PROVO, Utah -- BYU’s Honor Code was under attack again after a local group called FreeBYU sent a complaint letter to the NCAA.

It stated the university violated the NCAA’s policies in its "Office of Inclusion."

Stephanie Morse, a FreeBYU volunteer and the author of the complaint letter, asked the NCAA to investigate how BYU has allegedly violated its own rules by using the school's Honor Code to kick students out.

“The interesting thing about the Honor Code is that it does say that students who are not LDS are welcome to attend BYU as long as they obey the Honor Code, however, for LDS students: They don't hold them to that same standard,” said Morse in a Skype interview with Fox 13 News. “If you're LDS and leave the church, or if before applying you have firmly disaffiliated from the church, then you're then ineligible for admission and you can be evicted and expelled.”

Morse states in the letter that the NCAA has strict rules universities must adhere to, including: “… Universities have an ethical responsibility to ensure that institutionally sponsored programs protect the rights of every student to participate in a safe and respectful climate in which she or he can achieve personal educational goals..."

Morse said she felt it was important to bring the NCAA into the issue.

“We wanted to make [the NCAA] aware of the problems at BYU with religious discrimination,” Morse said.

The letter includes examples from students and staff, citing their discrimination cases, and also states: "BUY actively discriminates against students, faculty, coaches, administrators and other staff who were formerly affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints... "

Todd Hollingshead with the BYU Communication Department responded to Fox 13 with this statement:

“FreeBYU previously made similar complaints to the university`s regional accreditor and our law school`s accreditor. With those two complaints having been rejected, apparently it has now turned its attention to another organization. As with the previous complaints, we remain confident that we are in full compliance."

SALT LAKE CITY — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints unveiled its “Mormon and Gay” website Tuesday, which the church describes as a site that “seeks to help everyone better understand same-sex attraction from a gospel perspective.”

The website includes frequently asked questions, stories, tips for parents and other information about the LDS Church’s doctrine regarding same-sex attraction.

The site is a new version of the “Mormons and Gays” website launched in December 2012.

“The new appellation, ‘Mormon and Gay,’ reflects the reality that a person doesn’t need to choose between these two identities,” according to a news release from the church.

The revamped Mormon and Gay website was launched nearly a year after the LDS Church confirmed new policies that state children of same-sex couples cannot become church members unless they are of legal age, are no longer living with their parents, and have disavowed the practice of same-sex relationships.

Those policies prompted mass resignations from the LDS Church, but do not appear to be directly addressed on the Mormon and Gay website.

Watch FOX 13 News and fox13now.com for updates on this story.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Ten years ago, we introduced you to Ben and Jessie Christensen, who married even though they both knew Ben was attracted to men.

Ben and Jessie were both raised Mormon and were determined to live by LDS standards, bringing children into what they believed was their eternal family. They had two at the time. Soon after, a third came along.

A decade later, where are they now?

"I realized I’m unhappy because I’m in this marriage and there's this big hole in my life," Ben Christensen said.

Nine and a half years into marriage, Ben left the church and his motivation to stay married faded. Soon after, he broke the news to Jessie.

"She did better than I think most people would in that situation, but it was tough," Christensen said.

Then, for the first time in his life, Ben started dating men.

"I felt like a teenager dating for the first time and getting this part of life that I had denied myself," Christensen said.

When he met Randon Spackman online, the connection was undeniable, as was the common history.

“There was no place for me to be gay and Mormon at the same time: It just doesn't really work,” Spackman said.

Randon left the LDS Church, and his marriage started to crumble. With two kids, divorce wasn't an easy decision.

"I was worried about what the fallout on my children would've been," Spackman said.

However, Ben and Randon have been fortunate. Their relationships with their ex-wives are positive and supportive.

"My ex-wife calls him her ex-husband in law," Spackman said.

Randon and Ben are no longer religious, but their kids are still Mormon, something the church allows since the children were already baptized and spend half the time with their mothers.

"I’m fine if they continue being faithful Mormons," Christensen said. "I have no objection to that. The important thing to me is that they're open minded enough to embrace people who are different, including me."

