The civil suit filed Wednesday in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court claims Daniel Dastrup suffered severe back injuries, including a herniated disk, after performing about 200 baptisms at the LDS temple in Raleigh, N.C., on Aug. 25, 2007. The lawsuit contends the church was negligent in failing to warn Dastrup that the repetitive nature of the proxy baptisms - bending, lifting and twisting - could result in physical injury. "The church owed the plaintiffs a duty to exercise reasonable care to avoid injury to the plaintffs from the services they performed to the church," the lawsuit states. Dastrup, who now lives in Las Vegas, claims he has suffered "a significant permanent injury that substantially changes his lifestyle," including damaging his relationship with his wife. The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages to compenstate Dastrup to cover medical costs and loss of earnings.

MESA - A huge Christmas celebration kicked off Friday night at Mesa's Mormon temple, and at the same moment, a group of gay Mormons made their voices heard.

They're criticizing church beliefs about homosexuality and raising awareness of high suicide rates.

Gay people of the Mormon religion are reaching out to young people who may be gay and conflicted about following the LDS teachings that condemn homosexuality.

Gay people say the Mormon church considers them sinners and has no place for them.

"I feel like there is no understanding with someone being gay. It is thought of in the church as a choice that you make," says Kent Flake, a relative of Arizona Congressman Jeff Flake. He came out and left the church.

"You know it is not me that has a problem, it is the church that has a problem with who I am."

The first thing Frederick County Commissioner Paul Smith does when explaining his controversial views about a woman's proper place is to hand out a pamphlet from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families," the pamphlet reads. "Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children."

In other words, just as he told a TV station and intimated at a public hearing before voting to slash half the funding for the county's Head Start program, a woman's place is in the home.

A lawyer for the British Columbia government says polygamy "consumes its young" and warns that there will be many more victims if the practice of multiple marriages is decriminalized in Canada.

The comments by Craig Jones, lead counsel for the B.C. Ministry of the AttorneyGeneral, are contained in a 163-page written submission filed in B.C. Supreme Court.

He said the evidence "inexorably" leads to two conclusions -that polygamy has "significant risk" to women and children and to society.

"This is what we know about polygamy, both in theory and practice: A polygamous society consumes its young," he said.

"It arms itself with instruments of abuse, and shields itself behind institutions of secrecy, insularity and control. It depresses every known indicator of women's equality."

Mr. Jones added that polygamy is "anti-democratic, anti-egalitarian, anti-liberal and antithetical to the proper functioning of any modern, rights-based society."