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Can Mormon women wear pants when visiting a temple? Can men wear cummerbunds during a marriage ceremony? Are vasectomies an appropriate birth control option? The answers to these (no, no, and not really) and similar questions about Mormon practice and leadership might not seem to be especially secret, but the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints isn't pleased about secret church documents hitting the Internet. In this case, the cause of the displeasure is the confidential Church Handbook of Instructions, published by Wikileaks on April 16. The church is currently trying to get the information pulled down using copyright...

He wrote to me in all innocence, a reader from a Catholic country where Mormon missionaries had only recently begun to gather congregations of believers. "I asked my priest," he said, "and he told me that Mormons are a cult." Setting aside the obvious riposte ("What did you think your priest would tell you, that Mormonism was true Christianity as restored by God to living prophets?"), I think it's worth considering just what we mean by "cult" and seeing whether it applies to the Mormon Church. Cult as Bad Word Anti-Mormons use "cult" the way gay activists use "homophobe"--as an...

[An oldie-but-goodie from 4/22/2005, appropriate for Earth Day and the environmentalist cult.] April 22, 2005 -- Today is a religious holiday that should make us all into atheists. April 22, 2005, marks the 35th anniversary of Earth Day. For many people it's simply a day to think warm and fuzzy thoughts about clean air, crystal lakes, verdant forests and soaring eagles. Until the 1990s May Day marked the worship by the communists of an abstraction called the "workers" at the expense of real flesh-and-blood workers and every other human being on the planet. The result was human carnage. Now Earth...

Ryan Alberti had a pretty good idea what to expect when he signed up for the Web class jointly taught by Eckhart Tolle and Oprah Winfrey. He’d already listened to a CD of Tolle reading his books “The Power of Now” and “Stillness Speaks” and liked his simple, gentle way of speaking. “I think he’s really a genuine guy that has an ability to translate some spiritual things in a very down-to-earth way,” Alberti said. Alberti doesn’t watch Winfrey’s daily TV show, but his wife is a big fan and tells him about it. “Even though I haven’t seen (the...

cult: n. Obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing. Four men who are “called to lead a special mission”. Four groups of people who insist that their leader has found the true way; either to happiness, truth, safety, or all three. Four leaders, one method: all preach destruction that will surely be the outcome if others do not heed him and his One True Way. Four leaders, four different fates: one leader is dead, one is behind bars, one man is on the run for his life and one still walks free. 25 Signs...

The raid on a polygamist compound in Texas could signal the beginning of the end of a lifestyle that has flown under the radar in America, according to an expert on cults. The Fundamentalist Church of Latter-day Saints, which operates the compound near Eldorado, Texas, along with other communities around the country -- including Colorado City, Ariz. -- fits the classic criteria of a cult, according to Rick Ross. He says there are about 50,000 polygamists living in North America and Mexico. ``The level of harm done by polygamist groups is horrific, and, in particular, this group (FLDS) has a...

Prosecutors have new weapons against polygamy and marriage involving underage teens because Texas lawmakers heeded Utah authorities' experience with the Mormon splinter group raided in Eldorado. In 2001, Utah authorities began a crackdown on underage marriages and arranged marriages of teenagers, targeting members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Mormon splinter group that had lived in two towns on the Utah-Arizona border. The allegations made national headlines -- young girls forced to marry older men, teenage boys ejected from the community to create a surplus of brides, and police officers who turned a blind eye...

ELDORADO, Texas - The secretive and insular community established near this West Texas town by a radical offshoot of the Mormon Church is considered by the sect's members to be a holy shrine populated by its most fervent adherents and is propped up financially by members of the group living in other states, according to law enforcement officials and former members. Interviews with law enforcement authorities and former members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints depict the Yearning for Zion Ranch, which was raided last week by Texas authorities, as an outpost whose adult residents...

What is private revelation? What is the meaning and purpose of private revelation? How does private revelation fit into the overall divine plan of glorifying God and saving souls? What is the significance and role of private revelation within the entire Mystical Body of Christ. the Church? What should be our prudent attitude toward private revelation? Before the Church has had time to investigate a particular apparition, how can we prudently determine whether an apparition is probably true or probable false? What is the prudent use of private revelation? What are the dangers of the imprudent use of private revelation?...

