‘Twilight’ weaves Mormon ideas into supernatural love saga. Uhuh. Here are some research resources that point them out — along with some information about Mormonism itself.

In the July 2010 issue of Ensign (an official Mormon magazine), LDS apostle M. Russell Ballard urges Mormons not to be sidetracked by the polygamy issue. “This ended in the Church as an official practice in 1890. It’s now 2010. Why are we still talking about it? It was a practice. It ended. We moved on. If people ask you about polygamy, just acknowledge that it was once a practice but not now and that people shouldn’t confuse any polygamists with our church.”Christian apologist Rob Bowman answers Ballard’s question by enumerating the reasons why Mormons cannot plausibly claim that polygamy is an “irrelevant issue.”“Polygamy in America is the cultural offspring of the LDS Church, and they cannot divest themselves of their responsibility for it by disowning the child,” Bowman concludes.

While the LDS church did all it could to make sure Prop 8 passed, one group of Mormons worked for LGBT rights.

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, has spent time on and off for the last seven years building a defense of the Book of Mormon, one of the key tomes of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Religion News Service reports.

The three-term senator — A former missionary and bishop and the grandson of a past president of the church — has now delved into a different debate: whether the book Mormons believe was revealed by an angel to their founder Joseph Smith in the 1820s is authentic.

Prominent fundamentalist Mormons, most of whom were excommunicated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for practicing polygamy while they were alive, have been posthumously re-baptized in LDS temples, a Salt Lake City researcher says.

“The LDS Church appears to be reinventing its polygamous history, as it ushers excommunicated Mormon fundamentalists back into the LDS fold through a postmortem back door,” Helen Radkey wrote in her report.

Thousands of issues of Brigham Young University’s student newspaper were pulled from newsstands because a front-page photo caption misidentified leaders of the Mormon church as apostates instead of apostles.

An apostate is someone who abandons a previous loyalty – such as to faith, political party or a cause.

While protesters outside the LDS Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City condemned Mormonism as non-Christian, nearly every speaker inside the giant building Sunday morning emphasized the conviction that Jesus Christ is at the center of Mormon faith, theologically, personally and intimately.

More than 20,000 members listened in the Conference Center during a morning and afternoon session, while millions more watched the proceedings via satellite in LDS chapels across the world.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is angry over an episode of HBO’s hit series “Big Love” that the church says is in “appallingly bad taste.”

polygamist family, is reported to be depicting an endowment ceremony, one of the most sacred rituals of the Mormon Church.

Colorado-based Focus on the Family has pulled an online interview with conservative television host Glenn Beck after concerns were raised about Beck’s Mormon faith.

Gary Schneeberger, vice president of media and public relations for Focus on the Family Action, said that “differences in the Mormon faith and the historical evangelical faith are not inconsequential.”

From the possibility of a Mormon in the White House to a stream of Latter-day Saints on reality television, from being attacked as belonging to a cult (or mistaken for a polygamous sect in Texas) to participating in California’s bitter battle for traditional marriage, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would see their faith in the nation’s mirror. To many, such scrutiny was unlike any they had seen in their lifetime.

Declaring “no mob veto,” a full-page ad in the New York Times on Friday denounced the “violence and intimidation” directed at members of the LDS Church who supported California’s ban on gay marriage.

In a statement Friday, church officials expressed gratitude to the dozen civil rights and religious leaders, ranging from Catholic to evangelical Christian to Orthodox Jew, who attached their names to the advertisement.

Historians have long criticized the Mormon church for glossing over the unflattering parts of its history and censoring materials of interest to scholars.

Publishing Smith’s papers marks a brave departure from that past, said Jan Shipps, a professor of religious history and a Mormon expert at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

“It’s saying our story is there for anybody to see,” said Shipps. “They are becoming a full-fledged religious tradition and they are not trying to hide the details.”

Holocaust survivors said Monday they are through trying to negotiate with the Mormon church over posthumous baptisms of Jews killed in Nazi concentration camps, saying the church has repeatedly violated a 13-year-old agreement barring the practice.

‘Baptism for the dead’ is one of many un-biblical practices of the Mormon Church — which, theologicaly, is a cult of Christianity.

A couple thousand people gathered outside the Capitol in Sacramento this afternoon to rally for the legalization of same-sex marriages just days after voters imposed a constitutional ban.

The gathering follows several similar events around the Bay Area and California. Earlier today, more than 400 people gathered outside the distinctive Mormon Temple in Oakland to protest the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints‘ support of Proposition 8.

Brigham Young University has yanked the diploma of a man who created a calendar featuring shirtless Mormon missionaries and was later excommunicated from the church.

“When a student applies for graduation, he or she must be in good standing with the university,” BYU spokeswoman Cari Jenkins said.

The BYU letter said Hardy’s degree is on hold because he was not in good honor code standing because of his excommunication. The LDS Church owns and operates BYU.

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