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NEW YORK — Six Bahá’í leaders in Iran were arrested and taken to the notorious Evin prison yesterday in a sweep that is ominously similar to episodes in the 1980s when scores of Iranian Bahá’í leaders were summarily rounded up and killed. The six men and women, all members of the national-level group that helped see to the minimum needs of Bahá’ís in Iran, were in their homes Wednesday morning when government intelligence agents entered and spent up to five hours searching each home, before taking them away.The seventh member of the national coordinating group was arrested in early March...

The Wikimedia Foundation has received a copyright infringement claim from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church. The infringement claim is in reference to a URL used as a source in a Wikinews article about Mormon Church documents leaked to the website Wikileaks, titled "Copy of handbook for leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints obtained by Wikinews". The URL was originally cited as a link in the sources subsection of the article. The Wikimedia Foundation is a donor-supported non-profit organization which runs Wikipedia and Wikinews. This is the first...

Mormonism, like many Protestant churches, began as a restorationist movement, which is to say that it was dedicated to “restoring” everything in the Bible. Joseph Smith, Jr., Mormonism’s founding prophet, felt especially close to the Old Testament, so he believed his mission was to restore Old as well as New Testament traditions such as the authority of prophets, temple rituals, and the ancient Semitic custom of plural marriage. Midwestern Origins According to Mosiah Hancock, whose father, Levi, reportedly performed a plural marriage for the Mormon prophet, the first of these unions occurred in Ohio in 1833 when Joseph married...

HOLYHEAD, Wales — A man who dressed up as Darth Vader, wearing a garbage bag for a cape, and assaulted the founders of a group calling itself the Jedi church was given a suspended sentence Tuesday. Arwel Wynne Hughes, 27, attacked Jedi church founder Barney Jones — aka Master Jonba Hehol — with a metal crutch, hitting him on the head, prosecutors told Holyhead Magistrates' Court. He also whacked Jones' 18-year-old cousin, Michael Jones — known as Master Mormi Hehol — bruising his thigh in the March 25 incident, prosecutors said. The two cousins and Barney Jones' brother, Daniel, set...

Man On The Moon--A Colossal Hoax that Cost Billions of Dollars Although many believe man first reached the moon in July, 1969, we have information from a very reliable source, the Sanskrit Vedic scriptures, that the astronauts never actually went to the moon. The manned moon landing was a colossal hoax. Satsvarupa dasa Goswami (04-08-08) Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, the spiritual master of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, once described materialistic civilization as "a society of the-cheaters and the cheated." Looking at our modern world, we can easily see why: massive advertising campaigns for cigarettes and liquor that...

INHABITANTS OF THE MOON By D. B. Huntington. From the Young Woman's Journal Vol 3 published by the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Associations of Zion in 1892 Astronomers and philosophers have, from time almost immemorial until very recently, asserted that the moon was uninhabited, that it had no atmosphere etc.. But recent discoveries, through the means of powerful telescopes, have given scientists a doubt or two upon the old theory.Nearly all the great discoveries of men in the last half-century have, in one way or another, either directly or indirectly, contributed to prove Joseph Smith to be a Prophet.As far...

SELF-GOVERNMENT - MYSTERIES - RECREATION AND AMUSEMENTS, NOT IN THEMSELVES SINFUL - TITHING - ADAM, OUR FATHER AND OUR GOD   A SERMON DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT BRIGHAM YOUNG, IN THE TABERNACLE,GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, APRIL 9, 1852 1:46   It is my intention to preach several discourses this evening, but howmany I do not know. I will in the first place bear testimony to the truth of many remarks made by brother Hunter, and especially his exhortation to the Seventies and Elders, and those men who wish to go on missions. I wish also to urge the necessity of your...

