Mormon Church

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Do Mormons Practice Polygamy?

25 July 2008 @ 10:04 am | 7 comments

No!

I noticed a little while ago that the Church was so serious about actively spreading word that the LDS Church does not condone or practice polygamy that it was advertising the Newsroom.lds.org website.

Those same ads are still showing up in Google ads but they are now pointing to MormonsandPolygamy.org. It’s a one page site with a video of President Hinckley explaining the Church’s policy on polygamy, links to various resources, and tools to spread the word (including social bookmarking).

They even include a button to link the page that you can put on your own site.

Do Mormons Practice Polygamy?

Unfortunately, I can’t get the code to work for me right now. But I would recommend linking to it to boost its page-ranking and give it more notice in the search engines.

MORE: Thanks Bryce for the solution to fixing the code.

The Mormon Swing Vote

23 July 2008 @ 3:34 pm | 3 comments

The Boston Globe has a nifty timewaster, an electoral college map with adjustable demographics based on race, gender, and religious voting patterns.

Below is a smaller version, only considering the LDS vote. Unlike other faiths, there was only 2006 election data for LDS voters (the sample map below says 2004, but the home site says its 2006) . I suppose its a good sign that while only 2% of the electorate is LDS, its vote is now starting to be measured.

Fiddling with the LDS vote below, you can see that if the LDS vote went 100% GOP (instead of the 80% it appears to be), then it would help Sen. McCain claim New Mexico. On the flip side, if the LDS vote went 100% Democrat, it would gain Utah, Nevada, and Oregon for Sen. Obama.

The Mormon vote is not a powerful voting bloc but it is interesting to see how it can influence the election in specific states.

You can go to the site’s home page to also see how race and gender demographics figured in the elections and adjust them to forecast how 2008 may play out.

Church Building Security

9 November 2007 @ 3:11 pm | 5 comments

Here in the Maryland suburban D.C. area, the police are investigating a horrible incident that occurred a few weeks ago at a church building in our stake:

The investigation stems from an incident at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Contee Road on Oct. 24. Shortly after 7 p.m., police say, a man entered the church through an unlocked side door and proceeded to sexually assault three girls ages 6, 9 and 13.

He then kidnapped a 4-year-old girl, drove her away from the church and sexually assaulted her before dropping her off in a gravel lot on Van Dusen Road near Old Gunpowder Road.

Fortunately, the little girl was found a mile away from the building by a passerby not long after she was noticed missing.

Weeknight activities in our stake are probably like most, with kids running around as meetings go on in classrooms and others play basketball. Understandably, this has been a huge shock to the stake and our leaders have been working to improve building security. Sadly, we realize that the church is not the sanctuary we thought it was. 

There is a natural tendency to want to take action in response to something so horrible. But probably the best thing we can do is realize our vulnerability, increase our vigilance, and watch over our children (without overreacting). 

This isn’t something I would normally write about.  I don’t wish to over publicize the devastating heartbreak for these families.  However, I thought this may be valuable reminder for others to not be lax in their own meeting houses.