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A Mormon bishop in Los Angeles is under fire for his assertion that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is unworthy to enter the faith's temples because of his support for Democratic Party positions. Mark Peredes' blog, titled "Good Riddance to Harry Reid, the Mormon Senate Leader," has drawn criticism from the church and Mormon Democrats. [SNIP] Reid spokeswoman Kristen Orthman on Saturday released a letter from a Mormon Democrat in Las Vegas to Paredes. "Our comment to this is to show you one of many comments Sen. Reid has received from his friends," Orthman said. The letter was written by...

Religions have surprisingly diverse approaches to the issue of possible extraterrestrial life, David Weintraub found. Below, a quick survey adapted from his book "Religions and Extraterrestrial Life: How Will We Deal With It?" and interviews with the author.

...FOR FAITHFUL LATTER-DAY SAINTS, the temple endowment ceremony is one of the most...powerful ordinances received in mortality. One authoritative source called it the temporal stepping stone which all people must pass to achieve exaltation with God the Father and Jesus Christ...1 ... 1 Gospel Essentials, rev. ed., sunday school manual (Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), 1979, 247. [SNIP] Another element of literalism disappeared in 1927 when kissing over the altar during vicarious sealings for the dead was abolished.129 Probably the greatest twentieth-century catalyst to increase the number of vicarious endowments was Heber J. Grant's emphasis...

I recently listened to an interesting podcast episode of Buddhist Geeks called “Creating Living Ritual” included a critique of modern Buddhism’s “dead” ritualism. The discussion included some thoughts about what modern ritual should include to be successful and ironically, many of those suggestions Joseph Smith included in the first endowment ceremony which have recently been removed or altered. It got me wondering: did Joseph Smith create better ritualistic practices than we have today? He goes on to lament that “Buddhist rituals, definitely including most Tantric Buddhist rituals, are nothing like that. They are dead, zombie rituals.” (emphasis mine) He also...

Baptisms for the dead often involve young people, ages twelve to seventeen. By appointment, they will spend two to three hours in the temple baptistery area, each person being baptized typically, for a score or more deceased persons. They dress in all-white baptismal clothing, attend a brief worship service, and then participate in the proxy baptisms. Those performing the baptism often include the adult male supervisors traveling with the group. It is understood that in the spirit world all persons for whom temple work by proxy is performed will have heard of the gospel and its ordinances

It’s Halloween week (though perhaps you already celebrated with a ToT), so Steve and I figured that it would only be appropriate to have a super-spooky ranking! This is some scary stuff! As always, these rankings are authoritative. 10. Cain/Bigfoot 9. BYU Honor Code Office Representative 8. Post-Manifesto Polygamist 7. Intellectual Feminist 6. Single Man Over 27 5. The Bible Dictionary 4. Non-intellectual Feminist 3. Steve Evans 2. Idolatrous God of Elkenah 1. Missionary who served, came home, and then got called back 4 years later like in that nightmare I have every 6 weeks

I have recently had the pleasure of playing Telltale Games' interactive masterpiece The Walking Dead (I'm not done yet, so refrain from spoiling it for me). And one thing that continues to astonish me about pieces of media such as this is how much our culture is fixated on the idea of a flesh-eating animated corpse. From World War Z to Zombieland to Warm Bodies, our society obviously finds something intensely fascinating about zombies, to the point where it is perhaps the most identifiable facet of today's mass media. But why? Why do zombies, of all things, capture our imagination...

1: 'Lucifer was one of us...' The so-called 'premortal' world Mormons claim they had as alien spirits on a distant planet, supposedly located near the star they call "Kolob": Joseph Fielding Smith, 10th "prophet" of the Mormon Church: "Before the foundations of this earth were laid, WE were ALL in the presence of the Father as spiritual children. Lucifer was one of us..." (Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr., Religious Truths Defined: A comparison of Religious Faiths with the Restored Gospel, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City, p. 67, 1959/1962) 2. Per a Mormon Seminary and Institute teacher in Salt Lake City, the so-called...

Over five years ago I wrote an article entitled ‘Demonic and Ungodly Names in the Book of Mormon’. Since then I have been asked by numerous people to write more on this particular subject so here it is! Back by popular demand I went through my old notes and found some other names that I think would be of interest to the Mormon and non-Mormon alike. There were more than 50 names of people and/or places that contradict what the Biblical accounts report. Here are just a few of them. ChemishThe name of Chemish so closely resembles the name of...

While studying some points of interest in Masonry, I came across some names within their books that sounded familiar to me. The familiarity became abundantly clear when I opened the Book of Mormon. I began researching some of the names in the Book of Mormon and their meanings. I compared them with the Bible, bible dictionaries and even Webster’s dictionary. I found 57 names of people and places that are demonic or names of false gods and their derivatives, however I have chosen to narrow this down to three names that I thought was most relevant. Someone mentioned to me...

