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BYU students have many options when they choose classes to fulfill 14 required religion credits. Options range from classes that study world religions to Church history, temples, living prophets, and even missionary preparation. Missionary preparation is a two-credit class, in which students learn skills that will help them if they decide to serve a full-time mission, as well as be a member missionary for the rest of their lives. "Our program is a support to the training that the Missionary Training Center gives," said Brent L. Top, chair of the Church History and Doctrine Department at BYU. "The Missionary Training...

Reverend O’Neal Dozier, an African American Rick Santorum supporter from Florida, held a press conference Sunday calling upon Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to renounce his Mormon religion. Mr. Dozier’s request is regarding several racially motivated passages in the Book of Mormon, that have been called out by other African American leaders previously in the race. One verse in the Book of Mormon discusses the “cursing the black African people,” and Mr. Dozier also notes that their are prejudiced passages against Jews and Native Americans as well. “Romney’s nomination would cause the erroneous view that has long existed in the...

Just curious. I'm sure they do. I served for over 5 years and don't remember encountering any Mormons in the time I served.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheBackyardProfessor#g/u

Often, when Mormons are presented with statements from their leaders that could cause some difficulty for them, many will respond by saying something like "Oh, that's just his opinion. Its not the official view of the Mormon Church." Often, when Mormons talk about official doctrines of the Church they usually mean the Standard Works: The Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrines and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. Although many Mormons do not view other LDS writings as official Scripture (for example, The Seer or The Journal of Discourses), it should be remembered that many of these writings consist of the...

The topic of “Mormon folklore” seems to be a popular one right now, following on the heels of the racially offensive comments made by BYU Professor Randy Bott last week (see “Did the Mormon Church ever discriminate against black people?” on Mormon Coffee). As Mormons scramble to try to distance the LDS Church from its past, over and over they tell the world that the things taught by now-gone Mormon leaders regarding the priesthood ban–and about black people in a broader sense–amounts to nothing more than “folklore,” “speculation” and mere “opinion.” In an official statement the LDS Church said, “It...

There is an idea in LDS folk theology that if you knew how glorious the bottom two kingdoms of heaven were, you would want to commit suicide to get there. Mormons sometimes even claim that Joseph Smith taught this, but this has been debunked. This “folk” theology is VERY strong in the culture of Mormonism. After a lot of searching (back when I studied this issue), I was only able to find one solid reference supporting this. It was only by the “Patriarch to the Church” in 1964, arguably not that important or authoritative of a position in the modern...

This Sunday, in Gospel Doctrine Class, the study is on 2 Nephi 31-33. One of the summary statements in the heading of chapter 31 says, “Eternal life comes to those who kept the commandments after baptism.” Since I posted about eternal life just a couple of months ago (see the post for 1-13-12) and there showed that the Bible says eternal life is the present possession of believers through faith, I thought I would, in this post, explore what Mormonism says about eternal life. I’m going to do that with quotes from the last chapter of their basic manual, Gospel...

JACKSON, Miss. - As one of 20,000 Mormons living in a state dominated by evangelical Christians, Van J. Bodin’s own life experience tells him what Mitt Romney is up against in the South. “People don’t understand us,’’ said Bodin... There are other strikes against Romney in the Deep South. He is a multimillionaire with strong Wall Street ties. He hails from Massachusetts, a liberal, Yankee state. His conservative credentials have gaps, given his change from supporting abortion rights to opposing them and his universal health care plan in Massachusetts. But his Mormon faith also exerts a drag on his candidacy...

Twentieth Century Attitudes While Elijah Abel, along with at least one other black, had been ordained to the priesthood during Joseph Smith's life, Brigham Young took a different stand. He instituted a very strict rule that no blacks were to be ordained or given temple ordinances. Elijah Abel outlived Brigham Young and the validity of his ordination was repeatedly discussed by the brethren (see All Abraham's Children, p. 216). The rationalization for restricting blacks developed over a period of years. Scholar Armand Mauss observed: . . . by 1908, as president of the church, [Joseph F.] Smith was now claiming...

What if a mini-Obama ran your homeowners' association... and Satan offered you an 'alternative' candidate???... A PARABLE ABOUT GOP & ITS VOTERS: Joe Republican was desperate! The most despotic Marxist-leaning socialist had been running the local homeowners' association for the past three years, and Joe was beside himself with the association presidential election coming up. Who would run against him? Suddenly, the devil himself appeared to Joe, offering a "solution": "I have a candidate in mind who could defeat your socialist nemesis," soothed Satan. "Oh," said Joe. "Do tell." "Well," said Satan "he's an experienced businessman who's done quite well...