"The Canadian government has ordered a Christian ministry that teaches doctrine and the differences between Christians and cults shut down because its reference materials were "critical" of the beliefs of those who are not Christian, WND has learned."..... For example, the ministry addresses the issue of "fads," including a "creeping Eastern mysticism" appearing in some churches, "turning meaningful prayer meetings into mind-emptying rituals called contemplative prayer promising experiences of a spiritual nature." "Feelings have often replaced the solid word of God," the website warns. "Numerous churches have become 'seeker' churches, disposing of the parts of the Gospel message that might...

The Canadian government has ordered a Christian ministry that teaches doctrine and the differences between Christians and cults shut down because its reference materials were "critical" of the beliefs of those who are not Christian, WND has learned. So what used to be called MacGregor Ministries with offerings in how to recognize and eliminate "faulty fads" in Christian churches has been re-created in the United States, and now operates under the name MM Outreach Media Ministries. Lorri MacGregor, who has dedicated her life to explaining the straight and narrow of Christian beliefs since she found her way out of the...

Obama - Cult of Change Are you one caught up in the hysteria of Obama mania?

The video is available at http://www.WeAreTheOnesSong.com and features appearances by Jessica Alba, Ryan Phillippe, George Lopez and others. Will.i.am’s previous video, “Yes We Can,” has racked up more than 10 million views.

<p>LOS ANGELES (Catholic Online) - First, it was Larry Sabato and then it was Rush Limbaugh. Sabato is the Robert Kent Gooch Professor of Politics of the Center for Politics at the University of at the University of Virginia.</p>

Bleeding-heart types looking for a "minority cause” for which to advocate in the 2008 presidential elections are torn between the candidacies of a woman, two African- Americans, a Hispanic and a former mayor of Cleveland who is more of a communist than Vladimir Putin. Tough choices, those, and all of them Democrats. In the interest of fairness, however, the name of Mitt Romney should be added to the shopping list of those searching for an oppressed minority to support. As a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), Romney is aligned with one of...

Was The Book of Mormon given to Joseph Smith by an angel or created from a work of fiction? Who was Solomon Spalding and did he have a connection with Joseph Smith? This book critically examines key historical documents, personal testimonies, and records of 19th-century Mormon history concluding that The Book of Mormon is an "adaptation of an obscure historical novel" written by Revolutionary War veteran Solomon Spalding during the War of 1812. In twelve chapters, the authors lay out the evidence for the assertion that Sidney Rigdon, Oliver Cowdery, and Joseph Smith Jr. adapted and embellished the Spalding manuscript...

With word that the FairTax political operation has run out of money, the talk in Iowa is that a new organization may be coming to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's aid. A 501c4 organization is said to be forming to help Huckabee in the 30 or so days leading up to the Iowa Republican caucus. Huckabee has been leveraging the support of two semi-obscure groups in Iowa, the FairTax group, a one-time offshoot of the Church of Scientology, and a second-tier home-schooling coalition, which operates a 501c4 and has been attempting to organize support for Huckabee in Iowa, South Carolina,...

On Sunday, someone handed me an article from the November 12 U.S. News and World Report, in which they interview one of the Mormon Church's Council of Twelve Apostles - the LDS governing body. Its tied in with the discussion relating to Mitt Romney's Mormon Faith. In the article, Elder M. Russell Ballard answers a series of questions posed by USN&WR reporter Jay Tolson. In reading the interview it's easy to see why dialogue breaks down so quickly between Christians and Mormons. Whether Mr. Ballard is disingenuous or clueless is tough to tell, but his answers to the questions show...

Tony and Susan Alamo were photographed with scores of their followers in 1974, at the height of their power. Today, Tony Alamo is back. Photo by Gilbert B. Weingourt/Zuma Press LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Clad in matching T-shirts with bejeweled cross logos, members of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries are once again saving souls on Hollywood Boulevard. Since the late 1960s, followers of notorious cult leader Tony Alamo have recruited and distributed literature on this star-studded sidewalk. On this sunny summer afternoon, they're handing out heavily footnoted, paranoid screeds proclaiming the end of the world is nigh and branding the U.S....

