Mormon

SALT LAKE CITY — Arnold Friberg, a Utah artist best known for his painting of George Washington in prayer at Valley Forge, died yesterday, his family said. He was 96. Jayna Friberg-Cleamons said her father-in-law died at a Salt Lake City rehabilitation center following hip replacement surgery. Mr. Friberg, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also painted portraits of figures from the Book of Mormon. “He didn’t want to be known as a Mormon artist,’’ Friberg-Cleamons told the Associated Press.

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio has close ties to a colleague accused of questionable financial dealings. The freshman senator from Florida once was enmeshed in a controversy over the use of the state party's credit card for his personal expenses. Rubio has faced increased scrutiny over his personal background since bursting onto the national scene, including conflicting details of his parents' immigration from Cuba and his ties to the Mormon faith. Will issues like those hold back one of the GOP's fastest-rising stars?

COLONIA JUAREZ, Mexico - Three dozen of Mitt Romney's relatives live here in a narrow river valley at the foot of the western Sierra Madre, surrounded by peach groves, apple orchards, and some of the baddest, most fearsome drug gangsters and kidnappers in all of northern Mexico. Like Mitt Romney, the Mexican Romneys are descendants of Miles Park Romney, who came to the Chihuahua desert in 1885 seeking refuge from US antipolygamy laws. He had four wives and 30 children, and on the rocky banks of the Piedras Verdes River, he and his fellow Mormon pioneers carved out a prosperous...

Terry Tempest Williams's new memoir begins with this stark, bleached declaration: "I am fifty-four years old, the age my mother was when she died. " The mother had bequeathed to the daughter six journals that all turned out to be blank. Not a shadow of a word on any of those pages — pages that Williams describes as "paper tombstones. " Pages that also signal an act of defiance in Mormon culture where "women are expected to do two things: keep a journal and bear children. Both gestures are a participatory bow to the past and future.

Reprinted from late editions of yesterday’s Globe. “The Book of Mormon,’’ a taboo-toppling yet essentially sweet-natured musical about a pair of Mormon missionaries in Uganda, racked up nine Tony Awards Sunday night, including one for best musical. “We did this because we all secretly wanted to have a big happy Mormon family, and now we do,’’ said Trey Parker, who wrote “Book of Mormon’’ along with his “South Park’’ co-creator Matt Stone and “Avenue Q’’ composer Robert Lopez.

Broadway favorite Gavin Creel has been tapped to star in the national tour of "The Book of Mormon," which comes to the Boston Opera House in April 2013. He'll play Elder Price, a role that was played on Broadway by Creel's friend, Andrew Rannells. Creel was nominated for a Tony for roles in "Hair" and "Thoroughly Modern Millie. "

WITH MITT Romney's candidacy for president, the Mormon church approaches an epochal moment in its deep engagement with American politics. The nation, too, is at a threshold - entering, perhaps, a more spacious public understanding of many once-marginal groups. In the Mormon case, it's been a long time coming. Romney may be a front-runner for the Republican nomination, and his father George may once have been a serious candidate for president, but the first Mormon to run for president was the first Mormon himself.

Nine Tony Awards, critical praise and some filthy humor has made "The Book of Mormon" a solid Broadway investment. Producers of the hit show said Tuesday that it has recouped its $11.4 million capitalization after just nine months. The musical is the brainchild of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of "South Park," and Robert Lopez, who co-wrote "Avenue Q. " It was crowned best musical for its offensive yet good-natured look at two missionaries who arrive in Uganda and get way more than they bargained for, including gun-toting warlords and a...

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. - A man who tried for seven years to build a gift shop and delicatessen near the Vermont birthplace of Joseph Smith now wants to sell the land to a Mormon historical society that would build a museum and hospitality center. John Lefgren said his unsuccessful effort to open the business on his land in Royalton went through several government agencies and courts, a dozen lawyers, and tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees. He has now told the Royalton Planning Commission that he wants to sell his land to the Joseph Smith and...

Representative Raul Labrador of Idaho predicted Sunday that the press would make Mitt Romney's Mormon faith a major issue in the Republican front-runner's expected general election contest with President Obama. Romney's religion was on the table Easter Sunday during religion-themed political talk shows, including NBC's "Meet the Press," where Labrador was a guest. Labrador, also a Mormon, was responding to Utah Senator Orrin Hatch's statement Tuesday that the Obama campaign is "going to throw the Mormon Church at him like you can't...

Broadway favorite Gavin Creel has been tapped to star in the national tour of "The Book of Mormon," which comes to the Boston Opera House in April 2013. He'll play Elder Price, a role that was played on Broadway by Creel's friend, Andrew Rannells. Creel was nominated for a Tony for roles in "Hair" and "Thoroughly Modern Millie. "

A historian for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will deliver a lecture at Town Hall this month about how Arlington sculptor Cyrus Dallin created some of the most important Mormon artwork. The presentation by Richard E. Turley Jr., an assistant historian and recorder for the Mormon Church, is part of an ongoing program celebrating the 150th anniversary of Dallin's birth. Sponsored by the Cyrus Dallin Art Museum, at 611 Massachusetts Ave., the 3 p.m. lecture on March 24 is free, but a donation of $5 is suggested.

SALT LAKE CITY - Mormon leaders have put up a virtual firewall in their massive genealogical database to block out anyone who attempts to access the names of hundreds of thousands of Holocaust victims the church has agreed not to posthumously baptize. The move comes amid criticism that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has not done enough to live up to commitments to stop its members from performing the ritual on Holocaust victims and other notable Jews. The new system will immediately block church members' access should they try to seek out names of Holocaust victims or...

AS A child of Holocaust survivors, and someone who lost 25 members of my family in Europe, I am astonished that Jeff Jacoby would label Abraham Foxman's and Elie Wiesel's efforts against the Mormon Church as "unworthy and unfair" ("Mormon ritual is no threat to Jews," Op-ed, Feb. 29). True, Foxman and, at times, Wiesel do make hyperbolic statements, but they express the sentiments of countless survivors and their children that one should not be baptized against one's will, which is exactly what the Mormon Church does.

The white-shirted missionaries of "The Book of Mormon" are headed to Boston next year, hunting for converts to a brand of musical-comedy lunacy that has made the show a smash hit on Broadway, while Joey, the noble steed of "War Horse," will gallop into town this fall. The slate for the 2012-13 season announced Monday by Broadway in Boston also includes a pre-Broadway world-premiere musical, "Tuck Everlasting," adapted from Natalie Babbitt's beloved children's novel; productions of "Memphis" and "Sister Act"; and return engagements by "Wicked," "Jersey Boys," and "Mary Poppins,"...

By Brock Parker, Town Correspondent A historian for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will lead a lecture at Town Hall this month about how Arlington sculptor Cyrus Dallin became the artist behind some of the most important Mormon figures. The lecture, which will be given by Richard E. Turley Jr., an assistant church historian and recorder for Mormon church, is part of an ongoing program celebrating the 150th anniversary of Dallin's birth. The lecture in Town Hall at 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 24, is being sponsored by the Cyrus Dallin Art Museum in...

SALT LAKE CITY - Mormon leaders say its policy of not performing proxy baptisms of Holocaust victims and others unrelated to church members will be reiterated worldwide during services tomorrow. The announcement follows outrage over recent claims that temples posthumously baptized Anne Frank and other Holocaust victims. "Without exception, Church members must not submit for proxy temple ordinances any names from unauthorized groups, such as celebrities and Jewish Holocaust victims," reads a letter sent to church leaders around the world.