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Mormonism in the News: Getting It Right

Today we feature several articles that note the Church’s longstanding political neutrality statement, a commentary from a local Church leader that corrects Mormon myths, an article from the Palm-Beach Post that correctly describes a variety of aspects of Mormonism and a column in American Thinker that refutes the claim that Mormons are “secretive.”

Mormon 'Mother of the Year' Winner for California Talks Parenting

Being a mother “makes us the best we can be,” said Janna Davis O’Bryant, who was named the Mother of the Year for California by American Mothers, Inc.

Change lowers LDS Church growth rate

If you suspected the newly released U.S. Religion Census overstated the LDS Church’s growth rate, you were right. That’s because, this time around, the Utah-based faith changed the way it reported its membership to the researchers. The once-a-decade study was assembled by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, which included self-reported data on adherents for 153 participating bodies.

Mormon and Jewish leaders tour Brigham City Utah Temple together

A delegation from the American Jewish Committee (AJC) met with leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) recently.The visit included discussions on religious freedom and secularism in addition to taking a tour of the newly completed Brigham City Utah Temple. The group also visited other Church sites including the Family History Library, Welfare Square, Humanitarian Center and Temple Square.

Early deaf Saints is topic of church history lecture

Anne Leahy will present stories of early deaf Mormons in "God Made Me Deaf: Accounts from Deaf Latter-day Saints, 1836-1916," a Men and Women of Faith lecture hosted by the Church History Library on Thursday, April 12, at 7 p.m. in the Church Office Building main auditorium. The event is free and open to the public, and American Sign Language translation will be available.

LDS faith, Olympics to be big at GOP convention

Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith will be front-and-center [this] week, presented to millions of Americans watching as Romney accepts his party’s presidential nomination. Romney’s biography presented on the closing night of the convention will feature speakers who have worked with Romney in his role as a lay leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Russ Schriefer, a strategist for the Romney campaign, said Friday.

From the Church

Relief Society Sister Oversees World Cup Event in Costa Rica

Costa Rica recently staged the Women’s Under-17 World Cup, becoming the first Central American nation to host a World Cup tournament. The international competition drew top teams from 32 nations and captured the attention of “futbol” fanatics worldwide.

Fun

LDS Teens Make Prom Clothes Out of Duct Tape, Win $5,000

MR says: It just goes to show a little frugality mixed with some creativity goes a long way!

Jessica Nelson

Jessica Nelson is a historian and documentary editor for the Joseph Smith Papers. She completed a BA in American studies at Brigham Young University and an MS in history at Utah State University, where she held the Milner/Butler Editorial Fellowship at the Western Historical Quarterly. Her thesis, titled “‘The Mississippi of the West’: Religion, Conservatism, and Racial Politics in Utah, 1960–1978,” was awarded the Lester E. Bush Best Thesis Award by the Mormon History Association in 2018. Previous to joining the Joseph Smith Papers, she worked as a research assistant for the women’s history team at the Church History Department.

Rachel Cope

Rachel Cope received a BA and MA in history from Brigham Young University and a PhD in American history, with an emphasis in women’s history and religious history, from Syracuse University. Rachel is a scholar of women’s spirituality and conversion in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and works as an associate professor of Church History and Doctrine at BYU. Rachel is deeply committed to raising awareness of and funding for obstetric fistula victims throughout the global south.