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UPDATE
CHURCH STATEMENT DISMISSES DNA In recent years, some LDS scholars, including many associ- CHALLENGES TO BOOK OF MORMON ated with the BYU-affiliated Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), have proposed that the Book of MORE THAN A year after DNA evidence was first used to chal- Mormon is a record of God’s dealings with inhabitants of a rel- lenge the notion that Native Americans are descended from atively small geographical area rather than the whole American Book of Mormon peoples who migrated from the Middle East, continent. This limited-geography hypothesis diverges from LDS leaders have issued a 125-word press release reaffirming the teachings of Joseph Smith and Church leaders through the the Book of Mormon’s historicity and dismissing DNA evidence years as well as from the official introduction to the Book of against it. Mormon, which states that the Lamanites “are the principal “Recent attacks on the veracity of the Book of Mormon ancestors of the American Indians.” However, the small-popu- based on DNA evidence are ill considered,” reads the state- lation, limited-geography model seems to have become the ment. Referring to DNA findings that support long-held schol- Church’s current default position about Book of Mormon peo- arly theories that indigenous North and South American peo- ples and events. ples came from Asia, the statement continues: “Nothing in the Perhaps sensing a need to begin a doctrinal reframing that Book of Mormon precludes migration into the Americas by preserves ties to traditional teachings, LDS biologists D. Jeffrey peoples of Asiatic origin” and adds that “the scientific issues re- Meldrum and Trent D. Stephens write in one of the articles lating to DNA . . . are numerous and complex.” Then, in a sur- cited by the Church’s press release that it is quite likely prising move, the statement directs “those interested in a more scholars may never find genetic markers for the children of detailed analysis of those issues” to four articles in the recent Lehi. Instead, they argue, the concept of Lehite lineage might issue of Journal of Book of Mormon Studies (Vol. 12, no. 1, 2003) best be understood as the Abrahamic covenant, which “has and an eighty-page treatment of the subject by well-known less to do with genetics and more to do with the transmission LDS Internet apologist, Jeffrey D. Lindsay (see
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People Deceased. With great sadness, SUNSTONE notes the passing of longtime friend, supporter, and symposium participant JAY BELL, who died 18 December after being struck by a car. Jay is fondly remembered for his pas- sion for learning, his friendli- ness toward all people, and his unfailing good humor. Despite being completely blind in one Mitchell and Barzee reference could significantly increase de- eye and legally blind in the mand and the book’s price, especially in the short run. “My other, Jay’s avocation was reading, and he was a tireless re- sense is it may soon sell for $100 or more, but it is hard to searcher. Jay not only played a key role in advancing predict whether the spike in demand and price will be per- Mormon research on various doctrinal and historical issues manent.” (see, for instance, his article “The Windows of Heaven Revisited: The 1899 Tithing Reformation,” Journal of Mormon Appointed. Renowned LDS naturalist and writer TERRY History, Spring 1994), but was also one of Mormonism’s TEMPEST WILLIAMS has been named as the first Annie greatest networkers, always helping friends connect with Clark Tanner Fellow at the University others working on similar projects. He will be greatly missed. of Utah. During her three-year ap- For the past several years, Jay had been working on a mas- pointment with the department of en- sive project to document gay and lesbian Mormon experi- vironmental studies, which starts next ence and official LDS attitudes toward homosexuality. Four fall, Williams will bring light to envi- days following his death, Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian ronmental issues and moderate a se- Mormons announced the creation of the Jay Bell Fund to ries of naturalist lectures. support research that combats intolerance and preserves “I was hungry for a program that GLBT Mormon history. To learn more about the fund, visit focused on the integration of both sci-
records. “The [Observer’s] coverage has been disappointing antiquity.” In a slightly more doctrinally oriented statement, because it inadequately explains and mischaracterizes not not included in the release, Christofferson explains, “Surely no only our religious practice but also our cooperative records one believes this practice forces a change in religious identity preservation work,” says Elder D. Todd Christofferson, execu- of any soul, living or dead. We certainly do not claim that.” tive director of the Church’s Family and Church History In the past, the Church has been criticized for microfilming Department. names of Holocaust victims and baptizing Jews by proxy. In The carefully worded statement avoids altogether the ex- 1995, Church leaders agreed to no longer baptize Jewish pression “baptism for the dead,” referring instead to “proxy Holocaust victims—a commitment they have recently reaf- baptism practices” and “a religious practice that dates back to firmed (see SUNSTONE, Dec. 2002, 78).
