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| jana riess excommunication: The Next Mormons Jana Riess, 2019-02-01 American Millennials--the generation born in the 1980s and 1990s--have been leaving organized religion in unprecedented numbers. For a long time, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was an exception: nearly three-quarters of people who grew up Mormon stayed that way into adulthood. In The Next Mormons, Jana Riess demonstrates that things are starting to change. Drawing on a large-scale national study of four generations of current and former Mormons as well as dozens of in-depth personal interviews, Riess explores the religious beliefs and behaviors of young adult Mormons, finding that while their levels of belief remain strong, their institutional loyalties are less certain than their parents' and grandparents'. For a growing number of Millennials, the tensions between the Church's conservative ideals and their generation's commitment to individualism and pluralism prove too high, causing them to leave the faith-often experiencing deep personal anguish in the process. Those who remain within the fold are attempting to carefully balance the Church's strong emphasis on the traditional family with their generation's more inclusive definition that celebrates same-sex couples and women's equality. Mormon families are changing too. More Mormons are remaining single, parents are having fewer children, and more women are working outside the home than a generation ago. The Next Mormons offers a portrait of a generation navigating between traditional religion and a rapidly changing culture. |
| jana riess excommunication: Flunking Sainthood Jana Riess, 2011-11-01 This wry memoir tackles twelve different spiritual practices in a quest to become more saintly, including fasting, fixed-hour prayer, the Jesus Prayer, gratitude, Sabbath-keeping, and generosity. Although Riess begins with great plans for success (“Really, how hard could that be?” she asks blithely at the start of her saint-making year), she finds to her growing humiliation that she is failing—not just at some of the practices, but at every single one. What emerges is a funny yet vulnerable story of the quest for spiritual perfection and the reality of spiritual failure, which turns out to be a valuable practice in and of itself. Praise for Flunking Sainthood: Flunking Sainthood is surprising and freeing; it is fun and funny; and it is full of wisdom. It is, in fact, the best book on the practices of the spiritual life that I have read in a long, long time. - Lauren Winner, author of Girl Meets God and Mudhouse Sabbath Jana Riess reminds us that saints are different from most of us: They are special, we are barely normal. They get it right, we rarely get it. They see God, we strain to see much of anything. And, Jana is no saint. Rather than climbing to the pinnacle and sitting on a pedestal to tell us how it could be, Jana slides right next to us and reminds us that sainthood is overrated. With humor and insight she whispers to is that our lives matter just as they are. She prods us to never let our failures hold us back. She calls us to something greater than spiritual success - ordinary faithfulness. Flunking Sainthood is the book I’m giving to my friends who are seeking to make sense of their emerging faith. - Doug Pagitt, author of A Christianity Worth Believing “Jana Riess may have flunked at sainthood, but she's written a wonderful book. It's both reverent and irreverent, and it will make you want to become a better Christian -- or Jew, or Muslim, or Zoroastrian, or Jedi, or whatever you happen to be.” - AJ Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically Warm, light-hearted, and laugh-out-loud funny, Jana Riess may indeed have flunked sainthood, but this memoir assures us that she is utterly and deeply human, and that is something even more wonderful. Honest and sincere, she will endear you from page one. -- Donna Freitas, author of The Possibilities of Sainthood “With a helpfully hilarious account of her own grappling with godliness, Jana Riess proves to be a standup historian well-practiced in the art of oddly revivifying self-deprecation. She loves her guides, historical and contemporary, even as she finds them alternately impractical, harsh, or infuriatingly jolly. The book is freaking wonderful—a candid and committed tale of prayers that resists supersizing and spirituality that has no home save the glory and the muck of the everyday.”--David Dark, author of The Sacredness of Questioning Everything “Jana Riess's new book is a delight—fun, funny, engaging and a powerful reminder that the greatest work in our lives is not what we'll do for God but what God is doing in us.” --Margaret Feinberg, www.margaretfeinberg.com, author of Scouting the Divine and Hungry for God “Flunking Sainthood allows those of us who have attempted new spiritual practices-- and failed-- to breathe a great sigh of relief and to laugh out loud. Jana Reiss’s exposé of her year-long and less-than-successful attempts at eleven classic spiritual practices entertains and educates us with its honesty and down-to-earthiness. In spite of Jana’s paltry attempts at piety and her botched prayer makeovers, God showed up in the surprising, sneaky ways that only God does. Jana is the kind of girlfriend I like to have--hilarious, smart, stubborn, irreverent, and totally gaga over God. She writes in the unfiltered, uncensored way I’d write if I had the skill and the guts (Oh sorry, Mom, I meant gumption, not guts.)” --Sybil MacBeth, author of Praying in Color |
