Mitt Romney: I Pray Everyday

Mitt Romney has been increasingly more open about his faith as the 2012 election goes on. Recently, he sat down with the Huffington Post and talked about his spiritual routine as a Mormon: 

The Huffington Post asked Romney in an interview Thursday what kind of daily routine he conducts to keep himself spiritually grounded, a topic past presidents and presidential candidates have discussed at length. George W. Bush, for example, often spoke about how he would try to read the Bible daily and pray.

Romney said he does something similar with the Mormon scriptures, which include the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and two other "canonized" books that are also referred to as "standard works."

Romney paused for a moment before describing his routine.

"Let's see, how would I describe this? Let's see," he said. "I read scripture regularly, and seek the counsel of my creator on a daily basis."

"I pray every day. I don't read scriptures every day, probably should," he added.

Ann Romney, who sat on the couch in the Romney campaign bus next to her husband fiddling with an iPad, held up the device, prompting an exclamation from Mitt.

"There we go, just did. I got them on my iPad," he said. "I should probably read scriptures every day, but I read them frequently, but not every day."

"Sometimes I read to him. If we're on the phone, I will read him chapters," Ann Romney said with a smile.

"But I go to church every Sunday," Romney said brightly.

I appreciate Mitt Romney talking about his daily spiritual routine, especially to the press, since he is like most Americans who pray daily and struggle to read their scriptures daily.  The daily practice of being LDS isn't any different from most Americans who try to lead a religious life in a busy and hectic world. Its inspiring to know that even Mitt Romney struggles with balancing work, family and religion just like everyone else. 

David Archuletta: I Will Be Serving A Mission For The LDS Church

David Archuletta has announced that he will be serving an LDS Mission soon. Watch the video below:

David has already been a good ambassador for our faith by using his musical talents and serving a mission will add an extra dimension to his experience in helping people become familiar with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The LDS Church Launches New Website Focusing On The Bible

The LDS Church has just announced during tonight's December 4th Christmas Broadcast that has launched a new website consisting of Bible videos for viewers to watch. The LDS Newsroom has more information about this new website: 

BibleVideos.lds.org is a repository for original short videos that depict scenes from Christ’s life, ranging from the angel foretelling Christ’s birth to the Savior's Resurrection.

President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency, announced the site during his talk at the devotional.

“Like the scriptures which these short films follow faithfully they may seem to you quiet,” he said. “Your faith and the Holy Ghost will create the emotion these world-changing events deserve.”

As reported from the LDS Newsroom, The Church will be releasing more videos in the future for people of all faiths to enjoy:   

The project will yield more than 100 vignettes portraying the life of Christ, taken directly from the text of the King James Version of the Bible. Over time, each video will be posted to BibleVideos.lds.org along with the scriptural text from which it is taken. The goal is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ by assembling one of the finest collections of Bible videos in the world.

“We intend for these videos to be used freely by individuals, families, and groups,” said Elder Lynn G. Robbins, Executive Director of the Media Services Department. “We want to help our own members strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ, and we offer this freely to other churches who may wish to use these videos in a similar way. The message of the Lord Jesus Christ needs to be shared as widely as possible throughout the world.”

Subscription options, including RSS and e-mail, are available in the footer of the website for users to receive updates when new videos are provided.

The Life of Jesus Christ Bible Videos website is intended to provide members and their families with a new and meaningful way to learn about and share the teachings of Jesus Christ. Through these videos, individuals can explore biblical environments, watch scripture-based stories come to life, view slideshows, and discover additional insights into biblical accounts.

“It is our hope that these New Testament videos will help people to visualize what they have only been able to imagine, and to more deeply feel the truths of the New Testament as they witness the Savior’s life and not just as they read about it,” Elder Robbins said. “Hopefully, there will be entirely new insights into the Savior’s character that will help viewers feel of His love and inspire them to want to be more like Him.”

The website enables individual to share the content in order to extend the videos’ reach and impact. Items on the website can be shared through Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.

