Posted on 11/15/2010 7:48:39 AM PST by T Minus Four
If someone came to you and asked you how to run the LDS Church's public relations outreach, what would you advise those who make such powerful decisions to do?
Would you emphasize the good works that Latter-day Saints do while downplaying doctrinal difference to avoid misunderstanding and strife?
Or instead of leaving the doctrine to the missionaries, would you go on the offensive, pointing out anomalies in other faiths in a way that showed the strength of your religious position?
How would you use the Book of Mormon? Would you call them to repentance, as the Book of Mormon often seems to do?
Would you be defensive about your faith, holding back publicly and then responding to attacks only when they came?
Would you ignore mean-spirited public attacks on the church, forgive seven times seventy and move on?
For a church that claims a mandate to spread its gospel to the world, these questions are of no small import, and the answers likely differ depending on the circumstances.
These questions are part of the subtext of this week's terrific Mormon Media Studies symposium at BYU. The keynote speech by the University of Richmond's Terryl Givens and other presenters provided insight into this powerful issue.
An insight I gleaned from his presentation is that when Latter-day Saints provided effective rebuttals, say, to the argument that Joseph Smith is a fraud — and they do — they are arguing on the turf their opponents set out. You see this today in the argument about whether Mormons are Christian or not. It seems to be a debate that can need engagement, but it is a debate set on the terms by others who are not Mormon.
How do you engage in the public dialogue and set the agenda? One way is to focus on the things that make Mormonism distinctive as a way to create conversation that drives the discussion, keeping church opponents talking about what Latter-day Saints wish to be talking about —say the Book of Mormon or eternal marriage.
Beyond Givens' speech, what stood out in this conference is how the church has responded to its public relations challenges over the years and continues to do so today.
BYU scholar Ed Adams studied the public relations efforts of President Heber J. Grant in the years just following World War II. In the decades before Grant became president, the church faced extensive anti-Mormon press and politics. The most famous of these may be the series of anti-Mormon exposes in the muckraking magazines of the era, including Alfred Henry Louis' dark series called "The Viper on the Hearth" in Cosmopolitan magazine.
Adams argued that President Grant followed classic public relations principles in building the church — in an era when the professional practice of public relations was just emerging. For example, President Grant was willing to meet with writers and was witty and avuncular in his approach. A kind, warm caricature of a golf-playing prophet emerged that helped the church at the time.
The church also took advantage of many opportunities that emerged in the culture at the time — including many stories that had Utah ties and brought reporters to Utah.
Similarly, Susan Easton Black's work shows the history of Mormon newspapers that were, in part, efforts at public relations before there ever was a professional practice of it. Her new book of Erastus Snow's newspaper, "The St. Louis Luminary," is an example of the period.
In 1852, not long after the church began settling in Utah, it sent some of its most important leaders, including Snow, to major metropolitan areas to speak up in behalf of the church and to build up the Saints wherever they were. These apostles — John Taylor in New York, Orson Pratt in Washington D.C. and George Q. Cannon in San Francisco — became important advocates for their cause in some of the church's darkest hours. Snow's was just one effort at public relations and the press.
The writers at the symposium took different approaches to the question of how Mormons should tell their story, but all demonstrated the remarkable effort that continues today.
In the end, with another Mitt Romney campaign coming up and tickets going on sale for a new Broadway musical from the creators of South Park called "The Book of Mormon," the question of how Latter-day Saints should present their church to outsiders through public relations efforts will continue to fascinate
Now that I would like to see...
It would appear that they need help with their 'PR challenges'.
The church finds itself struggling in this information age.
People can too readily Google behind the Christian facade and delve into the history and less-public parts of their doctrines and practices.
This leaves the church in the awkward position of telling their members “You’re not supposed to be reading that”, and non-members “We’re really not a creepy cult. Really really”.
Yesterday my wife and I sat in the home of a Mormon couple who completed their transition out of the church and professed their complete faith in Christ’s work on the cross. It was a good day.
Wonderful news.
ping for later reading.
Bears repeating.
>> that man is God and the universe in miniature, and that man can develop the divine spark within him until he masters the entire universe and himself becomes God.<<
The very same sin Satan committed to get damned to eternal hell. The same sin Eve committed that brought sin to the world we know. Can there be any doubt who was behind the writings of Smith?