| jana riess excommunication: Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier Benjamin E. Park, 2020-02-25 Best Book Award • Mormon History Association A brilliant young historian excavates the brief life of a lost Mormon city, uncovering a “grand, underappreciated saga in American history” (Wall Street Journal). In Kingdom of Nauvoo, Benjamin E. Park draws on newly available sources to re-create the founding and destruction of the Mormon city of Nauvoo. On the banks of the Mississippi in Illinois, the early Mormons built a religious utopia, establishing their own army and writing their own constitution. For those offenses and others—including the introduction of polygamy, which was bitterly opposed by Emma Smith, the iron-willed first wife of Joseph Smith—the surrounding population violently ejected the Mormons, sending them on their flight to Utah. Throughout his absorbing chronicle, Park shows how the Mormons of Nauvoo were representative of their era, and in doing so elevates Mormon history into the American mainstream. |
| jana riess excommunication: Sealed Katie Langston, 2021-04-06 Katie Langston is an unlikely convert to Christianity. She grew up in a devout, conservative Mormon family in Utah, served a proselytizing mission to Bulgaria when she was 21, married for time and all eternity in the Mormon temple when she was 23. From the outside, she had a typical Mormon life. Inside, she was coming apart at the seams. From childhood, she battled The Questions—obsessive-compulsive disorder, though she didn't have a diagnosis for it until much later—and lived inside a complex maze of anxiety and fear. This was compounded by Mormonism's emphasis on worthiness, a designation of acceptability in Mormon practice, that brought her to the edge of despair as a young mother. Then, almost by accident, she had an encounter with the grace of Jesus Christ—and her world changed. In candid but not sensationalized ways, Langston explores little-understood Mormon practices and teachings while grappling with universal human questions such as the nature of faith, the complexity of family, the process of healing, and what it means to truly belong. This book is intended to be a bridge-builder, a way to help non-Mormons understand Mormonism and Mormons orthodox Christianity through the power of personal narrative. Most of all, it is a testimony of Jesus Christ, in the hopes that those who read it—Mormon, Christian, or neither—will catch a glimpse of the spectacular, life-changing grace of God. |
| jana riess excommunication: The Twible Jana Riess, 2013-11 It's the Bible, now with 68% more humor and 99% fewer begats You've wanted to read the Bible, but it's Uber-long and, let's face it, sometimes boring. You're a busy person with stuff to do. You want the Bible, only funnier. And shorter. Enter The Twible, which brings you every chapter as tweeted in 140 characters or less, from Genesis to Revelation Find out what the Bible says you're supposed to do if a friend starts worshiping another god, your child disrespects you in public, or you break the Sabbath. (The answers to those dilemmas are to stone your friend, stone your child, and stone yourself. In that order.) Learn where Paul swears in the New Testament, and why Jeremiah could benefit from antidepressants. Inside The Twible you'll find: - A tweet for each of the 1,189 chapters of the Bible - A summary of every book of the Bible in seven words or less - Dozens of informative sidebars (print edition only) - More than 50 original cartoons - A glossary telling you who's who in the Bible - Unicorns From start to finish, The Twible brings the Bible to wonderful, wicked, weird life. The Twible adapts the Old Testament to the light-hearted quipping familiar in everyday Tweets. -- The Guardian, UK The Twible is the most entertaining version of my dad's book I've read in the last two millennia -- Jesus Christ] Twible is the best example I have ever seen of the reverence of irreverence. -- Phyllis Tickle, author of The Divine Hours I wouldn't object if Twibles were in every hotel room. -- Hemant Mehta, The Friendly Atheist blogger Forget about reading the Bible in a year. Now you can read it in an hour, thanks to the subversive, somewhat disturbed, mind of Jana Riess. -- Peter Enns, author of Genesis for Normal People The perfect (surreptitious) iPad or Tablet companion for draggy Sunday (or Saturday) morning services. Caution: Not to be used for congregational Scripture reading. -- Mark I. Pinsky, author of The Gospel According to the Simpsons Whatever you think of Twitter, there can be no speedier or funnier way to read through the Bible than with Riess's Twible providing spot-on interpretation chapter by chapter. -- Kristin Swenson, author of Bible Babel The Twible is an indelible book that reads like an oddly religious comedy but has the impact of a brilliant jingle that sticks in your brain to the point of madness. -- Frank Schaeffer, author of And God Said, Billy This is brilliant stuff-hilariously accurate summaries of complex material. -- Debbie Blue, pastor; author of Consider the Birds: A Provocative Guide to the Birds of the Bible This is absolutely the funniest and most fun Bible 'translation' ever. -- Steven L. Peck, author of The Scholar of Moab |
| jana riess excommunication: Mormonism For Dummies Jana Riess, Christopher Kimball Bigelow, 2005-02-25 Get the facts on temples, tithing, missions, and caffeine Mormon doctrines, rituals, and history, demystified at last! Mormonism, or the LDS Church, is one of the world's fastest growing religions. But unless you were raised a Mormon, you probably don't have a clear picture of LDS beliefs and practices. Covering everything from Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon to tithing and family home evening, this friendly guide will get you up to speed in no time. Discover: * How the LDS Church differs from other Christian churches * What Mormons believe * What happens in Mormon temples and meetinghouses * The history of the LDS Church * LDS debates on race, women, and polygamy |
