Mormons and the media
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This document discusses the history of media coverage of Mormonism from the 19th century to present day. It provides examples of interactions between Mormon leaders like Brigham Young and journalists like Horace Greeley. It also summarizes several news articles about key events and issues involving the Mormon church such as the 1978 lifting of the priesthood ban for black members, opposition to MX missile deployment in Utah/Nevada, and the church's approach to media coverage during the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
Mormons and the media
- 2. Nauvoo City Council Honorary Degree Brigadier General of the Nauvoo Legion “Very liberal and unprejudiced course towards us as a people, in giving a fair hearing in his paper, thus enabling us to reach ears of proportion of the community who otherwise would have remained ignorant of our principles and practices.”
- 4. For being obscure, the church has certainly always been in the media spotlight.
- 5. Horace Greeley, NewYork Tribune and BrighamYoung
- 6. • H.G. - Am I to regard Mormonism (so-called) as a new religion, or as simply a new development of Christianity? • B.Y. - We hold that there can be no true Christian Church without a priesthood directly commissioned by, and in immediate communication with the Son of God and Savior of mankind. Such a church is that of the Latter-day Saints, called by their enemies Mormons; we know no other that even pretends to have present and direct revelations of God's will. • H.G. - Then I am to understand that you regard all other churches professing to be Christian as the Church of Rome regards all churches not in communion with itself - as schismatic, heretical, and out of the way of salvation? • B.Y. - Yes, substantially. • H.G. - Apart from this, in what respect do your doctrines differ essentially from those of our orthodox Protestant churches - the Baptist or Methodist, for example? • B.Y. - We hold the doctrines of Christianity, as revealed in the Old and New Testaments - also in the Book of Mormon, which teaches the same cardinal truths, and those only. • H.G. - Do you believe in the doctrine of the Trinity?
- 8. Stories in 19th Century were filled with stereotypes Villians Criminals UnAmerican
- 14. Themes Racial Discrimination Equal Rights Amendment
- 16. Mormon church strikes down ban against blacks in priesthood, June 10, 1978 "The 148-year-old policy of excluding black men from the Mormon priesthood was struck down by the church's leaders yesterday. "Spencer W. Kimball, president of the 4.2 million members of the worldwide Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, made the declaration from church headquarters in Salt Lake City. It was a result, he said in a letter to all church leaders, of a revelation given to the top leaders of the church. " 'He has heard our prayers,' the letter reads. "
- 17. Mormon church at 150:Thriving on Traditionalism, March 30, 1980 "SALT LAKE CITY — Once all but cast out from the nation, the Mormon church is now a burgeoning and influential religion whose members eagerly espouse the traditional values of patriotism and capitalism. "On the 150th anniversary of the founding of the church, membership is soaring, buildings are going up at an unparalleled rate and coffers are bulging. But at the edges of the optimism and prosperity, many Mormons are worried that the roots they have sunk in the mainstream may also draw up dissent and elements that corrode their way of life."
- 18. Mormon church opposes MX missiles in Utah and Nevada, May 6, 1981 "SALT LAKE CITY — The Mormon Church, saying church pioneers had chosen Utah as a "base from which to carry the gospel of peace to the peoples of the earth," today announced its opposition to deployment of the MX missile system here and in Nevada."
- 20. Mormons step into the past footsteps of their ancestors, June 22, 1997 "One summer day in 1847, P. G. Sessions, aYankee farmer following the Mormon leader Brigham Young to Utah, inscribed his name on Independence Rock, a gray dome rising from the Wyoming prairie.This week, his great-great-granddaughter, Shauna Dicken, riding a covered wagon that traced the Mormon route, waded the frigid shallows of the Sweetwater River and ran her fingers across her ancestor's name."
- 21. In spotlight of the Olympics, a quieter Mormon mission, Jan. 20, 2002 "When the Olympics in Salt Lake City were well over a year away, Mormon officials met in New York City with NBC executives and said they were considering spending several million dollars on advertising time to create a positive impression of their church during the network's broadcasts of the Winter Games ... Not long after the meeting, though, the church officials contacted NBC and said they had decided against conducting any advertising campaign during the Olympics, said Randy Falco, the network's president. A church spokesman said today that church officials had concluded that a large advertising campaign would have sent the wrong message."