NEWS - MORMON CHURCH LAUNCHES MEDIA CAMPAIGN

 

Mormon Church launches media campaign

By John Stanley, The Arizona Republic

Updated 10/2/2011

PHOENIX – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will launch a new media campaign Monday in 12 major cities.

The "I'm a Mormon" campaign — mostly TV spots and billboards — will encourage people to learn about Latter-day Saints by visiting the mormon.org website, which features video profiles of thousands of Mormons from around the world.

"These are real people," said Cindy Packard, the LDS Church spokeswoman for the metropolitan Phoenix area. "There are no scripts, no fake stories, no wardrobe, just real people talking about their lives."

Visitors to the website can also chat live with representatives who can answer questions about the Mormon faith and check out a list of common questions about church doctrine, such as "Are Mormons Christians?" "Why don't Mormons drink coffee, tea or alcohol?" and "What do Mormons believe about the Bible?"

The purpose of the campaign is to make it easy for people to learn about the faith and get to know Mormons personally, Packard said.

Although there are 52,000 full-time Mormon missionaries in the world, nowadays many people prefer to seek information about the church online, she said, noting that it's an efficient and effective way to reach more people, and on their terms.

"You can come knocking on our door whenever it's convenient and learn as much as you want," she said.

A similar effort to publicize the website was launched in nine cities last year.

Both campaigns came about after church research showed that about half of all Americans say they have never met a Mormon, and that many held misconceptions about church tenets.

In the spotlight

Mormons have been the topic of much public discussion lately:

• "The Book of Mormon" Broadway show, by Robert Lopez and "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, opened in March. In June it won nine Tony Awards, including "Best Musical."

• A June Gallup poll showed that 22% of Americans (20% of Republicans and Independents, and 27% of Democrats) would not vote for a Mormon for president.

• The mid-summer sex-abuse trial and subsequent imprisonment of polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs, who headed the Arizona- and Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which split away from the mainstream church more than a century ago. Despite the similarity of names, there is no affiliation between the two groups.

• The ongoing quest by church members Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman for the Republican nomination for president.

'Strict neutrality'

According to several prominent Phoenix-area Mormons, though, there is no connection between the "I'm a Mormon" campaign and the candidacies of Romney and Huntsman.

"I can tell you unequivocally that this mormon.org campaign has nothing to do with the election," said Paul Gilbert, a zoning attorney who serves as the co-chair of Mitt Romney's Arizona campaign.

Gilbert is also the president of the Tempe Arizona University Stake.

"I have attended every training meeting about mormon.org (at ASU) and the presidential race has never been mentioned," he said.

He also said that he didn't think the "I'm a Mormon" campaign would have any effect — positive or negative — on Romney's candidacy.

Charles E. "Bud" Jones, former Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, said the church has always maintained a neutral stance about individual candidates. The only time the church gets involved with politics, he said, is when issues concern doctrine, such as abortion or same-sex marriage.

"But as far as political candidates and partisan politics — absolutely not," Jones said.

Any perception of a church-orchestrated effort to aid Romney or any other candidate is simply wrong, said Jones, who has served as a stake president and bishop in the church.

"The church has a policy of strict political neutrality," Packard said. "We have Harry Reid on one end (of the political spectrum) and Glenn Beck on the other. So there's lots of (political) diversity within the church, and that's the way it should be."

Early church

Founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith, the church was instrumental in the settlement of the American West and has grown to more than 14 million followers, with more than half of those living outside the United States.

According to church history, Smith had a series of visions around the family's home in Palmyra, N.Y. in the 1820s. In 1830 he published the Book of Mormon, which he said was a translation of a pre-Columbian history of the Americas.

Smith was murdered by a mob in a Carthage, Ill., jail, where he was awaiting trial for inciting to riot and other charges in 1844.

The church splintered after Smith's death, with the largest contingent following Brigham Young to Salt Lake City, now the church's headquarters.

Under Young's leadership, the church established settlements throughout much of the western region of the country, as well as in southern Canada and northern Mexico. Over the decades, though, disputes arose with non-Mormons over church practices, especially polygamy, which was announced as official doctrine in 1852.

Almost 40 years later, in 1890, the church reversed its policy regarding the practice. It now promotes strict monogamy and strong family values.

The "I'm a Mormon" campaign in Phoenix will continue through February 2012. Other cities in the campaign are Spokane, Wash., Seattle, Austin, Texas, San Antonio, Texas, Omaha, Neb., Lincoln, Neb., Denver, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Ind., and South Bend, Ind.

A separate "I'm a Mormon" campaign started in New York City in June.

"(The website) is just a really fun way to learn about our lifestyle and our faith," Packard said. "The diversity that is represented there will be surprising to a lot of people."

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