Why I left the Episcopal Church by Dr Moheb Ghali April 22nd, 2008 Occasionally I am asked why I found it necessary, after four decades of committed service, to leave the Episcopal Church. My answer is: I had to choose whom to believe. On many issues central to my faith what Jesus and the Apostles say and what the leaders of the Episcopal Church say are incompatible. I chose to believe in what Jesus and the Apostles say, and that made it necessary to leave the Episcopal Church. The Bishops of the Church, who are the Ecclesiastical Authorities in their...

Recently, I spoke to a group of non-Utahns. It was clear from the beginning that none of them knew much about Mormons other than we were possibly - how to put this nicely? - nuts. These were not stupid people. In fact, I admit to being the dumbest person in the room. They were in Salt Lake for a university-level conference. They probably all had doctorates in stuff more or less useful. After my gab, I took polite questions about Mormonism, namely polygamy, the temple, plural marriage, underwear, extra wives and some more about polygamy. One lady wanted to know...

Why Every Calvinist Should Be a Premillennialist, Part 1 Selected Scriptures Now I've been telling you for a number of months that we were going to get in to the subject of eschatology, the doctrine of last things. We've been working our way through doctrinal emphases in Scripture, doctrinal themes. And we have covered a lot of ground, but we now come to the doctrines that relate to the end times. And in line with that, I want to try at least in the next couple of Sunday nights to establish a foundation for our understanding. Now talking about eschatology...

04/09/2008 01:57 AM ID: 69863 Wikileaks Leaks Scientology Secrets Wikileaks has "leaked" some of Scientology's top secret bibles and is not backing down from threats coming from lawyers. Instead of taking down the documents, they instead told the world that it has been verified. Some of the drills L Ron Hubbard says will reach OT1 is: 2) Note several large and small female bodies until you have a cognition. Note it down. 3) Note several large and several small male bodies until you have a cognition. Note it down. Scientology attorneys are claiming that the works are copyrighted while Wikileaks...

Standoff emerges at polygamist retreat 8 minutes ago Ambulances are being sent to a polygamist compound in West Texas as authorities prepare "for the worst" in a conflict with members of the compound. Prosecutor Allison Palmer says sect leaders Saturday refused to let authorities search a temple for a 16-year-old member who reported being physically abused. Palmer tells the San Angelo Standard-Times that medical workers are being sent "in case this were to a go in a way that no one wants." She says that law enforcers are "preparing for the worst." A search warrant authorized troopers to enter the...

"The Court agrees that it was major divisions such as those within the Methodist and Presbyterian churches that prompted the passage of 57-9. However, it blinks at reality to characterize the ongoing division within the Diocese, ECUSA, and the Anglican Communion as anything but a division of the first magnitude..."

It's been nearly a quarter of a century since Freemasons in Utah rescinded a 60-year ban that prohibited Latter-day Saints from joining their fraternity. And while many remember the religious division that had characterized Freemasonry in the Beehive State from pioneer times, Glen Cook believes he is evidence that things are changing among his Masonic brethren. Cook, a Salt Lake criminal defense attorney and Brigham Young University law school graduate, is believed to be the first member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be elected grand master in Utah in nearly a century, overseeing the activities...

Oprah Winfrey fans? While I find her an adorable personality like most everyone else, Oprah is spreading a form of spiritual cancer that has the last days written all over it. Is Oprah likeable? Yes, but does that change the fact that she is helping spread the false gospel of Eckhart Tolle? No. Thus, we need to beware exposing ourselves to Oprah Winfrey spirituality. As you watch the attached video below, remember the words of 1st Timothy 4:1: Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and...

If a Mormon ever points to divisions within mainstream Christendom for apologetic purposes, as a complaint against Christian unity, my usual response is: "Just wait. Mormonism is only 250 years old. You'll have plenty of your own when you get to be 2050." In fact you need not even wait that long. We have recently acquired a book titled Divergent Paths of Restoration by one Steven Shields which provides what appears to be an exhuastive catalog of Mormon schismatic movements. (You can still buy it here, in fact.) Let us be clear about our intent: We are not striving, as...