When: September 18, 2014 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pmWhere: Albrecht Auditorium Claremont Graduate University The Claremont Colleges,925 North Dartmouth Avenue,Claremont,CA 91711 USA Title: “Zombies, Vampires, and the Book of Mormon” Abstract: Zombies and vampires bend the rules of time. Death arrives for them but, even after its arrival, their lives continue. They die but, rather than passing on to the next world, they continue in this one. In this sense, zombies and vampires model an important aspect of Christian life: the Christian’s preemptive abandonment of their own life (their willingness to be crucified with Christ), in order to begin...

Mitt Romney loyalists are trying to gin up the narrative that Republicans just can't get enough of Romney.“Democrats don’t want to be associated with Barack Obama right now, but Republicans are dying to be associated with Mitt Romney,” Spencer Zwick, "a longtime Romney confidant who chaired his national finance council," claimed to the Washington Post. The Chamber of Commerce, which has vowed to wage war on the Tea Party and push through amnesty legislation, glowingly praised Romney, alleging he would be in a "commanding position" if he entered the 2016 race. Romney is reportedly set to make trips to West...

The last time a Canadian court was asked to consider whether the act of polygamy should be protected as a religious freedom, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association argued that “individuals should be free to make the life choices they wish,” so long as those choices didn’t harm other people. The argument against polygamy was it did just that – placing women, some troublingly young, and children at the behest of powerful patriarchs. Just three years ago, the B.C. Supreme Court seemed to put the debate to bed, ruling that Canadian laws that banned polygamy were constitutional and important. But now...

Talk to any of Mitt Romney’s closest political advisers, and the answer is the same: He won’t run for president in 2016. “I take Mitt at his absolute word. He’s not running,” says Ron Kaufman, Republican national committeeman for Massachusetts and a senior adviser to Mr. Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. ........................................................ But in Chicago last week, when asked about his draft effort, Utah GOP chairman James Evans was happy to talk. “We are mindful of Romney insiders’ concerns, but we’re not going away,” says Mr. Evans.

As I’ve thought about the issues of asking questions, faithful agitation, and looking for a much-needed change regarding gender inequality in the Church, I have come to the conclusion that we as a church don’t know all there is to know about God. None of that has to take away from the truthfulness of the Gospel, but the suggestion that the Church is perfect makes the declaration of having a living prophet seem a bit confusing. If there are not things that we are waiting to open our eyes to (which means God is waiting on us to ask him)...

Announcement: 9 November 1871 Groundbreaking and Site Dedication: 9 November 1871 by Brigham Young Private Dedication: 1 January 1877 by Wilford Woodruff, Erastus Snow, and Brigham Young Dedication: 6–8 April 1877 by Daniel H. Wells (with Brigham Young presiding) SNIP The St. George Utah Temple is the first temple where endowments for the dead were performed. The Founding Fathers of the United States of America appeared twice to Wilford Woodruff in the St. George Utah Temple asking why their temple work had yet not been performed on their behalves. A striking painting depicting this singular event hangs in the temple...

Marriott International launched its #LoveTravels marketing campaign on June 2, targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender customers—as well as pro-LGBT consumers—with a campaign designed to “convey the company’s commitment to make everyone feel comfortable being who they are.” The campaign already has its own dedicated website (two of them, actually); hotel-mounted billboards in Washington DC; and is spreading in social and LGBT media. Shot by the photographer Braden Summers, it features the recently out-of-the-closet basketball player Jason Collins and the transgender model Geena Rocero, and invites people to share their stories of travel on social media with the hashtag #LoveTravels....

Lawsuit claims teen girl was repeatedly abused by Mormon missionary in 1985 in Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert.PALM SPRINGS – A lawsuit filed Friday against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a church bishop and a missionary, claims a woman was repeatedly sexually abused when she was a teenager in Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert, and it was covered up. The lawsuit, which was filed in Riverside County Superior Court in Palm Springs, contends that from July to November 1985, Jacqueline Tyler, then 13, was repeatedly abused by a missionary and that after a church bishop learned of...

TROUTDALE, Ore.–Jared Michael Padgett was a straight-arrow kid who had a fascination with guns, planned a career in the military and was deeply devoted to his Mormon faith, those who knew him say. And they're all wondering why the 15-year-old took an assault rifle, a handgun and nine ammunition magazines to his high school and killed a fellow freshman, injured a teacher and took his own life. Police said Wednesday that they have not been able to establish a link between Padgett and Emilio Hoffman, the 14-year-old who was shot dead in a locker room. Police have not said whether...

PLAIN CITY, Weber County — A man convicted of assaulting another man over saved seats at an LDS meetinghouse chapel was ordered Wednesday to serve 30 days in jail. Wayne Dodge, 52, pleaded guilty in May to assault, a class B misdemeanor. In exchange for his plea, an additional charge of aggravated assault, a third-degree felony, was dropped. On June 30, 2013, Dodge, who regularly attended the Meadows Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Plain City, got into an argument with another family that was visiting. The church that day had a full house during...