Free Republic

What Americans Know About Religious Freedom Most Americans know that religious freedom is one of the most basic freedoms guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. Frequently called the “first freedom,” freedom of religion is prominent in the American founding documents and gives rise to many other freedoms. It is a fundamental human right — one that is now protected in the laws of many nations around the world and in global compacts like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Americans generally recognize and revere religious freedom as one of the unalienable freedoms they can claim. Yet despite Americans’ awareness of...

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said he felt "called" to leave the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), or Mormon Church, to join the Catholic Church in a Sunday interview on NBC's "Meet the Press." Rubio – who is currently being considered as a vice presidential nominee by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who is a Mormon – explained that his mother decided to join the LDS Church after the family moved to Las Vegas when Rubio was eight years old. Some of Rubio's relatives were, and still are, members of the LDS Church, so the family had some...

CALGARY, ALBERTA — The U.S. presidential campaign of 1856 sowed the seeds that precipitated the Utah War... That is the premise of a paper prepared for the 47th annual Mormon History Association Conference... Ronald W. Walker, professor emeritus of history at Brigham Young University, authored the paper... ...before the campaign ran its course, Mormon polygamy became an issue, with Republican newspapers and politicians attacking...Democrats for supporting legislation that in theory might allow the Utah Territory to favor plural marriage, Walker wrote. The Republican Party platform thus denounced what it called "the twin relics of barbarism": the extension of slavery in...

The presidential race of Mitt Romney and the success of the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon have generated new interest in Mormonism. Stephen Mansfield's book The Mormonizing of America provides a careful study of this growing religion. The Book Stop blog is posting excerpts from the first two chapters of this book. The Mormons and the MediaNowhere in American society does this create an occasion of people talking past each other as when it comes to the media pursuing a prominent Mormon. Reporters naturally want to find something controversial about this visible person, so they ask about holy underwear....

The presidential race of Mitt Romney and the success of the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon have generated new interest in Mormonism. Stephen Mansfield's book The Mormonizing of America provides a careful study of this growing religion. The Book Stop blog is posting excerpts from the first two chapters of this book. What Matters to a MormonFor a Latter-day Saint, the heart of Mormonism is the restoration of priesthood authority. It is impossible to overstate this. At the core of everything Saintly is the unshakable belief that something lost for centuries was restored through Joseph Smith. It is now...

A group of about 150 Mormons quit their church in a mass resignation ceremony in Salt Lake City on Saturday in a rare display of defiance ending decades of disagreement for some over issues ranging from polygamy to gay marriage. Participants from Utah, Arizona, Idaho and elsewhere gathered in a public park to sign a "Declaration of Independence from Mormonism.""This feels awesome," said Alison Lucas, from West Jordan, Utah, who took part in the rally amid soaring temperatures. "I don't know if I would have had the courage except in a group." The Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day...

After rumors circulated earlier in the week, BYU’s Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship confirmed today that Daniel C. Peterson and his associate editors would be removed from the staff of the Mormon Studies Review, previously the FARMS Review. The periodical, which publishes articles and reviews on LDS-related topics and books, was founded by Peterson 23 years ago. Along with Peterson were also dismissed his associate editors Louis C. Midgley, George L. Mitton, Gregory L. Smith and Robert White. In a brief, anonymous statement posted on the Maxwell Institute’s website today the Institute stated, “For many years the FARMS Review has...

Mitt Romney has at least one demographic group squarely in his corner headed into November: Mormons. Some 77 percent of Utah Mormons said they are "very excited" or "somewhat excited" that Romney — himself a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — clinched the Republican nomination. And nearly as many say his primary victory is a positive development for the Mormon Church, according to a poll released Monday by Key Research and Brigham Young University’s Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy. According to the Religion News Service, studies show that Utah Mormons generally...

Four in 10 Americans do not know that Mitt Romney is a Mormon. PRINCETON, NJ -- Eighteen percent of Americans say they would not vote for a well-qualified presidential candidate who happens to be a Mormon, virtually the same as the 17% who held this attitude in 1967... The exact percentage of Americans who resist the idea of voting for a Mormon has varied slightly over the eight times Gallup has asked the question, typically when a Mormon was running for president, including George Romney (1968 campaign), Orrin Hatch (2000 campaign), and Mitt Romney (2008 and 2012 campaigns). The percentage...

The US Justice Department has filed suit against the adjoining towns of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, communities populated largely by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). ...FLDS...controls most...law enforcement and other government services in those two communities...It is charged with discriminating against those who are not members of the FLDS. The Justice Department...alleges...the cities’ joint police department “routinely uses its enforcement authority to enforce the edicts and will of the FLDS; fails to protect non-FLDS individuals from victimization by FLDS individuals; refuses to cooperate with other law enforcement agencies’ investigations of FLDS...