In light of their experience, do Ben and Randon think mixed orientation marriages can really work?

"Yeah it can. I think it's a pretty small percentage of cases where it does work," Christensen said.

Blaine and Linsday Hickman are one of those cases. For years, they were just best friends.

Finishing each other’s sentences, the couple says, "she would always talk about liking boys but as soon as they expressed interest back in her…It kind of scared me off for some reason. Maybe that's why we were a good pair. He was kind of the same way for different reasons, obviously."

It wasn't obvious to Lindsay back then, but Blaine is gay.

"How God would feel about me if I pursued a gay relationship or how God would feel about me if I made the wrong choice, or something like that," Blaine Hickman said of the struggles he faced.

Blaine never told anyone about his tortured feelings, but he wrote about them in a journal while on a Mormon mission. When he came home, he shared the entry with his family, then Lindsay.

"He took me to a park and gave me the journal entry to read. I remember being sort of shocked, but I also didn't really know what it meant," Lindsay Hickman said.

After praying about it and discussing it with her family, Lindsay was still determined to have a relationship with Blaine.

"She said, 'Well we're getting married, so you take your time to figure out whatever you need to figure out,'" Blaine Hickman said.

"Initially I think it was motivated a lot by fear," he added.

For Blaine, marrying a woman who is a member of the LDS Church was the only choice that made any sense. Twelve years and three kids later, Blaine says it's no longer fear that motivates him.

"My perspective has had to change because I’ve seen several times really amazing good people who are really happy in gay relationships," Blaine Hickman said.

Blaine said he's happy with the choice he made, even if that means denying his sexual desires. Which isn't to say that Blaine and Lindsay have a sexless marriage.

“It’s just not based on that I see her and can't keep my hands off her," Blaine Hickman said.

Lindsay is okay with that.

"I feel so comfortable with him, and I feel appreciated, and he tells me that I’m beautiful," Lindsay Hickman said.

They admit, their dynamic is unique.

"The fact that we can make this work is different," Lindsay Hickman said. "It’s really different. I'm sure a lot of people think that it's fake on the outside or that it’s not real, but we just realized that's part of life, is sacrificing for things that you love, and I don't know: We would just rather be together than not."

Fox 13 News reached out to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regarding their stance mixed-orientation marriages, but they declined to comment.

SALT LAKE CITY – Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are congratulating Donald Trump on winning the presidential election.

The First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent Fox 13 this statement Tuesday:

We congratulate President-elect Donald Trump on his election as President of the United States.
We invite Americans everywhere, whatever their political persuasion, to join us in praying for the president-elect, for his new administration and for elected leaders across the nation and the world. Praying for those in public office is a long tradition among Latter-day Saints. The men and women who lead our nations and communities need our prayers as they govern in these difficult and turbulent times.
We also commend Secretary Hillary Clinton and all those who engaged in the election process at a national or local level. Their participation in our democratic process, by its nature, demands much of those who offer themselves for public service. May our local and national leaders reflect the best in wisdom and judgment as they fulfill the great trust afforded to them by the American people.

SALT LAKE CITY — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is no longer distributing its “To Young Men Only” pamphlet, which was formerly given to adolescent boys to discourage masturbation.

The pamphlet was based on an October 1976 sermon by Boyd K. Packer, which was given during a General Conference session for men and boys.

In it, Packer used the terms “little factory” in reference to the male reproductive system, “life-giving substance” in reference to semen and “release valve” in reference to nocturnal emission. Packer’s euphemisms have long been the subject of ridicule.

Packer said:

I wish to explain something that will help you understand your young manhood and help you develop self-control. When this power begins to form, it might be likened to having a little factory in your body, one designed to produce the product that can generate life.

This little factory moves quietly into operation as a normal and expected pattern of growth and begins to produce the life-giving substance. It will do so perhaps as long as you live. It works very slowly. That is the way it should be. For the most part, unless you tamper with it, you will hardly be aware that it is working at all.

As you move closer to manhood, this little factory will sometimes produce an oversupply of this substance. The Lord has provided a way for that to be released. It will happen without any help or without any resistance from you. Perhaps, one night you will have a dream. In the course of it the release valve that controls the factory will open and release all that is excess.

