In June 1979, a coalition of conservative religious leaders led by a Jewish Howard Phillips, Catholic Paul Weyrich, and evangelical televangelist Jerry Falwell banded together to wage a political "holy war" against the liberal establishment. They called their organization the "Moral Majority" to signify the large number of social conservatives they believed were being ignored across American culture. Forming a political action committee, the organization registered 4 million voters in 1980 and purchased $10 million in radio and television ads questioning President Carter's patriotism and Christianity. Its message struck a chord with a large swath of Americans, and their efforts are credited with helping to elect Ronald Reagan. More importantly, the birth of the coalition began of a period of political dominance for the religious conservatives that would span at least three decades.

The Book of Mormon is among five holy books that go "under the knife" in a new publication by the American Humanist Association that attempts to do for these religious texts what Thomas Jefferson did with his personal cut-and-paste Bible. “A Jefferson Bible for the Twenty-First Century,” an e-book available through HumanistPress.com, includes a copy of the original Jefferson Bible, which the third president of the United States created for his personal use by cutting favored passages of scripture from the four New Testament gospels and pasting them together to form a single sequential narrative. According to the American Humanist Association website, the new publication “also includes similarly edited versions of the Hebrew Bible (or Tanakh), the Quran, the (Hindu) Bhagavad Gita, the Buddhist sutras and the Book of Mormon.”

You’ve heard the story before- a missionary goes to a foreign land, only knowing the bare minimum of the language, and without showing any signs of fluency, miraculously teaches the whole lesson.

Each month, LDS youth around the world study a different doctrinal principle that is coordinated across Young Men, Young Women, and youth Sunday School classes. The topic for August is Commandments. The youth will learn how obedience to Heavenly Father’s commandments affects their happiness in this life and their progression toward eternal life in the world to come. As youth keep the commandments and continually repent, they will manifest their love for the Lord and keep themselves free from worldly influences.

Deseret News recently featured a story that tells what Latter-day Saints wrote about Joseph Smith and his speaking abilities. These quotes give us a little insight on what it would have been like to hear Joseph Smith speak at the first general conference.

It's a scripture most missionaries know by heart. It's the scripture that led to the Restoration of the Church. It's also the scripture that is the Mutual theme for this year.

The way I see missionary work now is this: We have Preach My Gospel, we have the scriptures, the white handbook, and key indicators—all these things that the Apostles gave to us so that we can measure, be effective, and do it how the Lord wants us to bring the gospel to people. This is all like a framework. Scaffolding. These are our boundaries, our frames, how we work. But there NEEDS to be filling. A sidewalk cannot be created without cement. And what goes into that frame, that scaffolding, that filling, that is where we are individual. It is really HOW we connect with people. It is HOW we use our talents and abilities to connect and love and serve the people we are working with.

I remember the moment that I first heard contemporary Christian worship music: a friend of mine was sharing a song he was planning on playing at his youth worship services that coming Sunday. I listened out of politeness—I wasn't expecting to feel anything. Before the song was even halfway over, however, I was feeling something— something that moved me deeply. That friend and I spent hours talking about the similarities and differences in our faith over the weeks and months that we worked together. I grew to respect and understand that his faith ran as deeply in him as mine did in me.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued the following statement Friday after a court ruling on same-sex marriage in Utah:

MR says: Want to learn how to better teach the gospel and keep the spirit in your home? Who better to teach these lessons than our beloved prophet?