Search

Filters
There are 2,272 results that match your search. 2,272 results
As a product, on one level, of the early 19th century United States, the Prophet Joseph Smith "shared the idealism and passion for freedom and human rights that were the motivating principles" of the American Revolution, said Daniel C. Peterson Aug. 5 in the closing presentation of the FAIR Conference. FAIR, the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Apologetics, is a volunteer organization that seeks to counter criticisms against Mormonism, though it is not affiliated with and does not speak for the Church.
Nearly every home has at least one Bible, although few read it. But 16 percent of Americans log on to Twitter every day. And that’s where author Jana Riess takes the word of God. A popular Mormon blogger at Religion News Service and author of “Flunking Sainthood,” Riess spent four years tweeting every book of the Old and New Testaments with pith and wit.
Most Americans are a bit gun-shy when it comes to talking about faith and politics. And it’s no wonder, given that for the last few decades we’ve seen religion used as a political weapon on sensitive personal issues, like the most recent entanglement that seems to be rolling back the clock on contraception for women. As the landmark election of President Obama in 2008 presented an important opportunity to discuss race in America, this year presents another important opportunity: to improve the quality of our national conversation on religion, as America contemplates the presidential candidacy of Mitt Romney.
In “The Book of Mormon: A Biography,” (Princeton University Press, 2012) author Paul C. Gutjahr notes that critiques and evaluations of Mormonism’s most important book have moved simple two-way, primarily theological debates between Mormon apologists and mostly evangelical critics who opposed the book for its claims of being holy scripture. As Gutjahr writes, including his own, slim but scholarly volume as one example, “By the early twenty-first century it was finally escaping the narrow confines of Mormon/non-Mormon religious debate as it increasingly came to be treated as an important text in American culture more generally.”
Even as an explosion of new broadcast networks and channels splintered the American television market, a little university channel called BYUtv extended its reach to 60 million homes in the first decade of its existence while consistently broadcasting university devotionals, scripture roundtables and other content aimed primarily at Mormons.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has filed a pair of briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to uphold California’s Proposition 8 and the federal Defense of Marriage Act. The briefs were drafted by lawyers for the LDS Church here in Utah and filed Jan. 29 before the nation’s top court on behalf of the National Association of Evangelicals, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Lutheran Church-MIssouri Synod, the Romanian-American Evangelical Alliance of North America, Truth in Action Ministries, and the Mormon Church.
On this day, in the year 1983, Larry Nielson was the first American to complete a task that less than ninety people have achieved. That mission was to climb Mount Everest without using any supplemental oxygen. A neat fact about Nielson is that he is also a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. From his monumental experience of climbing the tallest mountain on the Earth, he penned this quote: “You don’t conquer it, you survive it.”
For nine years, teenagers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Ahwatukee Foothills have worked together to remind the community of those who were lost during the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, by posting more than 100 American flags along the Warner-Elliot Loop for a 24-hour period. "It was just an idea from the bishop that preceded me on the first anniversary of 9/11," said Kerry Griggs, bishop of Ahwatukee First Ward. "It was something we could do to provide a little service to the community and serve as a reminder."
When Marguerite Driessen, a professor here, entered Brigham Young University in the early 1980s, she was the first black person many Mormon students had ever met, and she spent a good bit of her college time debunking stereotypes about African-Americans. Then she converted to Mormonism herself, and went on to spend a good deal of her adult life correcting assumptions about Mormons.So the matchup in this year’s presidential election comes as a watershed moment for her, symbolizing the hard-won acceptance of racial and religious minorities.
If Mitt Romney wins the presidency, one decision about life in Washington would be made for him: His church. Mormonism mandates that followers attend their assigned local congregation, called a “ward,” and folks at the Third Ward on 16th Street NW are already revved up with excitement. Well, kind of.They’re mostly Democrats, including the sort of Obama supporters Romney was secretly videotaped disparaging in his now-notorious remark about “the 47 percent” of Americans who don’t pay federal taxes.