Michael Otterson is the public affairs director for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He wrote this article, part of which is here, in The Washington Post’s ‘On Faith’ blog.
In my line of work, I get to read what a lot of people say about my church.
Every day, news media reports mentioning The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or “Mormons” cross my desk, many from remote parts of the world. Since the advent of the Internet the number has increased exponentially, especially in the US.
We’re not alone. Many of my counterparts in other large churches feel the spotlight on their faiths. But over the past few years something singular has been happening in conversations about Mormons.
A surge of interest accompanied Salt Lake City’s hosting of the international community during the 2002 Winter Olympics. Some 1,300 journalists knocked on the door of the church’s international headquarters. Most wanted to know more about the city’s founding by Mormons and what happened to the church over the succeeding 170 years.
It was five more years before we saw that kind of peak of interest again, and it came from an unexpected quarter. The 2008 GOP presidential run of former Massachusetts governor (and Mormon) Mitt Romney presented both an opportunity and a dilemma for Mormons.
As with the Olympics, reporters from all over the world began calling to ask about points of belief or practice. The trickle of inquiries quickly turned into a flood. We welcomed that because it provided an opportunity to address deep-seated stereotypes. But it was also a dilemma because many of the callers were political reporters, and the church had to ensure it upheld its strict party political neutrality and avoid being dragged into political debate. So, church leaders said nothing about politics, but engaged fully on questions about our faith.
Clearly, not every conversation about belief or practice was constructive. We found that journalists often approached us with deeply embedded misconceptions. Many had defined us only through stereotypes. Rather than seek a deeper understanding of a faith now shared by millions of Americans, some merely focused on the trivial.
Read the entire article here