Last week, the Deseret News published an article addressing a recent public opinion poll conducted by Gary Lawrence. Mr. Lawrence, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has long set out to find what people in the United States, the nation where Mormons are more prominent than anywhere else in the world, actually think and/or know about Mormons. Here are some of the results he discovered:
• More Americans have a “strongly unfavorable” impression of Mormons than “strongly favorable” impression, by a ratio of 5-to-1
• 12% of Non-Mormon Americans know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims to be the restoration of the church that Jesus Christ founded
• 67% are unsure if Mormons believe in the Bible
• 77% are unsure if Mormon are Christians
• 75% are unsure if Mormons practice polygamy
• In general, 37% have a favorable view of the Church, while 49% have an unfavorable view
• 37% do not even know a Mormon
• 55% have never met an active church member
Are you surprised? To some, particularly those who live in very heavily Mormon communities, it may seem that these numbers are surely wrong. Others who are not Mormons, or those who live in communities where Mormons are the novelty, likely see that these statistics are indeed much closer to the truth than many Mormons would like to believe.
When I was a missionary, I remember having sort of a “breakthrough” when thinking about my responsibilities as a missionary, as a member of the church, and as a human being in general. All my life I had been taught “it doesn’t matter what others think about you, all that matters is that you be yourself.” I realized how misleading this seemingly innocent bit of advice meant to boost one’s self-confidence can actually be.
It does matter what others think about us and how they view us. And it is our responsibility, no matter what identity we represent, to be the best example of ourselves and our identity as possible. Of course, there will always be those who are just prone to dislike, and no matter how well we carry ourselves or how much we try to be likeable, we still end up getting the short end of the stick. But for the vast majority of people, they base their likes and dislikes on some form of logical framework for coming to their ultimate conclusion of preference. We have the ability to control our behavior, which means we also have a certain measure of control over how others view us.
Not long after coming home from my mission, while participating in a Sunday School class, this discussion came up. I decided to share what I had come to learn as a missionary. After sharing my points, another member of the class stood up to share his response. “All I care about it my own salvation and that of my family,” he said. “If anybody else gets offended because I’m the way I am, that is their problem – not mine.”
Now, certainly not all Mormons carry this extremist attitude. But I fear enough of them do, and as a whole, our religious “brand” comes across as being exclusionary, holier-than-thou, and downright arrogant, among other things.
So, how can the Mormons remedy this situation? I would like to study the possibilities more in-depth, but in the meantime, here are some suggestions given by Mr. Lawrence:
• Mormons should actively participate in their communities without “an agenda.” According to him, our community participation should be “simply because we believe in their cause and what they are trying to accomplish.” Lawrence added, “…we make friends, not because we are trying to lead them to the waters of baptism, although it would be wonderful if we could do that, but simply to be their friend."
• Our primary objective in making friends “should not be referrals and baptisms, but rather spreading information, correcting distortions, and improving others’ understanding of Mormonism.”
• Mormons need to “cut the jargon.” In other words, we need to un-learn “Mormon-speak” and use words and concepts that are understood outside of Mormonism.
• Church members should replace the traditional “three-step paradigm of conversion” (with the steps of find, teach and baptize) with a more realistic six-step model: 1) awareness, 2) awakening, 3) curiosity, 4) interest, 5) investigation and 6) conversion.
Perhaps you can think of more suggestions of how the Mormons can improve their overall public opinion, while at the same time finding ways to better get the message across of who they are and what they believe?
4 comments:
Thanks you Nils for posting this. When I read that article I thought it was right on. Living in Virginia has given me countless opportunities to do some PR work of my own. I've found that although classmates of mine may have good intentions, many of them come across as the extremist type you mentioned. Many of my LDS classmates are married and that makes spending time with single classmates that may share differing views on what is enjoyable in the evenings very rare. It's convenient for them to become good friends with each other because they all live near one another, attend the same ward, and have families. This convenience has left a void that I struggle to keep up with. I can only make it to so many parties and functions to try and show people that we do enjoy their company as genuine friends and that I'm not a shut in every nights playing Settler of Catan. This image of exclusion may be both intentional as the example you brought up or just because some may find it impossible to reconcile lifestyle differences. Whatever the excuse, its hurting the church's image. How do people think they could ever get to a point with somebody to share their innermost and sacred feelings for something if they aren't to that intimate level with someone to begin with? We must end the attitude of "the world can think what it may." We have been commanded to live in the world but not be of the world. This doesn't mean we only spend time with classmates at school or peers at work at work. This doesn't mean we tell our children to only spend time with so and so's family because they believe in exactly what we do. Kids aren't stupid. They pick up on animosity and our true intentions. If we don't reach out to our communities, our posterity won't. Thanks you Nils for always be an example of how to do this.
Tyson, I thank you for your kind words, and would like to endorse all that you have said.
It is a prevailing tendency for any group that shares a common identity to gather together amongst themselves, often not even considering the inclusion of others. While they may enjoy each others' company and have an uplifting time together, why not extend that to others as well?
The Mormon social structure seems to be inherent - we are divided into ward units based on geographical proximity, and therefore it is easy to find common interest and friendship among our fellow ward members. But I would challenge everybody to make a special, conscious effort to expand those circles. Spend at least as much time gathering socially with non-Mormons as you do with your fellow ward members, if not more.
Have mixed social gatherings, always being sure to invite your non-member classmates, coworkers, or other acquaintances any time you get together. This is an absolutely fundamental act if we want to improve our image.
This is a particularly interesting post to me as I am currently on our stake's Public Affairs council (as an aside, I wonder how many stakes have an active PA council). Ours is fantastic, whose members are not only very aware of the issues facing our community AND church, but also are deeply committed to bringing the Church into the light. When I first started last year, we were in the middle of trying to instruct ward/branch leadership about the difference between Public Affairs and missionary work. In terms of church operations, the two are separate. Public Affairs is not about the church in the public eye, about informing communities who we are and how we can help. In our stake, we are working with both city and education leaders to show that we are not only well-represented in many fields, like medicine, law and education, but that we care deeply about the communities we live in. To that end, we put together lunch appointments between, say, the stake president and the mayor. The stake president doesn't go with the mindset, "I'm going to teach him our doctrines so he'll understand us." Rather, his mindset for this lunch is something like "I'm going to let the mayor know a) we are here and very willing to help, b) many of the same issues that concern the city at large concern our members as part of the community, and c) we will gladly join efforts to help the community.
(sorry for the long comment, but here's part II): As for the "let them believe what they want" mindset, it's a true belief to a point. The opinion of others about our beliefs should not sway those beliefs or cause us to lose sight of what's important. However, outside opinions and our beliefs are not mutually exclusive, and as Nils pointed out, it's dangerous to take this mindset to extremes.
It's important to do missionary work; it's a responsibility we all have. It's also important that we contribute to the community in which we live. I hate cliches, but "in the world and not of the world" is not just a description of the conditions in which the church finds itself; I think it's a charge, to be active and contributing members of society. While doing that, the Lord will give us opportunities to teach about our doctrines, and of those we teach, some will join the Church. But the work we do in society is much broader than missionary work.
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