LDS Church spokesman Eric Hawkins confirmed the pamphlet has been retired and that the original sermon is still available on the church’s website.

SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge has denied a request by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for a restraining order in a series of lawsuits alleging sex abuse in a church-run program for Navajo children.

In the order handed down Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Shelby granted a request by the alleged victims and dismissed the LDS Church’s request for a preliminary injunction.

“Plaintiffs must exhaust their Tribal Court remedies before seeking relief from this court,” Judge Shelby wrote.

The judge agreed with the alleged sex abuse victims that the case should be heard in Navajo Tribal Court first. LDS Church attorneys had argued in court that federal court in Salt Lake City was the appropriate venue, since the lawsuits claim that the abuse occurred in off the Navajo reservation in Utah.

“Exhaustion of Doe Defendants’ cases before the Tribal Court will promote tribal self-government and the development of the Tribal Courts. Requiring exhaustion will allow the Tribal Court to assess its own jurisdiction in the first instance. As discussed above, Doe Defendants’ claims present complex factual and legal issues. Enabling the Tribal Court to carefully analyze these issues will likely advance the Tribal Court’s jurisdictional jurisprudence,” Judge Shelby wrote.

Four people are suing the LDS Church, accusing it of not doing enough to stop abuse they claim happened to them in the church-run “Lamanite Placement Program” or “Indian Student Placement Program” in the 1960s and 1970s. The LDS Church has said it has made changes to its abuse reporting policies in recent years, including better methods of tracking accused abusers.

The LDS Church did not immediately have a comment on the ruling.

“We are pleased with the decision that followed well established law,” Billy Keeler, an attorney for the people suing the church, said in an email to FOX 13.

The ruling does not clarify what happens to a subpoena of LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson to give a deposition in the case. At a hearing in August, Judge Shelby put the subpoena on hold while he ruled on the injunction request.

The lawyers for the four unnamed defendants have argued that President Monson’s testimony is necessary because he may have some knowledge of other LDS general authorities’ activities or church relations at the time with the Navajo tribe. The LDS Church has opposed the subpoena for deposition.

Read the judge’s ruling here:

“These types of regions in the brain activate during sex, romantic and parental love, winning at gambling, drugs like cocaine and methamphetamines, really their core pleasure enduring circuits in the brain,” explained the study’s lead author Jeffrey Anderson, an associate professor of radiology and bio-engineering.

Anderson and his associates took 19 devout Mormons between 20 and 30 years old, 12 men and seven women, and had them lie in an MRI machine while they focused on Mormon religious quotes, videos and asked them to pray. The study lasted one hour.

“Going into it I didn't understand how they were going to stimulate a spiritual experience because for me [spiritual experiences] are not planned. They are not scripted. It's something that just happens,” said 29-year-old Auriel Peterson, who was one of the participants in the study. “How are they going to extract that out of me so they can see the experience in the scan?”

While she questioned how the researchers were going to conduct the study, she was still willing to try it. She was successful and had three spiritual moments while inside the MRI.

“When I said ‘Oh my goodness. I am feeling it so strong. Something is happening’ that time they compared the scans and, from what I understand, they said it [the brain scan image] was lit up like Christmas lights, where lots of different parts of my brain were alive and releasing those feel good hormones,” said Peterson.

Peterson said she did not need a confirmation her spiritual moments were real, but she was satisfied with the picture of her brain showing the internal excitement.

Spiritual feelings trigger a reward circuit in the brain, as shown in this MRI from the University of Utah Health Sciences

“It's neat to be able to see the scan and understand that there is a picture of it, not just I am feeling it and I'm telling you about it, but there is a tangible way you can see there is something happening physically as a result of that experience,” said Peterson.

Anderson said his goal is to understand how the brain reacts in all different types of religious experiences, not just Mormons.

“Is it possible that a Lutheran woman in Minnesota reading the Bible and an ISIS fighter in Syria contemplating religious violence may activate the same brain regions, that it might feel the same way for vastly different religious ideologies?” explained Anderson. “Well we don't know that, that's what we need to find out.”

