From that point on, skittish public officials allowed the polygamist sect to practice its tenants unmolested for the next 50 years and turned a blind eye to child abandonment, kidnapping, statutory rape, incest, and massive tax and welfare fraud.            But then Warren Jeffs, a new FLDS prophet, escalated the sect’s crimes to near madness. Activists watched in horror as he used his limitless authority and the resources of a tax-supported community—in essence, a feudal empire on the Utah/Arizona border—to devastate thousands of lives on cruel whims, marrying girls as young as 11 to 60-year-old men and driving off teenage “lost boys” who Jeffs felt threatened his authority.            Answer Them Nothing is the chilling story of the victims, activists, prosecutors, judges, cops, and attorneys who in 2001 began the struggle to dismantle the FLDS empire and bring Jeffs and his henchmen to justice. It is a mesmerizing journey into one of America’s darkest corners, a story that stretches over three states and deep into history of the powerful Mormon Church.

    In "No More Goodbyes," Pearson revisits the challenging subject of religious people relating to their gay loved ones who are often condemned by their church and--many believe--by God. Through stories gathered from the microcosm of Mormonism, it becomes clear how this emotional earthquake affects families of all faiths.

    Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, writing of this small group of Mormon women who've previously been seen as mere names and dates, has reconstructed these textured, complex lives to give us a portrait of who these women were and of their "sex radicalism"--the idea that a woman should choose when and with whom to bear children.

    Every year Alexander and his mother walk the long distance to Noel to watch the lighting of the village Christmas tree. This year Alexander learns that the Keeper of the Flame will choose the person who has given the truest gift of Christmas to light the flame. On his way to Noel, Alexander helps a poor old man he finds lying in the snow. His act of charity is rewarded when he is chosen to light the Christmas flame. Alexander learns that it isn't what you have to give, but how you give of yourself that matters most. Master storyteller Richard Paul Evans weaves a heartwarming tale of the true meaning of Christmas spirit.

    Using the Book of Mormon and the Principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as they Correlate with the Twelve-Step Program to Overcome Compulsive/Addictive Behavior ...

    Get your Mormon friends to read it.” —Dr. John MacArthur Pastor-Teacher, Grace Community Church, CAMormons claim to follow the same God and the same Jesus as Christians. They also state that their gospel comes from the Bible. But are they telling the truth? The God Makers, one of the most powerful books to penetrate the veil of secrecy surrounding the rituals and doctrines of the Mormon Church, reveals the inner workings and beliefs of Mormonism. Through personal interviews and well-documented evidence, you’ll discover the true nature of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its hidden worldwide agenda.

    At a time when her generation was protesting a war and transforming national headlines into a saga of campus violence, she was instead a typical Mormon girl who experienced her college years at peaceful Brigham Young University as the fulfillment of all her dreams. She received good grades there, was attractive and popular and devout - but most of all she found The One, the man who declared that his claim to her was a matter of divine revelation. The role of dutiful wife and mother was the one she believed she was made for, and thus she was married in the sacred chambers of a Mormon temple while still in her teens, participating in angel-inspired ceremonies of special handshakes and voodoo of which much of the world is still unaware. From there her life - a picture-perfect one according to the Mormon standards by which she was raised - became an out-of-kilter dream from which she feared she'd never rouse. Her husband was a man whom she had never loved, whom she nonetheless believed God had chosen for her, but with whom she couldn't force herself to remain. Divorced by age twenty, she had failed at marriage, the only task that mattered, and gradually she realized that she was being punished. Barred from the Mormon temple by church authorities, even threatened with excommunication, she found her depression deepening. Trying to live up to the church's expectations of her, she married again, unaware that the result would be a spiral of mental illness that would propel her into a hospital ward ofunabashed psychotics, the likes of whom she'd never imagined. There, among the truly unconventional, she somehow recognized a modern world beckoning to her from beyond the closed patriarchal society that had always sheltered her yet kept her from true maturity. Always lyrical an

    In A Witness and a Warning you will find President Benson's counsel, insight, testimony and teachings pertaining to the Book of Mormon.

    Cowboys sang songs about him, and newspapers had frequently printed scandalous accounts about the malicious Mormon "destroying angel." But to many, Rockwell was a guardian angel, and it could be easily said he saved far more lives than he took. It seems history tells two contrasting narratives about one of the West's most controversial men. Yes, at times Porter Rockwell could act violently; yet he was overly generous to those in need. At least two dozen people died at his hand, yet in every instance he was exonerated. As the ninth person baptized into the restored Church, Porter was central to the early growth of the organization, even though he was never called to a position of leadership. He was called a saint and a sinner, a lawman and a criminal, a hero and a villain. Indians feared him, saying he was impossible to kill, but some people traveled hundreds of miles to try. Although his death by natural causes likely disappointed the many outlaws seeking his life, it also fulfilled a prophecy given by Joseph Smith that no bullet or blade would ever harm Porter Rockwell. A friend of Joseph Smith's since childhood and later his bodyguard, Rockwell saved the life of the Prophet more than once. Porter also served as a bodyguard to Brigham Young and helped guide the first pioneers across the plains to the Salt Lake valley. He became a legend as a frontiersman, a marksman, and a man of iron nerve. And though many outsiders characterized Porter Rockwell as a notorious vengeful murderer, those who knew him saw a protector, a miraculous healer, and a loyal friend.

