"Those who observe us say that we are moving into the mainstream of religion. We are not changing. The world's perception of us is changing. We teach the same doctrine." (Ensign, November 2001, p.5)

• Church stopped the Book Of Mormon Television adds, and replaced them with adds offering the King James Version of the Bible. No more mention of the Book of Mormon is made in these adds. Now they show just a picture of the King James Bible and say that it is a "Free gift when you call this toll free number..." This way, True Christians will be TRICKED into calling their number and the Mormon Missionaries then begin the process of trying to convert.


• Church changed all the quotes in the Brigham Young lesson manual from "wives" to "wife"


• Church-wide Joseph F. Smith lesson manual removes all mention of this prophet's many plural wives and divorces


• Church changing some (but not all yet) references to the "Cumorah Pageant" to "Palmyra Pageant"


• Church quietly removed term "White and Delightsome" from Book of Mormon


• Church removed strange words from temple endowment like "Barak Ale," "Pay Lay Ale," "Beelzebub," etc..


• Church's other extensive April 1990 changes to the temple endowment ceremony to make it more politically correct by removing the blood death oaths, five points of fellowship, and the Protestant preacher in the pay of "Beelzebub" (Satan).


• Church dropped the "Lamanite Generation" name at BYU and renamed it "Living Legends"


• Church morphed the FARMS organization into some broad ancient scripture thing that does not directly involve the Book of Mormon.


• Church changed the name of the "Mormonads" in the New Era to "New Era Posters." These are those photos with "inspirational" sayings appropriate for cutting out and using for a constant reminder of someone else's ideas of appropriate behavior.


• All Church letterhead, news releases and announcements changed to always refer to the church as "The Church of Jesus Christ."


• Church's recent world-wide announcement that insists the media never refer to the church as the "Mormon Church."


• Hinckley's public denials of long-held controversial mormon beliefs that God was once a man and that polygamy was not doctrine (When did Hinckley deny that polygamy was a doctrine? September 8, 1998 on an episode of "Larry King Live.")


• World-wide the church is undertaking the enormous task of removing the original contemporary steeples from all of their churches and replacing them with Christian-looking steeples that cost "between $15,000 to $28,000 each." Even the church admits this is for cosmetic reasons.


• Talks by Church President Hinckley avoid mention of Joseph Smith. As one example, on June 24, 2001, Hinckley spoke to the members in San Antonio, TX and elaborated on a belief in the restoration, but did not refer to Joseph Smith a single time. In the same talk, he did not include a testimony in Joseph Smith among the list of things that make you worthy to go the temple. He listed every other requirement mentioned in the worthiness interview, but skipped over all references to Joseph Smith.


• Church proclamation "The Living Christ:-Testimony of Apostles" avoids references from Mormon scripture. All scriptural quotes are from the Bible or carefully selected copies of Bible verses from phrases in the D&C.; The proclamation fails to use any references from the Book of Mormon, the Church's "Other Testament of Jesus Christ."


• Last year the church spent millions on a new temple guest building next to the Salt Lake Temple. The main purpose of the new building is to serve as a waiting area for wedding guests not allowed in the temple, which includes all non-members and less-active members. While missing the wedding, unworthy guests now wait in the new plush building and view pictures, magazines and videos explaining the importance of temples. The Church hopes the new facility makes unworthy guests feel more a part of the temple experience and less bitter about not being able to participate in the ceremony.


• The Church is completely remodeling the two visitor centers on temple square, removing all the Book of Mormon exhibits and replacing them with theaters to show church films about the family. The South visitor center has already been redone. Gone are the "talking head" Book of Mormon theaters, fake golden plates exhibit, temple baptistry font and mormon persecution exhibits. The North visitor center is currently under re-construction, with everything but the big Chritus statue being changed. In place of the First Vision theater there will be an exhibit on Christ's Jerusalem ministry - a first for the Church.


• Monson started a televised Church devotional in the tabernacle recently by taking the pulpit and saying "Let us Pray" before bowing his head. This mainstream Christian phrase to begin a church service is new to Mormon culture.


• Quote from the LDS Church website regarding the Nauvoo Temple dedication: "Upon arriving at the open house, you first will view an exhibit that provides an overview of temples and helps explain how the activities and worship within them are centered on Jesus Christ."