Other parts of the brain that were also impacted by the participants Mormon religious experiences were moral reasoning, and empathy.

Read the full study from the University of Utah here.

University of Utah researchers put 19 participants through religious experiences during an MRI scan.

SALT LAKE CITY - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the 19th best place to work according to Glassdoor.com.

The No. 1 best place to work is Bain and Company, an accounting firm.

Facebook is No. 2 and Google is in the top five.

In-N-Out Burger is No. 7, Adobe is ninth, the LDS church is 19 and Delta Air Lines is No. 21.

Many companies with Utah ties made the cut.

See the full list from Glassdoor.com here.

Bruce D. Porter. Image courtesy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

SALT LAKE CITY — Elder Bruce D. Porter of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Quorum of the Seventy died Wednesday at the age of 64, church leaders announced Thursday.

Porter passed away at home surrounded by his family, according to a statement from the LDS Church. He died as a result of a pulmonary infection that developed in recent weeks.

Porter had been serving as the President of the Europe East Area, but he was released from that position and assigned to LDS Church headquarters earlier this month.

An LDS Church Spokesman expressed their condolences:

“Our gratitude, thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Susan, and their family. We are profoundly grateful for the valiant service he offered to the very end of his life. He will be greatly missed.”

Porter was born in 1952 in Albuquerque, New Mexico and he was sustained as a General Authority on April 1 of 1995. Prior to that calling Porter was a professor of political science at Brigham Young University and before that he was the executive director of the U.S. Board for International Broadcasting and a research fellow at Harvard University.

Porter is survived by his wife, Susan Elizabeth Holland, and their four children.

According to the LDS Church, “General Authority Seventies serve in the Presidency of the Seventy, in Area Presidencies, and in other headquarters administrative functions. Under the direction of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, they travel frequently to meet with and teach Church leaders, missionaries, and members of the Church in local congregations.”

SALT LAKE CITY -- Lawyers for a group of people suing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over accusations of sex abuse have renewed a deposition subpoena for President Thomas S. Monson.

They want the 89-year-old leader of the LDS Church to sit for a deposition and answer what -- if anything -- he knows about accusations of sexual abuse dating back to the 1960s and '70s in a church-run program on the Navajo reservation.

"We believe we have a right to question President Monson about how he was briefed, what he learned about child sex abuse and what was done to protect kids in the future," Craig Vernon, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told FOX 13 on Thursday.

LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson greets people at the dedication of a building in his name in August 2016. (Image by Doug Eldredge, FOX 13 News)

Four people have filed lawsuits against the LDS Church, accusing it of not doing enough to stop the abuse they allege they suffered while in the church-run "Lamanite Placement Program" or "Indian Placement Program." As children, the plaintiffs (who are only identified by initials in court documents) claim they were taken from their homes on the Navajo reservation, baptized into the Mormon faith and placed in host homes in Utah where the alleged abuse occurred.

"He is the only apostle that is currently alive back then," Vernon said.

The deposition is tentatively scheduled for Monday here in Salt Lake City, but it is anticipated that LDS Church attorneys will seek to quash the subpoena. The LDS Church had previously sought to move the lawsuits to U.S. District Court in Utah, arguing that if the alleged abuse occurred here, then the case should be tried here.

RJ and MM, plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the LDS Church, with their mother. (Image courtesy of the family, provided by their attorneys.)

A federal judge allowed the case to proceed in Navajo Tribal Courts. A deposition subpoena sought at that time was put on hold until the judge ruled on the proper venue for the lawsuit.

"We believe the subpoena is unjustified, and we will be opposing it," LDS Church spokesman Eric Hawkins told FOX 13 on Thursday.

University of Utah law professor Wayne McCormack said the deposition demand is similar to lawsuits leveled against the Catholic church over sex abuse accusations, where archbishops were sought to answer questions. He said it was possible that it could go forward with limits on how much time it could take, where it would take place and what questions could be answered.

He said if the LDS Church sought to quash the subpoena, it could make several arguments.

"The motion to quash is based on the idea that his appearance in a deposition would be unduly burdensome to church processes," he told FOX 13.