A common gripe of the Left in general and the DUmmies in particular is that conservatives are a bunch of ignorant, superstitious, rightwing fundamentalists. They like to portray themselves as rational humanists who are somehow above religious "superstition." However, if you scratch a DUmmie, you will often find that, below the surface, there exists a bunch of groupthink ignoramuses who swallow outlandish cult rantings without question. As evidence I present this DUmmie THREAD titled, "I'm thinking of leaving my coven/school." Right away, the fact that DUmmie MorningGlow uses the word "coven" seriously is a clear tell of her irrational...

Tony and Susan Alamo were photographed with scores of their followers in 1974, at the height of their power. Today, Tony Alamo is back. Photo by Gilbert B. Weingourt/Zuma Press LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Clad in matching T-shirts with bejeweled cross logos, members of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries are once again saving souls on Hollywood Boulevard. Since the late 1960s, followers of notorious cult leader Tony Alamo have recruited and distributed literature on this star-studded sidewalk. On this sunny summer afternoon, they're handing out heavily footnoted, paranoid screeds proclaiming the end of the world is nigh and branding the...

Miami, the cruise ship "Mecca" and one of the top ten ports in the United States is also one of seven major U.S. cities listed by the FBI as "terrorist havens".  Miami Deputy Port Director, Khalid Salahuddin, an Orthodox Muslim, was a member of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakham's anti-Semitic thugs.  Today, he heads his own mosque, Masjid Al-Ikhlas, in North Miami.  Salahuddin has ties to radical Islam.  He officiated at a fundraiser for the American Muslim Association of North America, a group headed by Sofian Abdelaziz, who was Vice President of Hamas ran "Health Resource Center for Palestine"....

Sydney - An Australian Roman Catholic who considers himself the rightful pope and claims to communicate with the Virgin Mary once a month was jailed on Friday for having sex with an underage girl in the cult community he led. Self-proclaimed prophet William Kamm, who received a six-year sentence, showed the girl letters he said were from the Virgin Mary that blessed their union. The 56-year-old, who is already serving a term for a similar offence, told the girl she was chosen by the Virgin Mary to help him populate the earth with his "mystical seed". The abuse began when...

A PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS of a CULT at NECEDAH, WISCONSIN This article was referred to in the Thread (07/21/07): “A SIMPLE, COMMON SENSE REBUTTAL to SSPX, SSPV and CMRI”. Despite the fact that modern man has developed greatly the sciences and technology, we are in the midst of a cultural and historical as well as religious crisis which has contributed to the very proliferous increase of the cults today. This paper will analyze the dynamics of a particular cult at Necedah, Wisconsin. The analysis will follow closely a typical psychological analysis of the most basic system, the family. After a brief...

Wife seeks divorce from 'Jesus Christ reborn' Where was the money coming from? That was one of many questions that crossed my mind when the CNN Miami Bureau first began working on a story over a year ago on a religious group -- critics call it a cult -- that had sprung up in a working class area of Miami.... The group "Growing in Grace" is the kind of organization that causes one to ask questions. Its leader is a charismatic minister named Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda who preaches that he is the second coming of Jesus Christ. De...

The following article (with the university class reference documents) was written with the motive to help my sister and her husband, with seven children, to leave the traditionalist groups SSPX, SSPV and CMRI and to return to the one, true Catholic Church. If you want the reference documents (Ecclesiology.doc, Religious-Freedom.doc, Psy-Cult.doc and Subsists.doc), send an email to: josephdwight@hotmail.com; please specify if you want the documents in plain text format or MSWord format with the footnotes incorporated, or in one document all together in either format. A SIMPLE, COMMON SENSE REBUTTAL to SSPX, SSPV and CMRI When I was younger my...

