Orrin Hatch apparently is poised to pen a “tell-all” book — all, that is, about the Mormonism he knows and loves.

Hatch — Utah's senior U.S. senator who faces a Republican primary rival next month and, if he prevails then, a Democratic foe in the fall in his bid for a seventh term — plans to take up the challenge of explaining his faith to outsiders in the new volume, An Insider's Guide to Mormon Beliefs.

An initial news release from the publisher, Cedar Fort, said the book was due out in August (just before November's general election).

But that notice came out "prematurely," Cedar Fort marketing publicist Rodney Fife said Tuesday afternoon, adding tha...

The devoutly Catholic writer who penned “The Exorcist” doesn't think Georgetown University, the nation's oldest Catholic college, is, well, Catholic enough. And he plans to take his case to court — a Catholic court.

His reason? The school's recent speaking invitation to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

William Henry Blatty, an 85-year-old Georgetown alum, gratefully acknowledges that the school launched him on a career that eventually led him to produce the 1971 book and eventual Hollywood blockbuster about ridding a young girl of demons.

"What I owe Georgetown,” Blatty said in a statement, “is nothing as compared to what Georgetown owes to it...

Mormon officials clearly love the religious paintings of 19th-century Danish artist, Carl Heinrich Bloch. Prints of his Jesus images are everywhere in Mormondom – on meetinghouse walls, in member homes and in official publications.

In 2010-11, LDS Church-owned Brigham Young University staged an exhibit of Bloch's giant altar paintings.

Bloch's work is, however, theologically touchy for Mormons in at least one element – angels.

During the exhibit, curators acknowledged sheepishly that sometimes in the past the Utah-based church had airbrushed out angel wings on Bloch reproductions, reflecting the Mormon view that angels are resurrected humans, not some kind of fl...

Americans are equally divided on the question of whether homosexual behavior is a sin – about 44 percent say yes, 43 percent say no.

Thirteen percent are unsure.

Not surprisingly, born-again, evangelical or fundamentalist Christians are much more likely – 82 percent, in fact – to see homosexual behavior as a sin, while only 14 percent say it is not a sin.

That's according to a just-released online survey of 2,144 adults by LifeWay Research, a Christian research group.

Respondents were selected from a sample of an online panel representing the adult U.S. population o...

If homemaking had a different name, would it smell as sweet?

Brigham Young University senior Alexie Bullock thinks it would smell better.

Bullock, who is earning a bachelor's degree in graphic design at the LDS Church-owned school, thinks it's time to re-brand homemaking. Not change the basic tasks, mind you, but call it something new.

“Homemaking as a term and concept is outdated, outmoded and out-of-touch with today's society and needs to be 'killed off,' " Bullock says in a release.

In its place, Bullock proposes the term, “domaign” [pronounced Do-main]. She produced that word by combin...

Missouri was once a site of tension and bloodshed for the Mormon faithful, who were driven out of the state with an “extermination order” on their heads.

Now the Utah-based faith has returned to its former homeland in a position of strength.

It has just dedicated a temple in Kansas City and bought thousands of acres that belonged to an LDS offshoot, the Community of Christ, including Haun's Mill and the Far West Burying Ground.

Haun's Mill is sacred space to Latter-day Saints, a place where segments of the Missouri militia attacked 30 to 40 Mormon families without warning. The Oct. 30, 1838, episode left 17 Mormons and one friendly outsider dead, and another 13 wou...

The issue of race has already been raised during the presidential campaign of Mormon Mitt Romney.

It is a touchy topic these days, given that the LDS Church barred blacks from its all-male priesthood until 1978. Before that date, Mormon leaders and members routinely offered various theological reasons that could explain the ban.

Now LDS social scientist Darron Smith has launched an online survey of attitudes by and about black Mormons.

The survey, admittedly not scientific, is titled “Mormon Beliefs About People of African Descent.” It asks respondents of all racial backgrounds nearly 50 probing questions about the LDS Church, its history of racial exclusion, wheth...

Today is "Star Wars Day" — May the Fourth (get it?) — a time of celebration for followers of so-called Jediism.

The religion, so to speak, sprang up as a result of the most popular sci-fi films of all time — George Lucas’ series about the battle between the good Jedi clan and the evil Empire, including Darth Vader, a Jedi warrior who defected to the dark side.