| jana riess excommunication: Mercy Without End Lavina Fielding Anderson, 2020 These eighteen essays span more than thirty years of Lavina Fielding Anderson's concerns about and reflections on issues of inclusiveness in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including her own excommunication for apostasy in 1993, followed by twenty-five years of continued attendance at weekly LDS ward meetings. Written with a taste for irony and an eye for documentation, the essays are timeless snapshots of sometimes controversial issues, beginning with official resistance to professionally researched Mormon history in the 1980s. They underscore unanswered questions about gender equality and repeatedly call attention to areas in which the church does not live up to its better self. Compassionately and responsibly, it calls Anderson's beloved religion back to its holiest nature. |
| jana riess excommunication: The Mormon Jesus John G. Turner, 2016-04-25 For two centuries, Jesus has connected the Latter-day Saints to broader currents of Christianity, even while particular Mormon beliefs have been points of differentiation. From the author of the definitive life of Brigham Young comes a biography of the Mormon Jesus that enriches our understanding of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. |
| jana riess excommunication: The Prayer Wheel Patton Dodd, Jana Riess, David Van Biema, 2018-02-20 Award-winning religion journalists describe a recently rediscovered medieval prayer tool that provides fresh inspiration and daily prayers for contemporary Christians. All people of faith struggle at times to sustain a flourishing prayer life--a loss felt all the more keenly in times like ours of confusion, political turbulence, and global calamity. The Prayer Wheel introduces an ancient prayer practice that offers a timeless solution for the modern faithful. The Prayer Wheel is a modern interpretation of the Liesborn Prayer Wheel, a beautiful, almost wholly forgotten, scripture-based mode of prayer that was developed in a medieval times. The Liesborn Prayer Wheel resurfaced in 2015 in a small private gallery near New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. It faithfully and beautifully presents seven prayer paths for personal or group use. Each path invites contemplation on the big ideas of the Christian faith--the Lord's Prayer, the Beatitudes, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and key words from the life of Christ. In the tradition of lectio divina and walking a labyrinth, The Prayer Wheel simply and directly takes readers into a daily, wholly unique encounter with God. As the prayers in this book unfold, readers will find an appealing guide for contemplation, a way of seeing God in new ways, and an essential new tool for Christian formation. |
| jana riess excommunication: Gay Rights and the Mormon Church Gregory A Prince, 2024-12-31 |
| jana riess excommunication: Moroni and the Swastika David Conley Nelson, 2015-03-02 While Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist government was persecuting Jews and Jehovah’s Witnesses and driving forty-two small German religious sects underground, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continued to practice unhindered. How some fourteen thousand Mormons not only survived but thrived in Nazi Germany is a story little known, rarely told, and occasionally rewritten within the confines of the Church’s history—for good reason, as we see in David Conley Nelson’s Moroni and the Swastika. A page-turning historical narrative, this book is the first full account of how Mormons avoided Nazi persecution through skilled collaboration with Hitler’s regime, and then eschewed postwar shame by constructing an alternative history of wartime suffering and resistance. The Twelfth Article of Faith and parts of the 134th Section of the Doctrine and Covenants function as Mormonism’s equivalent of the biblical admonition to “render unto Caesar,” a charge to cooperate with civil government, no matter how onerous doing so may be. Resurrecting this often-violated doctrinal edict, ecclesiastical leaders at the time developed a strategy that protected Mormons within Nazi Germany. Furthermore, as Nelson shows, many Mormon officials strove to fit into the Third Reich by exploiting commonalities with the Nazi state. German Mormons emphasized a mutual interest in genealogy and a passion for sports. They sent husbands into the Wehrmacht and sons into the Hitler Youth, and they prayed for a German victory when the war began. They also purged Jewish references from hymnals, lesson plans, and liturgical practices. One American mission president even wrote an article for the official Nazi Party newspaper, extolling parallels between Utah Mormon and German Nazi society. Nelson documents this collaboration, as well as subsequent efforts to suppress it by fashioning a new collective memory of ordinary German Mormons’ courage and travails during the war. Recovering this inconvenient past, Moroni and the Swastika restores a complex and difficult chapter to the history of Nazi Germany and the Mormon Church in the twentieth century—and offers new insight into the construction of historical truth. |
