cacheman

Can someone help clear this up? Has the church's position on religious freedom shifted to now supporting legislation that protects all people from employment and housing discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation? Do they now believe that no one should be denied these protections? If so that's a big deal. If not, then they should clarify. The readership in Florida might not be familiar with the church's positions, and come away with the wrong understanding after reading this. If they want to retain the ability for religious organizations to discriminate then this letter doesn't make sense. I can't imagine any legislation that would be able to both protect all from discrimination while also allowing for religious organizations to continue to discriminate. Is there specific legislation in Florida that they are supporting? For what it's worth..... I'm happy to see the church supporting legislation that protects LGBTQ+ individuals from housing, employment, and public accommodations. I also respect the right of religious people and organizations to practice their religion freely. I have a difficult time respecting efforts to marshal support for legislation using misleading or unclear language. How hard would it have been to simply say they support non-discrimination legislation that protects all people except those employed or housed by religious organizations? -cacheman

Do they really mean what they said? Or do they still consider some discrimination in hiring against LGBTQ+ an important religious right (ie. religious schools, etc.)? If they don't fully agree with the letter they signed, then they should clarify their position to avoid misunderstandings.

In future recountings of this story, I recommend you go back to using the "literally 1/10" version. The "fully one-quarter" revision definitely has more shock value, but the earlier version is more believable.

I'm wondering about the title of this thread referring to a "massacre of polygamists" Were any of the victims polygamists? Most of them were children and I haven't seen any of the adults identified as polygamists. I know that some in their community practice polygamy. But I was under the impression that most don't. Maybe @Navidadknows more. -cacheman

Are you possibly thinking of Dr. John Robinson? He was the one that found and named 'Mrs Ples'. He was a UW-M anthropology professor emeritus.

Hey.... I said I wasn't an accountant! Lol. But, yes.

Are you sure this is being reported correctly? The financial statements from the church show much lower donation amounts (just under 30k for 2020 and 35k in 2019). https://acncpubfilesprodstorage.blob.core.windows.net/public/df8937d2-38af-e811-a95e-000d3ad24c60-4e1ca537-d2e3-4f5a-8309-7e073ef586cc-Financial Report-62a22a3d-54bf-eb11-bacc-000d3a6ac255-LDSA_2020_Audited_Financial_Statements.pdf (I'm not an accountant, so I might be reading this wrong.) -cacheman

Thanks! Are the stake directories available online, or would I need a membership number to access it?

Good ideas. But, I don't believe our campus has an institute, or even an LDS student organization. It looks like I'll probably need to find out who the local bishop is and find their number. I assume the number that comes up for the local ward in a google search is the number for the bishop's office. Is that correct?

I'm the faculty advisor for a university club that is planning an event. The club is a Muslim student organization, and the purpose of the event is to educate people regarding the purpose and meaning of religious attire. We have participants from Islam, Judaism, and Catholicism, but have not had success getting other Christian organizations involved. When I saw that the LDS church had released the publication discussing similarities between Islam and Mormonism, I realized that I should probably reach out to the local LDS church. I have found a phone number for the local ward, but I would prefer to have an email address so that I could send more info regarding the event. Does anyone know how to find email addresses for local wards or stakes? Thanks! -cacheman

It looks like you're right. Not sure how I missed that! I agree that it was most likely misreported. Very confusing to say the least.

The article doesn't actually say that the 1.2 million number comes from the INEGI census data which reports ~338k members. The reference to the census data only applies to the article's claim that 95% of Mexicans follow some religion. The mention of 1.2 million members is in the following paragraph.