Vernon insisted that the deposition of President Monson was necessary, and it needed to happen soon.

"President Monson, because of his advanced age, we don't have the luxury to wait another year or so to take his deposition," he said. "Nobody knows how long he's going to be here and frankly, we need the information he has and we have a right to take his deposition."

SALT LAKE CITY — The president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will not appear at a scheduled deposition next week to answer questions about sex abuse allegations in a church-run program, lawyers wrote in court documents.

LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson was subpoenaed to appear at a deposition Monday to answer questions about what, if anything, he may have known as a general authority about accusations of sex abuse in the church’s “Lamanite Placement Program” or “Indian Student Placement Program.” Four people are suing the LDS Church, accusing it of not doing enough to stop the alleged abuse.

They allege that in the 1960s and 1970s, they were taken out of their homes on the Navajo reservation, baptized into the Mormon faith and then placed in host homes in Utah. Some of the plaintiffs, identified in court documents only by their initials, claim they reported abuse but nothing was done about it.

LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson greets people at the dedication of a building in his name in August 2016. (Image by Doug Eldredge, FOX 13 News)

Lawyers for both the plaintiffs and the LDS Church are going to different judges to either compel the deposition, or quash it altogether. In a filing in Navajo Tribal Court in Window Rock, Ariz., the plaintiff’s attorneys said they were told by President Monson’s lawyers he would not appear on Monday.

“Participating in a deposition would create an undo (sic) burden,” plaintiff’s lawyer Billy Keeler wrote.

He said even after they offered to remove a document demand, the LDS Church refused to have President Monson participate in the deposition. They asked the judge to order the church leader to sit for a deposition on Monday, or within 30 days.

In their own filing in Salt Lake City’s 3rd District Court, LDS Church attorneys insist President Monson has nothing to offer and a deposition is unnecessary.

RJ and MM, plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the LDS Church, with their mother. (Image courtesy of the family, provided by their attorneys.)

“President Monson does not have any unique personal knowledge regarding the facts at issue in the litigation. He never had any responsibility for the administration or oversight of the ISPP (Indian Student Placement Program) and has no knowledge of Plaintiffs’ participation in the program. The only connection President Monson has to the case is that he happened to be a senior leader of the LDS Church during the time period Plaintiffs allege they were abused,” church attorney David Jordan wrote.

Jordan said it would be “burdensome” to have President Monson submit to a deposition.

“President Monson is 89 years old and, as can be seen from his few public appearances, he is in guarded health and manifesting the effects of his age,” he wrote in the filing.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs told FOX 13 they did not anticipate the deposition going forward on Monday. The LDS Church has requested a hearing to argue for the subpoena to be quashed.

SALT LAKE CITY -- One of the most controversial bills on Utah's Capitol Hill is back, with a new sponsor who has hope this year it will pass.

Sen. Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley City, introduced a bill on hate crimes. Senate Bill 72, titled "Victim Selection Penalty Enhancements," enhances penalties if someone is convicted of targeting a crime victim based on ancestry, disability, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or gender identity.

What Sen. Thatcher's bill does not say is the words "hate crime." He insisted the bill does not target people's feelings or thoughts, but their actions against a certain person or group.

"This entirely centers around whether or not you choose to use crime as a method of creating fear in people who share a characteristic," he said in an interview with FOX 13 on Friday.

Sen. Thatcher pointed to a video that surfaced on Facebook showing a disabled man being tortured in Chicago. Four suspects in that case face hate crimes charges there.

"In the case where someone behaves in such an outlandish, egregious manner that it's clear beyond reasonable doubt that the intent of their crime was to cause terror in a specific group of people -- that person is a little more dangerous, and they should be recognized as more dangerous," he said.

Past legislation on hate crimes has failed to advance in the Utah State Legislature, mostly over objections to adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected classes. Last year, then-Sen. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, accused The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of "snuffing out" his hate crimes bill.

The church had raised concerns that the bill could upset a "delicate balance" struck between lawmakers, the LGBTQ community and religious liberties advocates in legislation that provided for non-discrimination in housing and employment.