| jana riess excommunication: Mormon Enigma Linda King Newell, Valeen Tippetts Avery, 1994 Winner of the Evans Biography Award, the Mormon History Association Best Book Award, and the John Whitmer Association (RLDS) Best Book Award. A preface to this first paperback edition of the biography of Emma Hale Smith, Joseph Smith's wife, reviews the history of the book and its reception. Various editorial changes effected in this edition are also discussed.--back cover. |
| jana riess excommunication: Another End of the World is Possible John Halstead, 2019-07-02 In these essays, activist and author, John Halstead, takes us from a 2016 environmental protest at a Midwestern tar sands refinery to a mid-20th century Mexican cornfield stricken with blight to a bloody sacrifice to the Mother Goddess in ancient Rome, and from ancient pagan myths to the latest superhero movies to speculative fiction about a biocentric community of the future. In so doing, he explores the intersection of climate change and capitalism, hope and despair, death and denial, hubris and hero myths, love and limitations, popular culture and storytelling, and what it would really mean for our relationship with the natural world if we were to admit that we are doomed. |
| jana riess excommunication: Beyond the Mapped Stars Rosalyn Eves, 2021-08-24 A sweeping adventure, set in the late 19th century, about science, love, and finding your place in the world, perfect for fans of Ruta Sepetys and Julie Berry. Seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Bertelsen dreams of becoming an astronomer, but she knows such dreams are as unreachable as the stars she so deeply adores. As a Mormon girl, her duty is to her family and, in a not too far away future, to the man who'll choose to marry her. When she unexpectedly finds herself in Colorado, she's tempted by the total eclipse of the sun that's about to happen--and maybe even meeting up with the female scientists she's long admired. Elizabeth must learn to navigate this new world of possibility: with her familial duties and faith tugging at her heartstrings, a new romance on the horizon, and the study of the night sky calling to her, she can't possibly have it all...can she? |
| jana riess excommunication: The God who Weeps Terryl Givens, Fiona Givens, 2012 Anyone desiring to understand more about Mormon Christianity could |
| jana riess excommunication: Religion of a Different Color W. Paul Reeve, 2015-01-30 Mormonism is one of the few homegrown religions in the United States, one that emerged out of the religious fervor of the early nineteenth century. Yet, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have struggled for status and recognition. In this book, W. Paul Reeve explores the ways in which nineteenth century Protestant white America made outsiders out of an inside religious group. Much of what has been written on Mormon otherness centers upon economic, cultural, doctrinal, marital, and political differences that set Mormons apart from mainstream America. Reeve instead looks at how Protestants racialized Mormons, using physical differences in order to define Mormons as non-White to help justify their expulsion from Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. He analyzes and contextualizes the rhetoric on Mormons as a race with period discussions of the Native American, African American, Oriental, Turk/Islam, and European immigrant races. He also examines how Mormon male, female, and child bodies were characterized in these racialized debates. For instance, while Mormons argued that polygamy was ordained by God, and so created angelic, celestial, and elevated offspring, their opponents suggested that the children were degenerate and deformed. The Protestant white majority was convinced that Mormonism represented a racial-not merely religious-departure from the mainstream and spent considerable effort attempting to deny Mormon whiteness. Being white brought access to political, social, and economic power, all aspects of citizenship in which outsiders sought to limit or prevent Mormon participation. At least a part of those efforts came through persistent attacks on the collective Mormon body, ways in which outsiders suggested that Mormons were physically different, racially more similar to marginalized groups than they were white. Medical doctors went so far as to suggest that Mormon polygamy was spawning a new race. Mormons responded with aspirations toward whiteness. It was a back and forth struggle between what outsiders imagined and what Mormons believed. Mormons ultimately emerged triumphant, but not unscathed. Mormon leaders moved away from universalistic ideals toward segregated priesthood and temples, policies firmly in place by the early twentieth century. So successful were Mormons at claiming whiteness for themselves that by the time Mormon Mitt Romney sought the White House in 2012, he was labeled the whitest white man to run for office in recent memory. Ending with reflections on ongoing views of the Mormon body, this groundbreaking book brings together literatures on religion, whiteness studies, and nineteenth century racial history with the history of politics and migration. |
| jana riess excommunication: You're Not as Crazy as I Thought (But You're Still Wrong) Phil Neisser, Jacob Hess, 2012-04 A social conservative & a left wing atheist liberal engage in a lively exchange of views on the very issues that divide them from abortion to gay marriage. Topics include: government, media, religion, morality, gender roles, sexual orientation and race; Provocative, informative exchanges for any one who is weary of hyperpartisanship sparked by the likes of (pick your favorite from either end of the spectrum), this book provides a way forward during the 2012 election cycle. |
