LDS Media Talk

People change religions early and often.  That is a conclusion from a recently published report regarding American’s religious affiliation changes from The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. 

In reading the report, I saw some things that I think may help us better succeed in our missionary objectives and in retaining converts.  I also noticed several points that may be of interest to parents and leaders of youth regarding keeping young people strong in the faith.  Young people are among the most likely to change religious affiliations or fall away from church altogether.  This report gives some interesting data points explaining why that change of religion happens.

The report is called Faith in Flux: Changes in Religious Affiliation in the U.S., and was published on April 27, 2009. The report discusses:

1. why people change from one religion to another
2. why people stop going to church
3. why non-religious people start practicing religion

Why people change from one religion to another

The data in the report shows that about half of American adults will change their religion at some point in their life.  Of those that change religion, about a third change only once, about a third change religions twice, and another third change religions three or more times in their life.  Most of the people who change from one religion to another do so early in life, generally before the age of 24.  People over the age of 50 rarely change religion according to the report.

The Pew report dives into why Americans change religious affiliation, and it turns out to be for a variety of reasons.  The top reason people give for leaving a former faith is that they “just gradually drifted away from their childhood religion.”  The second most cited reason for leaving their religion is that “their spiritual needs were not being met.”  See the full list of reasons in the chart below.

Why people stop going to church

The group that has grown the most in recent years due to religious change is the number of people that stop going to any particular church (the “unaffiliated” group as the Pew report calls them).  It’s interesting that very few people say they stopped going to church because they believe science disproves religion or that religion is just a superstition.  But they do admit a waning of faith is generally the reason why they stop going to church.

“Two-thirds of former Catholics who have become unaffiliated and half of former Protestants who have become unaffiliated say they left their childhood faith because they stopped believing in its teachings, and roughly four-in-ten say they became unaffiliated because they do not believe in God or the teachings of most religions.”

The survey had another startling revelation on why people stop going to Church.  For those people who grew up in a Church and are now “unaffiliated,” 90% of them report a weakening of their faith in the year or two prior to the change.

“The numbers are even lower among those who have become unaffiliated, with only 10% of former Catholics and 11% of former Protestants saying they had very strong faith just before leaving their former religion. This is consistent with another of the survey’s key findings – that among both former Protestants and former Catholics who are now unaffiliated, more than seven-in-ten say they just gradually drifted away from their childhood religion.”

Why non-religious people start practicing religion

According to the report, 16% of adults say they are currently unaffiliated with any particular religion.  This is despite the fact that only 7% were raised without religion.  The interesting thing here is that most people who were raised unaffiliated with religion now belong to a church.  Rather than remaining unaffiliated with a church, the people raised without religion tend to have a religious awakening in their early adulthood and join a church. 

Whether a person is joining a church after having never gone to church or after previously having attended a different one, the top reasons for joining a new religion are generally the same.  Most people say they have joined a church because 1) they “enjoy the religious services and style of worship,” and 2) they “felt called by God.”  Not surprisingly, many of those joining a church for the first time also cite reasons related to “personal spirituality” as an explanation for why they have now became involved with a religion.

Conclusion

This report gives us many insights into ways to do missionary work more effectively and ways to keep our children from falling away from the faith.  After studying this report, below are the takeaways that I have learned.  See if you agree or disagree.  Either way, let me know.

• All other things being equal, our missionary efforts are going to be more effectively focused at younger people. Of course some older people join the church.  I have heard the stories and even participated in such conversions.  But young people tend to be more open to change, particularly regarding religion.
• Statistically speaking, people raised without a church are very likely to have a religious awakening. We should not be shy about sharing our religion with those people who were raised unaffiliated with a religion.  We should be ready, willing and able to share the gospel of Jesus Christ to the humble seeker of truth.
• Be aware of signs that people’s faith is slipping.  Often times they will be very open about it.  Share your testimony and strengthen one another’s faith. Fulfill your callings, do your home teaching, find opportunities to serve those in need. “Lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.” (D&C 81:5)
• Our youth are the most susceptible to a slow decline in faith. So beware of our children, and other church members as well, gradually drifting away from the church. This is the most common way people fall away from active participation in religion.   This is one of the reasons why strengthening families is so important.

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Check out this new Web site about preparing for an LDS Mission:

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Reo Garn has created several videos on YouTube that explain Mormon beliefs in a very simple, authentic way. In the sample video below, he explains why Mormons believe that all people have divine potential.

Reo started making these videos after observing the immense amount of anti-Mormon material on YouTube. He also noticed a few embarrassing attempts by some Mormons to argue and defend themselves. His general impression was that there was too much debate, and not enough actual understanding of the material itself. Knowing that many people are naturally curious about our religion, he made a goal to explain his faith in a simple, clear way so it could be understood and appreciated. Although doctrinal explanations can be found in church literature, he felt that initially people aren’t willing to study in depth to resolve religious misconceptions. People want a human with a warm smile to explain it to them.