George Conger observes that the recent depositions of John-David Schofield and William Cox were basically foregone conclusions: US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori failed to follow the procedural rules governing the trial of Bishop William Cox for “abandonment of the Communion” of the Episcopal Church an investigation by The Church of England Newspaper has found. In a March 12 press conference, Bishop Schori stated she had not followed rules governing the requirement that the 88-year old retired bishop be granted a speedy trial, that he be informed of the charges against him in a timely fashion, and that the consent...

Robert Munday illustrates the complete moral bankruptcy of the Episcopal Organization: You wrote, "I believe that the call of our Presiding Bishop to be compassionate toward these two bishops is genuine..." Let me state emphatically that I do not believe this to be the case. Bishop Cox had already been received into another province. He should have been spared this action. The PB was informed that Betty Cox is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and that the action against Bishop Cox was causing her severe mental distress. The PB was informed of this publicly by Kendall Harmon at the clergy day...

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori made it clear Friday night that she will direct The Episcopal Church to move ahead to reconstitute the Diocese of San Joaquin and to establish control over church property swiftly. In addition, she said, she intends to begin the process of revising the denomination’s canons to allow it to deal more expeditiously with breakaway bishops.   “I expect to see revisions to the canons to deal with situations like the one that you have been living with in San Joaquin for several years,” she said.   The Presiding Bishop spoke at a question-and-answer session at...

Bishop Mark Lawrence of South Carolina and the diocesan standing committee have made public a  letter sent March 27 to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori in which she was asked not to proceed with a “special convention” meeting she announced and personally will convene on March 29 at St. John the Baptist Church in Lodi, Calif.  The meeting agenda includes adoption of the 2003 version of the San Joaquin Constitution and Canons certification of delegates and ratification of Bishop Jefferts Schori’s nomination of retired Northern California Bishop Jerry Lamb to be provisional bishop for the newly reconstituted diocese. The diocese...

There are storms and then there are monster storms--the sort that spring from an unlikely confluence of an array of separate unpredictable events. And the effect can be devastating. If you're an Anglican or have an interest in things Anglican, you may have thought you were traveling on rough seas already. (I've been one for 34 years, and I have yet to see conditions I would describe as placid.) But hold on. We ain't seen nuthin' yet. What are the ingredients of this Perfect Storm? I'm not going to look for origins back at the dawn of creation itself, though...

At least one version of an e-mail that's been spreading like wildfire in recent days says it this way: "Check this picture out. It has just been released by the RLDS church as being an authentic picture of the prophet Joseph Smith." The message includes a photograph that may or may not be a scan of a historical image captured by early photographic technology of the founder and first president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  LDS Church publicists released a short statement on Wednesday saying that church officials can neither confirm nor deny the authenticity of...

A new film on Jesus, told from an Islamic perspective, has drawn mixed reactions from the Christian community over its claim that Jesus did not die on the cross but was replaced by Judas Iscariot. “The Messiah� – written, produced and directed by Iranian filmmaker Nader Talebzadeh - was filmed in the Islamic Republic of Iran with Iranian actors to portray how Muslims understand the life of Jesus based on the teachings of the Qur’an and the Gospel of Barnabas – a book not included in the Christian Bible and in which the Prophet Mohammed appears. The movie features two...

On the evening of May 22 in Haifa, Israel, more than 4,500 people are expected to gather on "God's Holy Mountain," Mt. Carmel, for a dedication ceremony of the new Shrine of the Bab, a succession of 19 terraced gardens that evoke the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and the Baha'i World Center, a complex of classically designed shrines and administrative buildings which will serve as the headquarters for an emerging world religion.The dedication of the new complex signals Baha'i's growing prominence in the world, and its leadership in the evolution of a new one-world religion — which it claims...

