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SMITHFIELD — After dinner, three baths, four bedtime stories and a half-a-dozen goodnight kisses for 2-year-old twins Brock and Isaac and 6-year-old Ellie, Erin and Brian Thompson finally sink into the couch with weary smiles.
Being parents is just what they always wanted. And they love it.
“Of course we have our crazy moments,” Thompson says, “but for the most part we just try to find the good things in the day and remember that they’re only going to be little for so long.”
As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Thompsons believe that maintaining a strong marriage and raising and teaching children are essential keys to happiness and their most important responsibilities on earth.
In fact, 81 percent of Mormons say being a good parent is “one of the most important things in life,” according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life — the first survey of Mormons about Mormons,... Read the rest of this article »
By Amy Choate-Nielsen
Deseret News
Published: Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012 7:00 p.m. MST
David Letterman knows how to get a laugh.Like most comics, he riffs on the day’s news, deadpans the camera and revels in audacity.”Oh, did you hear about this?” the host of CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman asked his audience recently. “A campaign staffer on the Newt Gingrich campaign was fired because he was making negative comments about Mormons. I thought, now, wait a minute — isn’t Newt in favor of multiple wives?”
Laughter rumbled from the audience followed by applause. The polygamy punch line is a familiar one when it comes to poking fun at Mormons — as though Mormons and polygamy are synonymous in mainstream media. Ironically, the practice that’s most linked to Mormons is a practice most Mormons oppose, according to a groundbreaking new study of Mormons in America released Thursday by the Pew Research Center‘s Forum on Religion and... Read the rest of this article »
A recent The Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life conducted an in-depth survey of Mormons in the United States. Mormon is a nickname sometimes used to describe members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The fourth article in a series that appears in Deseret News is evaluating the results of this survey and providing context for the results.
Immigration is a controversial topic in the United States. The survey asked one question on this topic. They were asked which of two statements most closely matched their view, even if they didn’t completely agree. They were asked whether immigrants strengthen or burden the nation. No distinction was made between legal and illegal immigration, leaving those polled to decide for themselves what the question meant.
In the general U.S. population, 45 percent of Americans feel that immigrants strengthen the country, while 44 percent burden it. 12 percent feel that neither or both are true or they have no opinion... Read the rest of this article »
Of all the numbers in the Pew Research Center’s recently released survey of “Mormons in America,” the highest, most overwhelming numbers are these: 98 percent of respondents said they believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and 97 percent say their church is a Christian religion.
This comes on the heels of earlier surveys indicating that 32 percent of non-LDS U.S. adults say the LDS Church is not a Christian religion, and an additional 17 percent are unsure of LDS Christianity. The theological and semantic reasons for this can be complex, but for the 1,019 self-identified Mormons who participated in the Pew survey, their theological position is clear: Mormons believe in Jesus Christ, and they consider themselves to be Christian.
“Certainly in Latter-day Saint theology is this idea that if you understand who you are, you understand that there’s a purpose in life, you understand your connection to God, that certainly has an impact on how you live your life... Read the rest of this article »
As the “Mormon moment” extends into 2012, the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life today released a groundbreaking new survey, the first ever published by a non-LDS research organization to focus exclusively on members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and their beliefs, values, perceptions and political preferences.
Entitled “Mormons in America: Certain in Their Beliefs, Uncertain of Their Place in Society,” the survey was conducted between Oct. 25 and Nov. 16, 2011 among a national sample of 1,019 respondents who identified themselves as Mormons. The results validate a number of long-held stereotypes (most American Mormons are white, well-educated, politically conservative and religiously observant) while providing a few interesting surprises (care for the poor and needy is high on the list of LDS priorities, while drinking coffee and watching R-rated movies aren’t as taboo among the rank and file as you might think).
“While this survey... Read the rest of this article »
Vincenzo Di Francesca was born in Italy in 1888. He always had a love for the gospel of Jesus Christ, and in 1909, he travelled to New York City, where he became a member of the Methodist Church and attended Knox College of New York in November of 1909. After graduating, he became a pastor. The following February, while going to visit a sick friend, he came across a book lying on a barrel. It was very damaged and had no cover or title page. However, as he leafed through it, he recognized the name of Isaiah, and he felt it was a religious book. He took the book home and cleaned it up, spending the whole day reading the book. Of this experience, he said:
For several hours I read the remainder of the pages, which gave me light and knowledge and left me charmed to think of the source from which this fresh revelation had come. I read and reread, twice and twice again, and I found it fit to say that the book was a fifth gospel of the Redeemer. At the end of the day, I locked the door of my room,... Read the rest of this article »
Mormon doctrine has a unique explanation for why there are so many different Christian denominations in the world today. Mormons believe that the “great falling away” spoken of in 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2 refers to the Great Apostasy. Mormons use this term to describe what happened after Christ and all the apostles left this earth. With no authority left on the earth, the leadership of the early church fell into the hands of philosophers. The influence of the Greek and Roman schools of thought were so great, that doctrine was steadily dismantled by men who simply wanted to “discuss” things. Because many doctrines were contrary to popular belief, the doctrines were changed to accommodate society, as happened with the Council of Nicaea.
When a young man named Joseph Smith was confused by all the conflicting interpretations of scripture he heard from the different denominations in his area, he prayed to God to know which church was the true church. He had a surprising... Read the rest of this article »
In Mormon doctrine, the priesthood is the authority and power to act in God’s name. This is exactly the same priesthood that was had in the early church, which Christ gave to His apostles. However, this priesthood power was eventually lost when all the apostles died and the church itself went into apostasy. This is the “falling away” spoken of in 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2, ”Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” This falling away means that authority was lost and the early Saints and leaders began to look for their own replacement for revelation, which ended up being philosophy. Through this, many truths were lost from the early church. Men made decisions not based on revelation and authority, but on their own reason and logic.
When Joseph Smith was trying to decide which church to join, he had a vision of God the Father and His Son,... Read the rest of this article »
In 1820, the religious confusion taking place in the United States was significant. A young farm boy, aged 14, named Joseph Smith, Jr., was confused about which denomination he should align himself to. He studied the Bible and read in James 1:5, where it says, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” When Joseph read this passage, he decided to pray to ask God for guidance. In response to this prayer, he received a vision of God the Father and Jesus Christ. He learned from them that the fullness of the gospel had been lost from the earth after all of the apostles were killed and the earth had been in confusion for nearly two thousand years.
Joseph learned over the next ten years that God had a plan for him. Through the power and under the command of God, Joseph translated an ancient record kept by the earliest inhabitants of the Americas. This work was published as the Book of Mormon and... Read the rest of this article »
In 1842, Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. was asked by John Wentworth, editor of the Chicago Democrat, what the basic beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormon Church is officially known, were. Joseph responded by writing down what became known as the Articles of Faith, which included thirteen points of basic Mormon doctrine. They were canonized as scripture by the Church and are a good summarization of Mormon theology. They are as follows:
We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.
We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands... Read the rest of this article »
