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CONFERENCE SPEAKERS DENOUNCE in two arrests during General Conference—and those arrested IMMORALITY IN THE MEDIA were on the Mormon side. In one incident, a man was arrested after allegedly assaulting THE DANGERS OF television, movies, and the Internet were a street preacher Devin Allen. Allen was apparently sneezing into recurrent theme in the October 2003 General Conference. an LDS garment, carrying it around his neck, and “What comes out of Hollywood, off the Internet, and in much placing it on his buttocks in front of the conference-going of today’s music creates a web of decadence that can trap our crowd. About half an hour later, a second man grabbed a gar- children and endanger all of us,” said Elder M. Russell Ballard ment from street preacher Lonnie Pursifull, who was waving of the Quorum of the Twelve during the Saturday morning ses- the sacred clothing in the air. The man was cited and released. sion. Ballard counseled Latter-day Saints to “speak out and join Some local residents, including some who are not LDS, went with many other concerned people in opposition to the offen- to specifically to protest the protesters. Some sive, destructive, and mean-spirited media influence that is took a low-key approach, such as the Church member who sweeping over the earth.” stood with a sign reading, “ was a prophet and a Ballard’s message was echoed by Elder Quentin L. Cook of martyr,” or the group who sought to muffle the preachers’ the First Quorum of Seventy. “We are bombarded with visual yelling by standing images of violence and immorality,” decried Cook. “There has nearby and signing been a coarsening of dialogue and increased exposure to that LDS hymns. Others, which is base and vulgar.” such as Josh Peters, President Boyd K. Packer denounced the dangers of the took a more light- Internet. “To [Satan], the Internet is . . . a net to ensnare you hearted tactic,

into a wicked addiction with pornography,” he said. standing between Salt Lake Tribune “Unhappiness will follow.” two of the street

Referring to immorality in TV, President Gordon B. preachers with a RICK EGAN, Hinckley praised the Church- sign with arrows Preacher protester Josh Peters stands next to Lonnie Pursifull with an “I’m with Stupid” sign. owned TV station KSL for re- pointing at the fusing to air a program “of zealots that read, “I’m with stupid.” Another protester against salacious nature.” This was the preachers shouted and carried a sign that read, “I’m loud, apparently a reference to the so I must be right!” NBC sitcom, Coupling, which NBC’s “salacious” new focuses on the sex lives of six CHURCH TO REDEVELOP sitcom, Coupling friends. DOWNTOWN SALT LAKE AT CONFERENCE TIME, TEMPLE IN A PROJECT that will cost “hundreds of millions of dollars,” SQUARE BECOMES BATTLE GROUND LDS officials have unveiled a plan to redevelop entire blocks of downtown Salt Lake. The Church, which recently purchased EVEN THOUGH HECKLERS and protesters did not tread on the Crossroads Plaza mall, will redevelop it, adding two up- the Church-owned LDS Plaza, Temple Square clashes resulted scale residential towers to the two blocks where it and the ZCMI mall now are. LDS Business College and the Salt Lake ex- tension of University will be relocated to a spot on South Temple Street which is now a parking lot but which was the site of the medals plaza for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. Few details were revealed regarding the new downtown colleges, but Presiding Bishop H. David Burton said in a press conference that the project is intended to revitalize not only downtown Salt Lake, but also the whole corridor between Temple Square and the Gateway Plaza, which is located to the west. Salt Lake Tribune Bishop Burton declined to say whether the Crossroads mall will join the ZCMI Center mall in closing on Sundays, or whether prospective commercial tenants, such as restaurants, will be permitted to sell alcoholic beverages. Burton empha-

PAT BAGLEY, courtesy of the sized that no tithing funds will be used for any of the redevel- opment projects.

