Free Republic

...[Rev. Jamal-Harrison] Bryant [of Baltimore] last month told The Washington Informer, an African-American newsweekly, "This is the first time in black church history that I'm aware of that black pastors have encouraged their parishioners not to vote." Bryant, who opposes gay marriage, said the president's position on marriage is "at the heart" of the problem. ...The circumstances of the 2012 campaign have led to complex conversations about faith, politics and voting. The Rev. George Nelson Jr., senior pastor of Grace Fellowship Baptist Church in Brenham, Texas, participated in a conference call with other African-American pastors the day after Obama's announcement...

Mormon Democrats gather for first-ever national meeting in Charlotte during DNC Above, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who belongs to the LDS Church, speaks to the first national meeting of LDS Democrats on Tuesday in Charlotte. Reid mentioned that several presidential candidates in the United States have been Mormons, starting with Joseph Smith, the founder and first president of the LDS Church, who ran in 1844 with "a very progressive" platform.

A recent AT article predicted that the Obama campaign would play the Mormon Church card after Labor Day. It's begun early. On June 25, 2012, an American Thinker article entitled "Obama Campaign's Hole Card: Romney's Church" predicted that, through its loyal supporters in the liberal media, the Obama campaign would play Romney's affiliation with the Mormon Church against him. In part, the article read: And, as November nears, does anyone think that the two Davids -- Plouffe and Axelrod -- will hesitate to play it [the Mormon Church card] after Labor Day? Of course, they won't play it face-up, overtly....

The four minute segment that appeared on "World News" tonight is part one of a two part series on the Mormon Church.

.................In a June 1978 letter, the first presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaimed that “all worthy male members of the Church may be ordained to the priesthood without regard for race or color.” Men of African descent could now hold the priesthood....The revelation may have lifted the ban, but it neither repudiated it nor apologized for it. “It doesn’t make a particle of difference,” proclaimed the Mormon apostle Bruce R. McConkie a few months later, “what anybody ever said about the Negro matter before the first day of June of this year, 1978.” McConkie...

Mitt Romney's choice of Paul Ryan as his vice presidential candidate makes 2012 the first time in American history that a major party has run a ticket without a Protestant on it. Romney is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Ryan is a Roman Catholic. Have Mormons and Catholics always gotten along as well as the Republican running mates appear to? No. The root of the conflict is doctrinal. The premise of the Book of Mormon is that the Bible is a corrupt and incomplete account of God's revelation — an implicit criticism of...

SAN FRANCISCO -- If the Mormon church were a business, wealthy adherents like Mitt Romney would count as its dominant revenue stream. Its investment strategy would be viewed as risk-averse. It would also likely attract corporate gadflies protesting a lack of transparency. They would call for less spending on real estate and more on charitable causes to improve membership growth -- the Mormons' return on investment. Those are a few of the conclusions that can be drawn from an analysis of the church's finances by Reuters and University of Tampa sociologist Ryan Cragun.Relying heavily on church records in countries that...

A direct descendant of Brigham Young, Sue Emmett left the church because of the very values she says would make Romney a frightening president. She speaks exclusively with Jamie Reno. A direct descendant of Brigham Young, Sue Emmett left the church because of the very values she says would make Romney a frightening president. She speaks exclusively with Jamie Reno. Sue Emmett is Mormon royalty. Her great-great-grandfather was Brigham Young, the founder of Salt Lake City, first governor of Utah, and president and prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) from 1847 until his death in...

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Judy Byington lives in a pleasant, respectable neighborhood and by all appearances could be in your LDS Church ward Relief Society presidency. Maybe she is, but the well-groomed, quiet, retired therapist also is an authority on a topic most in Happy Valley would rather not discuss -- evil. She specializes in helping others win an eternal battle against covens of the devil. Byington is an authority on Satanists, and as a clinical social worker she spent years helping others heal from wounds so deep most would shrink from the task. With the permission of her clients, she...

The stunning expansion of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Washington, D.C., area is profiled in a long, interesting and meticulously accurate CNN story that suggests "the nation's capital has become a Mormon stronghold, with Latter-day Saints playing a big and growing role in the Washington establishment."-SNIP-"It's hard to point to federal legislation or a White House initiative that bears distinctly Mormon fingerprints," Gilgoff writes, "while it's easy to do the same for other faiths." He cites as an example a recent White House "compromise" on contraception funding, which he says was "mostly a reaction to...