“You can give a great and wonderful Christmas if you will remember the gifts God has given you, and as best you can, offer them to others as He would,” President Eyring stated.

The website has a mobile-friendly design and is available in English (biblevideos.lds.org), Spanish (videosdelabiblia.org), and Portuguese (videosbiblicos.org). A free iPad app will also be available in the future, offering a new way to experience Bible stories through sight, sound, and touch.

Given that members of the LDS Church are very active in reading the Bible and have a strong knowledge about Christianity, this will be a resource that will be enjoyed by all Mormons as well as Christians of other denominations.

Book of Mormon Broadway Musical Scores Grammy Nomination

Matt Stone and Trey Parker's Broadway musical, "The Book of Mormon" has been very successful for them. The won nine awards at the Tony Awards last year. for Today, they were nominated for a Grammy award for best musical theater album:  

 "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are competing against timeless composers Cole Porter and Frank Loesser for a 2012 Grammy Award. In the category of musical theater album, their new Broadway blockbuster "The Book of Mormon" was nominated Wednesday along with the albums for revivals of Porter's "Anything Goes" and Loesser's "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."

The musical theater category honors the composers and lyricists for a show, as well as the producers and principal cast members.

"The Book of Mormon," released by Ghostlight Records, features songs by Stone, Parker and Robert Lopez. Cast members Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells also were included in the nomination. The hit comedy won nine Tony Awards this year, including the award for new musical.

Not only has the "Book of Mormon" been success musically, but also financially since they have recouped all the cost of making the play and are now generating a profit from the play:

The critically acclaimed Broadway musical “The Book of Mormon” has recouped its roughly $11.4 million capitalization after just nine months of performances, its producers said on Tuesday. “Mormon” is the first commercially successful musical from the 2010-11 season, which had an unusually large number of original musicals open, including the still-running “Sister Act” and “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” and flops like “Catch Me If You Can” and “Wonderland.”

Since starting preview performances in mid-February, “Mormon” has broken the weekly box-office record at the Eugene O’Neill Theater 22 times. The show is regularly among the five highest-grossing productions on Broadway in spite of running in a theater with hundreds of fewer seats than most major musical theaters.

The producers make up for a small house by charging premium ticket prices of up to $477; as a result, theatergoers pay far more on average to see “Mormon” – about $170 during Thanksgiving week – than for other Broadway shows.

Given that people are willing to shell out money to pay premium to see this show, people obviously like the work of Matt Stone and Trey Parker and were confident that they would get their money's worth in seeing this play. But it was also a risk for them to be charging such high prices but the gamble paid off for them handsomely. 

Many LDS people are unhappy with this play because its disrespectful to our religion. I say, let them poke fun at us. We are a unique religion and there's no denying that. Rather than getting our feathers ruffled over it, let them laugh at us. Its ok. Some people will not want to learn about our Church because of this play. Perhaps a few people will. Overall, I think the result of this play is a positive one for the LDS Church and its members. 

Lawsuit Seeks To Ban LDS Church From Giving Its Input On Utah Alcohol Laws

A lawsuit has been filed in Utah to prevent The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints from giving its input on new or proposed alchol laws:

A trade group for bars and restaurants is asking a federal judge to block Utah legislators from considering input from the Mormon church when drafting future liquor laws.

The Utah Hospitality Association contends that considering the views of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is unconstitutional under federal laws separating church and state.

The claim is part of an amended lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City.

"We know the LDS church wields a lot of influence with the Legislature, especially as to liquor policies in this state," association board spokesman Kenneth Wynn said on Tuesday. "I think we've felt this for a long time. The church ought to butt out of state business ... we're just bringing it to the forefront."

Hospitality association attorneys originally filed the lawsuit in June. It targets Senate Bill 314, which bans daily drink specials and ties the number of liquor licenses to population totals and the number of state-employed police officers.

Association attorneys say eliminating discount pricing for alcohol amounts to price-fixing that harms both consumers and businesses. They contend such limits on competition in liquor sales and distribution places an unfair restraint on trade that violates federal antitrust laws.

