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Utah Rejects Arizona-Style Anti-Immigrant Politics

By Joanna Brooks

…es. The Church’s top lobbyists reportedly spent 10 days on Capitol Hill in Salt Lake City on the immigration issue. Last November, the Church publicly declared its support for a “Utah Compact” designed by Utah business and political leaders identifying five principles to guide immigration debate. The Compact pushed for problem-solving at the federal level, discouraged the use of local law enforcement in profiling alleged “illegal immigrants,” oppo…

Women to Pray for the First Time in April LDS World Meeting

By Joanna Brooks

…e, this April 6–7, veteran religion journalist Peggy Fletcher Stack of the Salt Lake Tribune reports. The announcement comes after Mormon feminists and their allies mounted a “Let Women Pray” letter-writing campaign this winter. (LDS officials say that the Conference program was set “many weeks ago.”) Women’s advocates within the LDS Church like LDS WAVE have long pointed to the continuing restriction on women praying in the Church’s global meeti…

NOM’s Gallagher: “Don’t Call Me a Bigot!”

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…re opposed to interracial marriage in the public square.” Speaking in Salt Lake City this week, she complained about the “relentless torrent of accusations and hatred against anyone who speaks, no matter how civilly, for marriage.” One of those “torrent[s] of… hatred” happened recently as Gallagher testified before a House committee on the Defense of Marriage Act. GetEqual cornered Gallagher in the hallway on the way to the hearing to give her an…

Politics Threaten Utah Compact on Immigration

By Joanna Brooks

…ly supported by LDS Church officials and backed by a bit of muscle on Salt Lake City’s Capitol Hill from LDS Church lobbyists. Resisting strong anti-immigrant sentiment among the most conservative sectors of the Anglo Mormon Utah base, a broad coalition of religious, business and law enforcement officials laid the groundwork for reform when they devised the Utah Compact—a statement that acknowledged the contributions of immigrants and expressed su…

Why is Huntsman’s Mormonism “Tough to Define”?

By Joanna Brooks

…claim him as a member of the tribe. Editors’note: Joanna will be speaking about Mormon identity in the 21st century June 11 in Salt Lake City. More information is here….

An Amicus Brief in Support of Gay Marriage—From Utah?

By Joanna Brooks

…atter-day Saints—a Mormon. I spoke to John Mackay, an attorney at the Salt Lake City firm of Ray, Quinney, & Nebeker, who is among the brief’s authors. With this brief, a legal team from Utah is taking lead in articulating the nature of the challenges LGBT people in conservative areas of the country face. Absolutely. That’s one of the things we are most proud of. The Utah Pride Center has partnered with the Campaign for Southern Equality and 28…

Significant Changes to LDS Scripture Reflect Shifting Church Views on Racist History

By Joanna Brooks

…esident Spencer W. Kimball and was affirmed to other Church leaders in the Salt Lake Temple on June 1, 1978. The revelation removed all restrictions with regard to race that once applied to the priesthood. Church leaders have long maintained public ambiguity about the history of the ban and its end; they have rarely acknowledged the ordination of early African-American Mormons nor have they cited anti-racist teaching in the Book of Mormon in conne…

“Papers Please”: The Legal Battle Over Church Sex-Abuse Files

By Omar Shamout

…Clark said. “With the Mormon Church, everything that happens goes to Salt Lake.” The problem is those documents aren’t discoverable in court. The LDS Church maintains it does not keep records of child abuse. Plaintiff attorneys have been unable to convince courts that the Church’s disciplinary documents fall outside of clergy-penitent privilege. In 2004, two Washington sisters sued the Mormon Church for negligence after being molested by their st…

Remembering Arnold Friberg of Ten Commandments Fame

By Joanna Brooks

…of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died Wednesday in Salt Lake City at the age of 96. Friberg produced the famous “Prayer at Valley Forge” (1975) depicting George Washington kneeling in the snow, a painting owned by Presidents Bush and Reagan. Legend has it the painter stood on the banks of the Schuylkill River in winter, gloves removed to feel the cold. Friberg also did scene and costume design for Cecil B. DeMille’s epic The Ten…

Palin Talks Israel in Anticipation of 2012

By Shalom Goldman

…wish people for 3,000 years—should be off-limits to Jews, while the entire city is open to Arabs, is deeply prejudicial. The suggestion that Jews, or any other ethnic group, would be denied residence in an American city would instantly be condemned as racist. Moreover, there are no settlers in Jerusalem, which is sovereign Israeli territory, just as there are no settlers in Tel Aviv and Haifa. While the Times often reports on construction in Isra…