Romney 'unlikely' choice of evangelicals Posted on Jun 21, 2007 | by Rachel Waligorski KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)--The "overarching and primary concern" why evangelicals likely will not vote for a Mormon for president is the Mormon claim to be the only true Christian church, a Southern Baptist seminary president said during the International Society of Christian Apologetics' annual meeting in Kansas City, Mo. If Mormons were to call themselves "a new religious movement," that would be one thing, said R. Philip Roberts, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, which hosted the June 1-2 meeting. "But I have a very difficult...

(AP) SALT LAKE CITY -- Mitt Romney said Saturday that criticism of his Mormon religion by rival GOP presidential campaigns is happening too frequently. “Clearly, any derogatory comments about anyone’s faith—those comments are troubling. The fact they keep on coming up is even more troubling,” Romney said during a fundraising trip in the home state of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Mormon church is one of the fastest-growing religions and claims about 12.5 million members worldwide. But many evangelical Christians in crucial primary states such as Iowa and South Carolina consider the faith a cult. Romney’s...

The Pakistani Tourism Minister resigned yesterday after hardline Islamic clerics accused her of obscenity for hugging her instructor after a charity parachute jump. Nilofer Bakhtiar was photographed in brightly coloured jumpsuit and hugging her instructor after a tandem jump to raise money for child victims of the earthquake that struck Pakistan in October 2005. The images provoked the wrath of clerics in Islamabad, who accused Ms Bakhtiar of posing in an obscene manner and violating the Islamic moral norms. A religious court set up by the clerics at a radical mosque in Islamabad issued a fatwa, or religious edict, against...

John Travolta has launched a bitter attack on a veteran BBC reporter over a Panorama film that exposes the methods used by Scientology and questions whether it is a "brainwashing cult". The Hollywood star has written to Corporation chiefs accusing journalist John Sweeney of venting "personal prejudices, bigotry and animosity" and harbouring "hatred against my religion Travolta also urges the BBC to halt the screening of the documentary tomorrow. The star's intervention is the latest in what Sweeney says is a campaign of intimidation since he embarked on his film, in which former Scientologists claim they were forced to cut...

Yahweh Ben Yahweh, the South Florida sect leader whose brand of black supremacist preachings drew his followers into a brotherhood of murder and terror in the 1980s, has died in Miami, his lawyers said. Lawyer Ben Kuehne said Ben Yahweh, 71, died in his sleep overnight. ''Cancer is the cause,'' Kuehne said. Ben Yahweh had been ill with prostate cancer. The self-proclaimed ''Black Messiah,'' Yahweh based his operation in the bunker-like Temple of Love in Liberty City, once telling his followers that white people were terrorists and that unbelievers were devils. Federal prosecutors, however, branded him the most notorious criminal...

I know that I'm going to get in trouble in some quarters for the following statement, but I'm going to say it anyway. I love Mormons, and I deeply appreciate the role played by the LDS church in our nation and our culture. I have returned from a lengthy absence from EFM (I was out of town working hard on my day job) to find a debate in these pages about whether Mormonism is a "cult," flipped on the TV to see a two part special about Mormonism on PBS, and turned on my computer today to see this absurd...

Am I an anti-Mormon bigot for simply raising this question? In this column two weeks ago (available here), I stated I would vote for Mitt Romney should he win the Republican nomination, and that “though I am willing to unite with and befriend Mormons in common cause to advance our shared values, I am hoping to be a voice of clarity – unwilling to allow Mormonism to be mistaken for orthodox Christianity and unwilling again to disqualify a candidate simply because he is from a faith tradition so different from my own.” I also stated, “many Mormons in recent years...

They call themselves the most hated family in the US and they picket funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq. So what did Louis Theroux make of the Phelpses after three weeks? In any country, let alone one as patriotic as the US, few actions are as provocative as protesting at a soldier's funeral. The Phelps family pickets mourners across the country, to mark what it describes as God's revenge on the US for tolerating homosexuality. Their actions are in the name of the Westboro Baptist Church, which numbers 71 and is headed by "Gramps", preacher Fred Phelps. The church, which...