Passed by lawmakers earlier this year, most of the new laws became effective in July. The portion of the so-called "quota system" tied to the number of law enforcement officers takes effect July 1, 2012.

Named as defendants in the lawsuit are the state of Utah, the governor and the Department of Alcohol and Beverage Control Commission.

The Mormon church is not a defendant, but the lawsuit cites examples of the Utah-based church's influence with lawmakers, including remarks from Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, who sponsored SB314, about the church's support for the bill.

The lawsuit also contends that a pair of church lobbyists had "warned" lawmakers that "there would be repercussions" if they disagreed with the church's position on the legislation. Court papers don't specify what those repercussions would be.

This is an interesting lawsuit and I'm interested in the outcome of this case. The LDS Church is free to give its opinion on laws and to lobby in support or opposition of a law just as much as any other organization is free to do. However, they are alleging that the LDS Church has a greater influence on laws crafted in Utah than most regular lobbying groups do. It will be interesting to see how the Plaintiffs prove that given that most of the members of Utah Legislature is LDS.

Study Shatteres A Few More Dating Myths About Men

In a previous blog article, I wrote about a study that found that men single men are, on the whole, as likely to want to get married as single women.  Recently, another study has come out that shatters a few more myths about men: 

That old chestnut about women always wanting to cuddle? Myth, according to a Kinsey Institute study, which finds that kissing and hugging were more important to the happiness of men than of women.

The study involved 1,009 heterosexual middle-aged and older couples in long-term (average 25 years) committed relationships in five countries. Researchers asked participants to fill out questionnaires about their satisfaction with their relationships and sex lives, revealing some surprising truths: for instance, men who reported frequent kissing or cuddling with their partners were on average three times as happy with their relationships as men who reported limited snuggling. For women, such shows of tenderness didn't have much impact on relationship satisfaction.

However, both men and women who reported frequent touching, kissing and hugging, as well as higher sexual functioning and more sex, were more likely to be sexually satisfied. For women, sex got better over time: they reported significantly more sexual satisfaction after being with their partner for 15 years.

"Possibly, women become more satisfied over time because their expectations change, or life changes with the children grown," Julia Heiman, director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction and lead author of the study, said in a statement. "On the other hand, those who weren't so happy sexually might not be married so long."

Both men and women became happier with their relationships the longer they stayed together. But, in a reversal of stereotype, men were more likely than women to report being happy in their relationships, while women were more likely to report being satisfied with sex.

These studies certainly changes they way we view the physical needs of men and women and how it contributes to their happiness.  Tearing down stereotypes and myths are a good thing since it helps us to strive to a more realistic view of how things are.

The Book Of Mormon Musical Is The Big Winner At The Tony Awards

The Book of Mormon musical was not only a hit on Broadway but at the Tony as well. Tonight, the play picked up nine awards: 

The profane and hysterical "The Book of Mormon" took home nine Tony Awards on Sunday including the prize for best musical, a considerable achievement for a pair of first-time Broadway playwrights known more for their raunchy cartoons featuring potty-mouthed kids.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of the Emmy Award-winning "South Park," found a kindred soul in Robert Lopez, who co-wrote the Tony-winning "Avenue Q," and all three found themselves with plenty of awards when they collaborated to gently mock Mormons and send-up Broadway itself.

Collecting the best musical prize, a subdued Parker, who tied Josh Logan of "South Pacific" with four Tonys in one evening, said he'd be remiss if he didn't thank his late book co-writer - Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon religion.

"You did it, Joseph! You got the Tony!" Parker said looking skyward and holding up his award.

The show, which netted honors for best musical, best book, best direction of a musical, best score, best featured actress and four technical awards, came in with a leading 14 nominations and was the heavy favorite for the top musical prize.

I really wish I could go and see this play. From everything I've heard, Matt Stone and Trey Parker deserve these awards. Congratulations guys!