(To see Cal Grondahl’s cartoon that goes with this post click here) The months in Nauvoo following the murder of the LDS Church founder Joseph Smith were not surprisingly, filled with turmoil and political intrigue. The recent publication of “The Nauvoo City and High Council Minutes” by Signature Books provides detailed accounts of the Nauvoo Stake’s high council meetings. It’s very interesting reading. The High Council was a political tool, a body used to cast out prominent church members who did not support Brigham Young’s claim of leadership, or the church’s still-secret embrace of polygamy. The purge of those who...

Mitt Romney faces an anti-Mormon bias just as strong as the one his father confronted during his own presidential run more than four decades ago, according to a Gallup poll. Eighteen percent of Americans say that if their political party nominated “a generally well qualified person for president who happened to be Mormon,” they would not vote for that candidate. Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, is a devout Mormon who once presided over the church’s Boston stake. When Gallup asked the same question in 1967, during George Romney’s bid for the White House, 17 percent of Americans said they would...

Chapter 25 of this year’s Gospel Doctrine Class covers Alma 17-22 and encourages LDS members to share the gospel. I’m going to break away from my usual practice on commenting on the content of the lesson and instead talk about some of my experiences with Mormon missionaries. Over the years I have talked with literally hundreds of them. The vast majority of time our discussions have been quite courteous. One of the most encouraging things is how many are genuinely interested in hearing the wonderful news that eternal life is totally God’s gift to them. Sometimes they are eager to...

...When Sean replaced his temple garments — the sacred underwear he’d promised to wear day and night — with boxers, I couldn’t take it anymore. It was too much betrayal. I called up a neighbor with a husband like mine and cried. But instead of empathy, she offered questions that stunned me into silence. Was Sean addicted to pornography? Watching R-rated movies? What sin had brought him to this terrible place? ...Her questions were so off-base...She was sincere, and trying to help, but she believed what the Church teaches — that a man would only leave because he’s disobeying the...

Over the course of his life, Marco Rubio has prayed in Mormon sanctuaries, Catholic cathedrals and Protestant worship centers. According to the book, Rubio put forth the same energy he directed to the LDS teachings to the traditions of the Catholic Church, and still considers himself a member of the Church to this day. As a young man, he attended services with his wife at Christ Fellowship Church in Miami, but never felt the same attachment that he did to the ancient church. After years worshiping in a Protestant congregation, Rubio says, a campaign supporter brought him back to Catholicism....

Is Mormonism Christian? This may seem like a puzzling question to ask. Mormons include the Bible among the four books they recognize as Scripture and insist that Jesus Christ is central to their faith as evidenced by their official name, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Furthermore, Mormons’ commitment to high moral standards and strong families is impressive. Doesn’t it follow that Mormonism is genuinely Christian? The question here is not whether individual Mormons are saved (a question we cannot answer) or whether the LDS Church is “Christian” in the sense that any group that professes faith in...

Washington- Mitt Romney's Earthly goals seem to mesh nicely with his goals as a high priest in the Mormon church. But why don't we pretend to let the presumptive GOP candidate tell us himself, which he would if he were interested in discussing his religion. Hello. I’m Mitt Romney. I am a Temple Mormon, a High Priest, and as such I have sworn blood oaths of sacrifice, obedience and consecration to the church and the “Kingdom of God.” My perfect obedience to these laws will allow me to become a god in the next life, the literal father of the...

A Jack Mormon is someone who is Mormon, but ”trouble.”They are somewhere in between baptism and excommunication. If they even show up to church, they’re merely in the door, not on the stand, but also not escorted out. Foyer sitters.(That’s how I’ve heard the term used anyway.)In order to be a successful Jack Mormon, you need to incorporate multiple items from the following list into your life: Swear.Church apparel, for men: Wear jeans and any shirt color other than white to church. No tie. Tennis shoes.Church apparel, for women: Wear a sleeveless top and a mini skirt. Never wear panty...

................... Mormons seem to be everywhere. I want to be on record about this. I’m about as genuine a Mormon as you’ll find — a templegoer with a Utah pedigree and an administrative position in a congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am also emphatically not a Christian. -SNIP-In addition, these Christians had to defend their use of additional scripture and their unconventional conception of God and explain why they were following a bumpkin carpenter from some obscure backwater. Early Christianity’s relationship with non-Jews was even worse. Roman writers frequently alluded to rumors about...

..................................— it’s problematic to say Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, wish to be part of some cultural mainstream.If Latter-day Saints join the “mainstream,” how can they be “set apart” or “a city on a hill?” In short, it’s really not fully possible to be part of the mainstream and be a peculiar people at the same time.-SNIP-To the extent that Latter-day Saints — and other minorities — suffer at the hands of some dominant mainstream culture through persecution and then nevertheless try to become part of that same mainstream, what of the suffering?-SNIP-J. Spencer Fluhman’s recent op-ed in The New York...