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Special Report RECENT CASES ONCE MORE THRUST POLYGAMY INTO THE SPOTLIGHT UTAH POLYGAMY HAS recently received renewed media at- of sexual abuse, intentional infliction of emotional distress, tention as two former plural wives, LuAnn Kingston and assault, battery, and false imprisonment. Ruth Stubbs, have testified against their ex-husbands, CRACKDOWN IN HILDALE helping secure their convictions on polygamy-related charges. IN ANOTHER POLYGAMY-related case, and also with the Jeremy Ortell Kingston, 32, testimony of an ex-wife, former Hildale, Utah, police officer pleaded guilty on 30 October to Rodney Holm was convicted 14 August on two counts of un- third-degree felony incest for having lawful sex with a minor and one count of bigamy. On 10 had sex with his then fifteen-year-old October, he was sentenced to one year in jail but will be first cousin and fourth wife, LuAnn granted daytime work-release, spending only nights in jail. Kingston. In addition, Holm was placed on a three-year probation, One of Utah’s most secretive and fined $3,000, and ordered to perform two hundred hours of affluent polygamous clans, the community service and to enroll in a sex offender program. Kingston family includes some 1,200 In 1996, Holm had polyg- Jeremy Kingston members of the Latter-Day Church of amously married Ruth Christ. The group has business inter- Stubbs, then sixteen. The cer- ests along the Wasatch Front with an estimated value of $150 emony had been performed million. by an official of the “I had a relationship, a sexual relationship, with LuAnn Fundamentalist Church of NICK ADAMS/The Associated Press for about four years,” Jeremy Kingston told Third District Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Rodney Holm (left) with defense Court Judge Paul Maughan. “That relationship ended about Saints (FLDS), centered in the attorney Max Wheeler four years ago.” LuAnn Kingston, now 23, expressed “shock Hildale area on the Utah-Arizona border. Holm’s attorney, to hear him actually admit to that.” She added that Jeremy Rodney Parker, asked Judge G. Rand Beacham to reduce the may have sacrificed himself for the good of the clan. conviction in light of Hildale’s predominantly Fundamen- In exchange for Jeremy’s plea, prosecutors recommended talist culture, but Beacham noted that Holm, as a police of- a sentence of one year in jail. He will be sentenced 5 January. ficer, “is expected to know the law.” Jeremy is one of three Kingstons who have been in the Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has been both com- news in polygamy-related stories during the past four years. mended and criticized for recent initiatives dealing with In 1999, John Daniel Kingston was convicted of child abuse polygamy. On 16 October, Shurtleff announced his decision after having beaten his daughter Mary Ann Kingston uncon- to investigate and prosecute other Hildale police officers who scious for trying to leave a polygamous union with her uncle have plural wives. “We will work to find out what evidence David Ortell Kingston. Mary Ann had been forced to marry we have indicating if all or some are in bigamous relation- her uncle when she was sixteen, becoming his fifteenth wife. ships,” he said. David served a four-year sentence for incest with his niece “That sounds like a direct attack on polygamy to me,” and was released this past June. complained Hildale Mayor David Zitting, who believes On the heels of Shurtleff is unfairly targeting Hildale. Jeremy’s arrest, Mary Ann Shurtleff claims he made the request because of his office’s Kingston, 22, filed on 1 “frustration in dealing with law enforcement down there.” August a civil lawsuit SALT LAKE TRIBUNE “Not only have they not cooperated,” he said, “they have seeking more than $110 stood in our way.” According to Shurtleff’s chief deputy, Kirk million from clan mem- Torgensen, several dissident wives have told the AG’s office
bers, including her par- TRENT NELSON/THE that it is well known that in Hildale, “you don’t go to the po- ents and close relatives— Mary Ann Kingston and James Morris, lice on issues, because they are loyal to the church.” a total of 242 people said one of her attorneys INITIATIVES LAUNCHED, BOYCOTTED to be the key members of the Kingston organization. “I am pursuing this lawsuit with the hope that other ON 23 AUGUST, Shurtleff sponsored a “polygamy summit” young girls and boys in the same position that I was in will in St. George. Attended by law enforcement, attorneys, social see that the leaders of the Kingston organization are not workers, educators, and elected officials, the summit dis- above the law, even though they tell us they are,” Mary Ann cussed topics such as welfare fraud, lack of educational op- declared on 28 August. Mary Ann’s suit includes allegations portunities, public safety concerns, child and spousal abuse,
