We are in Bali, Indonesia, as we write this column, and while we love so many things about Bali, parts of its culture are distastefully male-dominated. It's causing us to appreciate our own ever-more-equal-but-still-a-long-way-to-go American culture.

She will perform with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for the annual Pioneer Day concert 20-21 July 2012 at 8:00 p.m. in the Conference Center. Jenkins became more familiar to American audiences recently as she competed on ABC’s 14th season of Dancing with the Stars. She said the invitation to sing with the choir came when she was participating on the popular television program. She said she was “absolutely thrilled” with the opportunity to perform with the choir. “I was well aware of the choir and its Welsh roots and thought it would be a lovely thing to do.”

The Correa family's first few months in their home country of Argentina after being deported from the United States nearly two years ago were miserable. Buenos Aires didn't feel like home. It was too big and too busy compared with the small towns in Iowa and Utah where they had lived for 10 years. They felt like they experienced the best America had to offer. They missed their friends and neighbors in American Fork. They spent many nights crying.

Seven years before President Spencer W. Kimball received a revelation allowing black men to be ordained to the priesthood in the LDS Church, Darius Gray knelt in prayer with two other black male Latter-day Saints. That soon led to the founding of what would be the Genesis group, a support organization for African-American church members formed with general leaders of the church — including Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles — as advisers.

In The Book of Mormon Broadway musical, the central character Elder Price sings, “I Believe…” followed by a mixed series of benign and ridiculous claims. The genius of the song is that it so perfectly performs widespread American perceptions about Mormonism in the early 21st century. Elder Price, and Mormons in general, are presented as harboring some naive and strange ideas, but in the end being good people with good intentions who might actually be able to help people. Mitt Romney’s upcoming nomination as the Republican candidate for President seems to confirm how Mormons generally have come to be understood. Even Evangelical Republican voters have largely overcome some hesitancy about Mormonism, perhaps accepting it the way viewers of The Book of Mormon musical come to accept Mormons. Romney may hold some wacky religious ideas, but he is a good person who may actually help some people.

Vivienne Smith Lewis gained an appreciation for simple gifts when she contracted polio at age 3. After surgery and wearing a leg brace, the arduous task of learning how to walk—for the second time—began. She remembers sitting in her little red wagon while her mother pulled her to therapy three times each week for a year so she could learn to walk again.

The transition from college football to the NFL is hard for any athlete competing in the top league of the popular American sport. Imagine the pressure for a college player signing as a free agent on an NFL team. Four BYU players experienced this feeling after recently signing free-agent contracts with NFL teams following the draft. Terence Brown — who played center and guard — signed with the Miami Dolphins, McKay Jacobson — a wide receiver — signed with the Philadelphia Eagles, defensive lineman Hebron Fangupo signed with the Houston Texans and offensive lineman Matt Reynolds signed with the Carolina Panthers.

From Donny and Marie Osmond, to HBO's "Big Love," to Proposition 8 in California, to persistent -- and inaccurate -- Beltway legends about how half of the CIA is staffed by members of the LDS Church, America's Mormons have a way of episodically popping into the national consciousness. The recent ascent of Mitt Romney to the status of presumptive Republican nominee is no exception to this rule. It is yet another "Mormon moment" in a long string of such moments dating back to the 19th century.

It was a long way from American presidential politics, but as Romanians gathered around their dinner tables one day last week, a national television station aired a 20-minute segment on Mormon core values - close families, hard work, clean living and helping others. Romanian Mormons were surprised, but pleased. With fewer than 3,000 of them in the country, they aren’t used to being on prime time.

As part of the rhetorical warfare that has come to characterize modern American political discourse, it was only a matter of time before someone once again used the term “cult” to describeThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.