Dennis Schleicher’s life has been anything but easy. The growing realization that he was gay coupled with his parents’ use of religion to justify abuse and neglect led Dennis to have a very complicated relationship with love, God, and organized religion. After suffering a violent hate crime, forced institutionalization, and heartbreak after heartbreak, Dennis was desperate for love and acceptance-he just didn’t know where to find it.

After years of searching, Dennis unexpectedly discovered a new family in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Now secure in his relationship with the Church and with God, Dennis shares the story of how he, a gay man, found his home in the Church. Determined to be a survivor, not a victim, Dennis draws upon his life’s journey as a source of inspiration to help others in similar situations and to foster a better understanding of his many LGBT brothers and sisters in the world. Dennis now serves as a ward mission leader, assisting sisters and elders throughout New England.

Preacher Willard Bean becomes the world middleweight boxing champion in 1905, but when Joseph F. Smith asks him to step away from the limelight and serve a five-year mission in upstate New York, the Beans immediately pack their bags and travel to the East Coast. Once there, they find the hatred that existed 90 years earlier is still alive and very present.

Preacher Willard Bean becomes the world middleweight boxing champion in 1905, but when Joseph F. Smith asks him to step away from the limelight and serve a five-year mission in upstate New York, the Beans immediately pack their bags and...

Mormon families prepare for LDS church separation from Boy Scouts of America

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as it announced in 2018, will end its century-long charter relationship with Boy Scouts of America on Dec. 31, meaning LDS congregations will no longer sponsor units of Cub Scouts and Scouts BSA (formerly the Boy Scout program).

Read Story

Getting off the canvas

Earlier this month, Jack Dempsey’s stunning upset of Jess Willard for the heavyweight boxing championship of the world pass its 100th Anniversary.

Read Story

MLMs are cults that prey on moms, Mormons and the military

Pyramid schemes are illegal, but “multi-level marketing” schemes are not; the difference is supposedly that pyramid schemes don’t really sell anything — they just sell the right to recruit people who will recruit people who will recruit people, each paying up the pyramid to their “uplines” — while MLMs supposedly actually sell stuff.

Read Story

UVa professor to lead LDS congregations in two states

A University of Virginia professor will lead a flock of 4,000 members of the Church of Latter-day Saints in two states, church officials recently announced.

Read Story

First translator of the Book of Mormon

Meliton Gonzalez Trejo was born March 10, 1844, in Garganta-la-olla in the province of Caceres in Western Spain. His father, Don Gerardo de las Mercedes Gonzalez Trejo, was mayor and a teacher in the town’s elementary school. His mother was Geronima Moreno Trejo. Meliton had many relatives in nearby communities.

Read Story

Competition to grow medical marijuana in Utah heats up

The wide metal barn on the Utah alfalfa farm owned by Russell and Diane Jones will host their youngest son’s wedding next month. By September, they hope the structure will be full of marijuana plants.

Read Story

‘Called to Laugh: the Lighter Side of Missionary Life’ tells real funny stories about Latter-day Saint missions

More than 50 years ago, Elder Bruce Dana, a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, got into his car with his companion to head to an appointment. The two left their windows open because it was a hot August day in St. Maries, Idaho. As soon as Dana sat down, a kitten that crawled in through the open window jumped on his back and dug its claws into the missionary’s left shoulder.

Read Story

Savannah couldn’t finish telling her Latter-day Saint ward she is a lesbian. Now you can see her full testimony in virtual reality.

The girl steps up to the lectern and begins, simply, “Hi, my name is Savannah.”

Read Story

A note regarding complaints about LDS humanitarian efforts

Stephen Cranney has just published a review in BYU Studies of The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church (New York City: Oxford University Press, 2019),

Mormon families prepare for LDS church separation from Boy Scouts of America The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as it announced in 2018, will end its century-long charter relationship with Boy Scouts of America on Dec. 31, meaning...

*****PEOPLE LOVED IT SO MUCH*****

 

And It Was Very Good is a sex manual written for Latter-day Saints. The book is unique. It frames married sex in gospel principles and provides practical how-to details not found in other books. And It Was Very Good is respectful, non-pornographic, and above all, helpful. “Beyond the birds and the bees,” said the Salt Lake Tribune. LDS Daily called it “a powerful and frank guidebook to marital intimacy.” The married couple may enter into the “thou shalt” of the sexual relationship with confidence by reading And It Was Very Good.

The free PDF of And It Was Very Good is available upon request at [email protected]

*****PEOPLE LOVED IT SO MUCH*****   And It Was Very Good is a sex manual written for Latter-day Saints. The book is unique. It frames married sex in gospel principles and provides practical how-to details not found in other books. And It Was Very Good is respectful,...

When Kendal Levine spotted a double rainbow shining over Canberra’s south in September 2014, she had no idea she was about to begin a five-year journey of loss, recovery and forgiveness.

 

When Kendal Levine spotted a double rainbow shining over Canberra’s south in September 2014, she had no idea she was about to begin a five-year journey of loss, recovery and forgiveness.

Sundance co-founder, LDS temple video director sentenced again in second sex abuse case

A filmmaker who co-founded the Sundance Film Festival and produced a movie whose lead actress won an Oscar in the mid-1980s was sentenced Tuesdayon a sexual abuse charge for the second time in as many weeks.

Read Story

LDS Church considering lowering age for youth interviews with clergy to 8, survey says

A survey commissioned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints inquires about lowering the age of youth interviews with clergy from age 12 to eight.

Read Story

BYU makes more changes to Honor Code Office to reduce students’ ‘anxiety,’ boost transparency

Brigham Young University announced updates Wednesday to its Honor Code Office that officials say will “reduce misunderstanding and anxiety” that has occurred at the Provo school.

Read Story

Jewish and Latter-day Saint scholars just had an interfaith dialogue in Jerusalem. Now they’re going to publish a book

At the beginning of June, an event at the BYU Jerusalem Center featuring two prominent religious leaders — Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Rabbi Michael Melchior, the chief rabbi of Norway and a recognized leader in Israel — served as both a highlight and illustration of something even greater that is taking place between the two faiths.

Read Story

Latter-day Saint Church defends involvement in death penalty case

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints defended its involvement in a death penalty case.

Read Story

Meet the Mormon YouTube Influencers Shaping Millions of Teen Minds: ‘Church Is a Big Part of Our Life’

The same introduction prefaces each of Summer Mckeen’s YouTube videos. A message, in lowercase Courier font and splashed across a distorted backdrop of a rainbow, reads, “Hello I’m Summer Mckeen & here’s my video.” Depending on the type of video—vlog, beauty tutorial, Q&A—the 20-year-old will then launch into a one-way conversation with her camera.

Read Story

A Message to Those Tired of Being Single

It was the week before I met my fiancée—but for all I knew, I was going to be waiting another 10 years.

Read Story

Latter-day Saint NASA Engineer Creates World’s Largest Pool Full of Jell-O

Mark Rober—a BYU graduate and former NASA engineer—has put his education to work creating machines every little kid dreams of—a snowball machine gun, the world’s largest Nerf gun, a Guinness World Record-winning Super Soaker, a glitter bomb.

Read Story

Salt Lake City offers glimpse of socialism, Mormon-style

Utah has one of the nation’s lowest rates of income inequality in part because of the Church of Latter-day Saints’ welfare system, but it also ranks dead last for economic equality for women