• "The Holy Ghost" rebranded as Holy Spirit, Free Agency rebranded as Moral Agency


• One big change was the church's enlarging the words Jesus Christ on its logo/letterhead and other signs (I think this change was made in the late 1980s) and also it's hiring of a non-LDS PR firm just after Hinckley made his very first appearance on national U.S. television with Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes.


• Having a non-Mormon speak in the Tabernacle (I think they did this just recently) in SLC.


• Getting involved with interfaith groups (I don't recall the name but in the late 1980s, they began attending and participating in the World Council of Churches and selected Interfaith group meetings)


• Baptisim For The Dead...now referred to as Baptisim By Proxy


• Look at the evolution of garments. Ankle length one piecers to the current model that looks like boxer briefs. New women's tops look like normal t-shirts (nearly normal anyway). Military G's.....in a few years, I'm sure they'll announce the thong garment.

In response to the Public Forum letter of Jan. 3, I would like to tell Ken Roach that having once been an "active Mormon," he apparently didn't learn much about the faith.

He writes that obedient Mormons lack the choice of whether or not they pay tithing. The LDS Church doesn't deduct 10 percent of my paycheck before I get my hands on the money. However, the state and federal governments certainly get my money before I do. Maybe it's their fault we're bankrupt.

Whether or not we pay our tithing is entirely up to us. Hence, it's a choice. Yes, it's a commandment. But most of us very often don't keep all the commandments. Every choice we make in life carries a consequence, be it good or bad. I seriously doubt Mr. Roach was told that God would not protect his family unless he paid his tithing. His fear was self-induced.

I make the choice whether or not I pay my tithing. And there have been many times that I avoided financial difficulties because I paid my tithing.

To Whom It May Concern:

On page 42 of the current Ward Directory for Olympus 5th Ward, the names MIKE HOENIE and (DAUGHTER NAME) are currently listed.

On July 03, 2001 I requested in writing that my name be removed from the records of the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints. Shortly thereafter I received confirmation from Greg Dodge at the LDS Records department stating that my name had indeed been removed. Copies of this letter may be delivered upon request and may also be obtained from Membership Records via. Greg Dodge.

Regardless of whether the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints considers my daughter or myself a member, my original letter dated July 03, 2001 signifies my departure from Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints in full. I have not given permission for the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints to publish my name or my minor child's name in any directory at either a Stake or Ward level.

I have never given any legal consent that my minor child's name be published in a Stake or Ward Directory for The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints. Posting my name and my minor daughter's name constitutes harassment on the part of The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints.

I formally demand that you remove the names MIKE HOENIE and (DAUGHTER NAME) from your Ward and Stake Directories and furthermore demand that my name nor my daughter's name be published in any future directories.

You may continue to print my wife's name (WIFES NAME) in your directory as she has requested and still remains a member of your corporation.

I expect to hear from you shortly in acknowledgement that both names have been removed and will be removed from future directories.

I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another--I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.

“Until 1978, no person of color attained priesthood in your church. Why it took so long time to overcome the racism?”

"Maybe some of us would rather help with hurricane relief than home relief. Both are important, but home relief is our primary and eternal responsibility." - Susan W. Tanner.

“The day of the Lamanites is nigh. For years they have been growing delightsome, and they are now becoming white and delightsome, as they were promised. In this picture of the twenty Lamanite missionaries, fifteen of the twenty were as light as Anglos;...The children in the home placement program in Utah are often lighter than their brothers and sisters in the hogans on the reservation.” (Improvement Era, December 1960, p922-923)

The Indian Placement Program, or Indian Student Placement Program was a program of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1947 to 1996, where Native American students (upon request by their parents) were voluntarily placed in white Latter-day Saint foster homes during the school year, where they would attend public schools and become assimilated into Mormon culture.

Beginning in the 1970s, however, the Indian Placement Program came under criticism. In 1977, the U.S. government commissioned a study to investigate accusations that the Church was using its influence to push children into joining the program. The commission rejected these accusations, however, finding that the program was largely positive, and enjoyed emphatic support both from Native American parents and white foster parents. However, the program became increasingly controversial. Supporters believed that exposure to white culture was beneficial to Native American children, and that it improved educational and economic opportunities, while critics believed that program undermined the children's Native American identity.

