In Sunday School the other week we had a great lesson on the new “I’m a Mormon” campaign coming to the Seattle area, where we live. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) is showing commercials and using other media opportunities to show videos of Mormon members. Part of the reason for this is due to a poll that was taken a little while back that revealed how the general public views Mormons. The results of the poll, which were given to us from the Church missionary department, reveal the following:
The US population views Mormons as being:
- Family Oriented (44%)
- Cultish (39%)
- Controlling (38%)
- Conservative (38%)
- Secrative (28%)
- Dedicated (27%)
- Anti-Gay (24%)
- Sexist (20%)
- Weird (20%)
- Pushy (9%)
As the results of the survey were shown, gasps were heard around the crowd when things like “secrative”, “weird”, “cultish”, “controlling” and “pushy” came up. Some people asked: “How could anyone think we are any of these things?”
To be honest, I can see how many people view us this way. Examples include: no one is allowed in temples and not much is said to the public of what goes on in the temple. I’ve heard Mormons, like Donny Osmond, publicly state that it is “sacred” not “secret”, but what the heck does that mean? The sacrament is sacred and everyone is welcome there.
I’ve also heard people talk about how Mormons tend to stick together and not reach out to their neighbors. I can see how people would feel we’re cultish that way, along with the temple thing again.
If a newcomer looks at the stands at General Conference and any Mormon congregation, they see only men up on the stand and men run the church. “But the women have Relief Society!” we’re quick to say. However, men do run the church.
On my mission, I do recall seeing missionaries on occasion stick their foot in the door of a person when they were trying to shut it on them. I also witnessed an Elder run someone down on the sidewalk practically knocking them out trying to give them a Book of Mormon. If this isn’t pushy, I don’t know what is!
With the statistics in mind and I’m sure many more examples that support the evidence found in the survey, the Mormon leaders are launching the “I’m a Mormon” campaign to show that Mormons can be normal people and still live a virtuous life. If you haven’t taken the time to watch any of the clips, I recommend doing so by clicking here. I was actually very impressed with some of the Mormons who were featured.
So the question is do you think the “I’m a Mormon” campaign will help change how people view members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons)?
A more important question behind that one is do you think that if people see Mormons as similar to them, that it will lead them to accepting the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
29 comments
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October 21, 2011 at 6:23 am
Cal
Interesting. I wonder who conducted the poll.
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October 23, 2011 at 11:58 am
graceforgrace
From what I understand, it was the LDS missionary department that conduceted the poll.
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October 21, 2011 at 7:25 am
Steve
The brutal reality is that most Americans don’t much like or respect the Mormon Church or its members.
LDS pollster Gary Lawrence has a book out on the same subject and it indicates that 1) 67% are uncertain Mormons believe in the Bible. 2) 77% question whether Mormons are Christian. 3) 75% associate Mormons with polygamy. Overall 37% have a favorable impression of Mormons and 49% disapproving.
In contrast, they do tend to like individual Mormons they know — but most hardly know any Mormons individually.
A big part of the problem is that we tend to do things with each other not the broader community.
The harsh reality is that, to this point, our tv commercials, pr, community efforts and missionary program have primarily left a negative impression. We have failed to connect with the American public and, in fact, have turned them off.
It is possible that the recent attention and the new ad campaign may be helping but, at the least, there is a very high hurdle to overcome.
Unfortunately, many refuse to believe the facts. I think the original posting showed some of that reluctance to accept the reality. My sense is that the Church leadership and Church PR realize the problems are struggling to respond.
But, the first step to a solution is acceptance by the average member that Mormons are considered a negative force by most Americans.
We need to be more involved with our neighbors and co-workers. We need to be more open.
These are tough, tough issues.
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October 21, 2011 at 4:49 pm
Doug
Most Americans are pretty ignorant about anything religious-not just Mormons.
I do agree that many people think LDS still practice polygamy-and these small splinter groups with Latter Day Saint in their name that keep popping up in the news-doesn’t help.
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October 23, 2011 at 7:11 pm
Clark
Most Americans are pretty ignorant about anything not just religion.
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October 23, 2011 at 6:18 am
Cal
http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrkqt5rWys1qii52vo1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1318295858&Signature=6v512gfqwvWDhPw6NCAgVeIcbKM%3D
has an excellent cube of pictures depicting how denominations view one another. We can see that the Mormon Church isn’t the only victim of distortion.
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October 23, 2011 at 12:01 pm
graceforgrace
Hi Cal,
I’d be interested in that link, or data you tried to share…do you have any more information or stats you can share?
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October 23, 2011 at 6:23 am
Cal
oops, the link doesn’t work anymore, I guess.
Steve- Doug & I will invite you to our barbecue!
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October 23, 2011 at 7:17 pm
Cal
http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrkqt5rWys1qii52vo1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1319508876&Signature=p85Xo%2Bs9P0pyaxdvMbX4bIGhagI%3D
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October 23, 2011 at 7:18 pm
Cal
There we go! It worked.
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October 23, 2011 at 7:51 pm
Doug
Hi Cal-you really got a kick out of that movie! The barbecue thing works for me-I’ll even host it! By the way-The Mormon Temple being constructed in Philly has caused a buzz in my area.
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October 24, 2011 at 7:01 am
Cal
I bet that buzz is interesting!
