Mormon missionary excommunicated for ‘risque’ calendar

I wondered over the weekend why a 9-month-old post about the Sin City missionary who created the Mormon hunks calendar was suddenly popular again. The reason: Chad Hardy was back in the news after a council of elders for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints excommunicated him.

“I felt like I spoke my truth,” the 31-year-old entertainment entrepreneur said. “Bottom-line, they still felt the calendar is inappropriate and not the image that the church wants to have.”

“Men on a Mission,” which has sold nearly 10,000 copies at $14.99 each, included pictures of 12 returned missionaries wearing black slacks, but not their trademark white shirts, in modest poses. The men also were photographed in traditional missionary garb and share their religious beliefs in biographical sketches.

Some of the 12 models have also been called to disciplinary meetings, but none were punished.

“I have no ill feelings toward any of those people,” Hardy said of the church council. “They did what they believed was right and I really do feel it was the best decision for both of us.”