Valley Mormons will always remember Gordon B. Hinckley as a builder.

The late LDS president, who died Sunday, famously oversaw a worldwide construction boom for the church, but followers say Hinckley was just as committed to reaching out and building relationships with other faiths.

Whether the church's spiritual leader was explaining the often-misunderstood religion in TV interviews, or reaching out to non-believers around the world, Hinckley's legacy among local Mormons is one of inclusion for what is frequently considered an exclusive religion.   FULL ARTICLE LINK

Near the edge of Temple Square in Salt Lake City is an unobtrusive statue of a man pulling a wooden handcart, with his family walking beside him. It commemorates a trek more gruelling than the tourists who gawp at it can imagine.

The early Mormons were not popular. They formed an exclusive, polygamous community with a militia and territorial ambitions. The governor of Missouri, Lilburn Boggs, called for them to be “exterminated or driven from the state”. Their prophet, Joseph Smith, was shot dead by a lynch mob in 1844. After his murder, his followers embarked on a great exodus.   FULL ARTICLE LINK

The writings and documents known as the McLellin collection had once been considered nothing more than Mormon mythology, a rumored set of papers from an influential 19th-century church apostle who was close to founder Joseph Smith but fell away.

The papers of William E. McLellin, however, are real -- and are now available to the public.

His letters, sermon-like essays and journals are being published for the first time in a 570-page book that was recently released by Signature Books, a Salt Lake City company that specializes in Mormon history. The originals are at the University of Utah's Marriott Library and in the archives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   FULL ARTICLE LINK

Bloomington dentist Bruce Anderson had a patient who, he later learned, snuck anti-Mormon literature into the office.

While Anderson was out of the room, the patient would give pamphlets to the dental assistant, fearing she would come under the influence of the dentist’s church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Such prejudices against Mormons, Anderson suspects, stem largely from “a profound misunderstanding by teachers in other churches.”

It’s gotten a lot better over the years. Anderson’s great-grandfather, John Taylor, was shot four times during the assassination of church founder Joseph Smith in 1844.

But full acceptance of the faith has a long way to go, as polls indicate. A Gallup Poll this winter found 24 percent of voters said they wouldn’t vote for a Mormon candidate, all other things being equal.   FULL ARTICLE LINK

LDS Church leaders will meet with the Rev. Al Sharpton — the only question is how soon.

"Mr. Sharpton and church leaders are looking at possible dates for a meeting, but nothing is imminent. It won't happen next week, but they are looking at dates," Scott Trotter, a spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said Friday.

Sharpton asked for the meeting when he apologized to two LDS Church apostles by telephone Thursday for a comment he made during a debate on religion in New York City that suggested members of the church did not believe in God.   FULL ARTICLE LINK

It's difficult to sift through the rhetoric about the history and current state of one of the world's fastest-growing religions.

The LDS Church has drawn passion on both sides: the self-righteous who boast the church can do no wrong and the anti-Mormons who spew unfair criticisms.

But in the new PBS documentary "The Mormons" - perhaps the biggest national documentary about the church ever televised - filmmaker Helen Whitney has combed through rapture and rants about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to get to the simple truths.

She has produced a comprehensive look at the church's violent and tumultuous history and its modern-day popularity with objectivity - no pious declarations from church leaders or venomous attacks from anti-Mormons.   FULL ARTICLE LINK

Over the past 25 years, artist Jerry Anderson has cast dozens of faces in bronze - from the anonymous American Indian warrior to President Abraham Lincoln and inventor Albert Einstein.

None has stirred controversy like Anderson's likeness of John D. Lee.

Lee was the lone Mormon pioneer held responsible for what's known as the Mountain Meadows massacre, the Sept. 11, 1857, killing of 120 people from an Arkansas wagon train crossing through southern Utah. Only 17 children survived the slaughter.   FULL ARTICLE LINK

One hundred fifty years ago, a glorious September morning in the Utah mountains morphed into Mormonism's darkest hour when a militia opened fire on a wagon train, leaving more than 120 men, women and children dead in a flowery field.

Now the "Mountain Meadows Massacre" is becoming more than a subject of somber reflection within tight-knit Mormon circles. Two new films and a forthcoming book aim to tell the nation what happened, why and -- perhaps most important -- whether the revered Mormon prophet Brigham Young ordered the killing.   FULL ARTICLE LINK