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and marriages involving un- Amendment. Now two Utah polygamists, Rodney Holm (see derage brides. foregoing story) and Tom Green (sentenced in 2002 to five When nearly one hun- years to life for child rape of one of his “spiritual” wives), are dred women advocating challenging their convictions on the basis of a recent Texas plural marriage showed up Supreme Court decision ruling that anti-sodomy laws violate for the public session, the the privacy rights of consenting adults. NICK ADAMS/The Associated Press Polygamy summit gathering was moved from a Holm’s attorney, Rodney Parker, argues that his client’s St. George hotel to the town’s larger civic center. conduct is being regulated merely on the grounds of moral “We who live in that community out there do not want disapproval—just as it used to be with sodomy. “Our con- child abuse, uneducated children, or welfare abuses,” a tention is that [Holm and his plural wives] have a liberty type Centennial Park, Arizona, teacher told Shurtleff in defense of of right in their relationship,” said Parker. the Fundamentalists. “If this is honestly not about religion Attorney John Bucher is asking the Utah Supreme Court and you’re not trying to squelch us off the earth, the best way to overturn Green’s convictions on a similar basis. Bucher ar- to do it is to do away with the law that prohibits us from gues that the Texas decision forbids singling out any one pur- living our religion.” The summit resulted in a number of ini- portedly immoral group. tiatives aiming to help those leaving the polygamist culture in Recent Utah convictions, however, focused not simply on the Hildale/Colorado City area. men who married more than one woman, but on men who Shurtleff’s efforts toward increased prosecution of abusers married minors. “I have a hard time believing [the Texas as well as greater outreach efforts to understand these tradi- ruling] means that [polygamists] have the right to take polyg- tionally closed communities have amous child brides,” says Laura Dupaix, Assistant State met with mixed results. Although Attorney General. Further, Dupaix believes that the Texas state officials, as well as pro- and sodomy ruling validates monogamous relationships, not big- anti-polygamy advocates, seemed amous ones. encouraged by the summit, a POLYGAMY AND FREE SPEECH Shurtleff invitation to join a com- mittee being set up to help those IN A CASE involving polygamy and free speech issues, a di- within Utah’s polygamist families vorced Pennsylvania man is fighting for the right to teach his who are suffering abuses was re- daughter Fundamentalist Mormon views on celestial mar- jected by Tapestry Against Polygamy riage and polygamy. Soon after Stanley Shepp and Tracey (TAP) when it learned the attorney Mark Shurtleff Roberts divorced, Shepp became more public about his be- general had also invited prominent plural marriage advocate, liefs in many Fundamentalist teachings, while Roberts re- Anne Wilde, to join. mained in the mainstream Church. A judge recently ordered “The approach that the AG’s office is taking would be sim- Shepp to refrain from discussing plural marriage with his ten- ilar to trying to create a rape crisis center and inviting both year-old daughter, Kaylynne. Shepp is now appealing the the rapists and their victims to attend,” said TAP co-founder case to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, arguing that the Rowenna Erickson in a recent press release. “Trying to come government should tolerate different religious beliefs. to a solution with the perpetrators or their wives is unreal- “Right now, the istic.” government has For her part, in an interview with the Deseret Morning said it’s OK for two News, Wilde says she believes she had been invited to help men to be mar- broaden understanding of the lifestyle and that, despite what ried,” said Shepp. TAP leaders think, she supports Shurtleff’s mission to help “It’s OK for Sally to abused women and children get needed services. “It’s true I’m have two fathers or not going to encourage women to come out [of plural mar- two mothers but riage], but if they are truly abused, I’m not going to en- not all right to Stanley Shepp and daughter Kaylynne courage them to stay.” have one father Shurtleff’s office still plans to proceed with the committee, and two mothers.” Shepp argues that he’s merely claiming the but as noted in a short report in the 1 December issue of right to share with his daughter his religious views. Roberts Newsweek, the committee will no longer include members of fears Shepp is attempting to lure their daughter into an even- any advocacy groups. tual plural marriage. Shepp says he wants to teach Kaylynne about plural mar- POLYGAMISTS APPEAL CONVICTIONS ON NEW GROUNDS riage so she will accept him if and when he becomes a polyg- IN THE PAST, polygamists have argued that as a religious amist. “We have never attempted to teach Kaylynne she had practice, plural marriage is protected by the First to be a plural wife with someone,” says Shepp.