Jedi “draw from a mystical entity binding the universe, called "the Force," writes Matthew Cresswell in The Guardian. “Sporting hoodies, the Jedi are generally altruistic, swift-footed and handy with a light saber. Their enemies, Emperor Palpatine, Darth Vader and other coho...

In the wildly popular and enigmatic TV show “Lost,” strangers found themselves marooned together on a mysterious island where they explored themes of love, death and redemption (and also the nature of time and mortality).

Today’s viewers might have missed the fact that an earlier program, watched by millions of Boomers, also had a reportedly spiritual message — “Gilligan’s Island.”

The seven castaways, who signed up for a “three-hour tour,” washed up on an “uncharted desert isle,” from which they could never escape. In this telling, no time travel tricks were allowed.

And each of them, according to a book by the show’s creator,

This so-called "Mormon moment" has spawned lots of stories by folks who consider themselves experts on the Utah-based faith but may know very little.

Take the case of Father Dwight Longenecker, priest of Our Lady of the Rosary parish in Greenville, S.C.

In a column posted at Catholic Online, the good father asks if "Mitt's Mormonism matters"?

He starts by dividing the 14 million members in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints into three categories: maniac, moderate and modernist.

The maniacs, Longenecker writes, are “weird extremists” like convicted pedophile/polygamist FLDS le...

Looking for a movie to give you a good cry and warm your heart?

Beliefnet can help. The multi-faith website has produced a list of "Top 100 Inspirational Movies." The tally spans a range of genres and offers something for every taste — whether you're a religious moviegoer seeking to lift your spirit or a secular film buff hoping to soothe your soul.

Breaking the tape at No. 1, “Chariots of Fire," the Oscar-winning film about an Olympic runner/Presbyterian preacher who refuses to go for the gold on Sunday.

The silver medal goes to another perennial crowd-pleaser: the holiday classic “It's a Wonderful Life.”

The top 10 list also includes children's films su...

Could a nondrinker such as Mitt Romney be a good U.S. president?

New York Times columnist Timothy Egan has serious doubts.

After all, Egan writes, several teetotaler Americans — including George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, William Howard Taft and Herbert Hoover — turned out to be “terrible presidents.”

Their stature as leaders can't compare to imbibers like Franklin D. Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.

“Teddy Roosevelt was a very light drinker,” Egan reports. “He sued a small-town newspaperman in 1913 for calling him a drunk, and won. His on...

Next month, India is poised to get its first Mormon stake.

The Hyderabad India District will become a stake (which is a group of congregations similar to a diocese) in a special conference May 25-27, according to a report by Matt Martinich on his blog, ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com.

“The creation of the first stake in India marks a significant milestone in LDS growth in India as stakes require large numbers of active members and priesthood holders to operate,” Martinich writes. “It is likely that all six branches in the district will become wards in the new stake.”

...

Brigham Young University-Hawaii has its first non-Mormon student body president — and he’s a Muslim.

Mustapha El Akkari, the Lebanese-born student who came to the Mormon-owned school three years ago on a full-ride basketball scholarship, takes office this week, according to an article in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

“In its 57-year-history, BYUH has never had a non-church member,” the article said, “and certainly not an Arabic-speaking Muslim leading its student body population, currently 2,673 students.”

Trouble is, El Akkari will not get his basketball scholarship during his sen...

Pope Benedict XVI turned 85 Monday.

For a Catholic pontiff, that's pretty old. Only seven popes have been older than that at the time of their death, according to catholic-hierarchy.org. Of those, the 20th century produced only one – Leo XIII, who died in 1903 at 93 – who was older than Benedict.

Like Catholic popes, Mormon prophets and apostles serve for life, which can lead to an old hierarchy.

In August, LDS leader Thomas S. Monson, considered a “prophet, seer and revelator” by Mormons, will turn 85. This year eight of the 15 top LDS leaders will be 80 or older.

That is among the oldest ...

Many Mormons will be delighted by the story about Mormon missionaries in Uganda in Friday's New York Times.

It is a fair representation of the LDS system that sends more than 50,000 young people into the world to win converts for the Utah-based church. It profiles a handful of these proselytizers, their responses to the strict rules and their interactions with would-be members. It mentions these young Mormons' idealism, sacrifice and religious motivations – and even mentions the dreaded “Dear John” letter.