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LDS LEADERS RESPOND TO LEGISLATION CONCERNING SAME-SEX UNIONS IS THE CONSTITUTION HANGING BY A THREAD? bers of Congress a document reaffirming the Church’s position ONLY DAYS AFTER the U.S. against same-sex marriage which quotes a 1999 statement by Supreme Court decriminalized President Gordon B. Hinckley: “God-sanctioned marriage be- sodomy and Canada legalized tween a man and a woman has been the basis of civilization same-sex marriage, LDS leaders, for thousands of years. There is no justification to redefine members, and lawmakers vigor- what marriage is. Such is not our right, and those who try will ously reaffirmed their opposition find themselves answerable to God” (Ensign [Nov. 1999], 54). to same-sex unions. GAY RESPOND Elder M. Russell Ballard “The family continues to be as- saulted relentlessly through the TWO WEEKS AFTER world,” said Apostle M. Russell Ballard at a BYU Education Elder Ballard’s BYU Week devotional address. “Gender is being confused, and speech, the executive gender roles are being repudiated. Same-gender marriage is committee of Affirm- being promoted in direct opposition to God’s purpose ation: Gay and for His children to experience mortality.” He added, “When Lesbian Mormons, de- Satan wants to disrupt the work of the Lord, he doesn’t send a clared that gay Mor- plague of laryngitis to afflict the Mormon . He mons are “embar- Scott MacKay, Darran Holman, and Olin doesn’t legislate against green Jell-O or casseroles. When Satan rassed and saddened” Thomas, executive committee, Affirmation truly wants to disrupt the work of the Lord, he attempts to by Ballard’s remarks. confuse gender and attack God’s plan for His spirit children.” “It is difficult to understand how LDS leaders, who in the Also speaking at Education Week, BYU professor Brett past have been so persecuted and excluded for practicing an Latimer compared the battle over gay marriage to the fight alternative family model, could be now so invested in con- over slavery, which in the nineteenth century divided families demning and making illegal another alternative family and splintered churches. “We’ve survived these things before,” model,” reads a statement published in said Latimer, “but we’ve never had one this dramatic. This is and on the organization’s website. bigger than the Civil War issue. This is about whether or not “Elder Ballard and other LDS leaders view the prospect of there is truth at all.” same-sex unions as nothing short of apocalyptic. But many of Shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision concerning us are already living with same-sex partners, raising children, sodomy, LDS Senator Orrin Hatch stated that a constitutional and providing for our families—and we have been doing it for amendment might be necessary to ensure that homosexual many years. The sky has not yet fallen!” marriage remains illegal. “I favor a constitutional amendment Mormon historian D. Michael Quinn, who has studied the that basically establishes marriage as a family institution be- LDS involvement in the fight against same-sex marriage, finds tween a male and a female,” Hatch told the , “so similarities between the kind of discrimination Church leaders that we can continue to preserve our families and not get fam- once practiced against blacks and the current campaign to ilies mixed up with politics.” Richard G. Wilkins, managing deny gays the right to marriage. “It takes a peculiar kind of director of BYU’s World Family Policy Center, has also argued blindness to currently affirm that [discrimination against the need for such an amendment. blacks] was ethically and morally wrong, yet argue that it is Elder LaMar Sleight, director of the Church’s office of gov- now ethically and civilly right to discriminate against [homo- ernmental affairs in Washington, D.C., has given several mem- sexuals]” (Dialogue 33, no. 3 [Fall 2000], 48).

The photo at right is taken from the Church’s official website, , and shows the new development highlighted in white. The photo is taken from the north, looking south (note Church Office Building in center foreground and Temple Square in right foreground)

