“We want people to understand the history of this church,” says Elder Marcus Nash, a leader of the LDS church who worked on a series of essays about questions of faith and contested church issues. But while this generation of Mormons may be “craving a more complicated narrative” about the church’s past, as Mormon historian Paul Reeve has said, former Mormon Edward Hoefer thinks “some people will accept the essays…and be comforted,” while for others “it will just accelerate their process” of leaving the church behind. More →

June 26, 2015

The number of people in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is going up steadily as a result of the lower age limits for both men and women who want to serve as missionaries. More →

May 30, 2014

The number of people in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is going up steadily as a result of the lower age limits for both men and women who want to serve as missionaries. More →

December 13, 2013

Last year was the 75th anniversary of the annual Hill Cumorah Pageant near Palmyra, New York, a lavish outdoor theatrical production of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based on the Book of Mormon. More →

August 2, 2013

The primary goal of the annual Hill Cumorah Pageant in Palmyra, New York “is to reach out to people who might be curious about what makes Mormons tick…It’s really a non-threatening way to get some connection to this religion,” says Brent Hanson, artistic director of the pageant. More →

August 2, 2013

“If you’re training gay scouts to be, presumably, gay leaders, but then you don’t want gay leaders in the scouts, that’s an odd message to send,” says United Methodist pastor Charles Parker, a former scout. But opponents of the proposal to accept gay scouts say it flies in the face of a basic scouting tenet: the oath boys take to be “morally straight.” More →

May 17, 2013

Mormons, according to religious studies scholar Stephen Davis, believe in “continuing revelation” and rely on more than just the Bible. But evangelical Christians, he says, would never accept the Book of Mormon as the word of God. More →

September 14, 2012

Young Mormons are pursuing their educations and careers “not with the purpose of delaying marriage, but with the idea that we want to have a full life that includes all of those things,” says Beverli Jo DeWalt. More →

August 17, 2012

City planner Stephen Goldsmith says this private development project of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints creates a “we-they” divide. Jason Mathis of Salt Lake City’s Downtown Alliance says the church is creating “a community that is going to last for the next hundred years.” More →

November 6, 2009

Proposition 8 passed in California mainly because Mormon churches mobilized for it. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints withstood blistering criticism from outside the faith. Now, resentments are festering inside the Mormon community.

May 22, 2009