| jana riess excommunication: Brigham Young John G. Turner, 2012-09-25 Brigham Young was a rough-hewn New York craftsman whose impoverished life was electrified by the Mormon faith. Turner provides a fully realized portrait of this spiritual prophet, viewed by followers as a protector and by opponents as a heretic. His pioneering faith made a deep imprint on tens of thousands of lives in the American Mountain West. |
| jana riess excommunication: What Is the Bible? Rob Bell, 2018-04-19 The New York Times bestselling author Rob Bell, using his inspired and inquisitive approach, focuses on the most widely read book of all time. He provides surprising insights and answers about how the Bible actually works as a source of faith and guidance, showing a brand-new way of reading this sacred text. Rob Bell, the beloved author of Love Wins and What We Talk About When We Talk About God, goes deep into the Bible to show how it is more revelatory, revolutionary, and relevant than we ever imagined - and offers a cogent argument for why we need to look at it in a fresh, new way. In Love Wins, Rob Bell confronted the troubling questions that many people of faith were afraid to ask about heaven, hell, fate, and faith. Using the same inspired, inquisitive approach, he now turns to our most sacred book, the Bible. What Is the Bible? provides insights and answers that make clear why the Bible is so revered and what makes it truly inspiring and essential to our lives. Rob takes us deep into actual passages to reveal the humanity behind the Scriptures. You cannot get to the holy without going through the human, Rob tells us. When considering a passage, we shouldn't ask 'Why did God say ...' To get to the heart of the Bible's meaning, we should be asking: 'What's the story that's unfolding here and why did people find it important to tell it? What was it that moved them to record these words? What was happening in the world at that time? What does this passage/story/poem/verse/book tell us about how people understood who they were and who God was at that time?' In asking these questions, Rob goes beyond the one-dimensional question of 'Is it true?' to reveal the Bible's authentic transformative power. Rob addresses the concerns of all those who see the Bible as God's Word but are troubled by the ethical dilemmas, errors, and inconsistencies in Scripture. With What Is the Bible?, he recaptures the Good Book's magic and reaffirms its power and inspiration to shape and inspire our lives today. |
| jana riess excommunication: Faith After Doubt Brian D. McLaren, 2022-05-03 Faith After Doubt is for the millions of people around the world who feel that their faith is falling apart. Using his own story and the stories of a diverse group of struggling believers, Brian D. McLaren, a former pastor and now an author, speaker, and activist, shows how old assumptions are being challenged in nearly every area of human life, not just theology and spirituality. His four-stage model of faith development -- simplicity, complexity, perplexity, and harmony -- shows how questions and doubt are not the enemy of faith but rather a portal to a more mature and fruitful kind of faith. |
| jana riess excommunication: The Mormon People Matthew Bowman, 2012-01-24 “From one of the brightest of the new generation of Mormon-studies scholars comes a crisp, engaging account of the religion’s history.”—The Wall Street Journal With Mormonism on the nation’s radar as never before, religious historian Matthew Bowman has written an essential book that pulls back the curtain on more than 180 years of Mormon history and doctrine. He recounts the church’s origins and explains how the Mormon vision has evolved—and with it the esteem in which Mormons have been held in the eyes of their countrymen. Admired on the one hand as hardworking paragons of family values, Mormons have also been derided as oddballs and persecuted as polygamists, heretics, and zealots. The place of Mormonism in public life continues to generate heated debate, yet the faith has never been more popular. One of the fastest-growing religions in the world, it retains an uneasy sense of its relationship with the main line of American culture. Mormons will surely play an even greater role in American civic life in the years ahead. The Mormon People comes as a vital addition to the corpus of American religious history—a frank and balanced demystification of a faith that remains a mystery for many. With a new afterword by the author. “Fascinating and fair-minded . . . a sweeping soup-to-nuts primer on Mormonism.”—The Boston Globe “A cogent, judicious, and important account of a faith that has been an important element in American history but remained surprisingly misunderstood.”—Michael Beschloss “A thorough, stimulating rendering of the Mormon past and present.”—Kirkus Reviews “[A] smart, lucid history.”—Tom Brokaw |
