Free Republic

Orson Scott Card, whose science-fiction book Ender's Game is being released as a film, is a conservative Mormon with a long history of attacking gay people and their rights. He's also one of the most respected sci-fi writers of all time. This has really got sci-fi fans and gay rights activists in a moral dilemma as the momentum for the film builds up to its November 1 release. Orson Scott Card has gone far beyond opposing gay marriage. In 1990, he wrote in Mormon publication Sunstone Magazine, “Laws against homosexual behavior should remain on the books, not to be indiscriminately...

<p>BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Four men are suing the Mormon church and Boy Scouts of America in federal court, saying they were sexually abused while attending scouting functions in Idaho.</p> <p>Attorneys Gilion Dumas, Andrew Chasan and Timothy Walton filed the lawsuit in Boise's U.S. District Court on Monday on behalf of the men, who are named only as John Does I-IV.</p>

Dear Stacey: You have written demanding an apology for my recent characterization of the Mormon religion as "non-Christian." I am happy to write a public letter of apology to you and to the countless Mormon readers who responded negatively to my characterization. I am sorry that so many of my Mormon readers have brazenly accused me of ignorance of their religion and suggested that I read the Book of Mormon. I am sorry that they were unaware that I read the Book of Mormon back in 2006. I am sorry that the science of genetics has refuted claims made in...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is the nation's largest sponsor of the Boy Scouts of America, is being criticized for endorsing a BSA proposal that would allow gay youths to join local troops while continuing to exclude gay leaders. "While the church has not launched any campaign either to effect (sic) or prevent a policy change, we have followed the discussion and are satisfied that BSA has made a thoughtful, good-faith effort to address issues that, as they have said, remain 'among the most complex and challenging issues facing the BSA and society today,'" said a...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has given tacit approval to the Boy Scouts’ proposal to allow gay youth to join, saying they “appreciate the positive things” included in the plan to end the organization's controversial ban on gay boys. The Boy Scouts of America last week proposed allowing gay youth – but not adults – to participate in the private youth organization. That came two months after they floated the idea of allowing gays and lesbians of all ages to join, a proposal that was denounced by the conservative religious groups that make up a bulk of...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A Mormon church leader says the faith is largely in line with President Barack Obama on what needs to be included in a comprehensive immigration bill. Dieter F. Uchtdorf, second counselor in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' governing First Presidency, joined 13 other faith leaders at a private meeting on the issue with Obama on Friday. Uchtdorf said Obama urged the church leaders to stand together and ensure the U.S. remains a place where immigrants can come in a lawful way and not live in fear. The president expressed support for a...

A newly released digital edition of the four books of LDS or Mormon scripture—the Holy Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price—includes editorial changes that reflect a shifting official view on issues like polygamy, the Church’s history of racism, and the historicity of LDS scripture.Perhaps the most significant is the inclusion of a new heading to precede the now-canonized 1978 announcement of the end of the LDS Church’s ban on black priesthood ordination: The Book of Mormon teaches that “all are alike unto God,” including “black and white, bond and free, male...

Former Utah governor and presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman is speaking out in favor of marriage equality, arguing that it is a “conservative cause” that the Republican Party should support. In an op-ed for The American Conservative, Huntsman writes about his time as governor of Utah during which he pushed for civil unions and equality for the LGBTQ community, and adds that the GOP now has the opportunity to do more. “Conservatives should start to lead again and push their states to join the nine others that allow all their citizens to marry,” Huntsman writes... Huntsman’s pro-marriage equality stance is not...

The Mormonism Research Ministry is a missionary/apologetics organization organized in 1979 to propagate the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to critically evaluate the differences between Mormonism and biblical Christianity. Of the many crucial differences, the Mormon rejection of the Genesis account of supernatural creation ex nihilo in favor of a naturalistic account is just one of many pressing differences. MRM reveals that Joseph Smith taught that matter is eternal and the Mormon God Elohim had no power to create out of nothing. Elohim merely reorganized already present elements, which have no beginning or end and cannot be destroyed: "Since Mormons...

PORTLAND, Oregon — The Boys Scouts of America and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by a Portland man who said they didn't do enough to stop a Scout troop leader from sexually abusing children. A document filed Nov. 15 in U.S. District Court in Boise said both sides agreed to an undisclosed monetary settlement. SNIP The lawsuit alleges the leader of a Boy Scout troop in Nampa in southwestern Idaho sexually abused the plaintiff over three years in both Idaho and Oregon starting in 1967, and that the abuse left...