In October 1946, Joseph F. Smith II, LDS Church patriarch, was released from his calling in LDS General Conference. He had not served for several months, the official reason being that he was ill, confined to his home in Centerville, Utah. What wasn’t known publicly was that Smith had been forbidden to give patriarchal blessings since May 1. In fact, after that day, his secretary never saw him again. As historian Gary James Bergera recounts in the winter 2012 issue of The Journal of Mormon History, Smith’s tenure stopped after this course of events: President George Albert Smith received communication...

As I have repeated since 2008, what is taking place here is spiritual. Darkness is falling on America. God has been patient and now we are choosing death because we love lies more than the truth. Regardless of whether we choose the "less of two evils in 2012, Obama and Romney are nevertheless going to destroy this country from within. We have been hearing about the “slippery slope” of legislating homosexual "marriage". One of the most common conservative responses to the issue is "What's next, polygamy?" Well, yes. If Mitt Romney is nominated and somehow elected (which I highly doubt),...

Much has been made about Mormonism, now that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney looks to be on his way to the Republican presidential nomination. But should he win the general election in November, would it be accurate to say that Romney is a Christian president? On Sunday’s “This Week” on ABC, fill-in host Jake Tapper posed the question of Romney’s religion to Rick Warren, the pastor of the California mega-church, Saddleback Church. “Mitt Romney will almost certainly be the Republican nominee and if that happens, which it looks like it will, he’ll be the first member of Church of Jesus...

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...

This morning Glen Beck was discussing "what is a Christian" and used the full title of the LDS Church as proof they are Christians, not some whacked out cult based on a modern day "prophet". He also spoke of how Soros thinks of himself as a god. As a disclaimer, every member of that church that I've ever met was a clean living, humble and generous person...but that doesn't make them Christians.

By HELEN RADKEY Tuesday, February 21, 2012 SALT LAKE CITY - Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank, (June 12, 1929 – March 1945), one of the most renowned Jewish victims of the Holocaust, was posthumously baptized in a Mormon temple, on Saturday, February 18, 2012, under her full name, "Annelies Marie Frank." Mormons have submitted versions of Anne Frank's name at least a dozen times for proxy rites. She has been posthumously baptized in Mormon temples, at least nine times from 1989-1999, and now again in 2012. Anne Frank's latest baptism was performed in the Santo Domingo Dominican Republic (LDS) Temple. Frank...

No one has any idea how common this attitude toward Mormons is on the right or how it will play out in the primary process and, if it works out that way, the general election. It will be partly offset by the enthusiasm of Mormons who make up a sizable voting bloc in some western states. But it will hurt Romney's chances in several southern primary states and could affect a close general election contest. Most mainstream protestant religions recognize the LDS as a Christian sect. That doesn't seem to matter to Keller who is wont to see Satan in...

VISALIA, Calif., Aug. 30 (UPI) -- A California man who died in a gun battle with police after fatally shooting a Mormon Church bishop felt wronged by another church bishop, his brother said. Police identified Kenneth James Ward, 47, of Modesto, Calif., as the man who shot to death Bishop Clay Sannar, 42, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Visalia Sunday before dying in a shootout with police less than 2 miles away, the Visalia Times-Delta reported. Mike Ward of Bakersfield told the newspaper his older brother Kenneth took their grandfather's handgun and shot Sannar, a...

I can't post the article due to copywrite. But here is the link. http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/article/20100830/NEWS01/100830004/Man+accused+of+killing+church+leader+was+former+member+of+LDS+church++felt+wronged++brother+says

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - The safety of Utah's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is the topic of a Tuesday night town hall meeting at the Salt Lake City Library. The Utah Pride Center says a panel will hold a discussion with police officers, prosecutors and community representatives. Pride spokesman Michael Westley says the group will release the results of a survey of 500 people on safety questions. Westley says nearly 70 percent of the respondents say they feel an increased sense of safety related to housing and employment discrimination issues. Only 26 percent of respondents said they feel...