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WOMEN’S FORUM DISCUSSES The conference’s morning sessions featured an exchange be- SOCIAL JUSTICE tween Mormon philosopher R. Dennis Potter and author Emma Lou Thayne on the question, “Is War Ever Justified?”, WITH THE THEME, “Feminism and Activism—Working for followed by an account of the personal journey of Salt Lake Social Justice and Equality,” the Mormon Women’s Forum held City attorney and former Young Women’s General Board its annual Counterpoint conference at the University of Utah member Joann Shields as she came to understand the centrality on 1 November. In introducing the conference’s focus, Janice of the Christian call to minister to the poor. Merrill Allred noted that concern for justice, equality, and The opening afternoon session, “Are Children People?: The giving a voice to members of traditionally marginalized groups Problem of Children’s Rights,” was a spirited debate between represented, in many ways, a return to the origins of feminism, Utah attorneys Martha Pierce and Frances M. Palacios, each many of whose pioneers had begun as abolitionists. holding a different perspective about whether state interven-
Solar Flares
Elder Ballard’s Sermon Gets Stuck on Sex. Does LDS Apostle M. Russell Ballard talk too much about sex in his sermons? Some folks in southern Utah might say yes. A technical glitch in a Cedar City radio sta- tion stalled Elder Ballard’s sermon during the October General Conference broad- cast, causing listeners to hear Elder Ballard say, “sex, sex, sex . . . “ for twenty- Elder M. Russell Ballard four seconds. Elder Ballard was warning the Saints about the pernicious evils of the entertainment media when the KSUB’s buffer system got jammed with an overload of data streaming into the station. From U.S. News & World Report on Mormonsim. Opening page “I believe Ballard made his point,” quips station host Steve (inset, left). Enlarged caption misidentifying statue (inset, right) Miner. “I hope [he] allows us to continue broadcasting con- ference.” name right in one of the captions, but unfortunately the ac- companying photograph shows a statue of Brigham Young. Opiate of the Masses? Officials at the Utah State Prison found An equal-opportunity blunderer, the same issue includes a five grams of heroin inside cassette tapes mailed to an inmate story on what the table of contents calls “Catholism.” from, of all places, Deseret Book. The investigation led police to Brandon J. Norton, 27 (who allegedly filled several bal- LDS “Missionary” Condemned to Hell. A man playing the role loons with the drug, placed them in the cassettes, and even of an LDS missionary was one of the condemned in the “Walk re-shrinkwrapped the box), and Daisy A. Gonzales, 20 (who Through Hell,” a haunted house staged this past Halloween reportedly mailed the package from a Deseret Book store in by the Potter’s House Christian Center in Ogden, Utah. The Weber County). event is held annually by the Christian group in order to dra- Shortly after the Salt Lake Tribune broke the story, colum- matize the reality of hell and the many paths that lead to nist Robert Kirby proposed a number of potential new adver- perdition. tising slogans for the LDS-owned bookstore, including one The Mormon missionary shared his consignment to that reads, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a eternal torture with a Catholic nun, a one-time drug user, a needle, than for a drug smuggler to enter into Deseret Book.” rich man, a gang member, and even a typical church-going Protestant Christian. Millions Shall Know Brother . . . John? Editors know how In a Salt Lake Tribune story about the haunted walk, Potter hard it is to be completely accurate when reporting the many House’s acting assistant pastor, Dave Bartelson, says the char- facts of a story, but the editors of U.S. News & World Report re- acters connected to specific faiths were singled out because of cently made a series of blunders, one coming right in the his church’s belief that those traditions have doctrines and headline. “In John Smith’s Steps,” reads the title of a six-page practices that undermine salvation. The other characters rep- story about the LDS Church which appears in a special resent how anyone could be condemned if he or she were to “Mysteries of Faith” edition. The story gets Joseph Smith’s put anything before Jesus Christ.
