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.

A father found in contempt for violating a custody agreement that barred him from promoting Mormonism to his two sons lost his appeal at the Arkansas Court of Appeals on Wednesday.

Joel Mark Rownak and Lisa Monette Rownak agreed in their 2005 divorce to raise their children “in the Protestant faith.” The decree bars them from promoting another religion without the other’s consent.

Mormon church president Thomas S. Monson said Saturday the church has plans to build five new temples worldwide, three abroad and two in the United States.

The Mormon Church is considered to be, theologically, a cult of Christianity. Its temples, rituals and doctrines are rejected by mainstream Christians.

Due to its attempts to pass off Mormon doctrines and practices as being compatible to — or even representative of — Christianity, the Mormon Church is considered to be, theologically, a cult of Christianity.

Mormonism’s use of the term ‘Christian’ is false and misleading, in the same way that slapping the term ‘ROLEX’ onto a fake watch is deceptive.

Pointing this out has nothing to do with religious hatred or intolerance, but rather with historical and theological accuracy and honesty.

The Cambridge stake center, as the building will be called, will house four Mormon congregations – two of which worship in English, one in Portuguese, and one in Spanish – as well as the headquarters for the Cambridge stake, which is a geographical unit, akin to a diocese, that in this case includes an estimated 4,000 Mormons worshiping in 14 area congregations.

On Sept. 11, 1857, Mormon militiamen led the slaughter of 120 men, women and children on wagon train bound for California in an incident known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

For years, Mormon church officials downplayed the role Mormons played in the mass killing.

Now a new book lays the blame largely on Southern Utah church and militia leaders.

The creator of a calendar that featured shirtless Mormon missionaries was excommunicated Sunday after a disciplinary meeting with local church leaders in Las Vegas.

“Men on a Mission,” which has sold nearly 10,000 copies at $14.99 each, included pictures of 12 returned missionaries wearing black slacks, but not their trademark white shirts, in modest poses. The men also were photographed in traditional missionary garb and share their religious beliefs in biographical sketches. [video]

Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church, described plural marriage as part of “the most holy and important doctrine ever revealed to man on earth” and taught that a man needed at least three wives to attain the “fullness of exaltation” in the afterlife.

He warned that God had explicitly commanded that “all those who have this law revealed unto them must obey the same … and if ye abide not that covenenant, then are ye damned; for no one can reject this covenant and be permitted to enter into my glory.”

So why did the Mormons eventually reject polygamy?

The doctrines and practices of Mormon Fundamentalists are closer to those of the original Mormon Church than are the doctrines and practices of today’s Mormon Church.

Fundamentalist Mormons have responded to a less-than-honest PR campaign by the LDS Church.

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