| jana riess excommunication: Secularism: The Basics Jacques Berlinerblau, 2021-12-30 Secularism: The Basics is a concise and engaging introduction to confusing and contradictory public discussions of secularism across the globe. “Secularism” must be the most confused and convoluted term in the entire global political lexicon. From New York to Paris, to Istanbul, to Addis Ababa, to New Delhi, to Montevideo, there are countless examples of politicians, religious leaders and journalists, invoking the S-word in heated debates about public education, gender, sex, national symbols, and artistic freedom. In this lively and lucid book, Jacques Berlinerblau addresses why secularism is defined in so many ways and why it so ignites people’s passions. In so doing, he explores the following important questions: What does secularism mean? Why should we care about this idea? What are the different types of secularism and what are their histories? What are the basic principles of political secularisms? Why are secularism and Atheism often confused? What is the relationship between secularism and LGBTQ rights? What opposition are secularisms up against? What does the future hold for a concept millennia in the making, but only really operationalized in the twentieth century? With a glossary of key terms, case studies, informative tables, and suggestions for further reading throughout, the book considers key philosophical, religious, anti-religious, post-modern and post-colonial arguments around secularism. This book is an ideal starting point for anyone seeking a readable introduction to the often-conflicting interpretations of one of our era’s most complex and controversial ideas. |
| jana riess excommunication: The Nones Ryan P. Burge, 2023-05-16 In The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They Are Going, Second Edition, Ryan P. Burge details a comprehensive picture of an increasingly significant group--Americans who say they have no religious affiliation. The growth of the nones in American society has been dramatic. In 1972, just 5 percent of Americans claimed no religion on the General Social Survey. In 2018, that number rose to 23.7 percent, making the nones as numerous as both evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics. Every indication is that the nones will be the largest religious group in the United States in the next decade. Burge illustrates his precise but accessible descriptions with charts and graphs drawn from more than a dozen carefully curated datasets, some tracking changes in American religion over a long period of time, others large enough to allow a statistical deep dive on subgroups such as atheists or agnostics. Burge also draws on data that tracks how individuals move in and out of religion over time, helping readers to understand what type of people become nones and what factors lead an individual to return to religion. This second edition includes substantial updates with new chapters and current statistical and demographic information. The Nones gives readers a nuanced, accurate, and meaningful picture of the growing number of Americans who say that they have no religious affiliation. Burge explains how this rise happened, who the nones are, and what they mean for the future of American religion. |
| jana riess excommunication: Women at Church Neylan McBaine, 2014 A practical and faithful guide to improving the way men and women work together in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. |
| jana riess excommunication: The Coming Apostasy Mark Hitchcock, Jeff Kinley, 2017 Are we on the verge of a great apostasy in the church? For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths. --2 Timothy 4:3-4 Jesus Christ is coming back. It is certainly a Christian's greatest hope during these difficult times. The Bible warns us that the last days will be tumultuous--wars and rumors of wars will spread (Matthew 24:6). In our age, the world seems to be spinning out of control, creating fear, confusion, and uncertainty. In addition to violence, pestilence, and epidemics, the Bible predicts a great falling away from God in the end times. Bible teachers call that the great apostasy. Are we seeing evidence today in the church of this massive rejection of sound and wholesome teaching? Bestselling authors Mark Hitchcock and Jeff Kinley team up to examine the evidence from the teachers of our time. Are today's teachers allowing people to follow their own desires by telling them what they want to hear, as the Bible clearly predicts? Are major portions of the church ready to abandon sound and wholesome teaching? Together, Mark and Jeff explore alarming trends among today's church leaders and they are simply stunned by what they discover. The great apostasy is coming, but is it closer than we imagine? What does that mean for the future? Let Mark and Jeff be your steady guides to the difficult days ahead. |
| jana riess excommunication: Interfaith Leadership Eboo Patel, 2016-07-05 A guide for students, groups, and organizations seeking to foster interfaith dialogue and promote understanding across religious lines In this book, renowned interfaith leader Eboo Patel offers a clear, detailed, and practical guide to interfaith leadership, illustrated with compelling examples. Patel explains what interfaith leadership is and explores the core competencies and skills of interfaith leadership, before turning to the issues interfaith leaders face and how they can prepare to solve them. Interfaith leaders seek points of connection and commonality—in their neighborhoods, schools, college campuses, companies, organizations, hospitals, and other spaces where people of different faiths interact with one another. While it can be challenging to navigate the differences and disagreements that can arise from these interactions, skilled interfaith leaders are vital if we are to have a strong, religiously diverse democracy. This primer presents readers with the philosophical underpinnings of interfaith theory and outlines the skills necessary to practice interfaith leadership today. |
