Tag Archives: LDS

Mormon Church: Same-Sex Marriage Is “Apostasy” And Children Of Gays Can’t Be Baptized

From Salt Lake City’s CBS affiliate: The LDS church has clarified to its leaders that being in a same-sex marriage is considered a form of apostasy. The update came to what is known as Handbook #1, which is used as a guide for administering in the church, and is only available to LDS bishops and stake presidents. A screen shot …

Read More »

Mormon Church Leader Slams Kim Davis: We Shouldn’t Be Having Culture Wars Over Same-Sex Marriage

In a statement that will surely incite evangelical outrage, the head of the Mormon Church has denounced Kim Davis. The Salt Lake Tribune reports: Kim Davis, a county clerk in Kentucky, cannot use her Christian faith as a justification for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gays, a high-ranking Mormon authority said Tuesday. Public officials “are not free to apply …

Read More »

Mormon Church Reassures Flock: Tonight’s Supermoon Eclipse Probably Doesn’t Herald The Apocalypse

After wild claims by some Mormon nutters, the LDS Church has been forced to issue a reassuring statement about tonight’s “supermoon” eclipse. The Guardian reports: A rare confluence of a lunar eclipse and a supermoon to happen this weekend has prompted such widespread fear of an impending apocalypse that the Mormon church was compelled to issue a statement cautioning the …

Read More »

Mormons Threaten To Leave Boy Scouts

Last night the Mormon Church issued a press release in which they threaten to end their relationship with the Boy Scouts over the end of the ban on openly gay leaders. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is deeply troubled by today’s vote by the Boy Scouts of America National Executive Board. In spite of a request to …

Read More »

UTAH: LDS Donates To LGBT Center

The Mormon Church has made its first-ever donation to an LGBT organization. Ben Winslow reports for Salt Lake City’s Fox affiliate: The LDS Church quietly made a $2,500 donation to the non-profit Utah Pride Center to help its efforts with LGBT homeless and youth. The money, coming in the form of access to the Bishop’s Storehouse, will provide food for …

Read More »

Mormon Church To SCOTUS: Say No To Same-Sex Marriage Because It Will Deprive Us Of “Citizenship Rights”

A coalition of religious denominations including the Mormon Church has filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in which they argue that the legalization of same-sex marriage will, among other things, deprive them of “citizenship rights.” An excerpt: A right to same-sex marriage also would supplant the States’ “historic and essential authority to define the marital relation” with an …

Read More »

Log Cabin: We Helped Make Utah Happen

“Having visited the Beehive State and Governor Herbert less than two years ago, I know firsthand how hard Log Cabin Republicans of Utah President James Humphreys and his team have been working to achieve this monumental victory. The passage of this bill in Utah should show Republicans around the country that the balance between LGBT rights and religious liberty is …

Read More »

UTAH: State House Overwhelmingly Passes LGBT Non-Discrimination Bill

Via Salt Lake City’s Fox affiliate: The gallery was packed as Rep. Brad Dee, R-Ogden, presented the bill. Behind him were his co-sponsors, Sen. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, and Senate Majority Whip Stuart Adams, R-Layton. “There was a lot of people and a lot of faith that went into this particular bill,” Dee said, crying. An LGBT nondiscrimination bill, which …

Read More »

Tweet Of The Day – Evan Wolfson

Read More »

HRC Slams LDS “Truce” On LGBT Rights

Via press release from the Human Rights Campaign: “Symbolically, seeing the church leaders advocating so openly for these protections will no doubt be deeply meaningful to Mormon families with LGBT members, and provide encouragement to LGBT youth in the church,” said HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow. “But, as a matter of public policy, it appears deeply flawed.” Doctors would still …

Read More »

UTAH: LDS Church Backs LGBT Rights In Return For Stiffer Religion Carve-Outs

Via Salt Lake City’s Fox affiliate: In at least one big and bruising culture-war battle, the Mormon church wants to call a partial truce. Convening a rare press conference on Tuesday at church headquarters in Salt Lake City, Mormon leaders pledged to support anti-discrimination laws for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people, as long the laws also protect the rights …

Read More »

UNSHOCKING: Study Shows “Ex-Gay” Mormons Have Very High Divorce Rate

Via the Salt Lake Tribune: The LDS couples profiled on TLC’s “My Husband Is Not Gay” may find these statistics sobering: Marriages like theirs — same-sex attracted husbands and straight wives — are two to three times more likely to end in divorce than others. That finding and others come from a newly released in-depth survey of 1,612 self-selected LGBT/same-sex …

Read More »

Mormon Church Confesses: Yes, Joseph Smith Married As Many As 40 Women

The Mormon Church has finally formally acknowledged that its founder Joseph Smith married as many as 40 women, one of whom was only 14 years old at the time. Elder Steven E. Snow, the church historian and a member of its senior leadership, said in an interview, “There is so much out there on the Internet that we felt we …

Read More »

LDS Explains Mormon Underwear

Via the Washington Post: For years, the Mormon Church’s undergarments have been mocked and misunderstood. Often referred to jokingly as “magic Mormon underwear,” the garb, which resembles a T-shirt and shorts, has been ridiculed on Broadway, referenced in political campaigns and exploited online for profit. That’s why the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) has come forward to …

Read More »

Mormons, Catholics, & Evangelicals Ask SCOTUS To Uphold Utah Gay Marriage Ban

The above-named religious groups have filed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to uphold Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage. Via the Associated Press: The religious groups urged the Supreme Court on the basis of tradition and religious freedom to uphold a state’s right to disallow gay and lesbian couples to wed. “Legal uncertainty is especially burdensome for religious organizations …

Read More »

Oregon Shooter Planned To Kill “Sinners”

The 15 year-old who last week went on a shooting spree at an Oregon high school wrote in his diary that he planned to kill “sinners.” Jared Padgett, an active member of an Gresham, Ore., Mormon church, shot and killed a student and injured a teacher during the attack on Reynolds High School before turning the gun on himself, police …

Read More »

UTAH: Gays Banned From Mormon Parade

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: Days of ’47 Parade organizers have denied a float application from Mormons Building Bridges, saying an entry from the group founded to improve relationships between Latter-day Saints and the gay community would be too controversial. “The parade is very specific in its requirement that no float can enter that will create controversy,” Executive Vice President …

Read More »

VIRGINIA: Haters File 21 Marriage Ban Defense Briefs With Fourth Circuit Court

Twenty-one amicus briefs were filed yesterday with the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in defense of Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage. The briefs were filed on behalf of the usual axis of evil: the Concernstipated Women, the Liberty Counsel, Phyllis Schlafy’s Eagle Forum, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Mormon Church, the Southern Baptists Convention, the Heritage Foundation, …

Read More »

Eleven States File Anti-Gay Marriage Brief With Tenth Circuit Court Of Appeals, Major Religious Denominations File Too

Eleven states have filed a brief with the Tenth Circuit Court in support of Utah’s defense of its ban on same-sex marriage. The states are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma and South Carolina. Notably there were 16 states that signed on to the pro-Defense of Marriage Act and pro-Prop 8 briefs before the Supreme Court. Those …

Read More »

UTAH: State Special Counsel Says He Took Marriage Case As A Religious Duty

The Human Rights Campaign reacts: “It’s alarming that the reason Gene Schaerr gives for taking this position has nothing to do with the U.S. Constitution or the legal issues at play. Schaerr’s entire motivation for taking this anti-equality case is to impose a certain religious viewpoint on all Utahns – and that’s wrong. When you become an attorney, you take …

Read More »