Anyone involved with the Mormon cult needs to understand the dire consequences of following such heresies.
Again, here is another example of the ubiquitous mormon persecution complex weaved into an article that is supposed to be about "defending the faith". "The church", it's always about "the church". It's never about the doctrine, can't present it that way. Have to "personalize" it.
Anyone who dares to dispute or challenge the ISM [the system that is mormonism] is "mean-spirited" and is "publically attacking" mormons.
So, already, they're trying to define a potential debater as "mean-spirited", marginalizing their "opponent" by discrediting them in a manner akin to a liberal.
Placing them on the defensive right out of the gate, trying to force them to address the "when did you stop beating your wife" position without having the chance to rebut the mormon doctrine.
Typical, I see it here on FR quite frequently, from mormons and their "friends" alike.
The Mormons I know are wonderful people. But their religion is not christian. It is something else. They either need to change the doctrinal teachings of the LDS church or they need to stop calling it a christian religion. Until they do either of the above, PR will continue to be extremely difficult.
Of course I would still not buy it, it is a cheap knock off of classy real wood siding, but...
Exactly right! This is the reason that attempts at "rebuttals, say, to the argument that Joseph Smith is a fraud" ... are a fatal stumbling block to Mormonism.
Even the most powerful being in the LDS universe, the PR department, cannot stop the Truth. Their “god” may bend to its will but GOD doesn't.
Even the most powerful being in the LDS universe, the PR department, cannot stop the Truth. Their “god” may bend to its will but GOD doesn't.
That would be a very good day indeed! Thank you for telling me about it - it brings me hope :-)
Well said.
I would like to emphasize one particular "experience" that mormonism has used with maximum effect from the early days, and that is the "persecution" experience. There is not a day that goes by that we do not see this "persecution" meme used on these threads as a means to attempt to censor.
In counting up historically all the "experiences", one can find a relatively small number of deaths in this "persecution" directly caused by enemies of mormons and the mormon church over the past 180 years....possibly fewer than the number of victims from the heinous, Mountain Meadows Massacre [The Original 9/11 of American History] and hundreds of thousands fewer that many Christian sects have seen caused directly by enemies in the past hundred years. We have seen the laughable action of a bucket of water thrown at a mormon missionary compared to the worst Christian persecution.
Most of what mormons have used to buttress the persecution claims was brought about by actions by the mormons themselves in setting themselves apart and above the state and federal government laws and above their "gentile" neighbors, that resulted in non-mormons making things so tough on them they felt compelled to leave certain areas.
The commemorating of the hardships in re-enacting the "Pioneer Trek" is an example of the decades old practice of using to the mormon church's advantage the losses that were caused more by poor planning and parsimony of church leaders in funding the ill-conceived and ill-planned journey than any actions by enemies of mormons or mormonism. This commemoration gives members the ability to keep this so-called "proof" of their persecution fresh as a reminder of the "us versus them" factor in the religion.
The Salt Lake mormons completely ignore the fact that the "enemies of mormonism" left Emma Smith and Joseph Smith's family to their own devices and the Smith family kept their lands and properties, unmolested.
It's interesting the way the "persecution card" wasn't dealt to them, wasn't it?
So, in 2010, we have a sect that takes advantage of being seen as different by using the "we are victims" ploy when it suits, and at the same time they demand that Christians not only recognize them as equal, but are expected to grant them equality while the non-Biblical doctrines and practices and denial of Christian beliefs are to be NOW (under the Mormonism Affirmative Action rule), left intact even though they have been inimical to settled and accepted Christianity since the inception of mormonism by Joseph Smith.
Mormonism not only demands a "seat at the Christian banquet table", it demands to set the menu, control the guest list, collect the funds from the ticket sales, and choose its own non-Biblical unedited and false message from its chosen speaker, all the while whining about being persecuted.
Now for all the LDS I know in "real life", and there are countless, I never once have had a single one witness his or her LDS faith to me. I have never even had an offer to attend services, even through all the years when I was an unbeliever and not attending any church.
I agree with you 100%.
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