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The Psychological Cost of an LDS Mission

By Holly Welker

…well and was one reason my first mission president was always asking Salt Lake City to send him equal numbers of male and female missionaries. Instead, elders outnumbered sisters two to one. I have only a few quibbles with the article. One was the rather cursory way that organizations like Ordain Women were dealt with, though the Times absolutely made up for that on March 6, with an article detailing emails from women about changes they would li…

Why Do Southerners Call Mormonism a Cult?

By Joanna Brooks

…arly 1980s, Ed Decker produces a book and a video titled The Godmakers. In Salt Lake City, Jerald and Sandra Tanner in establish Lighthouse Ministries and produce sophisticated anti-Mormon literature based in historical research. Interestingly, it parallels the rise of the new Mormon history and new historical consciousness among Mormons, giving a historical gravitas to the anti-Mormon movement. People like the Tanners go back and look at nineteen…

All Your Dead Mormons Are Belong To Us

By Jay Michaelson

…n “genealogy” centers to research their family histories. I did so in Salt Lake City 25 years ago. Now I know I was providing the names of family members to be posthumously baptized. If my Jewish community is outraged about posthumous baptism, my LGBT community is equally outraged about the Mormons—the folks who once brought us polygamy and the doctrine that black people are cursed by God—suddenly becoming the defenders of family values at the exp…

LDS Church Acknowledges Past Racism, Repudiates Racist Remarks

By Joanna Brooks

…o the Washington Post. After convening a Wednesday morning meeting in Salt Lake City between high-ranking Church leaders and BYU faculty representatives, the LDS Church issued through its newsroom the following statement: The positions attributed to BYU professor Randy Bott in a recent Washington Post article absolutely do not represent the teachings and doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. BYU faculty members do not speak…

LDS Church-Owned Radio Station Stands By Rush Limbaugh

By Joanna Brooks

…lle International. In October 2010, LDS/Bonneville-owned KSL radio in Salt Lake City dumped political commentator Sean Hannity, a move some viewed as an effort to align programming with a recently adopted corporate mission and values statement including the following points: “I honor principles espoused by our owner in the products and services I provide.” “I promote integrity, civility, morality, and respect for all people.” “I seek to lift, insp…

Mormon Missionary Service: Now with More Service

By Holly Welker

…areas devote time 5 days a week to community service. Last Friday the Salt Lake Tribune reported that Mormon missionaries in San Jose, Dallas and Denver are doing less tracting-going door to door in search of people to teach-and more service. The change began three years ago, when “San Jose leaders proposed that missionaries provide two hours of nonproselytizing community service every day, five days a week—up from the normal four or s…

How (Not) to Understand Romney’s Time as an LDS Bishop

By Joanna Brooks

…Amendment and threatened Mormon feminists with excommunication. It was the Salt Lake Tribune’s award-winning religion reporter Peggy Stack who first told the story in 2008 of Bishop Romney and his interactions with Boston-area Mormon feminists. (The New York Times’s Sheryl Stolberg followed Stack’s trail of sources for her solid piece on Romney as bishop last month.) The Post’s story adds nuance through in-depth interviews with Boston-area Mormon…

How NOT to Investigate Mitt Romney’s Mormon Ties

By Joanna Brooks

…s campaign connections to found a private equity firm. Just last week, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that an LDS Church official with the same last name mistakenly used a church email account to fundraise for Romney 2012. Pay attention to the names. Mormons do. I cite these two recent stories not to suggest any kind of wrongdoing. What I am saying is that to understand the Mormon world that Mitt Romney moves in, the world that has shaped his pers…

The Book of Mormon, Dark Skin, and Racist Theology

By Joanna Brooks

…a contemporary LDS decertification (from the top of the food chain in Salt Lake City!) of the arcane folk belief that dark skin signifies accursedness. I found that significant when I wrote about it last week, and I still do. Baby steps? Absolutely. Will the Church change the text of the Book of Mormon? Probably not. Just as progressive Jews have not expunged from the Torah verses like Leviticus 20:13 used by bigots to sanction anti-gay prejudice….

Mormon D.C. Pride Delegation Continues Nationwide Movement

By Joanna Brooks

…r Marriage Equality.” Like the Mormons Building Bridges contingent in Salt Lake City, most of the LDS marchers wore Sunday dress. At one point along the parade route, a man dressed in a blue t-shirt, camouflage cap, and Mardi Gras beads around his neck yelled, “Mormons! You’re Mormons!” He pushed through the parade watchers and with tears in his eyes jumped into the Mormons for Marriage Equality contingent and started to hug the marchers. “Oh my g…