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tion in family matters ultimately helps or hurts children. And fraud is a big mistake by the archaealogical professionals.” the conference closed with a presentation by Utah ACLU di- Although conceding that some may be fake, May continues, “I rector Dani Eyer about the ACLU’s involvement in women’s is- believe there are a lot of pieces that are not fraudulent.” sues for the past thirty years, concluding with eye-opening re- Bequeathed in 1929 to Notre Dame University by a major minders about just how far Utah defender of the relics, the artifacts came to the attention of Elder women have yet to go in many Milton R. Hunter, a General Authority with a strong interest in areas. These include pay in- Book of Mormon archaealogy. His interest in the relics led to equality (Utah ranks forty-ninth Notre Dame’s donating its collection to the Church in 1960. In in the nation), reprisals against 1977, the Church asked LDS archeaology professor Richard those who apply for rights under Stamps to examine the relics, and he, like Talmage, concluded the Family Leave Act, and medical they were fakes. Stamps studied the relics again in 1998–99 and and housing discrimination published his findings in BYU Studies (vol. 40, no. 3, 2001). against immigrants, gays, and the The full story of the relics, with pictures and descriptions of poor. many of the most interesting pieces, can be found at The Mormon Women’s Forum’s
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Media Watch Steed family as they meet Joseph Smith in upstate New York and become participants in many of Mormonism’s founding “THE MESSENGER HAS ARRIVED!” events. In all, Miller says he expects it will take five or six films to tell the story contained in Lund’s nine-volume series. Heading the production team for the films will be pro- ducer Scott Swofford, whose previous work includes several IMAX hits, along with LDS productions Legacy and Testaments, and screenwriter/director Russ Holt, a longtime producer for the Church whose biggest directorial credit is the epic period film, The Lamb of God. Lund, a General Authority who is cur- rently on assignment in England, will serve as a script consul- tant for the films. Second-unit filming in the eastern U. S. was to begin just two weeks after the announcement. The producers expect the movie will take twelve to fourteen months to make and plan A MADE-FOR-TELEVISION version of Tony Kushner’s ac- to release it in late 2004 or early 2005. claimed—and controversial—play Angels in America aired 7 and 14 December on HBO. Claiming 4.2 million viewers, the TWO RICHARD DUTCHER FILMS six-hour drama was the most-watched made-for-cable movie “GREEN”LIGHTED of the year. Directed by Mike Nichols, the cast for this $60 million production included Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Emma LDS FILMMAKER RICHARD Dutcher will be very busy in Thompson, and Mary-Louise Parker. 2004. After financing setbacks caused him to temporarily Set during the Reagan era at the onset of the AIDS epi- shelve his planned film biography of Joseph Smith, The demic, the play has strong gay themes and sexual content Prophet, Dutcher turned his attention to writing and raising which have offended many conservative viewers. At the same money for a follow-up to his first LDS feature, God’s Army. time, Angels in America is of particular interest to Latter-day As he was nearing his fundraising goals, Dutcher learned Saints as it includes three LDS characters and incorporates el- about Larry H. Miller’s involvement in The Work and the Glory ements of Mormonism’s sacred history into its symbolic uni- project (foregoing story) and read with concern comments verse, including angelic visitations, prophetic callings, and Miller had made when reporters asked him about his deci- seer stones. The made-for-cable version didn’t shy away from sion to withdraw financial support from Dutcher’s Prophet. any of these elements—nor from the depiction of temple Feeling Miller had misrepresented what had occurred, garments, which are explicitly referred to in the second part Dutcher called him, and the two went to lunch to talk over of the play as a potent symbol of Mormon identity. the situation. The result of their conversation was a press In addition to their realistic representation of garments conference that featured Miller’s apology for his misremem- (both one- and two-piece models are shown), the filmmakers bering the earlier events and making comments that could used other pieces of LDS material culture, with results that are have hindered Dutcher’s fundraising efforts. Miller also an- either unintentionally humorous or consciously ironic: In a nounced that he was investing “a significant amount” in both scene set in the storeroom of an LDS visitors center, Captain the God’s Army sequel as well as in The Prophet. Moroni action figures can clearly be seen on a shelf in the Filming in Los Angeles in January and February, God’s background. Army II: States of Grace will feature a mostly fresh cast, with a few characters re- THE WORK AND THE GLORY turning from the SET TO COME TO SILVER SCREEN first film. And un- like the first film, GERALD LUND’S MULTIVOLUME his- which focused pri- torical fiction series The Work and the marily on the na- Glory will soon be made into a series of ture of day-to-day LDS missionary life, the follow-up tells the feature films. LDS businessman and Utah story of missionaries working in a gang-infested part of Los Jazz owner, Larry H. Miller, announced Angeles. States of Grace is expected to reach theatres in fall of in early October that he would provide 2004. the sole financial support, to the tune of Dutcher plans to begin the several-months-long filming of $7.4 million, for the film adaptation of The Prophet in May and expects to release it sometime in the immensely popular series that fol- 2005, the two-hundredth anniversary year of Joseph Smith’s lows the fictional, nineteenth-century birth.
