Mitt Romney can’t quite shake the Mormon question. My Daily Beast colleague McKay Coppins obtained some emails from a Perry evangelical adviser to a “leader in the development of Christian talk radio” showing that at least some within the Perry camp want to keep the issue, as they say, alive. The New York Times reported lengthily Sunday on Romney’s years as bishop of the Boston LDS temple. Christopher Hitchens has now declaimed on Mormonism’s “weird and sinister” belief system (rather tame adjectives, for Hitch). Is all this fair? Or, as Romney and his backers have it, is it religious bigotry? I’m not an expert on religion. But I do think I know a thing or two about politics, and from a nakedly political perspective, Romney definitely has a couple of questions to answer. Religious bigotry has nothing to do with it. Let’s begin with the obvious background. In 1960—121 years after Joseph Smith had an audience with President Martin Van Buren to lay before him the case for action against the persecution of his flock—John F. Kennedy famously established the idea in his Houston speech that there should be no religious test for the presidency. I support this. We all should.

Tuesday, July 16, 2002

In July 2020, Sister Michelle Wright Amos began her service of presiding over the Louisiana Baton Rouge Mission with her husband, leaving behind a career with NASA where she had worked on the Mars Perseverance rover for almost a year. At the end of the month, that rover launched into space.

As Sister Sharon Eubank said, we can take courage because the Savior’s light is always there for us.

When we desire to minister to someone who struggles with mental illness, it is natural to avoid these interactions out of a fear of saying the wrong thing or accidentally hurting rather than helping. Or maybe as a bishop or Relief Society leader we aim to encourage an individual but end up causing more harm than good.

Maybe it’s a myth you have heard yourself—the hearse located outside of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion may have carried the body of Brigham Young.

Latter-day Saint youth in the United States and Canada will be able to attend For the Strength of Youth (FSY) conferences again beginning in the summers of 2022 and 2023. The conferences, provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, were postponed over the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you’ve ever wondered what BYU Women’s Conference is about but haven’t been able to attend in person, this spring may be the perfect opportunity to get your feet wet.

"Can you imagine"—these three words, found in Alma 5, were used many times by Elder Edward Dube in this week’s podcast. But what do these words mean in our lives? From our approach in sharing the Book of Mormon to how we participate in family reunions, Elder Dube invites us to imagine how we, as disciples of Jesus Christ, could improve the little things and better appreciate the blessings of the gospel.

A lot goes on in between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but in the midst of cooking and shopping, are we taking time to reflect on the cause for our celebrations or the source of joy that we feel? Do we stop to think about the Christ child who became the Savior of the world? On this week’s episode, John Bytheway explores the miracle of Jesus Christ and why that miracle can bring us joy regardless of our age—and even in the midst of a pandemic.