Search for "cheap airline tickets from aurora colorado to salt lake city utah round trip phone number 1-800-299-7264"

LDS Church Labels Same-Sex Spouses “Apostates,” Bars Children From Baptism

By Joanna Brooks

…BT people is recognized and fully prosecuted as a hate crime. The state of Utah’s hate crimes statute does not include crimes against LGBT people; this should be changed immediately. Children are vulnerable when their parents are not protected by the law against hateful violence. Protect LGBT children and teens. Twenty to forty percent of all homeless youth are gay. Thirty-nine percent of gay homeless youth say they were kicked out of their homes….

Film Follows Teen Exiles from Polygamous Sect

By Becky Garrison

…t right for us. It was a struggle and very difficult, especially living in Utah. Leaving one’s religion is much more than not just going to church on Sunday when you have a church such as the LDS faith, which is part of a community and family. Without knowing it, Jenny and I were helping a lot of people who were looking to leave. They would come to us and ask questions and we were able to help them through the process. Jennilyn Merten: When we met…

Will Kagan’s Jewishness Win Over Hatch?

By Joanna Brooks

…reportedly keeps a Torah in his Capitol Hill office, wears a gold mezuzah around his neck, and has mezuzahs on the doorways of his homes in Utah and Washington DC. Not that the eminently—supremely?—capable Ms. Kagan, who reportedly identifies as a Conservative Jew, needs to play the faith card. But just in case she’d like to swing for the fences, perhaps she might capitalize on Senator Hatch’s special Mormon brand of Judaphilia by offering to sing…

Mormons, LGBT People Respond to Packer’s Talk

By Joanna Brooks

…speech be compassionate and careful? My grandmother was a daughter of the Utah pioneers. She moved to Los Angeles during the Great Depression and lived her adult life as a Mormon in the diaspora. When they found out she was a Mormon from Utah, people in Los Angeles, she recalled, would sometimes reach out to feel her head for horns. Late in her life, she and I talked about homosexuality—we talked about everything—and she recalled back in the 1950…

Beck Loses the Fox Portal into America’s Living Rooms

By Joanna Brooks

…mangling black and liberation theology, casting aspersions on the authenticity of Barack Obama’s professed faith, and descending finally into an incomprehensible chalkboard tangle about magic stones, Native Americans, and the Hebrew language. At the Restoring Honor rally in August, Beck tried to confirm his new incarnation as an ecumenopolitical televangelist, going so far as to summon up a “Black Robed Regiment” of publicity-loving conservative…

Week in Religion: Satan Sandwich, Captain Israel v. Foreskin Man, Christian Missile Launchers

By Michael J. Altman

…d her attacker. The LDS has built a replica of biblical Jerusalem in rural Utah as a set for a series of educational films about the life of Jesus. Utah State University is conducting a study on the experiences of gay Mormons. Also, the Mormon Defense League has been launched to combat anti-Mormonism in the media. In case you need them, here are some tips on Ramadan etiquette. The Crystal Cathedral is trying to raise money to cover its $50 million…

Perry Gives Huntsman Best Week of His Campaign

By Joanna Brooks

…expressing his belief that humans have contributed to global warming. And Utah governor Jon Huntsman joined him, taking a shot at Perry by tweeting: “To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.” Huntsman’s 140-character barb was retweeted almost 4000 times, making it the most retweeted of any tweet by any GOP 2012 candidate. Emboldened, Huntsman (and his Twitter ops) continued on a four-tweet, mega-f…

BYU Skinny Jean Controversy: Sexism, Sizeism, or Standards?

By Joanna Brooks

…re overruled. LDS Church-owned Brigham Young University campuses in Provo, Utah, Rexburg, Idaho, and Laie, Hawaii have long had dress codes requiring students to dress conservatively, prohibiting shorts, skin-baring cropped tops, and “form-fitting clothing.” The popularity of leggings, jeggings, and skinny jeans (even Mitt Romney has a pair) has produced new attention in LDS communities to how those dress code boundaries are enforced and who bears…

Romney “Walks the Line” on Immigration

By Joanna Brooks

…e LDS Church played a quiet but significant role in the development of the Utah Compact, a November 2010 agreement between Utah legislators that expressed support for federal immigration reform, a “welcoming” environment for immigrants, and opposed the “unnecessary separation of families.” The Church’s own November 2010 statement on immigration advocated a balance of “love for neighbors, family cohesion, and the observance of just and enforceable…

“Like sunshine in the darkest abyss I’ve ever experienced.”

By Joanna Brooks

…mily Acceptance Project and premiering at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah this week. The Family Acceptance Project (FAP) is led by Dr. Caitlin Ryan of San Francisco State University, whose work developing materials to improve health and reduce suicide and drug use among LGBT young people by supporting their families has been recognized as a “best practice” by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. FAP has developed materials in col…