Tonight on The Mormon Newscast, we cover a developing and deeply troubling story now dominating headlines: four LDS children reported missing in Utah have been located in a state-run orphanage in Croatia.
We walk carefully through what is currently known, what remains unclear, how authorities say this situation unfolded, and why this case is raising urgent questions about custody, international systems, and institutional responsibility. As more facts emerge, we focus on separating verified information from speculation — because stories involving children demand both urgency and restraint.
We also cover several other major developments across the Mormon landscape this week:
• A proposed LDS temple in a former dark-sky city and the growing backlash from local residents
• A newly released painting of Joseph Smith that’s already generating intense reaction
• The contrast between traditional Christian Easter observance and LDS General Conference weekend
• Claims of an emerging “polygamy denier” purge within Mormon discourse
• And the latest chapter in the ongoing struggle over the word “Mormon”
As always, we cut through spin, slow the story down, and ask the uncomfortable questions — not to inflame outrage, but to better understand what power, silence, and institutional culture can obscure.
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22 Comments
REBECCA…. Check out East Idaho News from Idaho Falls. Great interview with the Aunt of the kids.
Remember that Presbyterian lady who kidnapped that kid? You should do a video on that. Oh oops, I forgot this is an anti-Mormon channel.
The Consular Section of the US Embassy can be of great help. However in cases such as this, the custodial parent must adhere to Croatian law. It is strongly advised that the US based parent must get local legal representation, one with child custody expertise. The Embassy can advise of any and all translator and interpreter services that would certainly be necessary to get this finally resolved. Regarding the thirteen your old boy, he also needs local legal help, separately from the other four children.
Every US Embassy has a section within their Consular Section, called Citizens Service that should be of help to everyone concerned. They cannot intervene directly with the Croatian legal system on behalf of these Americans. They can and will provide lists of local attorneys who can help, if there are financial difficulties with getting the situation resolved, the Embassy may be able to assist, on a loan basis through the US State Department. It should be noted that if financial assistance is obtained from the State Department, the passports of all parties involved will be collected and made unavailable for any and all international travel until all funds borrowed funds are repaid in full.
Seminary teacher was sib of Rasband. 1 word= Ozempic. They’re all unhealthy & Huge!! Ozempic could save their lives, or at least lengthen them. Maybe best if judgmental ‘they’ NOT use it…
Thanks for sharing women suffer in sexist religions article! Wish the article was more detailed in listing negative health benefits!
Spot on, Rebecca! ‘Mormonism is so performative’. We too were shy- forced to be outgoing & perform as required in Mormon cult callings.
My understanding is that the Church doesn't have a legal leg to stand on when it comes to asserting that they own (as intellectual property) the word "Mormon" by itself (or in any combination of words that they have not registered for themselves and have not been using). If that's true, then the threatening letters and notices that they send out claiming that they do…is just another example of serious dishonesty.
That Utah mother was so afraid of the "end times"….that she created an "end times" type of scenario for herself and her kids.
Side note… the judge in the “baseball player” case was Judge Boyce… same judge who sentenced Lori Daybell.
Elder James R. Rasband was a new one for me…in my casual ongoing game of "let's keep track of the nepotism".
President Russell M. Nelson's, son-in-law is a General Authority
Apostle Jeffrey R. Holland's son is a General Authority
President Gordon B. Hinckley's son became a General Authority while Hinckley was President
Apostle Ronald A. Rasband's son is a General Authority
Apostle Boyd K. Packer's son was (is?) a General Authority
President Eyring's son has served as an Area Seventy and as President of BYU-I
President Oaks' brother was made a General Authority while President Oaks was an apostle.
And so on and so forth.
Sometimes the names make the game of "tracking the nepotism" easy. These are the tip of the iceberg in recent years. Often the names don't instantly give the game away, since cousins and nephews can have different family names (e.g. Henry B. Eyring being the nephew of Spencer W. Kimball, through his aunt Camilla Eyring Kimball).