TLC is reporting: "When questioned about canonical inconsistencies during a telephone press conference at the conclusion of the meeting, Bishop Michael Curry of North Carolina said the bishops had relied on advice provided to them by canonical experts, and did not examine canonical procedure during plenary debate prior to the votes to depose bishops Schofield and Cox." http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/site/article/10835/

The first openly gay Episcopal bishop announced he will have no official role in a meeting this summer of world Anglican leaders, saying restrictions that organizers wanted to place on his involvement had caused him "considerable pain." New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson had been told last year that he could not fully participate in the once-a-decade gathering in England, called the Lambeth Conference, as the world Anglican Communion sat on the brink of schism over his 2003 election. Still, Episcopal leaders had been negotiating with the Anglican Communion Office to allow him to join the event in some capacity....

The Episcopal Church's only openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, said Monday that he would not attend a global gathering of Anglicans in London this summer, telling fellow Episcopal leaders he had declined an offer that he said would not have allowed him to play any meaningful role at that meeting. Robinson, who is attending a retreat this week in Texas with other Episcopal bishops, told the group he had decided not to attend the Lambeth Conference, after negotiations for him to participate or be granted official observer status had failed. His remarks were released by the...

BREAKING: JI Packer threatened with suspension Michael Daley on Feb-28-2008 As evidence of the escalating crisis in the global Anglican Communion, today one of the of the world’s most esteemed Christian theologians, Dr. J.I. Packer, received a letter threatening suspension from ministry by the controversial Bishop of New Westminster, Michael Ingham. Bishop Ingham accused Dr. Packer, hailed by Time Magazine as the “doctrinal Solomon” of Christian thinkers, “to have abandoned the exercise of ministry” after the church where he is a member voted to separate from the diocese and join the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone under the oversight...

"...nvolve your congregation in Earth Ministry. Ask them to support us by taking our Membership Challenge, and maybe you will win a special workshop for your congregation. And what better day to support our work by taking a special collection or shared plate offering? These congregational gifts are a significant source of support for our work. The enclosed Celebration resource package gives you all you need to get started. As you celebrate Earth Day 2008, rejoice in the knowledge that you do so in spiritual community committed to the interdependent web of all existence. In Faith, Claudia Kern for the...

I'm going with the "72-hour rule" on this one. I'll believe this when I see it: Dr Rowan Williams has held confidential talks with senior American bishops and theologians who oppose the pro-gay policies of their liberal leaders. A handful of hardline American dioceses are already defecting from the Episcopal Church, the American branch of Anglicanism, and transferring their loyalties to a conservative archbishop in South America. Dr Williams is desperate to minimise further damage in the run up to the once-a-decade Lambeth Conference this summer which could be boycotted by more than a fifth of the world's bishops. His...

They're called the "Lost Boys," the teenagers kicked out of their homes and communities by leaders of the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to ensure there's an ample supply of single, young women who will one day become plural wives. Representative Lorie Fowlke (R-Orem), is running a bill to make this abandonment a felony. "Estimates are that we've had more than 1,000 children - primarily in southern Utah - thrown out of their homes," Fowlke says. "What we were trying to do with this bill is criminalize this behavior and send a message to this...

Haven't Anti-Mormons Completely Destroyed the Credibility of Mormonism? It is a common myth that anti-Mormon attacks have completely overwhelmed the intellectual position of Latter-day Saints, leaving us with nothing but blind faith in "warm feelings" we get about the Church. The portrayal of Mormons as idiots without any intellectual foundation in our religion is a common caricature based on deceptive marketing. With the flood of anti-Mormon arguments, books, pamphlets, movies, and Web sites, it is easy to think that Mormonism would be completely devastated if only 10% of all the things said against it were true. I once met...

Can you summarize the reason for the title, Pagan Christianity ? Sure. The title neatly packs the entire point of the book into two words. Pagan Christianity is actually an oxymoron . . . both terms carry concepts that are mutually exclusive. And that is precisely what we have on the earth today. Modern Christianity, whether Protestant or Catholic, is a blending of pagan and Christian practices and mindsets. The book demonstrates that virtually all of the practices of the modern church have their roots in pagan culture rather than the Word of God. The book contains over 1100 footnotes...