One of the strangest features of the contemporary political landscape is the convergence everywhere of the Left with Muslim jihadis and extremists. Those who once protested against the installation of cruise missiles in Western Europe, say, now demonstrate against the war on terror. Those who praised the Soviet Union as peace-loving are now busy signing petitions and publishing articles to the effect that Iran's nuclear program and nuclear weapons (if it comes to that) are a third-world success and nothing to worry about. Anti-Americanism has made bedfellows of people whose world views and values are ostensibly incompatible. David Horowitz was...

Vanuatu cargo cult marks 50 years By Phil Mercer BBC News, Tanna One of the world's last surviving cargo cults is celebrating its official 50th anniversary on Tanna island in Vanuatu. The John Frum Movement worships a mysterious spirit that urged them to reject the teachings of the Church and maintain their traditional customs. The cult was reinforced during WWII, when US forces landed with huge amounts of cargo - weapons, food and medicine. Villagers believe the spirit of John Frum sent the US military to their South Pacific home to help them. Devotees say that an apparition of John...

Woman testifies Jeffs pressured her into marrying at 14. A young woman who said she was ordered to marry her cousin at age 14 by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs testified in court Tuesday that she repeatedly begged Jeffs to let her out of the union. Jeffs refused, she said, telling her the marriage was God's will. During a felony preliminary hearing for Jeffs under tight security in Washington County, Utah, District Court, the woman, now 20, gave her first public account of her arranged marriage to a first cousin. "I told him (Jeffs) I just wanted two years before I...

SECT COULD 'SET' UP CRUISE INSIDE SCIENTOLOGY'S SECRET FILM LOT August 27, 2006 -- If Tom Cruise is in the market for a new moviemaking home, he need look no further than his wacky place of worship - which owns a $41 million media compound where he has prepped for flicks like "War of the Worlds." The Church of Scientology's most famous parishioner got the boot from Paramount Pictures last week for behaving badly. Studio honcho Sumner Redstone called Cruise's "recent conduct" unacceptable - alluding, no doubt, to his rants against antidepressants, and declarations of love for Katie Holmes while...

Ah, yeah. Folks, this morning on NBC's The Today Show, we were regaled with the story that Our Lord Jesus is on Earth, reincarnated in the person of Dr. José Luis de Jesús Miranda. Well, not exactly "reincarnated" but the product of a "fusion" between Our Lord and himself. In his sect there's no sin, no need for prayers, no devil calling him a "Hollywood character" and attacks all other religions--of course--calling them all "liars" and making the point that all the lies "began in Rome." Accordingly, his followes have started protest campaigns against other religions, but particularly against us....

The more time I spend in the blogopshere, the more it seems to me that many blogs are merely online cults. It's an easy comparison to make. Notice, for example, that blog audiences simply do not cross over. Most people who read and contribute to Free Republic stay away from DailyKos, and vice-versa. Once in a while, some brave soul wanders over to a rival blog, as it were, and is invariably banned by the owners of that blog; more rarely, there is a full-fledged flame war in which members of rival boards virtually invade each other's territory with the...

Call for repeal of homosexual, prostitution laws published: Sunday | June 25, 2006 Dionne Rose, Parliamentary Reporter Nicholson (left) and Johnson (right)  PROFESSOR PETER Figueroa, vice-chairman of the National AIDS Committee wants laws on the books that criminalise prostitution and homosexual acts to be repealed. Dr. Figueroa made the recommendation while addressing the Joint Select Committee of Parliament considering the proposed Charter of Rights bill in Gordon House on Wednesday. "Criminal law prohibiting sexual acts including adultery, sodomy, fornication and commercial sexual encounters between consenting adults in private should be reviewed with the aim of repeal," he said. INTERNATIONAL...

National Education Association Set to Endorse Homosexual Marriage Teacher's union begins plans to promote homosexual marriage in public schools Dear xxxxxx, The National Education Association is set to endorse homosexual marriage at their convention coming up in Orlando June 29 through July 6. The new NEA proposal essentially says schools should support and actively promote homosexual marriage and other forms of marriage (two men and one woman, three women, two women and three men, etc.) in their local schools. The new proposal, expected to pass overwhelmingly, is found under the B-8 Diversity paragraph: The Association... believes in the importance of...

