Excommunicated calendar publisher Chad Hardy is the subject of a lengthy Los Angeles Times profile. Hardy earned the wrath of LDS authorities with a beefcake calendar featuring returned missionaries. The latest edition will go to market this month along with a pinup calendar of sexy LDS moms, entitled "Mormon muffins."

During a photo shoot for his newest calendar, Hardy tells the LATimes his first controversial calendar of shirtless missionaries was his "gift to the world."

"It was the perfect secret weapon," he says as a makeup artist dusts the male models' flab-free abs. "It's friendly. It doesn't tear down the beliefs of the church at all. Underneath, it makes people realize, 'Oh, they're sexy Mormons. They're real.' "

His Mormon models agree:

I don't believe in perpetuating myths or stereotypes. I believe in breaking them, overcoming them and yes — even parodying them. That's what is so great about this calendar! It parodies that square, asexual box of what a 'Mormon' is supposed to be.

But many in the LDS church are offended by the immodest calendars, and Hardy has been called "an attention whore who . . . can contribute to bad LDS stereotypes and raise public disdain of church members."

The calendars will fund Hardy's legal fees in fighting to get the degree he was denied by Brigham Young University after he was excommunicated.