I went to college in Flagstaff and it's such a gorgeous area. It's so frustrating to see the church try and built a temple there. I also feel bad for the members, because there aren't enough members to make it worth it
Perhaps the biggest problem that the polygamy deniers pose for the leadership of the LDS Church is that the arguments that are made in order to assert that Joseph Smith had nothing to do with polygamy and was opposed to it inevitably call into question the legitimacy of the authority claims of the leadership of the LDS Church. This is because when they argue for Joseph Smith's innocence, they must portray virtually ALL of the "founding fathers" of Utah Mormonism as being among the most evil, dishonest, disreputable, lying, cheating, adultery-committing, document-forging, perjury-suborning, false-witness-bearing, false-doctrine-teaching, human-trafflcklng, murderou$ scoundrels who ever lived on this planet. Some go so far as to claim that Brigham and his minions plotted and schemed to have three Smith brothers (Joseph, Hyrum and Samuel) eliminated. This cabaI of scoundrels has to include the 4 "prophets" who succeeded Joseph Smith in the Utah "Brighamite" line of authority, including Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff and Lorenzo Snow. Hyrum's own son Joseph F. Smith is also implicated as being committed to framing Joseph Smith for polygamy and suborning perjury in support thereof. Virtually all of the top leaders, apostles, etc. of the 19th-century Church in Utah were on board with the cabaI.
The current leaders of the Church KNOW what the implications of this narrative are for their authority claims, their imaginary "priesthood keys" and so on. Picture the polygamy deniers sawing away at a branch labeled "authority" where it connects to a tree labeled as "The Restoration of the True Church"…and picture all of the leaders of the LDS Church sitting on that branch watching in horror as the sawing continues.
The polygamy deniers do this weird code-shifting thing. When they're arguing for Joseph Smith's innocence, no holds are barred in the accusations made against Brigham Young and his whole cabaI of evil conspirators. They're the worst of the worst and supremely evil in their lies, lusts and lawbreaking. But when the polygamy deniers (e.g. Michelle Stone, Karen Hyatt, etc.) are asked why they still place any value on being members of Brigham's church, suddenly all of the extreme accusations of evil are thrown under a cone of silence and are replaced by a weird assertion that God has to work through fallible men and the Church is still all it is cracked up to be with regard to "saving ordinances" and "priesthood authority". The aforementioned accusations of specific evil acts that exceed anything an ordinary member would ever contemplate committing are replaced with the euphemism of "human fallibility". In a similar vein, one could say that "they made some mistakes and bad choices" when talking about Stalin, Pol Pot and Hitler…and just leave it at that. The polygamy deniers in the Church just put the "human fallibility" band-aid on to cover up the gaping authority-killing wound that their narrative creates…and apparently hope that the leaders of the Church will be fooled by it. They aren't fooled by it. Excommunications will continue until the narrative of the polygamy deniers improves. But it can't improve, without the polygamy deniers acknowledging that Joseph Smith was involved and was not secretly "fighting" against the polygamists, the polygamists in Nauvoo being the same guys who served in the highest ranks of Church leadership thanks to…drum roll…Joseph Smith.
Is the name of the book of Mormon going to change?
Good show!
Moroni could teleport himself inside the buggy…and who's to say he didn't? He didn't always have to be glowing brighter than the noon-day sun.
To think that all of this started with a coprolite fossil inside a hat made with mercury-saturated hairs in the felt.
Is his a America Utah thing?
I dont know of any "the sky is falling" in Europe.
And Europe is in war with Russia and perhaps soon the USA.
Is all this a big thing or just some loud minority?
If comic books become more and more valuable and dead prophets become more and more valuable, then these lines will eventually meet and then Donald Duck will become more valuable than Nephi, Alma, and the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus himself?
Read the book 1984. This is what is going on today.
The twisting of words in this narrative is alarming. Woman takes her four children on a trip = they were kidnapped. People with guns abduct a child from his home and place him in a socialist prison = he wasn't kidnapped.
@MormonDiscussion look up Alyssa Grenfell’s episode Why are There so many Mormon Infjencers— she has good info if costs for clicks and what the church pays for the word Mormon. Go to time stamp- give or take—24:00:00–38:00:00
Should have saved the Hill Cumorah episode for Valentine's Day.
As far as the "language barrier" I guess there is only ONE lady who works for the government in translating court documents from English to Croatian and she's on Vacation tending to her Olive fields for a couple weeks. I can't believe that! Only one person there can do this. So the kids have to suffer longer.