ormons don’t have to wear all black or wear preppy clothes or be the best athletes in the school to set themselves apart. In the world of high school “clicks” the Mormons stand alone as far as groups that are classified by the religion by which they practice. I don’t know about your high school, but there wasn’t a Muslim group or a Catholic group that everybody around campus knew exactly what religion a person was based on the people they hung out with. Except for the Mormons... I would venture to say that at any given high school outside of the state of Utah where there was any significant amount of LDS students at a given school there was a group of students known as the “Mormons.” The Mormon group is starting to be known for the things that Mormons do rather than just the things that they can’t do. As more and more adolescent Mormons are achieving successes on TV and in music scene, being 
Mormon is becoming more and more mainstream rather than being on the extreme.
Recent TV successes by LDS teens like Julianne Hough and David Archeleta as well as appearances on popular TV shows such as So You Think You Can Dance, The Biggest Looser, MTV Real World, Survivor, Dancing With The Stars, The Next Food Network Star, and American Idol have all contributed to changing the perception of LDS youth.
The commercialization of Mormons has even gone so far as to tap into the Mormon missionary as an icon of coolness as shown as this ad by Axe:
Here's the question... Can the mainstreaming of Mormon culture that has been perpetuated by the media be considered as missionary work or is it more so an indication of the growing size of the church. What are some of the benefits and harms that can be associated with this type of exposure?
Josh Scott
I think it can definitely be considered missionary work, as long as the person is correctly representing the Mormon Church and what we stand for. I think many times people do not join the church simply because of our culture, not even knowing our basic beliefs. This is where the idea of members of the church being covered in the media can be good. If these people are seen as 'normal' or 'happy' and 'accepted' people, others might inquire more about what the church is really about.
ReplyDeleteOne the other hand, if someone claims to be a member of the church, and then does things that are completely against church beliefs, then it is not good missionary work because it gives a wrong perception. If people think we are something we are not, it may open a window for more criticism than we, as a religion, have already faced.
I would disagree that the media has really started to show us in a positive light at all. I think we're still considered weird and no one really gets us. The Axe commercial is so funny because it's ironic--people don't really think Mormon missionaries are cool. The guy in the commercial really isn't that particularly good-looking, he's just kind of goofy, and the point is that Axe makes him hot despite that.
ReplyDeleteSo, no, I don't really think it's helpful to missionary work. It does help people to hear about us if we're more exposed in the media--which we are--but even if the message isn't blatantly anti-Mormon, if it still distorts who we are and what are message actually is, then, no, I don't think it helps at all.
I totally think that it is missionary work- but not in the serious/discussion sort of way. One of the major problems the church has is that "Mormons" are seen as very strict and anti-everything. The way Mormons react to exposure like the Axe commercial gives people more insight about Mormons than the commercial itself. If Mormons were to boycott or actively rebuke the use of the church image and font would only feed the impression that Mormons are strict and unapproachable. If members of the church would laugh at silly representations like this, it would positively affect the image of Mormons and may lead to more people allowing missionary discussions.
ReplyDeleteI think it is more of an indication that the church is growing. I don't think it is a very good missionary tool. I agree with Michelle in that Mormons are still protrayed as weird people in the media. I think when something positive comes out about Mormons, it is often framed as "well look at this weird church that finally did something right" or "look at this person who is Mormon and they are supposed to be really different and weird but maybe they aren't." I think this still reinforces a negative view of Mormons in general. And even if people did decide that maybe they wanted to find out more about Mormonism, if they went to the wrong Web site, they might even have a worse view of Mormons. But I would have to say that the church has done a good job with trying to make the first google search results be legitimate Web sites from the church, so maybe that is helping.
ReplyDeleteI would have to think it's a form of missionary work, but not in the sense that most people would think of. With more Mormons in the media, the religion doesn't seem so abstract or almost 'hidden' and 'mysterious' as it used to be. As the only LDS girl in my high school, people would ask me questions about my religion just because of the people who were coming out as openly being LDS. The exposure causes people to think about the religion and want to know more information, which could be considered missionary work.
ReplyDeleteSome of the bad things that could be associated with this exposure is that the people who are the 'media icons' persay have so much pressure on them. People looking at the religion think that LDS people can't do anything wrong or bad, so when someone in the media light DOES do anything just a little bad, it's a huge deal to people because they almost 'caught them' not being a perfect LDS member, when in reality, no one is perfect.