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People commitment to protecting natural resources,” states the group in a letter to the Committee, “and we therefore believe he is DIED. LDS actor Gordon Jump, of pul- not the right person to head the EPA.” monary fibrosis, in . Jump is best known for his TV role as the sta- SURPRISED. Long-time White House tion manager Arthur Carlson on the correspondent, Helen Thomas during a sitcom “WKRP in Cincinnati” (1978–82) recent speech on the BYU campus. After and for his role as the repairman, “Ol’ audience applause unexpectedly greeted Lonely,” in Maytag appliance commer- her statement that President George W. cials (1989–2003). Bush is “more conservative than any president I’ve ever covered,” a flustered CONGRATULATED. Elder David B. Thomas asked, “Am I in enemy terri- Haight of the Quorum of the Twelve, tory?” for turning 97 and becoming the oldest apostle ever. Elder Haight has FEATURED. The art of President Boyd outlived President David O. McKay K. Packer. Packer is known as a World and Elder LeGrand Richards, both of War II pilot, an educator, and acting whom died at age 96, and Presidents Joseph Fielding Smith President of the Quorum of the and Ezra Taft Benson, who died at age 95 and 94, respectively. Twelve. Now the Museum of Church Elder Haight became an apostle at age 69. History and Art is highlighting a lesser- known facet of the Church leader: he IMPRISONED AND TORTURED. Ghollam Nikbin, an is also an amateur artist. According to a Iranian-born Mormon, for his conversion to . As Church News story, a new exhibit, enti- Nikbin was trying to leave Iran in 1995, officials found his tled “Boyd K. Packer: The Lifework of LDS baptismal certificate and imprisoned him. During his an Amateur Artist,” cele- three-and-a-half years incarceration, he was beaten, tortured, brates years of and forcibly drugged. Nikbin has now filed a complaint in the paintings, drawings, and U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Under Iranian law, wood carvings by the leaving the Islamic faith is a crime. apostle, who has been cre- ating art since age nine. In SENTENCED. BYU student and MTC his 1942 Box Elder High employee Paul William Turner, for up School yearbook, President to fifteen years in prison, after making Packer wrote that his ambi- three unsuccessful attempts to kill his tion was “to be an artist.” pregnant wife. Turner baked rat poison The exhibit, which will into cookies, used supposedly deadly run through 6 Sep- mushrooms in his wife’s spaghetti, and tember 2004, can be pre- replaced her blood-clotting medicine viewed at the Museum’s with fish-tank cleaner. Turner, who website, . The site in- bishop, told the police he was addicted cludes a lavish, high-tech to pornography and that marriage was preventing him from presentation which allow living the lifestyle he wanted. some of President Packer’s carvings to be rotated and NOMINATED. LDS Governor displayed as three-dimen- Michael O. Leavitt, to head the sional objects. Environmental Protection Agency. Leavitt must first be confirmed by DISAPPOINTED. The Primary children of the Pasadena the Senate Committee on Environ- California Stake, after stake leaders decided to cancel their an- ment and Public Works, where he nual Halloween Trick or Treat activity. According to local could be hurt by his own record on sources, the stake president finds the activity inappropriate environmental issues. Mormons for because of its connection to a pagan holiday. The latest edi- Equality and Social Justice (MESJ) is one group opposing the tion of the Church Handbook of Instructions says nothing ei- confirmation. “We are deeply concerned about [Leavitt’s] ther favoring or against Halloween activities.

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SAMOA TEMPLE GOES UP IN FLAMES Temple, damaged by lighting in 1878; and the Logan Temple, damaged by fire in 1917. AS A PROJECT to ren- ovate and expand the CHURCH LEADERS: Apia Temple FIRING SQUAD CAN GO was underway, the shingle-roofed edifice AS THE STATE of Utah explores the possibility of eliminating caught fire and burned. the firing squad as an optional method of execution, Church Three firefighting crews spokesperson Dale Bills says LDS officials have prepared and and a hundred volun- delivered a statement to the Utah Sentencing Commission teers worked for three hours to quench the flames, which de- clarifying that the Church “has no objection to the elimination stroyed everything except the exterior walls and the Angel of the firing squad.” The commission had requested the state- Moroni statue. One week after the fire, the First Presidency an- ment in order to clear up some potential questions among leg- nounced plans to rebuild the temple utilizing a more up-to- islators. According to the early LDS doctrine of blood atone- date design which includes more than 16,000 square feet of ment, murderers must shed their own blood in order to atone space and a fire-sprinkling system. The new building will take for their grievous sin. six months to plan and two years to build. Utah is the only state where death-row inmates can choose Other temples damaged in the past include the Nauvoo to die by firing squad. If the firing squad choice is eliminated, Temple, destroyed by an arsonist in 1848; the St. George death by lethal injection will be the only execution option.

