http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/us/mormon-ad-campaign-seeks-to-improve-perceptions.html?_r=1&hp

Comments are just getting started on this one. Prop 8 has been mentioned, the "C-word" has come up, and naturally there's a picture of a Haitian-American woman who's the mayor of small town in Happy Valley...

Can anyone confirm a report that YouTube is disallowing any negative comments on the LDS Church?

My luck with NY Times censors has been horrible lately, BTW, and I see Jon Krakauer has already been mentioned, so we shall have to see....

"If nobody tells you you have spinach in your teeth, how would you know?”

And there you have it. From my perception, the rank-and-file member has little, if any clue, as to the history of the church and, more importantly, how the church has vilified former prophets, negated prophesies and proclamations of it's own leaders, and stripped itself down to appear more mainstream.

In my opinion, if there was a way to tell every member, in no uncertain terms, that the church has spinach in its teeth, we'd gain great strides in showing that the church really is a cult and secretive and misogynistic, etc.

Just sayin'...

Ron

Every one I've read so far has been insightful, but I think this was my favorite:

"If the Mormon church wanted tolerance, they should have started by being more tolerant of others. "

You know there's something wrong with a church when it spends tithing money on publicity campaigns to prove it's "normal" when it never was and never will be.

Mormonism is a product to be sold on the market...like 21st century snake oil. You just have to package the snake oil right so there is the "perception" that it's medicine.

From the article:

“Using focus groups and surveys, they found that Americans who had any opinion at all used adjectives that were downright negative: ‘secretive,’ ‘cultish,’ ‘sexist,’ ‘controlling,’ ‘pushy,’ ‘anti-gay.’"

Every exmo would agree that ALL of the above adjectives are accurate descriptions of the Mormon church. It is BECAUSE these adjectives are accurate that we wanted nothing more to do with such an organization, and left it!

I bet Boyd K. Packer feels especially relegated to the irrelevant bin.

Conference: "...refer to us as only Latter Day Saints! Nothing else Damnit! We ARE NOT MORMONS!!"

TSCC Inc, "Let's put MILLIONS of dollars in an ad campaign! I'm a MORMON!"

Who cares what Apostles and Prophets have to say anyway...

LordBritish Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Who cares what Apostles and Prophets have to say
> anyway...

14 million sheeple (don't pay attention to those that have left, are inactive, or have died).


Ron

"...if Romney gets the nomination, ultimately for the church it’s a problem."

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,344283

Make sure the NYT knows about Michael Crook.

“And we’re not scared of what people think of us."

Oh, really?

Then why are they waging a "multimillion-dollar television, billboard and Internet advertising campaign" using tithing money?


They're scared shitless.


Susan

The NY Times talks Mormon--and a whole lot of people are talking back.
I love it!

Allen says: "If nobody tells you you have spinach in your teeth, how would you know?”

Take a good long look in the mirror.

I'm so sick of my TBM family posting that stupid - I'm Mormon and I'm a Christian- link on my FB. Really!? Read your church doctrine then find out what Christians believe!

The mormon Jesus was born by (I was taught this in institute) God having a physical sexual relationship with Mary. He is the literal only begotten Son of a God, a separate being. (Not to mention, Lucifer is His brother, and His father, was once a mortal man, but that's meat before milk, so disregard.)

The Christian Jesus is God, who has always existed as God, manifested in the flesh, with the understanding that mere mortals can not begin to comprehend the how.

Christians believe in one God having all authority to be crucified as a living sacrifice to atone for the sins of man. Mormons believe God transferred all authority to His son Jesus who atoned for the sins of man. Hugely different!!

I'm waiting for the 2'nd shift mopologists to show up; the 1'st shift hasn't been doing so well ...

It isn't the church's problem...it never is.

From the readers comments:

" Regardless of how they choose to present themselves in public, they are a racist, homophobic, male-dominated, polygamist group. My wife, who was often shunned by them for her out-spokenness and habits (smoking, coffee and wine drinking, speaking like an adult), while a student at the university there, likened them to the "Stepford Morms". We socialized with non-Mormons, because we were not welcome in the "inner circle".

"As regards religion in general, I agree with those who point out that ALL religions are based in myth and fairy tale. I find it self-righteous of other religious groups to single out the Mormons as basing their beliefs on fantasy."

What I find very sneaky (and stinky) about this whole "Aw shucks, we just realized we've been walking around with proverbial spinach in our teeth this whole time" line is that it completely trivializes the legitimate concerns people have with the church. There's a difference between being insular and clumsy socially versus, proliferating racism, sexism and homophobia. The concerns people have with the church, as revealed by their market research, aren't just little social faux pas. They are much more serious breaches of moral decency.

The Mormons aren't just running around innocently with spinach in their teeth, their actions are much more malicious. They have an ongoing mission to influence the government to treat LGBTQ citizens as second-class. They operate under principles of sexism. They still have racist teachings in their manuals. That's not "spinach" it's a flaming pile of poo they want to share with their dinner guests.