THE MORMON CURTAIN
Containing 5,709 Articles Spanning 365 Topics
Ex-Mormon News, Stories And Recovery
Archives From 2005 thru 2014
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MORMON CELEBRITIES
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Mormon Celebrities - such as Donny and Marie Osmond and football star Steve Young.
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If any of you have watched Utah television on any station for more than a couple hours, you have undoubtedly watched the
incredibly obnoxious commercials of the "Totally Awesome Computers" guy, Dell Schanze.
In this week's Salt Lake City Weekly, he's the featured story. It tells of many of his legal troubles, including discriminating
against non-TBMs. Here's an excerpt from the article:
Some speculate that Schanze's growing mistrust led him to cast all non-Mormon employees as de facto thieves,
because they couldn't "talk to God," as he often said.
Within a week of hiring on in 2000 [Cameron] Landies said he was subjected to an audit of sorts to determine "if I had my
spiritual s-t together." It was around 11 p.m. at the downtown store. Landies recalls he'd been working off the clock since 8,
when Schanze plopped him down on a monitor box to inquire of Landies' religious leanings -- specifically, whether he was LDS,
which he is not.
"You don't got it," Landies recalls the diagnosis, which freaked him out and left him fearing for his job. "Something's wrong
with you."
Self-described Jack Mormon and former Totally Awesome store manager Jeremy Whipple quit the company in disgust in 2002. He
said he got the same treatment as Landies that night, albeit with a more encouraging verdict. "You're close, man. You almost got
it. You just need to be going to church more."
Derek Nielsen is convinced he fell afoul of Schanze's spiritual prerequisite soon after his swift rise to general manager and
wunderkind salesman by 1999. A one-time LDS missionary, Nielsen still considers himself a devout Christian, but he's also taken
up shamanism. His beliefs include the use of certain hallucinogens -- he mentioned peyote and cannabis -- which he believes
enhance spiritual understanding.
At one time the boss's right-hand man, an "idiotic joke" outed Nielsen as a "Satan worshiper." Or, at least that's how he
says Schanze referred to him after Nielsen's cousin, who worked at another of Schanze's stores, decided to send hiim a marijuana
plant via the company courier. Even though Nielsen says he had no part in the prank, Schanze demoted him, docked his pay, and
scrapped his bonuses, upon which Nielsen quit.
Schanze ultimately refused to accept the resignation but, according to Nielsen's deposition, Schanze told him he was
"following Satan," "didn't have the flow of God," and could no longer be trusted to run the company. The demotion stood, but
Schanze restored Nielsen's pay, telling him the only reason he wasn't fired is because he was the best salesman in the company.
"It is his religion to smoke weed ... and I didn't fire him!" Schanze exclaimed. "Why? Because he was doing a good job; I
don't discriminate against people."
"He didn't fire me," Nielsen conceded, "but he closed the door for me and ultimately pushed me out of the company," another
alleged victim of the forced heathen exodus. (Salt Lake City Weekly, August 4, 2005; page 23)
It should also be noted that in the article in question, it is reported that Schanze once proposed a billboard campaign to let
the world know that "gay people are scumbags."
Further, the City Weekly received an anonymous audio CD that contained "either an audio outtake of a SuperDell spot never meant
for public consumption, the spot-on imitation of a malicious imposter, or the crafty editing job of a vengeful sound guy."
Here's the transcript (you can listen to the actual spot online at slweekly.com):
"Hey! This is SuperDell at Totally Awesome Computers! Did you hear about the stupid gay rodeo? Whatever, dude! And then
people are like talking about, 'Oh, gay marriage.' Freak! Gay marriage? What next, schizophrenics marrying themselves? I guess.
Ha, ha. I'm sorry, if you think you're a Tinkerbell, you might want to get yourself fixed. Whoa, ha, ha, ha, ha!
"Tell ya what, for being rude and abusive to homosexuals, if you're, if you're a faggot, come on in and buy a computer. I'll
give you a hundred bucks off -- you'll need it for a psychological evaluation. OK, ha, ha, I don't know if I can finish this
commercial. I think they're going to kick this one off the air.
"Come to Totally Awesome Computers, where, ah, we're straight! I mean, we got, I mean we got the straight-up deal. And you
can just get, you know, US Robotics modem, Creative Lab sound card, rippin' video card, Asus motherboard, all the cool stuff, he,
Totally Awesome."
| Then And Now: Model LDS Faithful In The Headlines - Steve Pokere In Ensign 1999 - Now In Jail Friday, Oct 21, 2005, at 10:33 AM Original Author(s): Anonymous Topic: MORMON CELEBRITIES -Link To MC Article- | ↑ | Another one bites the dust. Or, the down-side of making saints of the living.