| jana riess excommunication: Womanpriest Jill Peterfeso, 2020-05-12 This book is openly available in digital formats thanks to a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. While some Catholics and even non-Catholics today are asking if priests are necessary, especially given the ongoing sex-abuse scandal, The Roman Catholic Womanpriests (RCWP) looks to reframe and reform Roman Catholic priesthood, starting with ordained women. Womanpriest is the first academic study of the RCWP movement. As an ethnography, Womanpriest analyzes the womenpriests’ actions and lived theologies in order to explore ongoing tensions in Roman Catholicism around gender and sexuality, priestly authority, and religious change. In order to understand how womenpriests navigate tradition and transgression, this study situates RCWP within post–Vatican II Catholicism, apostolic succession, sacraments, ministerial action, and questions of embodiment. Womanpriest reveals RCWP to be a discrete religious movement in a distinct religious moment, with a small group of tenacious women defying the Catholic patriarchy, taking on the priestly role, and demanding reconsideration of Roman Catholic tradition. Doing so, the women inhabit and re-create the central tensions in Catholicism today. |
| jana riess excommunication: Latter-day Screens Brenda R. Weber, 2019-09-13 Brenda R. Weber examines how the mediation of Mormonism through film, TV, blogs, YouTube videos, and memoirs functions as a means to understand conversations surrounding gender, sexuality, spirituality, capitalism, justice, and individualism in the United States. |
| jana riess excommunication: Mormon Feminism Joanna Brooks, Rachel Hunt Steenblik, Hannah Wheelwright, 2016 This is the first-ever collection of classic writings and speeches from four decades of the modern Mormon feminist movement. A definitive and essential guide for anyone who wants to understand the unique and often controversial history of gender in Mormonism, Mormon Feminism makes available in one place, for the first time, the groundbreaking essays, speeches, and poems of the Mormon feminist movement. |
| jana riess excommunication: The Polygamous Wives Writing Club Paula Kelly Harline, 2014 Paula Harline explores how Mormon polygamy was experienced in its heyday by looking at the diaries of 29 obscure polygamous wives. The personal writings of these women paint a vivid and sometimes disturbing picture of an all but vanished yet still controversial way of life. |
| jana riess excommunication: Trust in His Promises Dallin H. Oaks, Kristen M. Oaks, 2014-04-08 |
| jana riess excommunication: Secret Ceremonies Deborah Laake, 1993 A frank yet compassionate depiction of the culture of the Mormon Church, this compelling rite-of-passage story describes the mystery of the church's rituals and the beauty and rigor of its theology and traditions set against the backdrop of one woman's life. Laake is executive managing editor of the New Times, Inc., chain of magazines and was named Arizona Journalist of the Year in 1988. |
| jana riess excommunication: Watchman on the Tower Matthew L. Harris, 2020 Ezra Taft Benson is perhaps the most controversial apostle-president in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For nearly fifty years he delivered impassioned sermons in Utah and elsewhere, mixing religion with ultraconservative right-wing political views and conspiracy theories. His teachings inspired Mormon extremists to stockpile weapons, predict the end of the world, and commit acts of violence against their government. The First Presidency rebuked him, his fellow apostles wanted him disciplined, and grassroots Mormons called for his removal from the Quorum of the Twelve. Yet Benson was beloved by millions of Latter-day Saints, who praised him for his stances against communism, socialism, and the welfare state, and admired his service as secretary of agriculture under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Using previously restricted documents from archives across the United States, Matthew L. Harris breaks new ground as the first to evaluate why Benson embraced a radical form of conservatism, and how under his leadership Mormons became the most reliable supporters of the Republican Party of any religious group in America. |
| jana riess excommunication: Joseph Smith for President Spencer W. McBride, 2021 By the election year of 1844, Joseph Smith, the controversial founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had amassed a national following of some 25,000 believers. Nearly half of that population lived in the city of Nauvoo, Illinois, where Smith was the mayor and the commander-in-chief of a militia of some 2,500 men. In less than twenty years, Joseph Smith had transformed the American religious landscape and grown his own political power substantially. Still, the political standing of the Mormon people remained unstable. Unable to garner federal protection or the support of President Martin Van Buren or any of the major presidential candidates, Smith took the bold step of launching his own presidential campaign. While many scoffed at the notion that Smith could come anywhere close to the White House, others regarded his run as a threat to the stability of the young nation. Hounded by mobs throughout the campaign, Smith was ultimately killed, becoming the first presidential candidate to be assassinated. Though Joseph Smith's run for president is now best remembered for its gruesome end, the renegade campaign was historic in the proposals it put forward. He called for a total abolition of slavery, the closure of the country's penitentiaries, and the reestablishment of a national bank to stabilize the economy. But most important was Smith's call for an expansion of protections for religious minorities. In a time when the Bill of Rights did not apply to individual states, Smith called for the federal government to be empowered to protect minorities when states failed to do so. In this book, Spencer W. McBride tells the story of Smith's campaign and how his calls for religious freedom through constitutional reform are essential to understanding how the American political system evolved to what we know today. |