Thank you for accepting our invitation to learn more about Catholics Come Home and returning to your Catholic faith. God, our Father, created a big and loving family in His Church. Jesus prays that we are one (John 17:21-23), as He and His father in heaven are one. As brothers and sisters in Christ, we wish to invite you to learn more about our family in faith:a Church filled with beauty, miracles, heroes, history, love and peace. Whether you are on a journey into the Catholic Church or returning to the Catholic Church, you have come to a good place....

Jesus Was an Iconoclast During the days of the Byzantine Empire , a group of religious zealots arose in the Orthodox Church known as iconoclasts. Their self-appointed job was to go to various religious sites and smash what they called idols, which to them were various forms of religious art that depicted saints and the Deity.Iconoclasm in our world has come to have a different meaning. Its broader meaning refers to the practice of forcefully challenging, even destroying, established beliefs or institutions. Jesus was an iconoclast because he loved to challenge his day’s conventional thinking. He challenged the Pharisees’...

Lately it seems that many of us are living as if we are over-caffeinated hamsters on well-greased exercise wheels. We run and run as fast as we can and still don't manage to arrive at our destinations. At the end of the day there are still a slew of chores undone on the to-do list. We struggle to find time to savor the company of our loved ones, enjoy life and relax. Our physical, emotional and spiritual needs often are abandoned due to the demands of modern life. Spiritual teacher and author Waverly Fitzgerald believes we'd all benefit by changing...

Fresh hell, people. Gitcher fresh hell here. I am not making this up. This is what 815 is offering as part of its Lenten resources this year. Here is the downloadable Word file. Some suggested options for activities are: (can be modified as appropriate) - Station 1: Bag lunches to be distributed to those in need the next day Bring goods and organize for a local food pantry. - Station 2: Create a card using a poster-size piece of paper. Have each pilgrim write encouraging words, scripture, drawings, etc., making sure to write at the level of a primary school...

For the first time in recent memory, a new manual Mormons will use to study the writings of founder Joseph Smith acknowledges Smith's role in introducing the practice of polygamy. The acknowledgment may not seem groundbreaking to many Mormons or historians, nor will it likely satisfy most critics, but its inclusion in an official course of study is a departure from past practices and may signal a new openness about Mormon history. The change is "not a response to critics who think the church has not been straightforward about its involvement with plural marriage in the 19th century," said David...

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church's Title IV Review Committee has certified that Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan has abandoned the communion of the church. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori informed Duncan on January 15 of the certification and sent him a copy. Her letter told Duncan that she sought the canonically required permission from the House's three senior bishops with jurisdiction to inhibit him, based on the certification, from the performance of any episcopal, ministerial or canonical acts. "On 11 January 2008 they informed me that such consents would not be given at this time by all...

This looks like a good resource: When the day's news is about "witches," many Americans reflexively conjure up images of ugly, wicked hags from stories like "Snow White" and "The Wizard of Oz" – or more recently, the smiling "good witches" of Harry Potter books and films. But none of these fictional fantasies has anything to do with the real thing. The real thing – that is, the stunning phenomenon of more and more American housewives, students, professors, and even soldiers self-identifying as "witches" – is the topic of the January edition of WND's elite monthly Whistleblower magazine. Titled "WITCHCRAFT...

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The Christmas tree hadn't been put up yet, but it was coming. It would find a place in the Blackburn/Fields household between the Wiccan altar in the front room and the orthodox Christian icon display in the eastern section of the house. It is with the tree, a commercialized symbol of the holiday with roots in long-ago pagan rituals, that orthodox Christian Teena Blackburn and her husband Anthony Fields, a Wiccan, find common cultural ground. But Blackburn and Fields, married six years, also find a meeting of the minds through their similar approaches to very different religious...

Former Episcopal Priest Explores Christianity and Druidry in New Novel http://www.bloggernews.net/112455 December 17th, 2007 by suzanne evans On March 22nd 2005, The Rev Walter William Melnyk was forced out of the priesthood of the US Episcopal Church after facing charges of “holding private opinions inconsistent with the teachings of the Church.” This allegation, effectively a heresy charge, ended his 23 year-strong vocation as a priest, even though his only transgression was to look into Celtic Christianity and its connection with pre-Christian Druidry. Now, Walter William Melnyk has delved further into those links in a new novel written with Druid priestess...

