Valentine's Day is a garish, corporate shill designed to trick you into substituting commerce for Love, but don't take our word for it: it also just happens to be the Word of God. We picked out a few religious takes on the holiday that have us pondering conversion. Hear that, deities? We'll accept cash, anatomically correct chocolate hearts, and massage hula-hoops for our soul. more ›

Because a guy named "Brad" is in the office today, the country has been graced with Mitt Romney's tax returns. They show that in 2010 the candidate earned $21.7 million, and paid $3 million in federal taxes, for an effective tax rate of 13.9%. Romney also gave $2.98 million to charity, $1.5 million of which went to the Mormon Church. Reuters also reports that Romney closed down accounts in Switzerland and the Caymans that year "after an investment advisor decided it could be politically embarrassing to Romney." more ›

Over the weekend the Mormons were out in full force, cleaning up your sinful refuse at McCarren Park. The Brooklyn Paper got up early to steal some souls with their camera, bragging that they "managed to capture it on film!" They report back saying that 100 youthful members of the Church of Latter Day Saints were picking up trash and raking leaves before the rest of us woke up at the crack of noon thirty. The paper talked to some of the late-rising locals; one 22-year-old Jessica Weinschenk said, “I guess it’s not that weird because religious people do stuff like that. And hey, it’s cool if someone wants to clean our park for us." Way to go Weinschenk. Unsurprisingly, only one non-Mormon claimed to have ever cleaned up for a community, and of course it was part of Burning Man (he told them "when you leave you have to spend four hours cleaning up after yourself"). It's not surprising that the Church descended on Williamsburg, which the Parks Department identified as being the park most in need of maintenance within all five boroughs. more ›

Stuck somewhere in purgatory, with luxury condos stalling mid-development and local gangs slashing hipsters with machetes, Williamsburg might as well just be opening up its gutter punk track-marked arms to religions of any kind. And it is! more ›