Like all charitable donors, church members – even those who make donations to remain in good standing with their religious institution – give up their legal right to control that money.
Three decades later, the expulsions of six Latter-day Saints members still have an impact.
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Many faiths face conflicts over dissent and institutional control. In Latter-day Saints history, the episode around the ‘September Six’ is particularly memorable.
A golden sculpture of the angel Moroni atop the temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Rexburg, Idaho.
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This is a green light for creating the largest-ever compensation fund for sex abuse claims.
Thousands of church members sing during the 2016 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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Joseph Smith encouraged early Latter-day Saints to pool their resources. Two centuries later, one of the results is an investment portfolio estimated at $100 billion.
Each year, the church’s ‘Luz de las Naciones’ event celebrates Latino cultures.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Latina women hold few top leadership positions in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but their contributions help keep congregations going.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee, right, and his challenger Evan McMullin before their debate Oct. 17, 2022.
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Many Republicans have wrestled with whether to embrace Donald Trump and his brash political style. Latter-day Saints are an especially telling example.
A same-sex marriage supporter waves a rainbow flag outside the Supreme Court in 2015.
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The U.S. House of Representatives recently voted for a bill that would federally protect same-sex marriage – and 47 Republicans signed on, too. Same-sex marriage isn’t the partisan issue it once was.
The temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints along the Capital Beltway in Kensington, Md.
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Temples are often open to the public for a period after construction or renovation, but only church members may enter once religious ceremonies begin.
The number of women religious leaders is growing, but the 2018-2019 National Congregations Study, which surveyed 5,300 U.S. religious communities, found that only 56.4% of these communities would allow a woman to “be head clergy person or primary religious leader.”
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LDS leaders still stress that men should ‘preside’ over their families. But in recent years, messages about marriage have stressed more equal partnership.
The mating game often involves convoluted rationalizations.
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Rebecca Tippett, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The 2020 census will now count some groups differently than it has in the past. That could make a difference in the final count – affecting which states receive funding and congressional seats.
There was something fishy about this $3 bill.
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A historian connects the $100 billion reportedly at the church’s disposal with the rocky start Mormons got in finance in the 1830s.
Bullet-riddled vehicles that members of the LeBaron family were traveling in sit parked on a dirt road near Bavispe, at the Sonora-Chihuahua border, Mexico, Nov 6, 2019.
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In 2015, the Mormon Church barred children from same-sex marriage from the church. An expert explains why this policy was tied to a larger conservative battle against gay rights.
Mitt Romney is sworn in as senator on Jan. 3, 2019 at the Old Senate Chambers in the U.S. Capitol.
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Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah is one of the very few GOP critics of President Trump’s character and leadership. Why has he staked out this lonely position? His Mormon faith.
Brigham Young and other men are shown preparing women in dresses for war.
Harper's Weekly, volume v. 1, November 28, 1857, p. 768. Scan from BX8609.A1a#466, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee library, Brigham Young University.