The Church was the top story this morning on CBS News Sunday Morning. (Online story here. Seems to be the entire transcript.) It was a pleasant surprise because I like watching the show while getting ready for church in the morning. It was also a pleasant surprise because it was incredibly positive.
The story started out by naming a few famous Mormons: Harry Reid, Mitt Romney, and the Marriotts. The growth of the Church was mentioned; it is now the 4th largest church in the U.S. They interviewed a family from Virginia (I think) baptized a year and a half ago, and who are active, happy members. They mentioned how they felt that the Church was just what they had been looking for.
The story then moved on to the Book of Mormon, giving a very quick overview of events using footage from the Hill Cumorah Pageant, and then discussed how Joseph Smith came into the story and received the plates.
Richard Bushman was one of the interviewees. He said that if the Mormon story seems far-fetched, think about the roots of other religions. “Many of the great religions,†he said, “are founded on a revealed miracle. So Joseph Smith fits into the pattern.â€
Polygamy was mentioned, and it was discussed how this caused a lot of problems with the neighbors. It was then mentioned how Mormons fled several states, Joseph Smith was killed, and Mormons finally fled to Utah. (I keep saying “mentioned†because it really was a broad overview type of story. Not a lot of time for detail.)
Richard Ostling, who wrote Mormon America was also interviewed. He said that Mormonism became more mainstream due to two landmark events: getting rid of polygamy in 1890, and giving blacks full membership in 1978. Also, the Church’s emphasis on families has propelled its success.
It was mentioned that Mormons meet in wards, but there are also temples. Here Jan Shipps was interviewed, and she explained the temples a bit, and how work for the living and the dead connected people now with people in the past. The missionary program was also mentioned.
Shipps said that all this makes the Mormon Church more than just another Christian religion. “Mormonism is a fully realized tradition. It has its scriptures. It has its rituals. It has its doctrine. It has its social pattern.â€
Ostling said that a case could be made that the Church right now is a new world religion. The narrator concluded that for millions, though, (such as the family they interviewed at the start of the story) the Church is simply their spiritual home.
Thanks for that synopsis. I heard a promo a day or two ago that NPR’s Talk of the Nation program will be doing something about Joseph Smith on Monday. They didn’t mention which biographer they will be interviewing. It sounds like many media outlets are jumping into the party for Joseph’s 200th birthday.
I found your blog off of a search on Yahoo, it was one of the blogs to the right of the search. I wish I could have actually seen it, but the transcript was just as good. Thanks so much for blogging about it 🙂
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Ann Marie Curling
PR@electromneyin2008.com
Is the “4th largest church” claim factual, or is it just an oft-repeated and un-checked error like the “fastest growing church” ?
I looked at one of the charts that showed the LDS church in the top 10 largest churches in the United States. Based on the names and sizes of the other churches, the LDS high ranking seemed partly due to the fact that some other churches have split into two or more churches, and the resulting churches are then smaller than us. For instance, the Lutheran church splits, and the various Baptist denominations.
If one were to combine the various flavors of Lutheran churches together, and combine the various Baptists together, etc., the LDS church’s ranking would be several notches lower.
In other words, we may be the 4th largest individual church corporation in America, but we’re not the 4th largest religion in America.
Bookslinger, having performed exhaustive research by spending 5 minutes doing a Google search, I’d have to agree with you. The charts I found on fairly reliable sites do group the various flavors of denominations together, and the LDS church is down around 7th or 8th.
And not to change the subject or anything, but I just looked out the window and it’s SNOWING. Woohoo!! Anyway, back to the topic at hand…
“My church membership is bigger than yours!”
Is this comparison really helpful?
They’re really different animals altogether. The LDS Church is a lot more doctrinally and organizationally unified than the Lutherans.
And is it fair that “Islam” gets to include Iraqui terrorists along with Muslims in Indonesia, along with those nice people in the mosque down the street from my house?
If you are going to lump the Northern Midwest Evangelical Lutheran Synod of 1912 with all the rest of the Lutherans, then wouldn’t you have to also group all the Restoration churches (Community of Christ and the Strangites, etc.) with the LDS church? I’m not arguing for size, just consistancy in methodology.
I think Floyd makes an interesting point. I don’t really care if the LDS church is the 100th largest or the first largest in the country. Size doesn’t make it more or less true in my mind. But if you are going to cite the size of a church relative to others, the most important thing is not whether there are common words in the name. There also needs to be a unity of purpose and doctrine. The Catholic church is clearly the most unified large church in the country. Beyond that I’m not sure. Baptists are incredibly divided, for example, with large differences in doctrine. So are Lutherans and Methodists. Muslims have very little unity at all, interestingly (there is no central authority responsible for Muslim doctrine).
Wow, that is positive. And we’ve been getting a lot of positive coverage lately.
So either there’s an organized conspiracy to elect Mitt Romney President . . . or else there’s an organized conspiracy to keep Romney from the Presidency by making Evangelicals take us seriously as threats.
Can’t figure out which conspiracy is more likely.
I saw the program, and was pleasantly surprised at how positive it was. It was almost gushing.
I think we are witnessing the culmination of a decade’s worth of PR effort and media direction coming from Pres. Hinckley.
More than a decade…
I hate to look too far into the future, but do you think that (5-10 years from now) when the Lord decides to call President Hinckley home, if CNN/MSNBC/FoxNews/etc. will make it the lead story with live coverage of his funeral and a live press conference when the new president is announced?
A lead story wouldn’t suprise me, but live coverage of the funeral? I don’t think we’re that big yet.