In 1989, George P. Lee, a Navajo member of the First Quorum of the Seventy who had participated in the Indian Placement Program in his youth, was excommunicated soon after he had submitted to the Church a 23-page letter critical of the program. (However, this excommunication may have had more to do with a charge of child molestation, to which he later pleaded guilty.) By the late 1980s, however, the program had been in decline, and in 1996, it was abandoned.

“I have felt ill of late. I've been sick for the last four days. I've also been in a cloud of depression. I haven't been able to feel much of anything the last week since my baptism. It's as if it wasn't meant to be - but I'm not sure about it at all. I find myself thinking that I'm a member - yet sometimes I don't know what that means. Membership? Yes, of course, I'm a member. I just don't understand. I've done everything I've been asked to do and yet I feel - nothing.”

1. 1833, fanny Alger - 16 years old.
2. 1842, Sarah Ann Whitney - 17 years old.
3. 1843, Flora Ann Woodworth - 16 years old.
4. 1843 Lucy Walker - 17 years old.
5. 1843 Sarah Lawrence - 17 years old.
6. 1843 Helen Mar Kimball - 14 years old
7. 1843 Nancy Winchester - 14 years old

Benjamin Johnson, a close friend of Joseph Smith, described Fanny as, “very nice and comely, [to whom] everyone Seemed partial for the amiability of her character.” She is generally considered the first plural wife of Joseph Smith. Although undocumented, the marriage of Fanny and Joseph most likely took place in Kirtland, Ohio sometime in 1833. She would have been sixteen years old. At the time, Fanny was living in the Smith home, perhaps helping Emma with housework and the children. Ann Eliza Webb recalls, “Mrs. Smith had an adopted daughter, a very pretty, pleasing young girl, about seventeen years old.

She was extremely fond of her; no mother could be more devoted, and their affection for each other was a constant object of remark, so absorbing and genuine did it seem”.

Joseph kept his marriage to Fanny out of the view of the public, and his wife Emma. Chauncey Webb recounts Emma's later discovery of the relationship: “Emma was furious, and drove the girl, who was unable to conceal the consequences of her celestial relation with the prophet, out of her house”. Ann Eliza again recalls: “...it was felt that [Emma] certainly must have had some very good reason for her action. By degrees it became whispered about that Joseph's love for his adopted daughter was by no means a paternal affection, and his wife, discovering the fact, at once took measures to place the girl beyond his reach...Since Emma refused decidedly to allow her to remain in her house...my mother offered to take her until she could be sent to her relatives...”

Book of Mormon witness, Oliver Cowdery, felt the relationship was something other than a marriage. He referred to it as “A dirty, nasty, filthy affair...” To calm rumors regarding Fanny's relationship with Joseph, the church quickly adopted a “Chapter of Rules for Marriage among the Saints”, which declared,

“Inasmuch as this church of Christ has been reproached with...polygamy; we declare that we believe, that one man should have one wife...” This “Article on Marriage” was canonized and published in the Doctrine & Covenants. In 1852, the doctrine of polygamy was publicly announced, thus ending eighteen years of secret practice. “The Article on Marriage” became obsolete and was later removed.

Fanny stayed with relatives in nearby Mayfield until about the time Joseph fled Kirtland for Missouri.

Benjamin Johnson remembers: “Soon after the Prophet['s] flight in the winter of '37...The Alger Family left for the west and Stop[ped] in Indiana for a time...Soon [Fanny] Married to one of the Citizens of ther & altho she never left the State She did not turn from the Church nor from her friendship for the Prophet while She lived..” Benjamin continued, “And I Can now See that as at Nauvoo - So at Kirtland That the Suspicion or Knowledge of the Prophets Plural Relations was one of the Causes of Apostasy & disruption at Kirtland altho at the time there was little said publicly upon the Subject.” Fanny lived the rest of her life in Indiana with her children and husband, Solomon Custer. http://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/02-...

"Polygamists and polygamist organizations that occasionally make the news are not dissident wings of the Church or fundamentalists. They have no affiliation whatsoever with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Most of their members have never had any association with the Church either." http://www.lds.org/newsroom/mistakes/...

"I publicly declare that my advice to the Latter-day Saints is to refrain from contracting any marriages forbidden by the law of the land."

"If any man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse another, and the first give her consent, and if he espouse the second, and they are virgins, and have vowed to no other man, then is he justified; he cannot commit adultery for they are given unto him; for he cannot commit adultery with that that belongeth unto him and to no one else. And if he have ten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him, and they are given unto him; therefore is he justified."