The piece, written by Josh Kron, calls these two-year stints, “Study Abroad, Mormon Style.”

But some might wonder a...

It’s time again for some Christians to imagine the end is near.

They see the escalating tensions between Israel and Iran as the buildup to Armageddon, the cataclysmic final battle described in the Bible.

Such conspiracy-minded believers are assembling disparate global facts and fitting them into a prophecy-laced scenario, according to Beliefnet senior editor Rob Kerby, and spreading their theories in various online settings.

For example, the biblical prophet Isaiah predicted that Syria’s capital, Damascus, would be destroyed and ultimately abandoned. Today it is the site of ongoing tensions and potential devastation.

Mitt Romney's religion has been mocked, critiqued, attacked, demeaned and mischaractereized by the political right and left. Now that he is the presumptive Republican nominee, the Democrats have already said they are not going to make Romney's Mormonism part of their opposition to his candidacy.

His religion, they said, was off-limits.

But journalist Jeffrey Weiss thinks Romney should answer some questions about his faith. After all, he was once a representative of the LDS Church, first as a missionary in France, and then as a lay leader of a congregation (akin to a pastor) and after that a "stake president" (much like a Catholic bishop).

Weiss does not expect the...

Openness toward gays and lesbians seems to be on the rise at LDS Church-owned Brigham Young University.

On Wednesday, students packed a BYU classroom in Provo to hear four gay and lesbian students describe their experience of being homosexual and Mormon.

They described their early awareness of attractions, their inner conflicts and their hopes for the future, according to reports from The Student Review and bloggers, including Christopher Smith.

Now, a new video features 22 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and straight BYU students talking about their s...

It bothered Jan Van de Merwe, a longtime toy designer and believing Mormon, that LDS kids played with "Star Wars" action figures at church. Why not create figures from their own faith that would be more appropriate for Mormon youngsters?

So, in 1995, Van De Merwe founded Latter-Day Designs to do just that, and it's been a small, niche business ever since, selling steadily at LDS Church-owned Deseret Book.

He created 33 Book of Mormon vinyl figures, including Captain Moroni with his “Title of Liberty,” bare-chested Ammon, and Helaman on a horse.

LDS scriptures describe struggles in the family of Lehi and Sariah between two righteous brothers, Nephi and Sam, and two ...

There was good news — and bad — in the Mormon membership stats reported Saturday at the Utah-based faith's 182nd Annual General Conference.

The most positive development in 2011 was “a surge in the number of members serving full-time missions – to 55,410, an increase of 3,185 from 2010; a 6.1 percent annual increase,” according to Matt Martinich, who carefully reports and analyzes LDS Church growth.

Martinich doubts the jump in missionaries is caused by a rise in U.S. birthrates, so he speculates that it could be due to more non-American converts accepting the call.

No matter the reason, he sees it as a good sign.<...

Many people outside of Utah presume that the Beehive State's entire population is Mormon, so why would there be a need for LDS missionaries?

In fact, barely half of Salt Lake City's residents are members of the state's predominant church, and the Salt Lake Valley's LDS missions are reportedly among the most successful in the country. So much so that the Utab-based faith has just announced that it is creating two new missions in the valley — on the west side and in the central section.

“LDS missions in Utah are among the highest baptizing in the church,” writes Matt Martinich at a

If perseverance in the face of persecution is a mark of divine chosenness and a key to Mormon identity, then black Latter-day Saints are “doubly Mormon,” argues Max Mueller, a Harvard-trained non-Mormon scholar.

LDS blacks long were excluded from the faith's temple experience, he says, and their stories as pioneers and as marginalized members of the early Mormon community today are largely unknown.

Mueller, who is writing his doctoral dissertation on Mormon concepts of race in the early LDS movement, will present his research Thursday, March 8, with a lecture titled “Jane's Faith” in the LDS Church Office Building's auditorium at 7 p.m. The presentation is part of the LD...

The gift from Benjamin Netanyahu to President Barack Obama this week may have been more than a nice gesture. It seemed to send a clear political message.

The Israeli prime minister gave the U.S. president a copy of the Book of Esther, which tells the story of how a Jewish woman intervened in ancient Persia (now Iran), to preserve Jews in the realm from annihilation.

Jews throughout the world celebrate Esther's actions in the holiday, Purim, which starts Wednesday.