From the March 1999 Ensign: Making Friends: Steve and Marilyn Pokere
"Brother Pokere is the branch president."
"Brother Pokere's personal experiences are an inspiration to his children."
"He has passed on many of the lessons he learned in rugby to his children. One of these is the importance of preparing themselves to achieve their dreams. "A lot goes into preparation that fans aren't aware of. You're out there slogging your heart out in practice. Your lungs are popping while everyone else is inside next to the fire. It's the price of success. And once you reach the top, it doesn't give you the right to remain there. It's a continuous thing that you have to keep working on.""
From today's headlines: Former All Black Steve Pokere is in jail for his part in a $4 million fraud that preyed on fellow Mormons.
"The representative midfield back - remembered as much for his religious beliefs as his silky skills - was sentenced in Auckland District Court on September 30 to 2½ years' jail."
"Pokere, 47, and the women - all Mormons - were directors of the failed investment company FF Traders, which was struck off and placed in liquidation in 2003, about three years after it was formed."
"At the time it had taken about $4 million, mainly from family and friends - fellow Mormons - of which just $900,000 was actually invested. Of this, just $500,000 was returned to investors. They had been promised returns as high as 100 per cent over four months"
Yep, it's hard work.
| From ContactMusic.COM:
Pop star-turned-doll maker MARIE OSMOND has launched a personal crusade to clean up the Internet after learning her two teenage daughters have been posting sexually explicit correspondence on their MySpace.com websites.
The PAPER ROSES singer felt compelled to give a statement to US tabloid National Enquirer after the publication uncovered outrageous content on her daughters JESSICA and RACHAEL's blogs. On her site, 18-year-old Jessica, who was adopted by Osmond as an infant, claims she is a bi-sexual who craves sex "as many times as possible," while her 16-year-old sister describes herself as a "slut" and a "whore" in correspondence and opened up about her dreams of having sex with DAVID BOWIE.
In her statement, shocked Marie, a devout Mormon, says, "I am saddened by some of the choices that two of our children have made. "The insidious potential for harm from adolescent Internet sites like MySpace.com only exacerbates these kinds of problems. "If my being a celebrity figure is good for anything, let it be as a voice of warning to other parents that no matter how protective we think we may have been with our children in the past, we need to become more knowledgeable and even more vigilant now in order to protect them."
http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfe...
| Donny Osmond, "After I Did Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, They Wouldn't Let Me Keep The Coat So I Stole It." Tuesday, Jun 13, 2006, at 08:12 AM Original Author(s): Contactmusic.com Topic: MORMON CELEBRITIES -Link To MC Article- | ↑ | From Contact Music.COM:
In the 1990s, the devout Mormon played JOSEPH in the North American tour of the ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER musical JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOUR DREAMCOAT.
But rather than part with his costume, Osmond decided to hold onto it - even though he couldn't.
He tells BLENDER magazine, "After I did Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, they wouldn't let me keep the coat so I stole it. It's probably worth $5,000."
But Osmond insists his rebellious antics don't end there, adding, "When I was 14, I clogged the toilet, turned the beds upside-down and put shaving cream everywhere. My dad found out and it wasn't pretty."
http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfe...
| A Golden Oldie From The Only - In - Utah - Department: Y'all Remember Melvin And Howard? Wednesday, Dec 6, 2006, at 08:09 AM Original Author(s): Sl Cabbie Topic: MORMON CELEBRITIES -Link To MC Article- | ↑ | This one's a wedding present for Brian-the-C-man who just hollered about off-topic stuff being a drag on the holiday spirit . . . Of course it's barely off-topic since there are a couple of Mormon tie-ins . . .
http://www.slweekly.com/article.cfm/f...
As many of your parents have told you, it was a different era . . . A nickel candy bar was only a dime, and the laws of gravity mandated that the long walk to school was uphill both ways . . .
Instead of more than a Fortune 500, there were only two billionaires in the world, J. Paul Getty and Howard Hughes (third richest was Dr. Edwin Land who invented the Polaroid Camera). This one is about Howard, and it looks to me like Fulton got things right this time (I've got some bones to pick with him about the cab business, however).
I well remember where I was when I heard news of Hughes' death; I was checking groceries, and a little old lady--first name was Helen--told me he'd died . . .
"Melvin" entered the picture a few months later when Howard Hughes' "will" turned up in the LDS Church offices of then-President Spencer W. Kimball . . . It was addressed to David O. McKay who'd been the LDS leader for many years before Kimball succeeded two short term succesors to McKay . . .