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - The largest U.S. Presbyterian Church body approved a measure on Tuesday that would open the way for the ordination of gays and lesbians under certain circumstances. The new policy was approved on a vote of 57-43 percent among 500 church representatives at the biennial meeting of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. It gives local church organizations more leeway in deciding if gays can be ordained as lay deacons and elders as well as clergy, provided they are faithful to the church's core values. "It permits local governing bodies to examine candidates on a wider criterion than sexual...

Unveiling the Truth About IslamToo many Christian books miss the mark. by Warren Larson Ever since September 11, 2001, I have seen a sharp increase in books about Islam by American evangelicals. Even if the titles do not include the word "unveil," most attempt to expose Islam for its theological, historical, and moral shortcomings. According to Richard Cimino of the New School for Social Research, evangelical attitudes toward Islam have hardened since the attacks, positing that Islam is an essentially violent religion. Responses to the cartoons depicting Muhammad in parts of the Muslim world have only strengthened such perceptions.Unfortunately, too...

The Italian author Oriana Fallaci, who once wrote that Muslims "breed like rats", may be facing up to three years in prison after she vowed to blow up a mosque.Ms Fallaci, 75, who has cancer, is due to appear in court next week charged with the lesser offence of vilifying Islam, punishable with a £3,450 fine. But after her latest outburst in the New Yorker last week Muslim leaders are demanding that she be tried for inciting religious hatred, which carries a three-year jail term. The former journalist, who has said she will not attend Monday's hearing in Bergamo, told...

CLEARWATER - Matt Feshbach believes he has super powers. He senses danger faster than most people. He appreciates beauty more deeply than he used to. He says he outperforms his peers in the money management industry. He heightened his powers of perception in 1995 when he went to Los Angeles and became the first and so far only "public" Scientologist to take a highly classified Scientology program called Super Power. Where in L.A. did he do this? "Just in Los Angeles," is all Feshbach will say. Super Power is that secret. Under wraps for decades, Super Power now is being...

Dozens of ultra-Orthodox break into internet café, claiming place incites haredi community to commit sins Haim Levinson Religious dispute in Jerusalem: Dozens of riled up ultra-orthodox broke into a Jerusalem internet café Monday, broke the doors and shattered the computers, claiming the place incites the haredi community to commit sins. Police called to Shabbat Square were shocked to find dozens of ultra-Orthodox insulting memory of fallen soldiers – rioting, setting dumpsters on fire and blocking traffic; police say they view incident ‘with extreme gravity’ but fail to make any arrests On Monday night, the ultra-Orthodox crowd arrived at the internet...

Dressed in sneakers and jeans, they hang out along the edges of campuses, handing out fliers and calling out to passing college students. Each group, students say, has a different, seemingly harmless opening line: ''Are you saved? Are you antiwar? Are you stressed out?" But some college officials say they view most of these groups as high-pressure organizations akin to cults. The groups have a history of recruiting vulnerable students and then alienating them from their parents and classmates. They say that the groups, many of which were banned from schools more than a decade ago, resurfaced on campuses this...

I suppose if you want a champion of broadcasting decency, a soul star whose biggest hit invited listeners to suck on my chocolate, salty balls. (Put ’em in your mouth!) Put ’em in your mouth and suck ’em . . . wouldn’t automatically be your first choice. Isaac Hayes, the wonderfully gifted singer who sang the theme from Shaft, reached No1 with Chocolate Salty Balls in 1999. The song was one of a number that Hayes performed while playing the school Chef in the US cartoon series South Park. Among the other Chef tunes, the Christmas song stands out, with...

Tom Cruise reportedly got Comedy Central to cancel Wednesday night's cablecast of the controversial "South Park" episode about Scientology by warning that he'd refuse to promote "Mission Impossible 3," reports today's Page Six. Paramount, the film company who holds Cruise's contract, is counting on "MI3" to bring in blockbuster profits this summer, and Paramount is owned by parent company Viacom, which so happens to also own Comedy Central. The "South Park" episode entitled, "Trapped in the Closet," takes jabs at Scientology and shows Cruise, John Travolta and R. Kelly (who is not a Scientologist, but has a song called "Trapped...