“Netanyahu sees the nuclear threat posed by modern-day Iran as no less existential to Israel,” writes Nathan Guttman in the Jewish Daily Forward....

Mormon feminists recently learned that some young women were wrongly blocked from doing LDS proxy baptisms – which include wearing all-white clothing and being fully immersed in water – because they were menstruating.

Though this was not a consistent prohibition, the women had anecdotal evidence that it was happening in some Mormon temples, including several in Utah.

Trouble is, such a ban is bogus. If temple workers are excluding young women from doing baptismal work while having their periods, church spokesman Scott Trotter said, they are not following LDS policy.

“Performing baptisms in church temples is a sacred ordinance open to all members who are at least 12...

The LDS First Presidency has issued an unequivocal mandate to its members: Do not submit names of Jewish Holocaust victims or celebrities for proxy baptism.

“Without exception, church members must not submit for proxy temple ordinances any names from unauthorized groups, such as celebrities and Jewish Holocaust victims,” LDS President Thomas S. Monson and his counselors write in a letter to all Mormon bishops, dated Feb. 29. “If members do so, they may forfeit their New FamilySearch privileges. Other corrective action may also be taken.”

The letter further reminds members that that their “preeminent obligation” is to their own ancestors and any name submitted for proxy ritu...

The LDS Church on Wednesday strongly denounced racism and dismissed folk beliefs about why the Utah-based faith banned blacks from its all-male priesthood until 1978.

The statements were triggered by comments made about the ban by Brigham Young University religion professor Randy Bott in Tuesday's Washington Post.

Bott pointed to Mormon scriptures that indicate descendants of the biblical Cain — who killed his brother Abel and was “cursed” by God — were black a...

A cable network is looking for love-starved single Mormons for a new reality show.

Participants can be practicing members of the Utah-based faith, new converts or" independents,” according to an ad on Salt Lake City's Craiglist.

They can be “very involved in the [LDS] Church” or have been raised Mormon but now are following “a different path.”

The show is slated to be about a "Mormon Matchmaker,” the ad says.

Participants need to be “ready to let an expert help [them] find the match of [their] dreams?” No word on whether these would be eternal matches. Devout Mormons wed in LDS temples in...

Mormons at Brigham Young University will be talking about apostasy later this week, but the discussion won't be about skinny jeans or gay rights.

Rather, the conference will explore the idea of “apostasy” throughout history, including Jewish, Muslim and Catholic and Protestant notions.

Mormons have, in fact, been talking about the notion of apostasy for more than 180 years. It is a “key" teaching of the faith since its inception, organizers says.

Founder Joseph Smith taught that true Christianity was lost after the death of the first apostles and needed to be restored to the Earth in 1830.

At least two senior LDS Church leaders from Utah and several top church employees have made campaign contributions to presidential candidates.

Federal records show W. Craig Zwick, a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, gave two donations in May and June 2011, totaling $2,450, to Republican Mitt Romney, who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Romney also received a contribution in June 2011 from First Quorum of the Seventy member Lynn G. Robbins.

Records show Robbins initially gave two donations each of $2,500 to Romney on June 11, 2011, which would have broken federal rules that limit individual donations to $2,500 per ...

With the flurry of recent news stories about Mormons performing ritual baptisms for Holocaust victim Anne Frank and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal's deceased parents, many readers believe that those millions of people who have been posthumously baptized in LDS temples are now considered Mormons and are counted as such.

Wrong.

“The names of deceased persons are not added to the membership records of the [LDS] Church,” it says on the Utah-based faith's official website.

Nor is the ritual, in any sense, complete or coercive in Mormon eyes.

“By performing proxy bapti...

The LDS Church responded Tuesday to news that Anne Frank, one of the most renowned Jewish victims of the Holocaust, was recently baptized — again — in a Mormon temple. The proxy ritual, known as “baptism for the dead,” was performed in the Santo Domingo LDS temple in the Dominican Republic.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also learned that Jan Karski, a Roman Catholic who witnessed the emerging Holocaust in Poland and risked his life to bring that news to U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, had been similarly baptized.

Karski biographer E. Thomas Wood “called on the Utah-based church to remove Karski's name from its database of the baptized dead,” Wood sai...