There’s an astonishing piece in Thursday’s Salt Lake Tribune, and if you haven’t been paying attention to the sudden “evolution” of the Mormon church’s leadership on homosexuality, it will make your jaw drop. Most people associate The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with overwhelming animous towards the LGBT community, heaping on the church total responsibility for 2008′s devastating Prop 8 victory. But, wait, times are a-changing, and the Mormons are now working with Utah’s LGBT leaders to help craft a statewide anti-discrimination law: Attorneys for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are in quiet discussions with...

From childhood it has been my nature to find that double rainbow in even the worst adversity I've experienced throughout my life, and like so many of you I've had my share. As an adult I am now well conditioned to find it immediately -- as I've learned that to do so I'm able to overcome a setback much quicker, press forward -- come what may. (Of note, this usually accompanies a very fast turn to Christ as part of the process.) But on occasion, life's disappointments refuse to allow such expediency and we are compelled to pause briefly...

How America got used to his religion, and mine.On the night of the South Carolina Republican primary in January, I sat near the front of a dark campaign press bus and listened to reporters talk about Mitt Romney's underwear.Earlier in the day, one of them had happened upon the candidate and his wife doing laundry in the basement of our Columbia, South Carolina, hotel, and a small cluster of colleagues had now gathered to listen to him relate the anecdote, lapping up every mundane detail of this rare interaction with the closed-off couple.Finally, another reporter interrupted."Did you see their underwear?"...

MessageToEagle.com - Normally, as a matter of personal preference I don’t get into politics, but when we have a presidential campaign that begins to cross over into the strange twilight zone of religious weirdness that centers on the one person who’s going to control the most powerful government and army on the face of the earth, well, it brings up some unusual scenarios to wonder about. It is being reported in the media today that former presidential candidate Mitt Romney only wrote a victory speech for Election Day; presumably a harried, last minute scramble to revise his speech was being...

Many of us could not imagine that Romney could lose this election, especially after four years of Obama’s radical Marxism and its social and fiscal consequences that America will NEVER recover from. All the hype and all the Romney rallies; it indeed looked like a sure victory for Romney except for one equation, the Evangelical vote. We here at the IFB have talked back and forth among ourselves since the RNC convention and with others also in the know; that if the Evangelical vote did not show up on Nov. 6th the jig would be up and Romney would lose...

Mormonism, I believe unfortunately, cost Romney this election. Why do I say this? All the data and hard vote totals point to Evangelicals staying home. The exit polls show it in both Ohio and Virginia. My republican precinct in VA, with a CHiristian Conservative base, went from 1800 votes in 2004 and 2008 to 1500 votes yesterday. Obama has one of the worst records in presidential history, Romney ran a solid campaign leaps and bounds ahead of McCain, who ran against hope and change, fainting, and messianic prophecies, and all he had to show for it was Indiana and North...

Remember the good ol' days when folks in the media were fond of telling us that conservative evangelical Christians would exhibit anti-Mormon bigotry and fail to vote for Mitt Romney simply because of his religion? Well now that conservative evangelical Christians seem by-and-large on board with the Romney/Ryan ticket liberal CNN Belief Blog contributor Stephen Prothero has turned the tables and criticized conservative evangelical leaders with, essentially, denying their faith by being pro-Romney. From his November 1 post, "My Take: Billy Graham and Ralph Reed are putting politics before God" (emphases mine): Why are evangelicals like Billy Graham and Ralph...

The daughter of a Latter Day Saints bishop and author of a book on Mitt Romney’s Mormonism says that she has concerns about a Romney presidency. Tricia Erickson, who is now a professing Christian after being involved in the LDS establishment for 21 years, stated in an article this week entitled The Obamney Twins that while she cannot support Barack Obama, she is unable to vote for Mitt Romney either. “To me, as a conservative, a Republican and a Christian, I cannot justify a vote for either one of the Obamney baby-killing, annihilators of the family, government healthcare mandated to...

Shortly after Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney enjoyed cookies and soft drinks with the Rev. Billy Graham and his son Franklin Graham on Thursday at the elder Graham's mountaintop retreat, a reference to Mormonism as a cult was scrubbed from the website of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. In a section of the website called Billy Graham's My Answer there had been the question "What is a cult?" Answer: "A cult is any group which teaches doctrines or beliefs that deviate from the biblical message of the Christian faith." "Some of these groups are Jehovah's Witnesess, Mormons, the Unification Church,...

Chattanooga-area evangelical church pastors may believe the Mormon faith is a cult and may not consider Gov. Mitt Romney a Christian, but they said that won't stop them from considering a vote for him in next month's presidential election. More than eight in 10 voters in a Pew Forum poll this summer said they were comfortable with the Republican nominee's faith or it didn't matter to them. Nineteen percent said they were uncomfortable with his faith. "We are electing a president, not a pastor," said Tim Shoap, co-pastor of Signal Mountain Bible Church. "I want the best and most effective...