The LDS Church declined to comment on Sen. Thatcher's bill when contacted by FOX 13 on Friday. The senator said he has had conversations with church officials about the bill, but declined to say more about it.

There is a companion rule being proposed before the Utah Supreme Court that would also address legal rules of evidence when it comes to crimes of bias.

Social conservatives are expected to fight the bill again.

"We believe this bill is a component to a more inclusive discussion about intolerance and its effects on communities. But, by itself, it actually drives communities apart by encouraging divisive culture wars. We invite all to join us in finding an inclusive solution to this problem," said Derek Monson, the director of policy for the Sutherland Institute, a conservative think tank.

The LGBTQ rights group Equality Utah said it supported the bill.

"We all agree that hate and violence is wrong. Unfortunately, Utah's current hate crimes statute is woefully defective. It doesn't protect anyone," Equality Utah executive director Troy Williams said. "We are grateful that the Statewide Association of Prosecutors is working closely with Sen. Thatcher to advance this important legislation."

Paul Boyden, the executive director of the Statewide Association of Prosecutions, said it was good for victims of crimes.

"The really important part of this is to have a sense of justice," he said. "That we actually care that people are being targeted because of their race, because of their religion."

Ironically, the ads ask for internal church documents to help take down the LDS Church.

"We're asking people to help us get information on their -- what we estimate and we've heard to be a trillion dollar business empire -- which you're certainly familiar with here in Utah," said Fred Karger of the California-based Rights Equal Rights, which is also backing MormonTips.com.

Karger has been a longtime critic of the LDS Church, filing complaints against it over its involvement in California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage. He said the LDS Church's policy change branding married same-sex couples as "apostates" and demanding children of LGBT parents renounce them brought about his latest campaign against the faith.

Watch the ad here:

"We are conducting what I am terming the biggest, loudest and most comprehensive challenge to a church's tax-exempt status in history," Karger said at a news conference in Salt Lake City on Tuesday.

Karger said he is hoping to build a case with "hundreds of thousands of documents" about the inner-workings of the Mormon faith to take to the Internal Revenue Service and challenge its tax-exempt status. So far, he said, he has spent about $30,000 on MormonTips.com to pursue the church.

"I know it's an uphill battle," Karger said. "But I am confident."

The LDS Church declined to comment Tuesday on the ads or Karger's campaigns against it.

A screen grab of the MormonTips.com ad airing in Utah on cable TV that claims the LDS Church has worth of a "trillion dollars."

Karger said he plans to work in concert with "MormonLeaks," a WikiLeaks-style site that has already been posting internal church documents and videos leaked to it. On Monday, the site published pay stubs from 2000 that purport to show President Henry B. Eyring (then a member of the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles) made about $89,000. The site also published a 2014 memo claiming LDS General Authorities were making anywhere from $116,000 to $120,000.

LDS Church spokesman Eric Hawkins declined to comment on the authenticity of the documents, but said in an emailed statement to FOX 13:

"General Authorities leave their careers when they are called into full time Church service. When they do so, they focus all of their time on serving the Church, and are given a living allowance. The living allowance is uniform for all General Authorities. None of the funds for this living allowance come from the tithing of Church members, but instead from proceeds of the Church's financial investments."

SALT LAKE CITY — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced it will send two of its top leaders to attend the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.

In a statement early Friday morning, the LDS Church announced that Elder D. Todd Christofferson and Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles would attend the event in Washington D.C., next week. The church said the presence of the apostles continues “a tradition, going back more than a century, of Mormon leadership supporting and celebrating the process that makes possible the peaceful transfer of power.”

Elder D. Todd Christofferson (Image courtesy LDS Church)

“A presidential inauguration is a civic ceremony that transcends the person being inaugurated,” Elder Christofferson said in a statement released through the church. “It is an act of state, not of politics. Its primary purpose is for the president-elect to take the constitutionally required oath of office, and for the people by witnessing it to bind him to that oath. It is a time to reaffirm collectively the enduring principles that have sustained this country for over 200 years, including the peaceful transfer of power, which remains a remarkable event even in this modern world.”

