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Utah No Longer Majority Mormon, New Research Suggests

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Utah is no longer majority Mormon, a new paper published this month in the Journal of Religion and Demography estimates.

Since its inception, most of Utah’s residents have been members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Now, less than half (42 percent) identify as members, according to an ABC4 report on the research findings.

“That’s markedly lower than previous media reports citing the church’s numbers, which put the percentage of Mormons in Utah at around 60 percent as recently as 2020,” according to the report.

Lead author on the study and University of Tampa sociology professor Ryan T. Cragun told the outlet researchers were “not trying to say that the LDS church is wrong,” but were rather “using very different approaches to gather this information.”

Researchers surveyed roughly 1,900 Utahns in the summer of 2022 and asked a variety of questions, including about religion. They used a method called “quota sampling,” which means researchers had quotas for different demographics to align with official Utah census data. (Read more from “Utah No Longer Majority Mormon, New Research Suggests” HERE)

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Woman Sues Mormon Church After It Reported Her Husband Sexually Abusing Their Daughter to Police

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A woman is suing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because it reported her husband to authorities after he confessed to sexually abusing their minor daughter, according to the Salem Statesmen Journal.

The woman, Kristine Johnson, is suing the church for $9.54 million, accusing it of violating confidentiality and breaching “priest-penitent privilege.” The Mormon church has faced backlash in the past for not being forthcoming about such matters with authorities.

Kristine learned of her husband’s abuse of their daughter in 2016. Instead of going to authorities, they followed church protocol by having the husband, Timothy Johnson, confess the sin to church clergy and repent. Kristine claims the church officials failed to tell Timothy that if he confessed that crime to the church, they would report him to police.

Timothy Johnson was arrested and charged in 2017, and pleaded guilty to four counts of second-degree sexual abuse and received a 15-year prison sentence. . .

The $9.54 million sought in the lawsuit includes $5.5 million for Kristine for the loss of Timothy’s income, $1 million for each of their children, and $40,000 for the criminal defense attorney used in the case. (Read more from “Woman Sues Mormon Church After It Reported Her Husband Sexually Abusing Their Daughter to Police” HERE)

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Mormons Sharpen Stand Against Same-Sex Marriage

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Children of same-sex couples will not be able to join the Mormon Church until they turn 18 — and only if they move out of their parents’ homes, disavow all same-sex relationships and receive approval from the church’s top leadership as part of a new policy adopted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In addition, Mormons in same-sex marriages will be considered apostates and ordered to undergo church disciplinary hearings that could lead to excommunication, a more rigid approach than the church has taken in the past.

The new policies are an effort by the church, which has long opposed same-sex marriage, to reinforce and even harden its doctrinal boundaries for its members at a time when small but increasing numbers of Mormons are coming out as gay or supportive of same-sex marriage.

At the same time, the church has recently been taking a tolerant public stance supportive of laws that ban discrimination against gay people in employment and housing. Since the Supreme Court established a right to same-sex marriage nationwide in June, Mormon leaders have parted company with the leaders of evangelical and other conservative churches by affirming that despite their religious convictions, even people of faith opposed to gay marriage must follow the law.

“The church is walking a fine line between on the one hand recognizing the reality of changing mores in American society externally, but internally holding the line on its own doctrinal rigor — its own beliefs and teachings,” said David Campbell, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame and a co-author of “Seeking the Promised Land: Mormons and American Politics.” (Read more from “Mormons Sharpen Stand Against Same-Sex Marriage” HERE)

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Mormons Publish Photos of ‘Seer Stone’ Used by Joseph Smith

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Photo Credit: NY Times The Mormon church for the first time is publishing photos of a small sacred stone it believes founder Joseph Smith used to help translate the story that became the basis of the religion.

The pictures of the smooth, brown, egg-sized rock are part of a new book that also contains photos of the first printer’s manuscript of the Book of Mormon. Officials with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints unveiled it Tuesday at a news conference in Salt Lake City.

It’s the religion’s latest step in a push to be more transparent about its history and tenets. The church’s effort in recent years to be more open about its past was triggered by the religion’s increasing prominence as its membership tripled over the past three decades to 15 million worldwide today. Questions emerged about the burgeoning faith, with some criticizing it for being secretive about its beliefs and practices. (Read more from “Mormons Publish Photos of ‘Seer Stone’ Used by Joseph Smith” HERE)

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Mormon Church Quorum of Twelve Backing Special Protections for Homosexuals

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Photo Credit: Life Site NewsLeaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints — also known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church — have formally backed laws that institute special protections for homosexuals.

While the Mormon leaders are insisting at the same time on the need for religious protections, one prominent Evangelical leader has warned that they are being “naïve” because these homosexual “non-discrimination” laws are used to target people of faith.

“Jesus ministered to marginalized outcasts,” said Sister Neill Marriott, who spoke with other leaders at a press conference announcing the church’s support for “laws and ordinances that protect LGBT people from discrimination in housing and employment.”

Elder Dallin Oaks, who is part of the Mormon Church’s Quorum of Twelve Apostles, cautioned that the public support for these laws and ordinances did not mean the church was abandoning its support for religious liberty. (Read more about the Mormon Church Quorum of Twelve backing special laws for homosexuals HERE)

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Tiffany and Co. Ad Features Homosexual Couple While TLC Goes the Other Direction

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Photo Credit: Washington TimesBy Kellan Howell. World famous jeweler Tiffany and Co. is featuring a gay couple for the first time in a new ad campaign.

The campaign, shot by fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh, features seven scenes of different couples at various stages in their relationships, including a scene of a same-sex couple about to commit to a marriage, CNN reported Saturday.