Both Melvin Dummar and the LDS Church were named as beneficiaries . . . It later turned out Dummar had delivered the will to the LDS Church . . .
The rest is Melvin's story, and it looks like he's sticking to it . . .
As for Hughes, he's the stuff of Hollywood legend, but I hope the younger folks aren't getting their history from that source . . . Leo DiCaprio played the Spruce Goose Man in the movie "The Aviator" but Hollywood looks like it's been kind to the memory of one of its own, perhaps out of reverence for the man who gave us Jane Russell's cleavage . . .
No mention of the syphillis that likely drove him into seclusion--with two LDS caretakers who shielded him in his last years . . .
And no mention of this one . . .
http://www.wbai.org/index.php?option=...
Howard Hughes, as rather generously reimagined by Scorsese, is not at all the real life red baiting McCarthyites union buster and destroyer of lives during the Hollywood Blacklist. In the cleaned up version of "Hughes the playboy and first billionaire," you will find none of that. And if he's tormented by demons that precipitate a slow descent into obsessive-compulsive madness, guess who gets all the blame? None other than one of those notorious shrewish movie moms.
That Hughes' mental disintegration was in fact caused by syphillis is nowhere to be found in this doctored narrative . . .
Dang, this one ran long, and I haven't even gotten around to the story of the Clifford Irving hoax . . .
No Mormons were involved in that one, however . . .
| Del Parson, Original Creator Of The Mormon Jesus Picture - Updates Jesus With A Modern Look Friday, Jan 26, 2007, at 06:51 AM Original Author(s): Infymus Topic: MORMON CELEBRITIES -Link To MC Article- | ↑ | The original before the law of tithing:
The new hip "young" look after the new law of 10% gross tithing:
According to Boyd K. Packer's latest talk at BYU, Jesus needs to conform - get a haircut and shave.
If Jesus Christ came back to the Mormons right now, he would be unable to get a temple recommend.
| A couple of months ago, the Oklahoma City Oklahoma South Stake sponsored a Gladys Knight concert. We did not attend, although we were invited. My wife’s sister was in Knight’s ward in Henderson, Nevada and was a choir member in Knight’s Grammy winning album. We were offered tickets to the event, but declined for obvious reasons. The event was held in the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma South Stake Center which is actually built in Moore, Oklahoma, a southern suburb of Oklahoma City. As I understand, Knight gave two or three evening performances. Church members were not allowed tickets, I gather, unless bringing friends with them. I am not aware if any baptisms resulted from Knight’s efforts. (Incidently, back when I was in the loop, the Oklahoma City Stake had declined to assist the South Stake with the Knight concert due to the large dollar amount Sis. Knight demanded to make the trip).
However, my family and I now have the opportunity to really hear Glady’s RandB classics. As we were traveling yesterday, we saw a large billboard with an image of a non-LDS garment wearing Knight advertising her upcoming concert at the Riverwind Casino, a tribal casino within ten miles from her previous venue at the Moore church building.
http://www.okclive.com/events/gladysk...
I wonder if the LDS Church will be pushing members and their friends to this event? I wonder if Knight will bother speaking about her LDS faith? But mostly, I wonder if she used her earlier “missionary” concert to set-up her Casino gig?
| From YAHOO!
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. singer and television personality
Marie Osmond said on Friday that she and her husband of more than 20 years were getting divorced.
Osmond, 47, the only daughter in the famous musical Mormon family from Utah, scored her first country music hit with "Paper Roses" at age 13 and began performing with her older siblings, the Osmond Brothers, in the 1970s.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070330/e...
| Steve Young Admission: "A Mormon Living In An Islamic Society Would Be Very Comfortable" Thursday, Apr 3, 2008, at 08:15 AM Original Author(s): Huckleberry Hinckley Topic: MORMON CELEBRITIES -Link To MC Article- | ↑ | From today's LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-...
The Mormon Church has to be among the most outgoing on earth; in recent years its leaders have reached out to, among others, Latinos, Koreans, Catholics and Jews.
One of the most enthusiastic responses, however, has come from what some might consider a surprising source: U.S. Muslims.
"We are very aware of the history of Mormons as a group that was chastised in America," says Maher Hathout, a senior advisor to the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles. "They can be a good model for any group that feels alienated."
Which perhaps explains an open-mosque day held last fall at the Islamic Center of Irvine. More than half the guests were Mormons.
"A Mormon living in an Islamic society would be very comfortable," said Steve Young, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints attending the event.