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir will also be performing at the inauguration event.

The LDS Church said that members of the LDS Church’s First Presidency typically attend or send representatives to inauguration events. Representatives of the LDS Church attended President Obama’s inauguration events.

Elder Christofferson will also attend the National Prayer Service at the Washington National Cathedral on Jan. 21, the church said in its statement.

SALT LAKE CITY -- The Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City has launched a campaign to pressure lawmakers to vote against a pair of bills in the Utah State Legislature.

Parishoners are being asked to fill out postcards being sent to lawmakers opposing the death penalty, and a bill that allows terminally ill patients to obtain a lethal prescription to end their own lives.

"These are very important issues within the Catholic faith," said Jean Hill, the government liaison for the Diocese. "Protecting both the innocent and the guilty, protecting the life of all people."

About 10,000 postcards have been sent out to churches across Utah. Catholic faithful are asked to fill them out and send them to their lawmaker. It's the most vocal the Catholic Diocese has been in recent years on these topics.

A postcard by the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City being sent to lawmakers opposing the death penalty in Utah. (Image by Mark Johnson, FOX 13 News)

"Pope Francis had asked for Catholics to speak out," Hill said. "Particularly on the death penalty and, most recently, on assisted suicide."

Lawmakers are expected to consider bills dealing with expanding and repealing capital punishment in Utah. Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck, D-Salt Lake City, is running her "End of Life Options" bill again.

"In one way, that makes me feel good because that makes me feel it has a chance," she said of the Catholic Church's campaign against her bill.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the dominant faith in Utah and a powerful force on Capitol Hill, has branded bills like Rep. Chavez-Houck's as "euthanasia." The LDS Church opposed a ballot initiative in Colorado on assisted suicide. It passed.

A postcard being sent by the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City opposing Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck's "end of life options" bill. (Image by Mark Johnson, FOX 13 News)

While acknowledge difficult odds of passage in the Utah State Legislature, Rep. Chavez-Houck said she had no plans to withdraw her bill. She appealed to Mormons and Catholics who disagreed with their faiths on the issue to also speak up.

"I think this is a conversation that's not going to go away," she said. "You have state after state moving forward with the legislation and terminally ill patients here in Utah should be afforded that same opportunity and right."

SALT LAKE CITY — Another lawsuit has been filed against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints alleging sexual abuse while in a church-run program for Navajo children.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Navajo Nation District Court in New Mexico, accuses the LDS Church of not doing anything about the abuse in the church’s “Lamanite Placement Program,” also known as the “Indian Placement Program.” The alleged victim is only identified in court documents by her initials, “IR.”

The lawsuit claims that in 1968, the girl was sexually abused while participating in the program, which took children out of their homes on the reservation, baptized them into the Mormon faith and placed them in foster homes in Utah. She alleges the abuse lasted for two years and she went to her caseworker and asked to be placed in another home. The lawsuit claims the caseworker did nothing about her request.

The lawsuit states that in 1971, the girl left the program and went back to the Navajo reservation.

“Inexplicably, after IR returned with her family to the Navajo Nation, her LDS case worker traveled there to try and persuade her to return to the very home where she was being sexually abused,” her attorney, Craig Vernon, said in a prepared statement.

Her attorneys said IR refused.

IR is the fifth person to file a lawsuit against the LDS Church alleging sexual abuse while in the Indian Placement Program. The church discontinued the program in the 1990s and has said it has made changes to its abuse reporting policies — including a system of tracking abusers.

An LDS Church spokesman declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Lawyers for the alleged sex abuse victims have been pushing to depose LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson as a part of their lawsuit. The LDS Church has fought those efforts.

SALT LAKE CITY — Public open house and dedication dates for three LDS Church temples were announced Thursday, including dates for the Cedar City Temple in southern Utah.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released the dedication and cultural celebration dates for temples in Utah, Idaho and Arizona. Each temple will also host a free public open house in the weeks leading up to each dedication.

Rendering of the Cedar City Utah Temple courtesy the LDS Church. © 2017 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved

The free public open house for the Cedar City Temple, 300 South Cove Drive, will begin October 27 and will continue through November 18 except for the Sundays of October 29, November 5 and November 12.