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BYU “CALLS” SPORTS MISSIONARIES devotional in which he called his second wife “the eternal companion who now stands at my side” (Ensign, Oct. 2003, DESPITE A DISAPPOINTING second-straight losing season, 17). Elder Oaks’s other “eternal companion”—his first wife, BYU’s football team continues to receive endorsements from June, sealed to him in 1952—died in 1998. school and Church leaders, who have even implemented a new program designed to help it return to glory. “Don’t judge MORMON LEADERS ABSENT IN BYU today by football,” quipped President Gordon B. Hinckley GUN LAW PROTEST on 7 November, during a special worldwide BYU alumni re- union broadcast from the Tabernacle. “I hope [the Cougars] LDS LEADERS WERE conspicuously absent from an event at will improve. . . . Better years lie ahead. . . . BYU is destined to which Episcopal, Catholic, Jewish, and other religious leaders be a winner all-around.” protested a recent Utah law which LDS officials endorsed and BYU President Cecil Samuelson issued reportedly helped write. In somewhat confusing language, the a statement 4 December extending a new law requires churches to notify the state if they intend to vote of confidence to head football ban guns from their buildings. A coalition of Utah churches ar- coach, Gary Crowton, who has led the gues that they should not be required to register with the state Cougars in their worst season since in order to ban weapons from their own sanctuaries. 1970–71. “Fan support for our football But LDS leaders haven’t complied with the new law either, team is critical to the continued success even though Church officials have in the past stated that guns of our entire athletic program,” said have no place in churches. LDS spokesman Kim Farah stated Samuelson. “We hope our fans, in true on 23 December that “the Church is still considering its re- Pres. Cecil Samuelson BYU fashion, will show up in large num- sponse to the requirements of the law.” bers to support the team next season.” Samuelson’s commitment to Cougar success was further il- NEW LAWSUIT EMBROILS LDS PLAZA lustrated recently as he extended “calls” to five retired couples to act as “sports missionaries” in supporting the BYU football team SIX MONTHS AFTER the Salt Lake City Council eliminated the and other athletic programs. Although the couples do not re- city’s easement on a section of Main Street between Temple ceive their call from the prophet nor wear badges, they are rou- Square and the Church offices, the LDS Plaza in downtown Salt tinely referred to as “missionaries.” Among other duties, the vol- Lake continues to be the object of litigation. On 7 August, the unteers work as ushers, run a Cougar-owned cabin in Midway, American Civil Liberties Union filed a new lawsuit claiming the and, in a hospitality tent before the games, “wine and dine” (or, agreement between the Church and the City of Salt Lake violates more accurately, “chocolate and dine”) fans who buy thousand- the First Amendment separation between church and state. dollar-plus season ticket packages. The ACLU is suing on behalf of the Utah Gospel Mission, the First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City, the Utah National CHURCH CHANGES POLICIES FOR Organization for Women, the pro-nuclear disarmament group TEMPLE “TIME-ONLY” MARRIAGES Shundahai Network, and two private individuals. On 2 December, six weeks after the Church filed a motion A RECENT FIRST Presidency letter to bishops and stake pres- to intervene in the suit, the ACLU added the Church and Salt idents changes the requirements for time-only marriages per- Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson as defendants. The ACLU argues formed in the temple, increasing restrictions on such cere- that the Church is acting like a government body in the way it monies and leveling the requirements for men and women. exercises authority and curtails free speech. According to the 12 November directive, time-only marriages in the temple are to be performed only when both “the man CHURCH SUES OVER STRIP CLUB and the woman are already sealed to a spouse who is deceased and from whom they were not divorced.” THROUGH ITS REAL estate division, on 15 October, the In the past, the time-only marriage ceremony could be per- Church filed a suit appealing a Salt Lake City Board of formed when the wife had previously been sealed to a man, in- Adjustments decision to allow a downtown saloon to become a dependent of the groom’s status. This meant that a groom who strip club. Lawyers for the Church claim the Dead Goat Saloon did not have a wife previously sealed to him could sometimes is too close to landmarks, parks, schools, and housing areas to marry a wife in the temple for a time-only ceremony. merit the license. They argue the sexually oriented business The new directive does not address the more significant would hurt LDS financial interests in downtown Salt Lake. policy that keeps a man sealed to his first wife after a divorce, Saloon owner Daniel Darger said he’s “very excited” by the unless the wife requests a cancellation in order for her to be prospects of a legal battle with the Church. “There will be a sealed to another man. As no other, this policy shows how ‘full-court press’ until the Mormon version of Vatican City is deeply the theology of polygamy continues to be part of LDS established,” he warned. practice. Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve al- Darger, a lawyer, blames the Church for recent liquor laws luded to this doctrine of eternal polygamy in a January 2002 that have doomed his establishment as a blues-music venue.
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