters plan to vote for Romney. “A lot of that is tribal. They are going to vote for someone that’s in their tribe,” says Mathew Bowman, author of “The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith.”
But within the younger generation of Mormons, there’s been a significant cultural shift. “Through the 1980s, the church was fairly culturally insular and pessimistic about American society,” Bowman told ABC News. “In the beginning of the 1990s, we saw a new period of cultural openness within Mormonism. The tone was set by the man who became president of the church in the mid-90s who rejected the cultural pessimism. This president said, ‘No, we need to be more open. We need to embrace America. We need to be more optimistic about the future.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/revealing-mormon-generation-gap/story?id=17408904#.UHTfO5jA_jI
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Mitt Romney, From a Gay Man’s Perspective
October 9, 2012
Huffington Post
The primary stumbling block between us is the fact that I am gay and Mitt is a Mormon. Four years ago I saw millions of Mormon dollars roll across state lines to repeal marriage equality in my state of California. I saw a flock of religious fanatics, thousands and thousands of them, stand on street corners and declare that I am an abomination to God, a threat to children, and a threat to human civilization. I saw the hate that was thrown at LGBT people during the Proposition 8 campaign. So I can’t possibly vote for Mitt Romney. I know where his heart lies. I know what he thinks of me. His religion preaches that I should not exist. He belongs to a religion that believes the world would be a better place if gays and lesbians disappeared from the face of the planet. I couldn’t possibly vote for someone who might govern for his religion first and will never support my right to exist or to enjoy the freedoms that everyone in our country wishes for.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-terry/mitt-romney-from-a-gay-mans-perspective_b_1946755.html
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
‘Trapped by the Mormons’ remake, resurrected for the election
October 9, 2012
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
Back in 2005, a theater group in Washington, D.C., thought it would be cool to remake the 1922 anti-LDS propaganda silent movie “Trapped by the Mormons,” upping the camp factor by including polygamous zombie vampires to the mix.
The troupe, Cherry Red Productions, has since disbanded — but the folks behind the film have resurrected the film, posting it online as a tongue-in-cheek “warning” to anyone who would vote for Mitt Romney (who is Mormon, in case you forgot) for president.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsmoviecricket/55051477-66/mormon-remake-film-keene.html.csp
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Why evangelicals have little to fear from a Mormon presidency
October 9, 2012
Renew America
The first is that Gov. Romney’s Mormonism will be contained within the walls of the White House. Romney knows that 74% of evangelical voters currently support him, and that this represents his single biggest voting bloc. He can ill-afford to do anything that will alienate them between now and November 6. And if he is elected, he knows he cannot afford to alienate them at any time during the next four years, because he will need them again in 2016.
This means for all practical purposes he will be virtually silent about the distinctives of his Mormon faith. Even the Washington Post has observed that the governor does not talk about “Judeo-Christian-Mormon” values on the stump, but only about “Judeo-Christian” values, making a concerted effort to minimize the distinction between his faith and the faith of orthodox Christians.
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/fischer/121009
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Letter: Romney may have Mormon agenda
October 9, 2012
Greenville Daily Reflector (North Carolina)
In the spirit of pundits who believe that President Barack Obama is pushing a Muslim socialist agenda, or those who still argue that former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney took us to war to fulfill prophesy from the book of Revelation, I’d like to raise the possibility that former Gov. Mitt Romney, if elected, might well pursue a thinly veiled Mormon agenda.
I have a few ideas about what such an agenda might entail: Romney approves fracking across upstate New York in an effort to locate Joseph Smith’s lost golden plates. He supports gay marriage, but for men only, thereby reducing the male-to-female ratio to a point that polygamy makes better sense than monogamy. Romney forces the FDA to declare salt the national condiment and decaffeinated Coca-Cola completely safe.