As the Republican establishment redoubles its efforts to anoint Mitt Romney the GOP presidential nominee (an outcome likely to ensure a second term for Barack Obama), the need to understand Mitt Romney increases. What makes Mitt the kind of person he is — ruthlessly opportunistic, dishonest, insincere, willing to say anything for advantage, lacking in conscience, preoccupied with appearance, etc., on the one hand, yet squeaky clean, family-oriented, disciplined, boring, and predictable, on the other? My new e-book, A Mormon Story, sheds light on the culture that produced Mitt Romney. The book reveals a value system that ultimately has no...

Mitt Romney, despite a seemingly lackluster appeal to the Republican base, is steadily marching toward the GOP nomination. A relatively private man, Romney has suffered for appearing awkward in public. But the businessman turned politician is learning to be transparent: he has finally released his tax returns, made attempts to clarify a myriad number of changed policy positions, and has even held his own in debates -- fine tuning well-rehearsed attacks on President Obama ahead of their likely general election fight. Yet there is one subject Romney has consistently avoided -- for good reason -- and that is the sordid...

WALTER KIRN'S column in GQ on Mitt Romney and Mormonism is to my mind far and away the most interesting meditation on the subject this campaign season. Unlike most commentators, Mr Kirn, who was an observant Mormon for a few years after his family converted to Mormonism when he was a teen... SNIP ...Mr Santorum obviously does not hesitate to argue for his favoured policies on narrowly sectarian grounds. In contrast, America's present wariness of Mormonism, which is indeed analogous to mid-century wariness of Catholicism, requires that Mr Romney argue his case on grounds acceptable to a relatively wide range...

Mormons around the world are getting this warning Sunday: Stop posthumous baptisms of "unauthorized groups, such as celebrities and Jewish Holocaust victims.""Our preeminent obligation is to seek out and identify our own ancestors," says a letter to be read in every Mormon congregation. "Those whose names are submitted for proxy [baptisms] should be related to the submitter."Mormons who continue to embarrass the faith by submitting the names of celebrities and Holocaust victims for the proxy baptism rite will lose access to the Mormon genealogical records, the letter warns. "Other corrective action may also be taken," it says.The letter is signed...

“God has always been discriminatory.” So says Randy Bott, a professor of religion at Brigham Young University... Why did the church withhold the priesthood from blacks for over a century? Among the reasons trotted out by church leaders—including church presidents...Black people are the cursed descendants of ancient Biblical figures; black people committed pre-mortal perfidy; black people lacked the intelligence and personal integrity... Such past beliefs have never officially been repudiated. And the failure of the church to repudiate them helped set the stage for the comments made by Bott, perhaps the most popular professor at BYU... The Mormon Church’s own...

Racist apologetics by a popular Brigham Young University religion professor are sparking controversy, as election-year scrutiny sheds a revealing light on the persistence of racist belief among LDS Church members. On Tuesday, Randy Bott, a BYU professor of religion, told the Washington Post that the LDS Church’s historic prohibition on priesthood ordination for men of African descent was a “blessing” to blacks because they were not “ready” for priesthood authority. “God has always been discriminatory” when it comes to whom he grants the authority of the priesthood, says Bott... Bott compares blacks with a young child prematurely asking for the...

In his speech the night of the Michigan primary, Romney went out of his way to give –extra- thanks to John McCain. His linking to John McCain is quite telling because if nominated, the ultimate result will be the same as when McCain was given the nomination due to the conservative vote being amortized over multiple candidates. I will give credit to Romney. He made a great speech. The problem is that it was rhetoric and does not reflect his core beliefs. His core beliefs are reflected in his record as the Governor of Massachusetts. Conservatives do not CREATE programs...

Taken from chapter 13, the entire book is available at the link. In chapter 13, Lucy Mack Smith, mother of the "prophet" Joseph Smith, is relating visions of her husband, Joseph. father of the "prophet". I thought it was insightful into the life of Joe Jr. and how his father influenced his life and "visions". The formatting is mine, the book as printed on line is a little hard to read, with so few paragraph breaks, parts of chapter 13 follow: About this time my husband's mind became much excited upon the subject of religion; yet he would not subscribe...

This column is in response to requests for insights into the difference between Mormonism and traditional Christianity. I have dear friends who are Mormons. They, like most Mormons, are gracious socially, exceptional family people, and in general good citizens. As such they personally are objects of my regard. Their faith, the Church of Latter Day Saints, better known as Mormonism, has been very much in the news as a result of a prominent member of their faith being a primary candidate for president. I would not deliberately misrepresent any person’s faith so I hope Mormons find the following to be...