I've been hearing a lot of chatter on the Mormon grapevine these days about the new mormon.org, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints's just-released website and public relations campaign that allows site visitors to find and read thousands of profiles (searchable by gender, race, former religion, continent, or keyword) posted by individual church members. Member profiles rotating on the homepage feature an ethnically diverse mix of American Mormons including a woman artist, a women's world longboarding champion, a happily married multilingual humanitarian couple and their three children, and a creative director at the Library of Congress pictured riding his bike to work. Site visitors can also click-through to chat live with Mormon missionaries.
The new Mormon.org campaign--described in internal church memos as a "massive research / rebranding exercise"— projects a hip, educated, friendly sensibility; it's the image of ourselves and our community that young and urbane Mormons love. (Site designers describe the site's design principles as "joyful, reverent, inspiring, authentic, and relevant.") It's also clearly an effort to address the major PR problems facing the Church as it continues to contend with century-old stereotypes about Mormons as clannish polygamists as well as with recent fallout from its heavy involvement in California's Proposition 8 campaign. The Church is struggling to retool its approach to missionary work away from the time-honored tradition of door-to-door tracting as growth rates flatline worldwide, in sharp contrast with sociologist Rodney Stark's famous projection that there could be as many as 265 million Mormons by the late 21st century. Retention of members too is a major issue around the globe.
How's it working? Salon calls the campaign and its accompanying television adverts (running in Baton Rouge, Colorado City, Jacksonville, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Tucson, and Minneapolis) "weird," while suggesting that the ad campaign is actually a strategy to pave the way for Mitt Romney's 2012 run. Unlikely. (And anyone who thinks Mormons are placing all their eggs in Mitt Romney's basket hasn't heard of Jon Huntsman.)
Meanwhile, progressive Church members themselves are trying to reconcile the new mormon.org image with some of the realities they've experienced in their own tradition. As John Dehlin asks at the blog Mormon Matters,
Is this who we are? Dehlin concludes that the new Mormon.org campaign is "aspirational": "May it be so. Dear God . . . may it be so."
I am from one of those cities (JAX). The good Mormon ads are on TV, and also on the radio here. I guess the idea is to further divide the population. Perhaps some people are impressed by these ads where people tell how good they are, but other people might be repulsed. It drives me farther away, but that might be the idea since the mormons wouldn't want someone like me in their church anyway. The people in the ads always talk about how accepting they are of their many friends of all different faiths, and they hope other people will also be accepting of their faith. Then they end on the "and I'm a mormon" line. It reminds me of the oil companies. They also have great ads with emotional appeals telling how green they are, and how hard they are working on new solutions to the energy problem. I know they have always been working to kill any solutions to the energy problem because the moment the problem is solved, the value of their birthright of oil reserves drops to pennies on the dollar. The only way they can convince us to let them continue to pollute the world and block solutions is to put out great advertisments with emotional music telling us they are green and working to make a better world.
Apt comparison with the oil companies, perhaps a bit stereotypical, but then the majority of public comments (and probably perceptions)about the Mormons are inappropriately stereotypical as well.Mormons have a product to market. Unlike the oil companies, the share holders (members)do not reap monetary rewards and hope for big profits. They do have a strong and sincere desire to share their faith and hope in the Savior, Jesus Christ. This faith and hope makes life's positive events more joyful and life's negative events less painful.The term Latter-day Saint means simply one who in modern times seeks to become more Christlike, beginning at whatever point a person might be when they start up that pathway, and continuing on, accepting the counsel and direction of God's appointed leaders, who themselves are on that pathway. The LDS are not sheep (except in the gospel sense) blindly following a leader, but are striving to better understand and implement God's plan of happiness for themselves,their families and anyone searching for such happiness.
"Hi, My name is Christine Hubbs and I've been accused of having sex with underaged children. I'm currently in Santa Rita jail facing 67 felony counts of sexual assault. My bail is $4.3 million. And I'm a Mormon."Get the full story here:http://hiphopwired.com/2010/08/10/51984-30097/Or simply Google "mormon livermore hummer"
Joanna Brooks grew up in a conservative Mormon home in the orange groves of Orange County, California. Now, she's an award winning American religion scholar and writer.
Can a new PR campaign change LDS Church image and reality?
Just over two weeks from now Glenn Beck, David Barton and Sarah Palin will be on a stage in front of the Lincoln Memorial for a rally dedicated to “restoring honor” in America.
Which of these book titles are real, actual books, published within the last couple of years?
Pure gospel revelry!
Those who oppose gay marriage are on the wrong side of history.
Read Full Article »