    He has just two weeks to find a wife and gather enough belongings to help start a settlement.As Morgan and his new bride, Angeline, travel the long trail south in a covered wagon, they fall in love and connect with the other Saints. But the desert location on the Muddy River soon becomes a physical and emotional test for all of them. Together they face difficult requests from Church leaders, multiple failed attempts to settle, deaths of loved ones, and then perhaps the ultimate challenge—polygamy.What do stalwart members do when faced with conflicting feelings between what their hearts tell them and the hard instructions from Salt Lake City? Morgan and Angeline are about to find out.

    She is content with the strict rules that define her life in Pineridge, the walled community where she lives with her father, his seven wives, and her twenty-eight siblings. This is the only world Alva has ever known, and she has never thought to challenge it. But everything changes when Alva is caught giving her long-time crush an innocent first kiss. Beaten, scorned, and now facing a forced marriage to a violent, fifty-year old man, Alva suddenly realizes how much she has to lose--and how impossible it will be to escape.

    LDS Relief Society co-founder Sarah Kimball referred to herself as "a woman's rights woman, " while Bathsheba Smith was called on Relief Society mission in 1870 to preach equal rights for women.The society editorialized that females belonged not only "in the nursery" but also "in the library, the laboratory, the observatory." Sisters sent east to study medicine were assured that "when men see that women can exist without them, it will perhaps take a little of the conceit out of some of them." Temple officiators were called "priestesses, " Eliza R. Snow the "prophetess, " and women were discouraged from confessing to bishops on grounds that personal matters "should be referred to the Relief Society president and her counselors." Women were set apart as healers "with power to rebuke diseases."In addition, Mormon theology spoke reassuringly of a Mother God of the divinity of Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Eve. No wonder Relief Society president Emmeline B. Wells could write with confidence: "Let woman speak for herself; she has the right of freedom of speech. Women are too slow in moving forward, afraid of criticism, of being called unwomanly, of being thought masculine."

    an a June day in 1988, four people are slain in precisely timed attacks at three different locations in the state. Police know who the killers are, but cannot convict them. They also know who is giving the execution orders: a man buried in a Texas grave twelve years ago. Dubbed by the media as the "Mormon Manson," Ervil LeBaron believed he was a prophet chosen by God to purify the Mormon faith. Resurrecting the nineteenth-century Mormon tenets of polygamy and blood atonement, he formed a fanatic religious cult - still in existence - which has left bodies scattered throughout the American Southwest. So strong is LeBaron's hold that, even twelve years after his death, many of his thirteen wives and sixty children are still carrying out his orders. It is those orders that frighten law enforcement officials. Before he died, LeBaron penned a chilling last testament to his family, a death list called The Book of New Covenants. To date, five of those on the list have been murdered, and no one involved in the case believes the bloodshed is over yet. Investigative writer Scott Anderson presents an astonishing portrait of America's most bizarre crime family. In a meticulously researched book, Anderson follows the bloody trail of the LeBaron cult over twenty years, and reveals how it has been served by the controversial and hidden history of the Mormon church. As compelling as the best fiction, The 4 O'Clock Murders is all the more terrifying because it is true.

    I've been called apostate, vigilante, and crazy bitch, and maybe I am. But some people call me a hero, and I'd like to think they're right too. If I am a hero, maybe it's because every time I can play a part in saving a child or a woman from a life of servitude and degradation, I'm saving a little piece of me, too.I was one of twenty-eight children born to my dad and his three wives. Indoctrinated to believe that the outside world was evil, and that I resided among the righteous, I was destined to marry a man chosen for me by the Prophet. I would then live in harmony with my sister-wives, bear many children, and obey and serve my future husband in this life and throughout eternity. But my innocence didn't last long. While still a child, I understood that the church of the righteous was nothing but a church of lies.When I was eight years old my father sexually molested me for the first time, raping me when I was twelve. I tried to kill myself. Beaten, molested, taunted, and abused by family members alleging they only wanted to save my soul became a daily routine, I ran from this abuse more than once in my early teens--even attempting to cross the desert on foot. My family hunted me down. I thought government agencies would provide me safety if I reported my father. Instead, police and social services colluded with the FLDS to return me to my family and I ended up back inside polygamy, right where I started."Flora goes on from there to tell the dramatic true story of how she ultimately escaped and has been fighting against frustrating obstacles with hard fought successes in rescuing women and children from the FLDS. It's a story you can't put down.

    Even when the path seemed bleak, it was this unwavering faith that allowed her to follow her dreams, both professional and personal, and survive the hardest times in her life. In an age when most women work outside the home—and nearly a third of women raise their children alone—being a mother is no easy task. No one knows that better than Marie, who has been an entertainer for forty-eight years and a mother for thirty. She, like so many women out there, has struggled through years of being a single parent and a working parent, while juggling the need to be there for her children and still be there for her other “family,” the multitude of fans and followers who look up to her. Through it all, Marie has turned to the person who helped her at every stage of her life and her career: her mother. Drawing on the wisdom that Olive Osmond imparted over the years, Marie weaves a rich, touching, and honest memoir about her life offstage and off-camera, where she took on her most important role: motherhood. Through personal delights, dreams, downturns, and devastating tragedy, Marie offers insights on creating a strong family, raising happy and independent children, and, especially, moving forward when it seems impossible to do so.