Lds Temple Ordinances

Religion Briefs: Groundbreaking for LDS temple set

Two years after announcing the site of a new temple in Philadelphia, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is ready to break ground and begin construction.

Church officials announced last week that President Henry B. Eyring, first counselor to President Thomas S. Monson in the First Presidency, the faith’s highest leadership body, will preside at a special groundbreaking ceremony Sept. 17. Church members in Philadelphia and surrounding areas will be able to view a live feed of the event at LDS meetinghouses.

The site for the new temple is on Vine Street in downtown Philadelphia near Logan Square. When completed, the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple will serve the needs of church members in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Latter-day Saints believe that temples are sacred, and church members visit them to receive religious instruction and participate in special ordinances, or religious rites, including the solemnization of marriages.

Local author tackles evolution debate

Utah resident Jennilean Nielson has written a new book challenging the scientific theory of evolution.

In “Creation by Grand Design or Evolution: What Do the Facts Show?”, Nielson argues that evidence supports intelligent design, and not evolution.

Additional information about Nielson’s book is available at www.creationbygranddesign.com online.

Eric Ethington: Interview With Mitch Mayne, An Openly-Gay Member ...

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This past week, I read an article in the Salt Lake Tribune about an openly-gay man in San Francisco who has just been named as a member of the Bishopric in his local Mormon congregation. Needless to say, I immediately tracked him down for an interview.

Most of our readers know that I have a complicated past with the Mormon, or LDS, Church. I was raised as a member in Utah but was thrown from my house when I came out at 17 by an intolerant and bigoted Father who believed that I was an embarrassment because I wasn’t following the Mormon doctrine. I eventually rejoined the Church and went back into the closet (long story) and was married to a woman in the Mormon temple in SLC. Obviously, that didn’t last long. Since then, I have been an outspoken critic of the Mormon Church and their policies and attitudes towards the LGBT community. This does not mean that I am anti-Mormon, I do not wish to see them disbanded nor do I want to see the government ever force them to change. What I want is them to change themselves. Protest after protest, I’ve called for them to change their own attitudes so that no child ever has to go through the trauma and horror that I did just to stay alive.

So when I heard about Mitch Mayne, an openly-gay man who was called to the Bishopric of this local Mormon Ward (aka congregation), I was intrigued. How does someone who’s being open and honest with and about themselves still find happiness being part of a religion who’s doctrine tells you that you cannot be who you are?

Temple

The Temple of Jerusalem

Emergence, labeled autistic

The Temple, its ministry and services, as they were at the time of Jesus Christ

The temple, sacred poems and private ejaculations