In the beginning of every General Conference address, the prophet states how many members there are and how many temples exist at the current time; this number is increasing every year nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteThere is no proof or evidence to show that media is the primary reason the church is growing. But it is increasing every single year. How we are portrayed in the media can be both in a positive and negative light. We are the "cleanest" university in the nation, according to the princeton review. In the US news, we are the most popular national university. According to a writer of South Park, everyone religion would go to hell, except the Mormons. There are negative perceptions of the LDS religion too.. Big Love, etc, etc.
Is it missionary work? I don't know. Is it intentional? In a lot of cases, I don't think so. Celebrities and musicians who are self-proclaimed LDS members choose to keep discussions of their religion to the media quiet. Mitt Romney did not publicly advocate being LDS when he ran for President. I don't see David Archuleta bearing his testimony on camera much.
So there are both harmful effects and benefits of this: harmful in that this quiet behavior musicians, celebrities and famous LDS members portray could be perceived as shamefulness.
The benefit is that there are possibilities that people observe the behavior of these LDS celebrities in the media and form a bit of curiosity, wherein they research for themselves and possibly find out about about the LDS relgiion.
I think the answer to your question is yes. Both are true. I think any kind of exposure to the church can be used as missionary work, or at least a tool to get the church's name out there. As long as the exposure is not false, it can't do any harm in my eyes, because the truth about the church is so good. I think the reason why there are so many mormons in the media these days is because first of all, the church is growing, and second of all, many Mormons tend to be successful.
ReplyDeleteI think the main benefit of this exposure is that it not only gets our name out there, but it does so in an indirect way and so if there are any issues with any of these people representing the church, they are not famous for their religion but rather their talent. When people find out a little bit about something they find interesting, they will search to find out more. If someone in the public eye like Jason A. is singing good songs and setting a good example then more people will notice that example than would that of an non-famous Mormon, and we all know how influential an example is.
On the other hand, if there is a famous Mormon who does not really abide by his or her beliefs and it shows, this could be negative exposure. In my eyes, it's just negative exposure to the person but the unfortunate thing is that the church is associated with a negative person and that may affect the way some people view the church.
All in all, I think any exposure about the church is good exposure because the church is true....that's all.
Steph Walton
In the beginning of every General Conference address, the prophet states how many members there are and how many temples exist at the current time; this number is increasing every year nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteThere is no proof or evidence to show that media is the primary reason the church is growing. But it is increasing every single year. How we are portrayed in the media can be both in a positive and negative light. We are the "cleanest" university in the nation, according to the princeton review. In the US news, we are the most popular national university. According to a writer of South Park, everyone religion would go to hell, except the Mormons. There are negative perceptions of the LDS religion too.. Big Love, etc, etc.
Is it missionary work? I don't know. Is it intentional? In a lot of cases, I don't think so. Celebrities and musicians who are self-proclaimed LDS members choose to keep discussions of their religion to the media quiet. Mitt Romney did not publicly advocate being LDS when he ran for President. I don't see David Archuleta bearing his testimony on camera much.
So there are both harmful effects and benefits of this: harmful in that this quiet behavior musicians, celebrities and famous LDS members portray could be perceived as shamefulness.
The benefit is that there are possibilities that people observe the behavior of these LDS celebrities in the media and form a bit of curiosity, wherein they research for themselves and possibly find out about about the LDS relgiion.
SUMMER SESCHILLIE
I think this kind of exposure is usually good. Because there is involvement of Mormons in the mainstream media, the Mormon religion because more accepted in the mainstream media. People create more references in their mind to our religion and in doing so it prevents them from being typed down to one stereotype. using the schema theory to better understand this shows us that people can file information about the mormon religion in many different categories, some positive, some negative. Although that may still seem like something we wouldn't want, some negative is better than all negative. this makes people more likely to pay better attention and be more willing to learn about the church, thus furthering our missionary work.
ReplyDeleteRaimo says:
ReplyDeleteI think that its a little of both. I think that because of the exposure there are oppertunities opened for missionary experieces but maybe not necessarily the exposure but that the when someone says o that person is a mormon, there can be an opppertunity for the missionaries or a member to talk more about the faith, and how it shapes who we are. I guess I feel its sorta like priming those with hearing about mormons, and so forth.