The two men, shown sitting on a picturesque stoop in New York City, are a real couple, not models, a Tiffany spokesperson told CNN. (Read more about the ad that features homosexual couple HERE)

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Activists Rage as TLC Promotes Reality Show About Gay Mormons Married to Women

By Kirsten Anderson. What do you do if you suffer from same-sex attraction, but your faith tells you that homosexual acts are sinful and marriage and family are a man’s highest calling?

Well, if you’re one of the several Mormon men featured in this weekend’s TLC special “My Husband’s Not Gay,” you set aside your urges and refuse to make them your identity. If you’re lucky, you find someone to marry and live the life your faith calls you to live. And if the men who star in the show can be believed, through obedience, you find peace and happiness.

But homosexual activists are calling for the show to be yanked from the lineup before it has a chance to air, saying it promotes the “dangerous” idea that people can choose not to act on their homosexual urges.

“My Husband’s Not Gay” follows three Salt Lake City-area married couples – Jeff and Tanya, Pret and Megan, and Curtis and Tera – along with 35-year-old Tom, a single man who is sexually attracted to other men, but wants to find a wife.

All four men featured on the show say they are primarily physically attracted to other men. But according to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (more commonly known as LDS or “Mormon”), “the only acceptable expression of sexuality and romantic feelings is within a marriage between a man and a woman.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Mormon Church Approves Boy Scout's New Homosexual Policy

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Photo Credit: APBoy Scouts of America leaders recently received a boost for their proposed policy on gays from a powerful stakeholder — the Mormon church.

“We are satisfied that BSA has made a thoughtful, good-faith effort to address issues that, as they have said, remain ‘among the most complex and challenging issues facing the BSA and society today,’ ” the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) said in a statement.

This means the church is satisfied with “both the process and the proposal,” LDS spokesman Eric Hawkins said Friday, referring to the BSA’s proposed policy to permit openly gay youth — but not openly gay adults — to be members.

The Mormon support bolsters the chances that the BSA’s national council will adopt its proposed policy when it meets May 22-24 in Texas, since the LDS Church sponsors some 500,000 youth members and nearly 40,000 packs, troops and crews.

Under current BSA membership standards, the 103-year-old organization does not ask anyone about sexual orientation, but disallows people to be part of Scouting if they are open or avowed homosexuals.

Read more from this story HERE.

Many Black Americans, Seeing No Good Choice, May Stay Home November 6

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The pastors say their congregants are asking how a true Christian could back same-sex marriage, as President Barack Obama did in May. As for Republican Mitt Romney, the first Mormon nominee from a major party, congregants are questioning the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its former ban on men of African descent in the priesthood.

There’s no question which candidate is expected to win the black vote. In 2008, Obama won 95 percent of black voters and is likely to get an overwhelming majority again. But the nation’s first African-American president can’t afford to lose any voters from his base.

“When President Obama made the public statement on gay marriage, I think it put a question in our minds as to what direction he’s taking the nation,” said the Rev. A.R. Bernard, founder of the predominantly African-American Christian Cultural Center in New York. Bernard, whose endorsement is much sought-after in New York and beyond, voted for Obama in 2008. He said he’s unsure how he’ll vote this year.

It’s unclear just how widespread the sentiment is that African-American Christians would be better off not voting at all. Many pastors have said that despite their misgivings about the candidates, blacks have fought too hard for the vote to ever stay away from the polls.

Black church leaders have launched get-out-the-vote efforts on a wide range of issues, including the proliferation of state voter identification laws, which critics say discriminate against minorities. Last Easter Sunday, a month before Obama’s gay marriage announcement, the Rev. Jamal-Harrison Bryant of Baltimore formed the Empowerment Network, a national coalition of about 30 denominations working to register congregants and provide them with background on health care, the economy, education and other policy issues.

Read more from this story HERE.

Romney: I’m Reluctant to Release Tax Returns Because of Tithing to Mormon Church

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Photo credit: Tim Pearce

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said in an interview to be published Sunday that one reason he’s reluctant to release his tax returns is that they reveal how much money he and his wife have given to the Mormon church.

In an interview with Parade Magazine, Romney said his church “doesn’t publish how much people have given.”

“This is done entirely privately,” Romney told Parade. “One of the downsides of releasing one’s financial information is that this is now all public, but we had never intended to our contributions to be known.”

Romney said his contributions to his church are “a very personal thing between ourselves and our commitment to our God and to our church.”

Democrats have hammered Romney for refusing to release any tax returns beyond his release of his 2010 return and a summary of last year’s tax information. He has said he plans to release his full 2011 return before the Nov. 6 election.

Read more from this story HERE.

Study: Red States give far more to charity than Blue States

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Am I my brother’s keeper? Conservatives and churchgoers are far more likely to say “yes,” research shows. A major survey by the Chronicle of Philanthropy confirms that residents of states that lean Republican and are most religious donate more of their money to charity, while more secular regions — and areas that tend to vote Democrat — give less.

But researchers caution that churchgoers are no more generous than secular Americans when donations to religious groups are excluded.

The study, which examined Internal Revenue Service information from 2008, the most recent year for which statistics were available, ranked Utahans as the most charitable people in the U.S. Residents of the heavily Mormon state gave 10.6 percent of their discretionary income to philanthropic causes in 2008. Mississippi ranked second, with 7.2 percent going to charity. Three other states in the Bible Belt — Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina — round out the top five.

Each of the top nine states in the Chronicle report voted for John McCain in the 2008 presidential election. The seven least-generous states went for Barack Obama.

New Hampshire residents gave the least, with 2.5 percent of discretionary income going to charity. It was followed by Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts, whose residents donated 2.8 percent. Residents of Rhode Island, the fifth most frugal state, gave 3.1 percent, according to the study.

Read more from this story HERE.