Mormons won’t use Olympics to recruit

Stacy J. Willis

Friday, Feb. 1, 2002 | 4:22 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

Mormon leader Brigham Young prophesied that someday "kings and emperors and the noble and wise" would visit his church's homeland, return to their nations and spread word of the faith.

When Salt Lake City was awarded the Olympics, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Gordon B. Hinckley said it was the fulfillment of that prophesy.

But now it seems the church known for proselyting has decided the best way to improve its image worldwide is by refraining from preaching to the tourists.

It's a decision that Mormons in Las Vegas -- a city routinely filled with visitors -- made a long time ago, a decision that has led to a thriving Mormon community in a city known for pastimes that conflict with the church's ideals.

"We probably co-exist well because we don't go down to the Strip and interfere," Will Stoddard, local church spokesman, said. "We just don't seek out tourists."

Initially at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, that was not the plan. For years leading up to this month's Olympics, church leaders have been preparing for the opportunity to cast a favorable image: preparing media kits on the church for Olympic reporters and planning multimillion-dollar TV commercials.

But church officials announced recently that they've canceled the commercials and will not let missionaries approach people at Olympic venues.

"We want to create a good public image but not through our own commands," Tim Heaton, BYU sociology professor and church member, said. "In that way, maybe we have something in common with Las Vegas."

Local venue

The $18 million Las Vegas Mormon Temple rises 119 feet out of Sunrise Mountain's base, the gilded angel Moroni atop the highest spire. The grounds around the temple are a sanctuary of trim grass and shade trees, concrete benches and ambling walkways. An American flag flies out front.

The building is a testament not only to the church's wealth and discipline, but also to its role in Las Vegas. It is located well off of the Strip, a symbol of strength nestled in a suburb among families rather than downtown among tourists.

In Las Vegas, the rules are clear: Mormons don't proselyte on the Strip. Nowhere in the casinos will you find a young man or woman wearing an church name tag handing out Books of Mormon.

"We just don't go to the Strip," Las Vegas Mission President Warren Tate said. "On the first day the missionaries come to Las Vegas, I take them in a van, and we drive the Strip. Then I take them up to the temple, and tell them to feel the difference in the spirit. The Strip is just not the place for missionaries. We don't make any real attempt to capture tourists per se."

Gamblers "are not in the mood to be talked to about religion," Stoddard said. "And my guess is that people who go to the Olympics are not there to be talked to about religion.

"The role of the church is to play a good host so they go home with a good impression."

Mormon history predates casino history in Las Vegas -- Mormon settlers were sent from Salt Lake in 1855. In time, church members played key roles in the Strip's development, by lending money that allowed for casino construction. Today 6.6 percent of Clark County residents are Mormon, according to UNLV's Cannon Center for Survey Research. That compares with less than 2 percent nationally.

Today Las Vegas is home to nearly 80,000 Mormons, 167 wards and about 250 missionaries. Mormons hold key positions in virtually every civic body, from the Clark County Commission and the Las Vegas City Council to the Clark County School District Board and Nevada Legislature.

Although faithful Mormons do not drink, gamble or smoke, in Las Vegas it is possible to be both a Mormon and a cocktail waitress or a dealer.

"Of course we encourage people not to be so directly involved," Stoddard said. "And if you are a bartender when you get baptized, we would work to find you a different job. But if you're working for a hotel as an accountant or groundskeeper, we have no problem with that. It's actually being on the casino floor that we have a problem with."

Tempting

The pool of potential converts who come to tourist attractions is tempting for members of the conversion-oriented faith. The church has deployed 60,000 missionaries worldwide. It performed about 3,000 adult baptisms in Las Vegas last year, according to church officials.

Mormons have considered tapping into Las Vegas' international tourist population by building a visitor's center, Stoddard said.

"We had substantial discussion about it. But for the amount of energy and expense it would take, it doesn't provide a meaningful number of referrals. And so we decided against it," Stoddard said. "And it is better to approach people in their home, where they are more willing to think about it."

A less "in your face" approach in a tourist community goes a long way, said Ashley Hall, Nevada zone president of public affairs for the church.

"We try to mind our own business most of the time," Hall said. "We know it's not a good idea to make any explicit efforts toward tourists."

As a result of a hands-off policy in this tourism-based economy, Las Vegas church members have become more readily accepted by non-Mormons, other religious leaders say.

"They are our neighbors and our friends," said the Rev. Jerry Blankinship, a Methodist and a Clark County Ministerial Association officer. "They contribute a lot to this city: They work hard, they participate...

"Thirty-six years ago they were considered a cult. As recently as 10 years ago they were not invited to the Clark County Ministerial Association meetings. Now, they are an active part of this body. In fact, they are an active and vital part of this community."

Nationally, however, the role of Mormons is more controversial.

The church has been toiling away at creating a more mainstream, less separatist, more user-friendly image for decades.

But the old reputation of a church whose rituals are closely guarded and that allowed polygamy is hard to kill.

Although it disavowed polygamy in 1890, visiting journalists are already hunting for polygamists in the Olympic city, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. "Even the estimable New Yorker magazine mentioned polygamy 22 times in a recent article on Mormonism," the Tribune reported this month.

After polygamy comes the issue of race -- the church would not allow black men into positions of leadership until 1978. After racism comes sexism -- women are still not allowed into positions of general church leadership. And pervading reports on Mormonism is a tone of mistrust -- a tone that says this wealthy and strict church is somehow threatening.

To fight this image, the church has taken a number of initiatives. It started making TV commercials in the 1970s. In 1983 it developed an official Public Communications-Special Affairs department. By 1993, a group of regularly convening Mormon public relations professionals decided it was time to hire a public relations firm. In 1995, it hired Edelman Public Relations, a New York-based PR giant whose clients included Philip Morris Cos., Bacardi, Israel's Economic Mission and Mobil Oil Corp.

Spin doctors

Edelman deployed more than 30 spin doctors worldwide to shrink the gap between Mormons and Christians -- a measure seen as the quickest route to social acceptance. Edelman enlarged the words "Jesus Christ" in the church logo and began teaching members to emphasize commonalities with Christians. Mormons believe in God and Jesus Christ, but are the only religion to believe their prophet Joseph Smith received divine revelation in Palmyra, N.Y., in 1820, and that the Book of Mormon is -- as its subtitle claims -- "another testament of Jesus Christ."

Last year the church tried to change the use of the word "Mormon" in the mainstream press, asking reporters to call the church "The Church of Jesus Christ" on second reference instead of "the Mormon church."

But the bigger issue for the church this month is its own approach.

As the Olympics get under way and thousands of people descend on Salt Lake City, the world will have the opportunity that Brigham Young prophesied: the opportunity to see the Mormon homeland and take home their impressions, no matter how they get them.

"My daughter was told by church leaders, 'Don't be aggressive in proselytizing,' " said Heaton, whose daughter is a teenage church member.

"They told her (at her church group), 'If people ask, then that opens the door for proselytizing.' But if they don't ask, don't say anything." The role of the church is to play a good host so they go home with a good impression."

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