Solar Flares In 1998, authors Bryan Waterman and Brian Kagel re- ferred to censorship scandals as “a perennial feature of BYU BYU cracks down on bare bottoms. BYU’s Daily Universe regu- life” (The Lord’s University: Freedom and Authority at BYU, larly carries a weekly insert called Sports Illustrated on Signature Books, 1998). Campus, but the 30 September issue of the insert never made it to the campus stands. The culprit: an article entitled Simon says leave his F-bombs alone. The Grove Theater of “Yesterday’s Nudes,” which includes a picture of some Pleasant Grove, Utah, was forced to cancel the performance Princeton students that shows their bare bottoms as they are of Neil Simon’s play Rumors after the copyright holders were running au naturel during the university’s traditional Nude notified that the producers had removed some instances of Olympics. “We couldn’t run the article unless I tore out the f-word and other profanity from the script. 18,500 copies of that picture,” said Casey Stauffer, advertising “[Simon] does not allow changes to his scripts under any manager at The Daily Universe. circumstances,” said attorney Melody Fernandez. “He under- The Utah Chronicle, which serves the University of Utah, stands that many communities may not be accepting of cer- carried the insert tain language situations that may take place in his scripts, without objec- therefore he asks that, instead of making unauthorized tion. “While [the changes, groups do not produce his play.” BYU] action may “I know my audience,” explained theater owner Gayliene seem extreme, . . . Omary. “Can you imagine, the f-word flying around Pleasant it really isn’t sur- Grove? It would be havoc. Nobody would come.” prising,” observes the 26 September Nephi, Harry Potter, Shania go up in flames. Shouting Utah Chronicle ed- “Hallelujah” and “Burn, devil, burn,” some fifty members of itorial. the Jesus Non-denominational Church in Greenville, Michigan, gathered outside their church to burn copies of the , non-King James ver- sions of the , and Harry Potter novels. Other in- cinerated items included Shania Twain’s album The Woman in Me and the Dan Aykroyd movie Coneheads. According to an AP story, the church’s bishop, the Rev. T. D. Turner Sr., said that the congregation “will burn Harry Potter books and other witchcraft items to let the world know that there are true followers of Above: The 30 September issue of Sports Illustrated on Campus; Christ who will not call evil good.” Above right: The offending photograph

