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China Influences Utah Lawmakers by Appealing to Mormonism: Report

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A new investigative report published this week from the Associated Press found that China has been able to forge ties in Utah that have led to the communist nation scoring public relations and legislative victories in the state and from its lawmakers.

The report found that the Chinese “appealed” to the lawmaker’s ties to the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to win favor with them that they later used to score wins in a variety of areas, including delaying legislation that took action against Chinese propaganda, canceling resolutions that condemned China, and promoted false positive images of China. The report said the church has “long dreamed of expanding in China.”

“Utah is an important foothold,” said Frank Montoya Jr., a retired FBI counterintelligence agent who lives in the state. “If the Chinese can succeed in Salt Lake City, they can also make it in New York and elsewhere.”

Lawmakers delayed the closing of Chinese-funded Confucius Institutes, which are propaganda entities, at state universities by one year. (Read more from “China Influences Utah Lawmakers by Appealing to Mormonism: Report” HERE)

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State Lawmaker Advised Mormon Bishop Against Reporting Church Member Who Sexually Abused Daughters, Lawsuit Filings Say

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A Utah state representative told a Mormon bishop not to report a church member’s sexual abuse, advice that led to seven years of rape and abuse committed by the church member against his own daughters, according to new lawsuit documents.

State Rep. Merrill Nelson (R-UT), a prominent lawyer for the Mormon church, allegedly answered the first call from a help line when Bishop John Herrod told him that Arizona church member Paul Adams had admitted to sexually abusing two of his daughters. For more than two years, Nelson communicated with Herrod and another bishop who knew about the abuse allegations, according to call records, the Associated Press reported.

Nelson told Herrod “that he could be sued if he reported, and the instruction by counsel not to report Paul [Adams] to the authorities was the law in Arizona and had nothing to do with Church doctrine,” according to the plaintiff’s filings. However, as the AP reported, Arizona law allows blanket immunity for those who report child sexual abuse or neglect.

The sex abuser’s two daughters and one of his sons are trying to gain access to records from the Mormon church, but the church has refused them based on confidentiality. After a county judge ruled in the victims’ favor to see the records, the Mormon church took the case to the Court of Appeals.

According to the new records, Nelson talked with Herrod and one other Mormon bishop from November 2011 to February 2014 after Adams had been excommunicated from the church. Roger Van Komen, manager of the church’s southeast region family services department, said in a deposition that the lawmaker discussed Adams’ abuse with Herrod in those communications. (Read more from “State Lawmaker Advised Mormon Bishop Against Reporting Church Member Who Sexually Abused Daughters, Lawsuit Filings Say” HERE)

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Gloria Allred’s October Romney Surprise Revealed?

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The online publication Alternet has revealed that Gloria Allred’s potential “October Surprise” may be a woman named Carrel Sheldon in 1983 who was counseled by her young Mormon Bishop, Mitt Romney, to not have an abortion even though her doctor said it was medically necessary:

Sheldon, a mother of four at the time (a fifth child had died as an infant), was then a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), outside of Boston. The LDS leader in Massachusetts at that time, called the “stake president,” was a Harvard-trained physician, Dr. Gordon Williams, and he counseled Sheldon to follow her doctor’s advice to terminate the pregnancy and protect her own life, so that she could continue caring for her four living children.

“Of course, you should have the abortion,” she recalled him saying.

According to an account later written anonymously by Sheldon for the LDS women’s journal,Exponent II, it was after receiving this counsel from her [stake president Doctor] Williams supporting the potentially life-saving procedure that she experienced an uninvited visit in her hospital from her Mormon bishop at the time, 36-year-old Mitt Romney, who adamantly opposed the abortion.

“He regaled me with stories of his sister and her retarded child and what a blessing the child had been to the family,” Sheldon wrote of the incident. “He told me that ‘as your bishop, my concern is with the child.'”

Read more from the story HERE. Ms. Sheldon had the abortion anyway but became disenchanted with LDS. Ultimately, she left Mormonism, claiming that Mitt Romney’s response to her situation convinced her to do so.

Unfortunately for Allred, Obama and their allies, this “revelation” is unlikely to have the desired effect on the outcome of the November election.

Billy Graham stops calling Mormonism a ‘cult’ to help Romney

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Evangelist Reverend Billy Graham has decided to no longer refer to Mormonism as a ‘cult’ following a sit-down meeting with Mitt Romney last week.

The 93-year-old Christian leader met with the Republican candidate for the first time at his home in North Carolina last week.

An article on Graham’s website defining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a cult – along with Scientology and Unitarianism -has been taken down following the meeting, as Graham said he ‘did not wish to participate in a theological debate’.

However the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association stopped short of calling it a change in their opinion of Mormonism.

A statement from the Billy Graham Association read: ‘We removed the information from the website because we do not wish to participate in a theological debate about something that has become politicized during this campaign.’

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.