The sentiment is echoed by Muslims. "When I go to a Mormon church I feel at ease," said Haitham Bundakji, former chairman of the Islamic Society of Orange County. "When I heard the president [of LDS] speak a few years ago, if I'd closed my eyes I'd have thought he was an imam."
| OK, I recognize the source on this....but c'mon
http://perezhilton.com/2009-04-30-mar...
"Apparently, devout Mormon Marie Osmond has been keeping a little secret - here oldest daughter, Jessica, is a lesbian!"
And she's been living in SIN with her girlfriend in Los Angeles!
Oh, the horror!
An insider tells the Globe that it's Marie's "biggest heartache" because Marie always dreamed of a daughter active in the Mormon community and popping out grandchildren.
Jessica and her partner, who have been happily together for 3 years, consider themselves married even though it's not official."
Too bad Marie's got that Mormon hang up
| Motab Choir Trip To Midwest Poorly Managed, Leaving Members Dissapointed, Angry, And Confused Wednesday, Jun 24, 2009, at 09:47 AM Original Author(s): Musical Mo Topic: MORMON CELEBRITIES -Link To MC Article- | ↑ | I am dissapointed the Mormon Tabernacle Choir couldn't deliver on its tour. I am also angry and confused over the poor manner in which the tour is being managed.
Last night, the MoTab showed up for its concert in Des Moines as part of its much hyped tour of the Midwest. The concert had received extensive publicity in the Des Moines Regsister, the Church News, and over the local church pulpit.
Unfortunately, the concert failed to live up to its hype. Tickets were way overpriced and few people showed up. As another TBM concert attendee put it, "There were empty seats, and I could not help but think that the people of central Iowa missed an extraordinary program."
I am left scratching my head over this one. And as an individual who has contributed a great deal of money to the Church's coffers, I'm also upset.
1st Concern: High Ticket Prices: $25.00, $50.00, $75.00.
Members were told the high prices were "to cover the cost of securing the venue." In the past, the choir performed free of charge to build good will in the community. Did it really cost $150,000 to rent the facility for one night? I might understand the cost if the choir members were being paid, but as I undersand it, all the performers are volunteers and pay there own way on the tours.
In these difficult economic times, $25 to $75 per ticket seems a little steep, especially for a religous choir concert.
2nd Concern: The MoTab's website reports that "The Choir’s Des Moines performance was at Wells Fargo Arena, a 17,000-seat venue completed in 2005."
What the website intentionally left out is that last night's performance drew less than 3,000 people. Why would you rent out a basketball arena similar to Energy Solutions Arena for such a small crowd? Numerous smaller venues would have been more suitable in the Des Moines area. They would have been much cheaper to rent and better equipped to handle the large choir from an acoustic standpoint.
Did they really think they could sell so many seats at such high prices? Does the choir really think it has the star power of someone like Britney Spears, a performer slated to appear at Wells Fargo Arena?
Instead, ushers scrambled to consolidate the seating of the concert-goers to minimize the appearance of empty seats. If there was anything good out of this, it was that the guy who bought the $25 "cheap" seat got to move down to the $75 seat.
Third Concern: No tickets Were Reserved for Church Members(exception: high ranking church leaders)
Surely at an event such as this, the Stakes could have reserved a few tickets for some of the less fortunate members. What other opportunity will they have to see the MoTab perform? Couldn't this be an inspiring, rewarding spiritual experience for them?
Instead, many, many $75 tickets were set aside for dignitaries, business leaders, and other high rollers in the greater Des Moines Community. Free tickets swirled around in corporate circles.
I can understand the value of connecting with community businesses and leaders, but try telling this to the poor member in Story City, Iowa that can't afford a babysitter, gas to Des Moines, dinner in Des Moines, $50 for tickets, and gas back to Des Moines. Try telling this to the faithful, tithe paying medical student at Des Moines University who struggles to provide for his wife and two children while working his way through school.
Fourth Concern: Members Were Pressured to Purchase Expensive Tickets as a Missionary Tool.
Local leaders pushed the concert as an excellent missionary tool. An interesting idea in theory, but did they really think that members would fork out at least $100 so they could attend a Mormon concert with their friends? That borders on exploitation.
Perhaps the graduate students who make up 1/3 of the wards would have better suited to invite their friends then the older members who are unlikely to make too many inroads now. But factor in the costs of a babysitter and student loans, and $25 ticket price per person doesn't seem very appealing to a medical student. Self
+ Wife + Non-member couple =$100 minimum.
The church missed a great chance to subsidize some excellent missionary opportunities. Perhaps evn offering a student discount would have been nice.
