c. 2008 Religion News Service
Mormons sustain Monson, others as top leaders
(RNS) Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officially sustained their new top leaders on Saturday (April 5) during a weekend general conference held in Salt Lake City.
Thomas S. Monson, who succeeded the late Gordon B. Hinckley, was sustained as the 16th president of the nearly 13 million-member Mormon church when church members raised their hands to symbolize their affirmation.
Hinckley died at the age of 97 on Jan. 27.
Also sustained were Henry B. Eyring and Dieter F. Uchtdorf, first and second counselor, respectively, in the First Presidency, which is the highest governing body in the church.
On Sunday, in his first address to church members, Monson invited Latter-day Saints who have strayed from the church to return.
“Come back,” the 80-year-old leader urged. “We reach out to you in the pure love of Christ and express our desire to assist you and to welcome you into full fellowship. To those who are wounded in spirit or who are struggling and fearful, we say let us lift you and cheer you and calm your fears.”
Monson concluded the Sunday session by promising to serve his church and God.
“I pledge my life, my strength _ all that I have to offer _ in serving him and in directing the affairs of his church in accordance with his will and by his inspiration,” said Monson.
Saturday’s assembly also affirmed the addition of Elder D. Todd Christofferson to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the church’s second-highest governing body. Christofferson fills the vacancy created when Uchtdorf was promoted to the First Presidency.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Authorities raid polygamous compound in Texas
(RNS) Texas authorities took more than 400 children into custody Monday (April 7) from a fundamentalist Mormon compound near Eldorado, Texas, after receiving allegations of child abuse.
The raid at the Yearning for Zion Ranch was prompted by a call from a 16-year-old who allegedly told authorities last month that girls younger than 16, including herself, were forced into marriages with much older men at the compound, according to the Associated Press.
The state took legal custody of the children at the ranch, saying they had been harmed or were in imminent danger of harm. Meanwhile, state troopers held an unknown number of men in the compound while investigators continue to search the ranch and conduct interviews.
“We didn’t know there would be this many (children), and we don’t know how many more there are,” Marleigh Meisner, a spokeswoman for Children’s Protective Services, told the Dallas Morning News.
Charges will be filed if it is determined that children were abused, but the criminal investigation is still under way, Tela Mange, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Safety, told the Associated Press.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is led by Warren Jeffs, who was convicted last year of being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl who was forced to marry her cousin in 2001.
The sect split from mainstream Mormonism after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints disavowed polygamy more than a century ago. The mainstream church said Sunday it has “no affiliation whatever” with the polygamous sect.
The Salt Lake City Tribune said the FLDS purchased the land under a shell company’s name and told local residents it would be used as a corporate hunting retreat.
The Associated Press said an additional 133 women voluntarily left and are being housed at Fort Concho, a historical site in San Angelo, Texas.
A statewide grocery chain helped provide food, and Goodfellow Air Force Base sent nearly 200 cots to Eldorado for the women and children. Churches helped provide and cook food for those displaced, and First Baptist Church in Eldorado used two of their church vans to transport more than 180 women and children from the ranch, according to Baptist Press.
“Our folks were eager to step in, and not just our folks, but the entire community,” said Andy Anderson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Eldorado, according to Baptist Press. “We have church members who provided a large bulk of the money needed (to buy food). We also had a huge outpouring from the community.”
_ Brittani Hamm
House of Prayer bishop dies at 86
WASHINGTON (RNS) Bishop S.C. “Sweet Daddy” Madison, the third leader of the Washington-based United House of Prayer for All People, died on Saturday (April 5) at age 86 in his home in Washington.
Madison fell ill on Easter Sunday, but church officials would not specify the cause of death.
“We will continue in his legacy,” said Apostle H.L. Whitner, pastor of God’s White House, the Washington headquarters of the church, according to The Washington Post. “We will continue to do what we have been doing: that is, giving God the praise.”
During his tenure, Madison built more than 100 churches nationwide as well as multi-family housing, commercial retail establishments and assisted living facilities, according to the Associated Press.
Madison was born in Greenville, S.C., on Feb. 24, 1922, the eldest of four children born to Samuel and Rosa Lee Madison. He joined the United House of Prayer at age 8 and became a deacon in his youth, according to the Washington Post.
He was ordained as a minister by the church’s founder in 1940 and was appointed to the General Council of the House of Prayer in 1945 at age 23.
In 1969, he was named pastor of God’s White House. In 1991, Madison succeeded Walter McCollough as bishop, beating McCollough’s own son in a close election, the Associated Press said.
Known by his congregation as “Daddy,” Madison was seen as both a spiritual leader and a father figure. “He’s like the pope to us,” Apostle W.E. Howell, pastor of the Mother House, told the Charlotte Observer.
The church, now with 1.5 million members, was founded by Charles Manuel Grace in West Wareham, Mass., and was brought to Washington in 1927. The church is known for its Pentecostal style and its annual mass baptisms. In a baptism tradition dating back to the 1920s, hundreds of people line up to get soaked with a fire hose in front of God’s White House.
Madison’s body will make stops in Charlotte, N.C., Augusta, Ga., Newport News, Va., New York and Washington, according to the Charlotte Observer. His funeral will be held in Washington on Monday (April 14).
A new bishop will be elected in the General Assembly of the United House of Prayer after a period of mourning, Apostle R.C. Lattisaw, pastor of the United House of Prayer in Alexandria, Va., told the Washington Post.
Madison is survived by Elizabeth Madison, his wife of 32 years.
_ Brittani Hamm
Quote of the Day: John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter
(RNS) “If you stopped the average American Catholic on the street, they would say maybe three things about Benedict. He seems more positive than they expected. He got into some trouble with Muslims. And they heard he wears red Prada shoes.”
_ John Allen, the Vatican correspondent for National Catholic Reporter, talking to USA Today about Pope Benedict XVI’s upcoming U.S. visit.
KRE/RB END RNS
