“How dare he say that polygamy was horrible when it was what his ancestors believed? I believe you should honor your bloodline. I have convicts in my bloodline. I don’t reject them.” —Loving you, Romney-torturer Helen Radkey!

Mormons don’t let outsiders into their temples, and they themselves must be deemed in good standing to enter. That means submitting to a lengthy interview process that includes testimony to the Gospel, a declaration of pure bodily condition and evidence that they are keeping up with their tithing. If they pass, they enter wearing all white-suits or full-length white dresses, focused on interacting as directly as possible with God.

Despite the strict rules for entrance, the church still wants curious outsiders to get a sense of what they’re missing. At the Salt Lake Temple, which I attempted to visit on a recent Sunday evening, one can enter a [...]

About a year ago, a friend from Utah called to tell me that he was gay. I'll call him James, though that's absolutely not his real name. This would have been March or April, about six months after Prop 8 passed. We spent two hours on the phone that night, and several more over the next few weeks. He'd talked about it on some anonymous online forums, and even been on one or two tentative dates, but I was otherwise the first person that he told. I wonder now if he chose me because he could call from two thousand miles away: if I were to reject him, at [...]

It's a fine how-do-you-do. Fifty years after Democrats struggled to prove that their candidate for President "just happened to be a Catholic," now they face the prospect of painting a Republican challenger as a dangerous follower of Rome's socially extreme dogma.

The ascension of former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum to maybe-viable contender for his party's nomination and even a Pennsylvania Avenue address promises a number of rather unique possibilities. (Get ready for the "surprise" when he takes North Carolina.)

Most immediately, and a source of far more spiritual indigestion, a Santorum nomination would mean the most bloody dust-up over abortion and faith modern America has ever experienced. That's [...]

Posted inside all the phonebank cubbies at Sharron Angle's Las Vegas headquarters, there’s a sheet that instructs her volunteers how to deal with anyone who has questions regarding Sharron Angle's relationship to the Mormon Church. This is because Angle's pastor has denounced the LDS Church—of which her opponent, Harry Reid, is a member—as a "cult." So concerned people are to be given the number of a "well known leader" and "Friend." I called to speak with this former bishop of the LDS church.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been fined by the state of California for not reporting as political activity the hours that church employees spent in political action for the "Yes on 8 committee." The fine is minor but it's extremely gratifying that no longer can anyone claim that the church was not acting in California as a political lobbying and organizing entity.

My friend Beau and I grew up together in Tucson, Arizona, where he was the quarterback of our high school’s football team. We’ve since traveled around Italy together, sipped wine and talked about music until sunrise, and, one memorable time, got drunkenly chased out of a Vegas casino. Beau and I have a lot in common, our vices included, which is why I always forget one big thing about him: Until very recently, Beau was a Mormon. He never went door-to-door trying to convert people, nor did he ever march against gay rights. But for 18 years he faithfully went to a Mormon temple every Sunday with his parents and [...]