http://www.reflector.com/election-letters/letter-romney-may-have-mormon-agenda-1252579
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Romney, Evangelicals, and the Pluralism Problem
October 9, 2012
Patheos
When it comes down to it, will Evangelicals vote for a Mormon for president? There has been a flurry of survey data and discussion about it among commentators. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center shows white evangelicals increasing in their support for Romney, rising from 69 to 74 percent. Commentators have argued that while Romney was opposed in the past by some evangelicals due to his “cultic religion,” in reality according to folks like Jonathan Merritt, “Romney never had a serious evangelical problem.” Conservative Evangelical leaders like Richard Land also assure us that we need not worry about Romney’s religion, and that the biggest concerns during the primaries had to do with whether or not Romney was conservative enough on social issues. And with some of the most hostile critics of Mormonism apparently reconciling their aversion to the religion with a possible vote for Romney, including those known for confrontational approaches to Mormons and linked to the film trailer that allegedly sparked the uprisings in the Muslim world, it would appear that Evangelicals have turned a corner on Mormonism, and religion in the public square.
http://www.patheos.com/Evangelical/Pluralism-Problem-John-Morehead-10-10-2012.html
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Ruben Navarrette: Romney’s historic moment
October 9, 2012
Indianapolis Star (Indiana)
In 2012, from the looks of it, the prejudices that many have against Mormons are still pretty ingrained. Representing an estimated 2 percent of the U.S. population, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is still a mystery to many Americans. Some look upon it with skepticism, others suspicion. I would imagine that most Americans don’t harbor any personal animosity toward Mormons. But many of us have questions and we don’t have that many Mormon friends who can answer them.
There was a time when one would have thought that having a Mormon seek a presidential nomination in two successive election cycles would be a teaching moment for the country. It hasn’t worked out that way.
I haven’t heard this point made in the mainstream media — that electing Mitt Romney the first Mormon president would serve the country’s ideals, as much as electing the first African-American did four years ago.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Presidential politics and the religious side show
October 5, 2012
Detroit News (Michigan)
A recent Pew Research poll found that 32% of voters don’t know what religion Mitt Romney follows. Unfortunately, of the people who know he is a Mormon, 22% are uncomfortable with this fact.
I think religion plays far too prominent a role in the presidential election process, considering how little a president’s religion affects his legislative actions. Of course there is a large portion of the population that would disagree with my position.
http://blogs.detroitnews.com/politics/2012/10/05/presidential-politics-and-the-religious-side-show/
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Manti Te’o finds home with Irish
October 9, 2012
ESPN
I also know that you can’t fully explain why a kid from Hawaii, who is a devout member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, who isn’t crazy about the cold, who couldn’t pick out South Bend, Ind., on a U.S. map during his recruitment, still ended up at the nation’s most famous Catholic university, Notre Dame (84 percent of the student body is Catholic, less than 1 percent is Mormon). And the truth is, Te’o couldn’t fully explain it until recently.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Rolly: Gallivan and Monson, bridge builders
October 9, 2012
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
With all the insults leading up to and during the annual Utah-BYU football game — dubbed the “Holy War” — and the Mormon vs. anti-Mormon carping on the comment boards attached to Tribune stories and columns, I witnessed an inspiring moment Friday night.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/55043845-90/gallivan-rolly-walked-utah.html.csp
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Jabari Parker’s potential Mormon mission takes new turn
October 9, 2012
SB Nation
Jabari Parker, the top-ranked senior high school basketball player in the country, has a new twist in his road to the NBA, according to ESPN Chicago. Parker, a forward at Chicago Simeon Career Academy, is a Mormon, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently decided to lower the minimum age for serving a mission from 19 to 18.
Parker had planned on attending college for at least one year before deciding whether to go on a mission or enter the NBA draft. Now he has the ability to go on a mission following his graduation from high school. Parker’s father said his son had not decided if he wants to go on a mission or not yet, but they had discussed the matter.
http://chicago.sbnation.com/2012/10/9/3480090/jabari-parker-ranking-recruiting-list
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Pastor at Ryan event once said Romney is not a Christian
October 9, 2012
CNN
The pastor who delivered a passionate invocation at Paul Ryan’s rally in Rochester, Michigan on Monday evening told CNN earlier this year that the man at the top of the Republican ticket, Mitt Romney, is not a Christian.