Did you check out my link above? It’s humorous, too.
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October 24, 2011 at 2:02 pm
Doug Dwyer
Cal-that is one of the funniest things! I loved it! It’s weird as I was born Catholic, raised in a liberal church, was involved in the charismatic movement,I’m a pastor in the Reformed Church and I am an evangelical-I’ve covered them all!
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October 24, 2011 at 4:32 pm
Paul
“LDS pollster Gary Lawrence has a book out on the same subject and it indicates that 1) 67% are uncertain Mormons believe in the Bible. 2) 77% question whether Mormons are Christian.”
I wonder what happens if the question is a little different: “Do Mormons believe in Christ?” I wonder if that wording allows an opening of the conversation instead of a fight about whether or not we have claim to the title Christian.
FWIW, I’m not surprised by the poll results, either. And I hope the campaign helps. Certainly in the Pacific NW, some of the most brash anti-Mormon campaigns have been born.
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October 25, 2011 at 6:17 pm
Cal
Doug, what a background you have!
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October 25, 2011 at 8:09 pm
Cal
at http://www.charismanews.com/us/32136-poll-pastors-say-mormons-not-christians
has more stats on how non-Mormons view Mormons. It says 11% of American Protestant pastors somewhat agree that Mormons are Christians, and 6% strongly agree.
I consider those figures encouraging even though the enlightened pastors are still definitely a minority.
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October 26, 2011 at 5:29 am
Doug
Regarding that poll-Cal-I have to love you buddy! You’re like that song from South Pacific: I am stuck like a dope on a thing called hope and I can’t get it out of my heart.” What the poll says to me is that the LDS have a long way to go tbefore they are truly accepted by Evangelicals as fellow Christians. Liberals on a bit more open-but who cares what they think! (I don’t!). I for one appreciate the civil discourse we have with each other and sense the Spirit of Jesus Christ within the lives of members of the church-but the doctrinal issues (as we have discussed) are problematic for me. It’s hard to know what has been taught in the past and is no longer stressed and what isn’t.
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October 27, 2011 at 6:37 am
Cal
Yeah, Doug, I got a twist out of the article that the writer didn’t intend me to!
So which category are you in? Do you believe the LDS is not Christian? Do you somewhat believe the LDS is not Christian? Don’t know?
If you don’t believe the doctrine of the Church leads people to salvation as we define “salvation,” what’s the minimum they would have to change in your view? (I don’t think we’re off topic because the topic is “What do non-Mormons think of Mormons?” :-))
I agree that it’s hard to know what has been taught in the past and is no longer stressed and what isn’t. Maybe it’s even hard for the Mormons on this blog to always know.
Love you, too!
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October 30, 2011 at 1:35 am
bentw
If you hang out with non-members enough eventually you grow to love them as much as your LDS friends. If anything else good comes from that, consider it icing on the cake.
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October 30, 2011 at 6:21 am
Cal
I hope I’m not wearing out my welcome but I just have to mention that I became aware Thursday that Joel Osteen has hit the Christian news scene again in saying publicly that he believes Mormons are Christians. He is very influential because of his book sales, television program, and he’s pastor of the largest church in the U.S.
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November 12, 2011 at 9:31 pm
graceforgrace
Joel Osteen is a good man. I think it is absurd that Christians and Mormons don’t just do exactly what he’s doing and unite on the common ground. Sure there are some differences, but there are within all sects of Christianity. I believe Osteen has the largest congregation in the US. Hopefully he can help people soften their hearts towards the Mormons.
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October 30, 2011 at 6:25 pm
Doug
Hey Cal,
I suppose I have to answer your question this way:
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead thou shall be saved-why add to what God has already said! I do believe there are doctrines and traditions in the LDS church (Temple rituals, Eternal Exaltation, Pre-existence) that can get in the way of the simpicity of the Gospel (that can be said for many churches and denominations). On a different note-didn’t you live in New England? How did yoou make out in the storm?
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October 31, 2011 at 6:15 am
Cal
Doug, good answer. We can agree on that!
We only lost power for 2 1/2 hours here. We missed the brunt of it—in Newport, NH. I did start up our snow blower for the first time. Thanks for asking. Did the storm hit you at all?
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October 31, 2011 at 6:44 pm
Doug
We had about 2-3 inches of icy snow-lights flickered but stayed on (some people in our church were out for 30 hours).
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November 3, 2011 at 7:11 pm
Cal
bentw, that’s a nice comment. You’re a Mormon?
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November 3, 2011 at 7:21 pm
bentw
Yes Cal, I am LDS, live in California where LDS have become somewhat less popular over the last few election cycles ;(
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November 4, 2011 at 10:23 am
Mormons are SBC Zombies | The Value of Saintliness
[…] and hair, and trying to blur the distinction between us and American life, we are still viewed as cultish and suspicious by the mainstream of America. This is partially because, by attempting to blur […]
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November 4, 2011 at 8:40 pm
Doug
Hi Brent-I for one appreciate the pro-family stand that the LDS have made in California-you guys really took a beating by the press. These days none of us who support traditional values are popular!
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November 25, 2011 at 5:01 pm
mysticaltyger
I think the hardest thing about Mormons reaching out to their non Mormon neighbors is that the Church encourages constant Church oriented activity, so that there’s not much time for anything else.
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