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Celluloid Watch The film has met mixed responses from critics. Sean P. Of Good Report . . . or Box Office Means, of the Salt Lake Tribune, writes: “Gorgeously shot and Bomb? The much-anticipated Book unapologetically wholesome, The Legend of man- of Mormon Movie: Volume 1, The ages to overcome its weaknesses—and its ancestry as a famous Journey has finally hit the silver cornball BYU-produced short—with gentle humor and sweet- screen, and no critic seems to find ness.” Jeff Vice of the Deseret Morning News was not as kind: much in it that is of good report or [The film] is so poorly constructed that at times it feels like a praiseworthy. “It’s so slowly paced, series of barely connected skits, only some of which work. At so flat-footed, that it fails to engage other times, it feels like a 90-minute infomercial for a certain on any level,” wrote Jeff Vice for the Tahitian juice product.” Deseret Morning News. “The movie . . . David DiCerto of the Catholic News Service focused his re- is a poor one,” agrees Sean P. Means view of the film’s themes: “In our spiritually malnourished at the Salt Lake Tribune. “A plodding, repetitive, ham-fisted at- world, when young viewers are fed a steady diet of debase- tempt to create a Ten Commandments-style epic without the ment, Johnny Lingo’s message, that something very special re- resources or bravado required to pull it off.” “Some people in sides in each of us, is a welcome change of fare, one consistent the theater seemed genuinely moved,” wrote Jerry Johnson with our Christian belief in the singular sacredness of every more forgivingly for the Deseret Morning News, “while others person.” spent the evening shaking their heads or yawning.” The filmmakers had higher hopes for the project. “We Mormon Pamphlet Made into hope that many people not of our faith will see the movie and Indefensible Movie. “What would it be leave with a desire to read the book,” explains the movie web- like to defend your religion in court?” site at . “To help with this So begins the press description for the missionary effort, we are prepared to give 125 FREE tickets for just-released feature film the Day of every 1,000 pre-purchased in your . These tickets are to Defense. Loosely based on the best- be used for non-members or less-active members. Think of selling LDS pamphlet by A. Melvin the impact this could create!” McDonald, the film tells the story of Even though the project was not funded by the Church, two Mormon missionaries who come the best publicity for the film may have come from the Church into a small, midwestern town “that is News, which, in a rare move, published a story on the making a God fearing, family oriented, of the movie. The two-column article describes the “miracle” Christian believing utopia” and who are arrested and then of technology which allowed the producers to complete this must defend Mormonism as Christian. project with a budget of merely $1.5 million. Leaving theology aside, Day of Defense has left Sean P. The 120-minute movie is one of two multi-volume Book of Means—who in his role as chief film reviewer for the Salt Lake Mormon projects currently in production. The competing Tribune has had the opportunity to review nearly every new project, Peter Johnson’s A Voice from the Dust, began shooting Mormon feature film—wondering if the decision to film this last summer. story can even be defended. His final take: “This windy entry in the genre delivers its message with all the Johnny Lingo—How Many Cows Would heavy-handedness of a Jack Webb anti-communist propa- You Pay for This Flick? Film director ganda film, handicapped by stilted dialogue, wooden acting, Steven Ramirez might not be a Tarantino shoddy cinematography, and an oppressive power-ballad or a Fellini, but who cares? The campiest soundtrack. Even the faithful may find it a long row to hoe.” of all BYU movies is back—and this time, as a full-length feature intended for LDS Elizabeth Smart Movie to Air in and non-LDS audiences alike. Rated G, November. The story of Elizabeth Smart, The Legend of Johnny Lingo is an family- the teenager who was ab- oriented film focusing on the adventures ducted in 2002 and recovered nine of young Tama, whose misfortunes as a months later, has been made into a movie. young boy turn out to have something of a Dickensian twist. The Elizabeth Smart Story will air in Producer John Garbett is the son-in-law of Claire Whitaker November on CBS. According to executive Peterson, who under the name of Orma W. Wallengren, wrote producer Patricia Clifford, “[The Smarts] were interested in the script for the original BYU film. The script is based on a telling a story of hope and inspiration and faith.” story by Patricia McGerr that first appeared in Woman’s Day. The Smart family is LDS. According to some sources, al- Over the years, the story has become a worldwide Christian leged abductor Brian Mitchell kidnapped Elizabeth in order classic. McGerr, who is better known as a writer of mystery to fulfill a revelation commanding him to take plural wives. novels, died in 1985. (See related story, this issue, page 34.)