Romney’s running mate was making his first campaign appearance in Michigan since August.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Reading Mormon (IV): Prophecies and Ecstasies
October 9, 2012
America National Catholic Weekly
My goal, from the start, has been to show that one can pick up a book of another religious tradition and read it carefully, and draw some meaning from that reading, and that this reading does not require a lifetime of study, such as I have devoted to Hinduism. I expect careful reading, but try not to impose too highly elite standards. These blogs are about careful amateur reading. I don’t mind the range of comments on my previous entries, even those that have been fierce and daunting. I am indeed irenic in my reading, because that is my approach, and also fits with what I have been finding in 3 Nephi. Since over and again I have recommended that readers do their own reading – the text is available in many forms — I am by no means pretending to monopolize how 3 Nephi is to be read. I read with a certain peacefulness, but others can read in the opposite way if they wish: is “polemic” still the opposite of “irenic”? I’ve also rarely responded to the comments that are posted, though I read every one of them. The public exchange does not seem to help, and so I almost always just let the comments speak for themselves. But I do keep getting new ideas on what to read, and while they probably will come too late for me to benefit before writing, next week, the fifth and final of my entries on 3 Nephi, I have ordered the recommended Third Nephi: An Incomparable Scripture, edited by Andrew C. Skinner and Gaye Strathearnh, and also the rather indirectly recommended Tale of Two Cities: A Comparison Between the Mormon and the Catholic Religious Experience (1980) by William Taylor. I hope these books, which the Harvard Library does not own, will arrive soon and fill out my amateur sense of the Book of Mormon and 3 Nephi in particular.
http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?blog_id=2&entry_id=5407
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Romney’s English roots surprise cousins left behind
October 9, 2012
Bangladesh News
Few associate the Republican candidate with Britain but it was in England’s industrial northwest that his ancestors lived for generations and converted to Mormonism before leaving for the United States in 1841 in search of the promised land.
http://www.bdnews24.com/details.php?id=233978&cid=1
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Over 1 Million Signed Up to Say No to Obama…and No to Romney
October 9, 2012
Student Operated Press
Bill Keller, the world`s leading Internet Evangelist and the founder of LivePrayer.com, with over 2.4 million subscribers worldwide reading the Daily Devotional he has written every morning for 13 years on the issues of the day from a Biblical worldview, currently has over 1 million people signed up to write in the name of Jesus for President this November. Keller launched a sister website in mid-May, www.votingforjesus.com, that encourages people to sign up and commit to write in the name of Jesus for President this November.
Keller said, “Those who are in the media saying Christians hate President Obama so much they are willing to vote for a 5th generation high priest of a cult that worships Satan and propagates a false gospel leading souls to hell could not be more wrong! While President Obama has been the most pro-baby-killing, pro-homosexual, pro-enemy of Israel President in history, opposing God and Biblical Truth on every spiritual issue of our day, that does NOT mean Christians will compromise their faith to vote for a Satanic cult member as the `lesser of two evils,` since the lesser of two evils is still EVIL!”
http://thesop.org/story/20121009/over-1-million-signed-up-to-say-no-to-obamaand-no-to-romney.html
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Kindle Readers Hungry for Knowledge About the Mormon Faith Drive The Poet and The Murderer to No. 1 on Kindle
October 9, 2012
PR Web
Americans are hungry for critical information about Mormonism but mainstream media coverage airbrushes most of the controversial facts about the LDS out of the picture. Simon Worrall’s highly acclaimed book, The Poet and The Murderer, fills this void by taking the reader on a deeply researched but critical journey into the history of Mormonism and its prophet, Joseph Smith.
On the way, readers learn the true story of the creation of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith’s violent and lawless life, and the implications of having a Mormon President. As a result, The Poet and The Murderer has now claimed the top spot on Kindle’s “Mormonism” category, ahead of Jon Krakauer’s best seller Under The Banner of Heaven.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/mormonism_mitt_romney/election_mormons/prweb9992739.htm
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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.
Journalists