To divert attention away from the poorly planned and poorly attended concert, an article on the Mormon Tabernacle Choirs website focuses extensively on the choir's visit to a Des Moines nursing home. The concert is only mentioned briefly, with a misleading attempt at suggesting 17,000 attended the event, when in fact, there were less than 3,000. The mess of chords coming out of the organ in one of the pictures below symbolizes the poor management of this event.
See http://www.mormontabernaclechoir.com/...
On a positive note, the choir did sound great. Too bad the logistics of their visit were bungled badly.
For a TBM's report, see http://mormoninsights.blogspot.com/20...
On another postive note, the Online Ticket Website for the event feature an inadvertent Inside Joke. It reads:
Members: Order Now
Non-Members: Order Now
http://www.civiccenter.org/events/_16...
| For those who haven't enjoyed this article yet...
I figured someone would actually do the research to put all this together...very interesting read
One snippet to tease you with:
"...Beck's version of American history relies on lessons from his own acknowledged inspiration, the late right-wing writer W. Cleon Skousen, and also restates charges made by the Birch Society's founder, Robert Welch....
...Still, the most outlandish of the era's right-wing anti-Communists was not Welch but Willard Cleon Skousen. A transplanted Canadian who served as a Mormon missionary in his teens, Skousen was considered so radical in the early nineteen-sixties that even J. Edgar Hoover's F.B.I. watched him closely; one 1962 memo in his extensive F.B.I. file noted that "during the past year or so, Skousen has affiliated himself with the extreme right-wing 'professional communists' who are promoting their own anticommunism for obvious financial purposes." Skousen was himself employed by the F.B.I., from 1935 until 1951, much of that time as a special agent working chiefly in administration. These desk jobs, he claimed implausibly, gave him access to confidential domestic intelligence about Communism. Skousen also maintained that he had served as Hoover's administrative assistant; Hoover informed inquirers that there was no such position.
Skousen taught for years in the speech and religion departments at Brigham Young University, interrupted by a stint, from 1956 to 1960, as the police chief of Salt Lake City. His time in office was contentious, and after he raided a friendly card game attended by the city's right-wing mayor, J. Bracken Lee, he was promptly fired. Lee called Skousen "a master of half truths" and said that he ran the police department "like a Gestapo"; Skousen's supporters placed burning crosses on the Mayor's lawn...."
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/20...
| From the Huffington Post:
On his first day back from vacation, Glenn Beck addressed the earthquake in Japan, and said he thinks that it could be a "message [is] being sent" by God.
Speaking on his radio show Monday, Beck said, "I'm not saying God is, you know, causing earthquakes," before quickly adding, "I'm not not saying that either."
He then said that whatever one called God, "there's a message being sent. And that is, 'Hey, you know that stuff we're doing? Not really working out real well. Maybe we should stop doing some of it.' I'm just saying."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03...
| Just saw this come up on Twitter, and had to share.
What Right is Really at Stake?
http://greensboro.rhinotimes.com/hc.e...
Orson Scott Card and what he believes about Amendment One in North Carolina specifically and homosexuality in general. He's not making friends with this piece.
An excerpt:
"There's no need to legalize gay marriage. I have plenty of gay friends who are committed couples; some of them call themselves married, some don't, but their friends treat them as married. Anybody who doesn't like it just doesn't hang out with them.
It's just like heterosexual couples who are living together without marriage. Their friends still treat them like married couples, inviting them places together; they're a social unit. Those who strongly disapprove leave them alone.
There are no laws left standing that discriminate against gay couples. They can visit each other in the hospital. They can benefit from each other's insurance.
No, legalizing gay marriage is not about making it possible for gay people to become couples.
It's about giving the left the power to force anti-religious values on our children. Once they legalize gay marriage, it will be the bludgeon they use to make sure that it becomes illegal to teach traditional values in the schools."
And another:
"If there were even a shred of science behind the absurd claims about gender and sexuality coming from the left, there might be a case for allowing this to happen. But there is no science behind it.
In fact, the scientific evidence we have points in the opposite direction: Same-sex attraction is not a strait jacket; people's desires change over time; gay people still have choices; a reproductive dysfunction like same-sex attraction is not a death sentence for your DNA or for your desire to have a family in which children grow up with male and female parents to model appropriate gender roles.
Heterosexual pair-bonding has been at the heart of human evolution from the time we divided off from the chimps. Normalizing a dysfunction will only make ours into a society that corrodes any loyalty to it, as parents see that our laws and institutions now work against the reproductive success (not to mention happiness) of the next generation."
The comments are, of course, the best part. Based on the ones I've read so far, he has far more detractors now than supporters.
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