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LDS LAWYERS PULL THE PLUG polygamous groups in Utah,” ON ANTI-MORMON SITE wrote Otterson, “and to tie their beliefs to the doctrines DOES THE CHURCH of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have and the history of the Church. exclusive rights to the word, “Mormons”? According to a The result is a full frontal as- German judge, it does. A Frankfurt court of appeals has sided sault on the veracity of the with lawyers for the Church who had filed a 174-page com- modern Church.” plaint against Gunar Werner. Werner owned the Internet do- Krakauer, who visited Utah main which he used to discredit the during a book-signing tour, Church. Mormonen is the German word for “Mormons.” confessed he was surprised by Werner finds it ironic that the Church could be so protec- the strong negative reaction Jon Krakauer at a Salt Lake tive of what it itself has declared to be no more than a nick- his book had received from City book signing name. In court, he also pointed out that several denominations LDS officials. “My book is re- believe in the Book of Mormon and therefore the name ally an inquiry into the nature of belief,” said Krakauer in a “Mormon” collectively refers to all of them. downtown Salt Lake theater packed to capacity. “It’s not an at- Werner, who spent $10,000 in attorney fees, has since tack on belief. It certainly is not an attack on Mormons.” transferred his webpages to another site, (Mormonentum means “Mormondom”). Rather person panel who reviewed the Krakauer book (tape than using the domain to shed a posi- SL03–316). Despite the book’s “inaccuracies, biased language, tive light on Mormonism, or redirecting to an official site, LDS and over-reliance on Fawn Brodie’s biography of Joseph officials have opted to keep the domain closed. Smith,” lawyer Nadine Hansen opined that “it is not anti- In the past several years, Church lawyers have sued an Internet Mormon to explain the Mormon roots of Lafferty’s violence.” filtering company over ownership of the domain and According to Hansen, “The simple, if uncomfortable, fact is have questioned the same firm for using the domain . A recent SUNSTONE article argues that lawsuits set the stage for the wholesale murder of the 120 men, women, of this nature highlight official anxieties for control of what is ulti- and children [as in the Mountain Meadows Massacre], with mately an open space (SUNSTONE, Dec. 2002, 36–46). teachings about and an oath of vengeance, can hardly claim to be a bastion of pacifism.” BOOK ON MORMON VIOLENCE CREATES Panelist Jana Bouck Remy, book review editor for Irreantum, CONTROVERSY, PROMPTS RESPONSES took issue with Krakauer’s telling of the Mormon story in which he invariably “chooses the events that show IS MORMON FUNDAMENTALISM Mormonism as absurd, as dark, as violent. . . . Readers will see violent? The answer seems to be a re- Krakauer’s selective history as just that, as a means of sup- sounding “yes” for best-selling author porting his thesis rather than as a true measure of the Church.” Jon Krakauer, whose controversial Yet despite these dubious characteristics, Remy finds many of new book, Under the Banner of the questions Krakauer raises to be salient and worthy of re- Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith was re- flection for all Latter-day Saints, for instance, “Where would leased by Doubleday in late July. The we draw the line at following the promptings of the Spirit?” book quickly rose to number 1 on the Fundamentalist Mormon Anne Wilde declared that New York Times bestsellers list and re- Krakauer’s book has done “a real disservice to both the LDS ceived wide attention from both na- Church and the fundamentalist Mormons.” “There are going to tional and Utah media. be a lot of people [for whom] this is the only book they read Juxtaposing violent episodes from on Mormons or fundamentalist Mormons,” said Wilde, “and Mormon history, such as the Mountain Meadows Massacre, they are going to come to an easy conclusion that there’s more with more recent crimes involving Mormon fundamentalists, than a fair share of violence and eccentric people in those com- Krakauer tells the story of polygamists Dan and Ron Lafferty, munities. I think that’s a shame, because there’s so much good who in 1984 received a revelation that prompted them to in both [Mormon fundamentalism and the LDS Church].” murder their sister-in-law, Brenda Lafferty, and her baby Forensic psychiatrist C. Jess Groesbeck, who examined Ron daughter, Erica. Dan Lafferty is currently serving a life sen- Lafferty after the murders, opined that Ron Lafferty’s violence tence, and his brother Ron is on death row. stems mainly from family dynamics and not religious affilia- In an unusual move, LDS officials issued a statement criti- tion, with Ron acting out the domestic violence he had seen cizing Krakauer’s book two weeks before it hit the bookstores. his father perpetrate. “We do have all the covering of the reli- The Church’s director of media relations, Mike Otterson, de- gious issues, of course,” said Groesbeck. “But the origin of the clared that Krakauer had been heavily influenced by “histo- violence of the Laffertys was in the family system.” rians who are unsympathetic to the Church.” “This book is an A separate panel on the book was held at the 2003 attempt to tell the story of the so-called fundamentalists or Sunstone Northwest Symposium (tape NW03–316).

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