The so-called “Mormon moment” is a passing fad, with more downsides than benefits to the Utah-based faith, writes Ronan James Head, at bycommonconsent.com.

Still, Head, who teaches religion and philosophy at a private boys school in England, believes there are consistent assumptions to be drawn from all the recent exposure:

— “People tend not to mind Mormon quarterbacks or singers, but they don’t want one running the country.” It’s not about having a president you could drink with, Head writes, “it’s about fitting comfortably into the American landscape. ... It is clear Mormons s...

Mormon presidential candidate Mitt Romney is betraying his church with his hard-edged stand on immigration.

At least that’s the view of some Latino Mormon activists who cite immigration stories in the church’s signature scripture, the Book of Mormon, and the Utah-based faith’s overt support of compassion for undocumented immigrants.

These Latinos also “view Romney’s stance against proposals giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship as hypocritical,” The Associated Press reported, “since Romney’s great-grandfather, Miles Par...

What's so “southern” about the Southern Baptist Convention, and is the name a hindrance more than a help?

That's what the Christian denomination with 16 million U.S. members has been considering for the past couple of years and what Southern Baptist President Bryant Wright will speak to Monday, according to a Religion News Service story by Roy Hoffman.

The denomination was created in 1845 when Northern and Southern branches “split over slavery and other issues,” Hoffman writes. “The Southern branch kept its name, while Northern Baptists eventually became...

Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel wants Mormon Mitt Romney to tell his church to stop baptizing dead Jews.

The Utah-based faith's practice of proxy baptism of Jews is “scandalous," Wiesel, author of the award-winning memoir, Night, told the Huffington Post. "[It's] not only objectionable, it's scandalous."

Wiesel was responding to reports that his name was on a list of potential candidates for the church's posthumous baptism rituals. The 83-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner is, of course, very much alive.

The LDS Church policy “is that members can request these ...

Matthew Bowman has a message for the U.S. media: Don't judge Mormonism by "The Book of Mormon" musical or the LDS characters in Tony Kushner's "Angels in America."

Both plays offer simplistic, one-sided views of the Utah-based faith but from opposite poles, argues Bowman, author of the newly released one volume history, The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith, in Slate magazine.

“Both the riotous musical and Kushner’s brooding black comedy present faith defanged,” argues Bowman, who ...

Roma Downey, who played the lead character in the long-running TV show “Touched by an Angel” has become, well, a kind of Earth-based angel.

As a messenger from God on the show largely filmed in Utah, Downey routinely brought hope and insight to various figures who had forgotten or abandoned their otherworldly beliefs.

Now, Downey hopes to spend the rest of her life in faith-based giving, according to a piece by Sally Quinn of The Washington Post.

“Through much time in prayer I have realized that I want to spend the second act of my life...

The proposed LDS temple in Le Chesnay, France, a small town outside of Paris, has hit some potential roadblocks.

An Internet group of opponents has gathered about 6,000 signatures on its petition to stop the project, reports Voice of America writer Lisa Bryant.

Some oppose it for political reasons — they don't like the town's mayor who gave it the green light — while others, such as Marie Drilhon, local chapter head of a group fighting religious extremism, “view the Mormon faith with skepticism.”

The two main issues for French critics are tithing ...

Could something so violent and so, well, profane as the Super Bowl be a religious occasion?

After all, this year's game did end with an unsuccessful Hail Mary heave by Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. And Madonna, the half-time performer, told The Christian Post that exercise in national excess is “the holy of holies in America."

There is, of course, nothing inherently sacred about football, Jacques Berlinerblau writes at The Washing...

Driving up 700 South on Salt Lake City's east side, motorists will see a large placard in front of a "For Sale" sign at 840 East.

It says that the house was where the late LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley reportedly was born.

Hinckley might be interested to know that his birthplace is being sold by a lesbian couple, Keri Jones and Cristy Gleeve, who are parents of Glory, their daughter. Jones was involved in a high-profile child-custody dispute several years ago, Babs De Lay is the real estate agent. (Yep, she's gay, too.)

During Hinckley's tenure, the Utah-based faith softened its stance on homosexuality, saying it is OK to be gay, just not act on it.
...

Some horrified observers of Josh Powell's fiery murder of his sons are already proclaiming that Powell is in hell, while his wife and children have landed in heaven.

Though understandable, that sentiment seems somewhat presumptuous and premature — even for believers in an afterlife.

