If you, like me, have been curious about the Mormon beliefs in general (and the Book of Mormon specifically), you probably have also dreaded the idea of sitting down with a dry and boring book written in pseudo-King-James English. For a long time now, the LDS Church has been willing to send you a copy of the Book of Mormon free–all you have to do is contact them. Frankly, I’ve always been leery of getting on some kind of mailing list, so I’ve never bothered to make the call.
But wait! The LDS Church has a high-quality audiobook version of the BOM available for FREE DOWNLOAD on their website. They also have free audiobook versions of other sacred LDS scripture, including Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, and the Old and New Testaments. So…if you at want to up your street cred in any religious discussion about Mormonism, you can at least say you’ve read (or listened to) the BOM. Enjoy!
We interview Dr. Darrel Ray, author of Sex and God: How Religion Distorts Sexuality (
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum says the concept of separation of church and state makes him want to “throw up.” Fellow Catholic JFK would have disagreed.
We interview 
Congressman Phil Gingrey (R-GA) walked out of President Obama’s sermon at this year’s National Prayer Breakfast. Gingrey is shocked–shocked!–to find that politicking is going on at the NATIONAL prayer breakfast.
We interview Cullen Murphy, editor-at-large for Vanity Fair and author of
Separation of Church and State makes Rick Santorum puke
Has it really come to this? For 3o-some-odd years now the Republicans have been tacking to the right, with increasingly insane results. For the last few years, Republicans have trotted out the old dodge that the phrase “separation of church and state” does not appear in the Constitution (which is true, but it doesn’t nullify the long-held Constitutional principle that the government should offer no preferences on the basis of religious belief).
So now Rick Santorum has gone full retard in claiming that the mere concept of church-state separation is enough to make God-fearing patriots lose their lunch:
What’s really sad is that Santorum’s comments prove that either he’s never heard JFK’s speech or he’s purposely twisting JFK’s meaning. Here’s the whole speech:
It’s pretty obvious that JFK doesn’t think that “separation of church and state” is not the same thing as “separation of religion and conscience.” Nowhere does JFK say or imply that people of faith are to be excluded from discussions about government policy. All JFK is saying is that public servants have an obligation to the Constitution, and that the public has a right to know that public servants will not let their personal religious beliefs get in the way of upholding their Constitutional obligations. It doesn’t seem that hard to understand.