Apologist James White continues answering the question “Are Mormons another kind of Christians?� using LDS Sources:The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provides a tremendous amount of literature to its people. This body of printed material can hardly be surveyed here. However, we can focus upon those publications that are specifically meant to communicate doctrinal truth to the members of the Mormon Church. Since the vast majority of this material appears in Church published documents, we feel quite confident that we are being fair in allowing it to speak and bear testimony to the LDS position. Melchizedek Priesthood Study...

(PRLEAP.COM) December 14, 2007 - After urging support for the canonization of Descartes or Cartesius in November, the Bishop of the Cesidian Church consecrates Descartes as the church’s first saint after a canonization process. According to the Bible, a saint is one who is sanctified, consecrated, set apart as sacred. Early Christians were all called saints. Over time, the term saint came to refer to a person who was recognized as having attained a certain level of holiness. Bishops and martyrs became the first kinds of saints to be venerated by the early Christian church, and later the hermit type...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) _ Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney discussed few specifics of what he believes as a Mormon during a speech on faith in America today. That's exactly what political observers in the church's home state said he should have done. Here's what some of them have to say: Romney supporter and Hinckley Institute of Politics head Kirk Jowers says Romney didn't have enough time to address all of the issues some people have with the Mormon faith. Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, a Democrat and inactive Mormon, says every Mormon has to obey church leaders and...

[SNIP] "...Until 1978, the so-called Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was an officially racist organization. Mitt Romney was an adult in 1978. We need to know how he justified this to himself, and we need to hear his self-criticism, if he should chance to have one . . . "Until 1978, no black American was permitted to hold even the lowly position of deacon in the Mormon Church, and nor were any (not that there were many applicants) admitted to the sacred rites of the temple. The Mormon elders then had a 'revelation' and changed the rules, thus...

This week’s sentencing of FLDS Church leader Warren Jeffs on accessory to rape charges has left a large question mark hanging over the fate of the long-established polygamous sect along the Utah-Arizona border. The episode brings to mind the collapse of another Mormon splinter group after the demise of its leader — a group many Utahns and Cache Valley residents might have forgotten or perhaps never heard of. The community of avowed “Mormons” lead by James J. Strang on the Beaver Island in Lake Michagan broke up soon after Strang’s death at the hands of disenchanted followers in 1856....

Peggy Fletcher Stack has been all over a story coming out of Utah, where she reports on religion for The Salt Lake Tribune. A week and a half ago, she wrote about an interesting change being made by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: The LDS Church has changed a single word in its introduction to the Book of Mormon, a change observers say has serious implications for commonly held LDS beliefs about the ancestry of American Indians. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe founder Joseph Smith unearthed a set of gold plates...

divine substitute. How could God express simultaneously his holiness in judgment and his love in pardon? Only by providing a divine substitute for the sinner, so that the substitute would receive the judgment and the sinner the pardon. We sinners still of course have to suffer some of the personal, psychological and social consequences of our sins, but the penal consequence, the deserved penalty of alienation from God, has been borne by Another in our place, so that we may be spared it.---"The Cross of Christ" by John R. W. Stott The Uniqueness of Christ. "The ultimate issue in relation...

Dear Canterbury Adventurers, [feel free to forward] There has been a lot of interesting national and international newsthat’s been going on over the past month, but it's also the season ofdiocesan conventions.  So I'm highlighting some of the news out ofvarious dioceses, specifically a round dozen of them. The reports on the parish property lawsuits in Virginia areparticularly compelling and are about halfway down. Taken as a whole, it is somewhat depressing to look at all of this --but I am surprisingly thankful to be an Episcopalian during thishistoric time in the Anglican Communion -- we live in very excitingand...