It is impossible, of course, for any human to make such a judgment, and it isn't 100 percent certain that Susan Powell is dead.

And even if the critics are right in their overall assessment of Josh Powell, their vocabulary is slightly off — at least according to the family's faith tradition.

The Powells were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and that c...

An American farm boy gets a visit from an angel who tells him where to find an ancient record buried in the ground. A young Tibetan has a vision that leads him to a buried book written by an Indian saint.

Both young men, so the stories go, translate their respective sacred texts into a language their contemporaries can read. Both volumes are published widely and attract many true believers. But only one commands universal respect, writes Buddhist scholar Donald S. Lopez Jr. at the Huffington Post.

“The Tibetan Book of the Dead, sanctified by the...

When Mitt Romney's tax returns revealed the millions he gave the past two years to the LDS Church, many wondered if that won the Republican presidential candidate more favor with Mormon leaders or if he was trying to hide his income through such charitable largesse.

Most journalists, though, recognized that Romney's donation was part of the faith's routine expectation that devout Mormons give 10 percent of their income – known as tithing – to the Utah-based church.

Mormons give tithing great emphasis. In fact, some of their most sacred rites — including eternal marriage — are reserved for those who pay a full tithe and meet other requirements for entrance into a Mormon temp...

Some Americans worry about what kind of influence LDS Church leaders might exert on Mitt Romney if he were elected as leader of the free world.

Would a President Romney push for tighter liquor laws, following the Utah-based faith's prohibition on alcohol? Would he be pressured to oppose gay marriage? Wait, he already does. Would he invite the MoTabs to sing at his inauguration? After all, several other presidents have.

So a Mormon blog, wheatandtares.org, posed the question to its readers: If LDS President Thomas S. Monson phoned up a newly elected President Romney, what woul...

We know from the Bible that Jesus wept, but did he laugh?

The Rev. James Martin thinks so, but you first have to get into a first-century Palestine mind-set.

“What was seen as funny to those living in Jesus' time may not seem funny to us,” writes Martin, a Jesuit priest and author of Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life.

The throngs around Jesus “would probably have laughed at many of his intentionally funny illustrations.” Martin writes in an excerpt at CNN.com. “For example, the idea that someone would ...

Jay Leno thought he was poking fun at Mitt Romney's extreme wealth but a recent photo substitution stung the Sikh community instead.

In a Jan. 19 segment, Leno showed what he said was a picture of Romney's summer home on Lake Winnipesaukee, but it was actually a photo of the Golden Temple of Amritsar in India, Sikhs' holiest shrine.

The joke so enraged U.S. Sikhs, The Wall Street Journal reported, that a group of them set up Facebook page to protest the joke. By Monday morning, the paper reported, it had 3,000 members.

India’s am...

Mormons may be more engaged in American public life than ever, but their sense of suspicion toward the dangers and hostility of the world remain strong, writes Ken Jennings in the New York Daily News.

Jennings, Utah's "Jeopardy" superstar, cites the recent Pew study, which found that “a whopping 46 percent of [LDS] respondents said that Mormons face 'a lot of discrimination' in modern America," more than against African-Americans (31 percent) and atheists (13 percent).

He acknowledges some of the “evils of modern life,” namely, “war, racism, [and] 'Are You There, Chelsea?'," a new sit...

The LDS Church has again joined with dozens of other faiths in its defense of marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman, arguing that the move to legalize gay marriage may infringe on religious rights.

There are “grave consequences of altering this definition,” a group of 39 religious leaders, including LDS Presiding Bishop H. David Burton, wrote last week in “an open letter ... to all Americans.”

Other signers included Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals; Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan, Catholic archbishop of New York; and Nathan J. Diament, executive director for public policy for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of...

Among the findings in the massive Pew Research Center's study of Mormons was this gem:

More members of the Utah-based church (27 percent) than the general public (23 percent) say they believe in yoga not just as exercise but as a spiritual practice.

Really?

Yes, says Lisa Butterworth, founder of feministmormonhousewives.org, who has witnessed this firsthand.

“I've been teaching yoga at my ward house for two years or so and I've been asked a ton of times to teach Young Women groups,” Butterworth wrote in an email this week. “Mormons do seem to love yoga, and I've always had great feedback from members, even very conservative members, when I include allusion...