| jana riess excommunication: The Historical Jesus For Dummies Catherine M. Murphy, PhD, 2008-01-07 Was Jesus of Nazareth a real person? Did all of the events described in the gospels really happen? How was the world Jesus lived in different from our own? In The Historical Jesus For Dummies, you'll discover the answers to these questions and hundreds more. This accessible, plain-English guide to the life and times of Jesus paints a vibrant picture of his world, examining records in the New Testament and Roman history as well as recent archeological finds that shed new light on his life. You'll find informative explanations of Jesus's birth, infancy, and childhood; meet his followers and enemies; learn about his teachings and miracles, and discover how modern scholars and historians have arrived at these conclusions. This fascinating primer to the real-life Jesus explores: The different stories of Jesus in the gospels The three quests for the historical Jesus The miracles of Jesus Jewish society and the influence of Rome in Jesus's time The Roman practice of crucifixion The politics of Roman-occupied Judea What people though of Jesus when he was alive The Gnostic gospels and other non-biblical texts of the time The top controversies surrounding Jesus Portrayals of Jesus in art and film Complete with a concise account of the spread of Christianity throughout the world, The Historical Jesus For Dummies puts you in touch with the human Jesus who walked the earth and whose teachings changed the world. |
| jana riess excommunication: The Power of Everyday Missionaries Clayton M. Christensen, 2013-01-01 |
| jana riess excommunication: The Mormon Hierarchy D. Michael Quinn, 2017 Early in the twentieth century, it was possible for Latter-day Saints to have lifelong associations with businesses managed by their leaders or owned and controlled by the church itself. For example, one could purchase engagement rings from Daynes Jewelry, honeymoon at the Hotel Utah, and venture off on the Union Pacific Railroad, all partially owned and run by church apostles. Families could buy clothes at Knight Woolen Mills. The husband might work at Big Indian Copper or Bullion-Beck, Gold Chain, or Iron King mining companies. The wife could shop at Utah Cereal Food and buy sugar supplied by Amalgamated or U and I Sugar, beef from Nevada Land and Livestock, and vegetables from the Growers Market. They might take their groceries home in parcels from Utah Bag Co. They probably read the Deseret News at home under a lamp plugged into a Utah Power and Light circuit. They could take out a loan from Zion's Co-operative and insurance from Utah Home and Fire. The apostles had a long history of community involvement in financial enterprises to the benefit of the general membership and their own economic advantage. This volume is the result of the author's years of research into LDS financial dominance from 1830 to 2010. |
| jana riess excommunication: Mormonism For Dummies Christopher Kimball Bigelow, Jana Riess, 2025-03-17 Explore one of the fastest-growing religions in the world The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the first Christian faith to be developed in America, and today the Church is home to millions—both inside and outside the United States. Mormonism For Dummies, 2nd Edition is a valuable tool for individuals interested in learning more about the beliefs and practices of the widely-practiced Latter-day Saint faith. In this informative book, you'll explore the different denominations of the Church, recent changes to the Church's customs and practices'which also covers why the Church encourages a shift away from the term “Mormon” and more. Inside, you'll: Discover the history and origins of the Church of Latter-Day Saints Understand the Church's official stances on areas, including race, the status of women, and polygamy Examine subjects like religious fundamentalism and orthodoxy through the lens of practicing LDS members A must-read for anyone interested in the rituals, customs, beliefs, and politics of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, Mormonism For Dummies, 2nd Edition gives you the straightforward and unbiased info you need to understand this nuanced faith. |
| jana riess excommunication: First Jennifer Reeder, 2021-03-29 |
| jana riess excommunication: No Man Knows My History Fawn M. Brodie, 1995-08-01 The first paperback edition of the classic biography of the founder of the Mormon church, this book attempts to answer the questions that continue to surround Joseph Smith. Was he a genuine prophet, or a gifted fabulist who became enthralled by the products of his imagination and ended up being martyred for them? 24 pages of photos. Map. |
Jana (given name) - Wikipedia
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Jana (given name) - Wikipedia
Jana is the spelling of several unrelated given names. In Brazilian Portuguese, short for Janaína, a name Amerindian, is a female name of Tupi-Guarani origin. It derives from the combination …
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Jana as a girls' name is pronounced YAH-nah, JAN-ah, JAY-nah. It is of Hebrew origin, and the meaning of Jana is "God is gracious". Feminine of John; Slavic variant of Jane. Roman …
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The name "Jana" is of Hebrew origin and is derived from the name "Yochana," which means "God is gracious" or "graced by God." The name carries the connotation of divine favor and …
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