A cultural celebration will be held December 9, and the dedication will take place the following day. The dedication will be done in three sessions at 9 a.m., noon and 3 p.m.

The dedication will be broadcast to members of the LDS Church within the Cedar City Utah Temple district, and regular church meetings will be canceled for that Sunday, December 10, for those within that district to allow them to focus on the dedication.

The open house for the Meridian, Idaho Temple will begin October 21 and will continue through November 11, except for the Sundays of October 22, October 29 and November 5.

Meridian Idaho Temple rendering courtesy the LDS Church.. © 2017 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved

The cultural celebration will be Saturday, November 18, and the dedication will take place the following day. That dedication will be done in three sessions at 9 a.m., noon and 3 p.m.

The dedication will be broadcast to members of the LDS Church in Idaho and within the temple district, and regular church meetings will be canceled for those members to allow them to focus on the dedication.

The Meridian Temple is located at 7345 North Linder Road.

The open house for the Tucson, Arizona Temple will begin June 3 and will continue through June 24, except for the Sundays of June 4, 11 and 18.

Rendering of the Tucson, Arizona Temple courtesy the LDS Church. © 2017 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved

The cultural celebration will be held Saturday, August 12 and the dedication will be the following day. The dedication will be done in three sessions at 9 a.m., noon and 3 p.m.

The dedication will be broadcast to all LDS Church members in Arizona, and regular church meetings for that Sunday will be canceled for those congregations to allow members to focus on the dedication.

The Tucson temple is located at North Skyline Drive in the Catalina Foothills.

SALT LAKE CITY – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is responding to the decision from the Boy Scouts of America to admit transgender scouts.

The LDS church, which has about 15 million members worldwide and is the nation’s largest sponsor of the Boy Scouts, sent Fox 13 News this statement Tuesday:

“The Church is studying the announcement made yesterday by Boy Scouts of America. Boy Scouts has assured its religious chartering organizations that, as in the past, they will be able to organize their troops in a way fully consistent with their religious beliefs. In recent years the Church has made several changes to its programs for youth, and continues to look for ways to better serve its families and young people worldwide.”

In 2015, the LDS Church decided in would remain affiliated with the Boy Scouts despite its decision to allow gay troop leaders.

SALT LAKE CITY — The date for the new Peru temple’s groundbreaking ceremony by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was announced Monday.

The Arequipa Peru temple’s ceremony will be held March 4, 2017, by special invitation only, said the LDS church.

According to the LDS church, church stake centers in the proposed temple district will be able to watch the ceremony over the internet.

The Arequipa temple is the third temple in Peru since 1956 when LDS missionary work began, the LDS church said.

A fourth temple was announced to be built, said the LDS church, in April 2016.

Elder Carlos A Godoy, South America Northwest Area president, will oversee the ceremony, the LDS church said.

The Arequipa temple was announced at the October 2012 general conference by President Thomas S. Monson.

SALT LAKE CITY — BYU-Idaho president Clark G. Gilbert will oversee BYU-Pathway Worldwide, a “global higher-education organization” that will offer online certificate and degree programs, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced in a news conference Tuesday morning.

“We have felt that now is the right time to give increased focus and direction to Pathway and online higher education in the Church,” said Dieter Uchtdorf, second counselor in the LDS church’s First Presidency. “Pathway was created to make college educational opportunities available to those who otherwise would not have them. Pathway is a bridge into the world of online college education and a pathway to opportunities for a successful livelihood. The program combines online learning with religious education in local institutes or meetinghouses in an environment of faith, grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

BYU-Pathway Worldwide (BYU-PW for short) will be based in Salt Lake City and is expected to begin operations on May 1.

The program, which the LDS church said is rooted in BYU-Idaho’s Pathway program, will include English language certification, technical and skills-based certificates and online degrees, but will not seek institutional accreditation.

Students enrolled in BYU-PW will have opportunities for face-to-face gatherings at local institutes and chapels for “religious education, group discussions and workshops,” the LDS church said.

Visit https://pathway.lds.org/ for more information.