Reo says that people have written him from all over the world (both thanking him and condemning him). A few have said they were going to return to church, others have said they wanted to be baptized, and others have just thanked him for speaking up. The most satisfying message he’s received says (paraphrased): “Thanks for your video. I have a friend who’s been asking about why we wear garments. I found your video, and thought it did a great job of explaining it. So I sent it to her, and she loved it.” Reo felt humbled and grateful that his videos were being used in the exact way that he intended them to be used.

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To get involved or not to get involved… That is the question I often ask myself when controvery erupts. For example, today I learned that HBO plans to air an episode of Big Love where they depict sacred temple ceremonies. I was invited to join the Facebook group Stop HBO from showing LDS temple ceremonies!, which now has over 11,000 members. In that group, there is a link to HBO’s feedback page, with the admonition to ask HBO to refrain from airing the episode.

Today, Church Public Affairs issued a statement on it’s Newsroom Web site about the dilemma of responding to such events.

• Should we tell all our friends to write to HBO to ask them not to air the show?
• Should we cancel our subscriptions to Time Warner products (the producer of the show) to cause them economic pain?
• Should we watch the show out of curiosity to see how much of the temple ceremony they portray?

The Church as an institution leaves it up to individuals to take the actions they feel are appropriate. However, the dilemma is that these very actions may generate the kind of controversy that the media loves and in the end may increase audiences for a program that currently has a narrow audience.

The Newsroom commentary reminds us that “if the Church allowed critics and opponents to choose the ground on which its battles are fought, it would risk being distracted from the focus and mission it has pursued successfully for nearly 180 years. Instead, the Church itself will determine its own course as it continues to preach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world.”

Therefore, the Church as an institution tries to stay out of such controversy. But what is the role of individual members? What is our individual role in standing for truth and righteousness? What kinds of actions do you feel are appropriate and helpful?

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The Believe All Things blog just pointed me to the YouTube channel Mormons Made Simple. Watch the two videos below Book of Mormon Made Simple and Attending a Mormon Church Service.

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As our recent poll results indicate, only 3% of the blog’s readers are young people (18 years old or younger), so I hope you parents and leaders will share this post with the youth. 

I was impressed last night as I learned about University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow while I watched the college football national championship game.  If any of you are wondering how a true college football fan could just now be learning about Tim Tebow, then I’ll have to admit it, I’m not a huge fan of college football in general, but I am a big fan of BYU football.  Anyway, as I heard the television commentators talk about Tim Tebow, I was impressed about how they lauded his performance on the field, but gave him even more praise for his accomplishments off the field.  So I began to research (that’s my analyst nature coming out) this young man, and I found him to be an extraordinary example for our youth of faith, of priorities, of humility, of love of God and love of all mankind. 

Tim Tebow won his second college football national championship yesterday.  His first was in 2006, when the Florida Gators won it all.  As a freshman that season, Tebow was used largely as a change of pace to the Florida Gators’ starting quarterback, Chris Leak.  During his sophomore season, Tebow won the starting position and was the first college football player to both rush and pass for 20 touchdowns in a season and was the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy.  During his sophomore in the 2007, he also broke many SEC (Southeastern Conference) records including for both rushing touchdowns and total touchdowns in a single season. In addition to the Heisman Trophy, his performance in 2007 also earned him the Maxwell Award as the nation’s top football player, the Davey O’Brien Award as the nation’s best quarterback, and the James E. Sullivan Award as the nation’s most outstanding amateur athlete in any sport.  Add to his resume a national championship now for the 2008 season as the starting quarterback and leader of the team. 

As impressive as these sports achievements are, what is more impressive is Tim Tebow’s dedication to faith and family.  Born to Christian missionaries Bob and Pam Tebow, who were at the time serving in the Philippines, Tim said in a recent interview (which can be seen in the video clip below) that his priorities in life are first his faith, then his family, then his academic studies and then football.  Tim’s mother suffered health problems, an infection with a pathogenic amoeba, when she was pregnant with him, and an abortion was recommended by her doctors.  Tim’s parents nearly lost him several times, and they prayed that if the Lord would give them a healthy child, they would raise him to preach the Lord’s words and serve His children.  And true to that promise, Tim Tebow spent the last three summers before enrolling at the University of Florida in the Philippines, assisting with his father’s orphanage and missionary work, and he continues to be involved in selfless service.

Another couple of things, and I’ll wrap up with these, that impressed me about Tim Tebow happened during his post game interview last night. You can’t see it extremely well in the photo here, but written in white on the black strip under his eyes is the scripture reference to John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  As the TV announcer approached him and congratulated him on being named the game’s most valuable player, the first thing out of Tim Tebow’s mouth was to thank his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What a great example this is to our youth, to show how they can pursue excellence in whatever their chosen field: sports, academics, music, art, and other wholesome pursuits.  And they can achieve great results without compromising their faith, and in fact, their performance will no doubt be even more blessed as they prioritize faith, family and service to others foremost in their lives.

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When you blog, what are some authoritative sources you link to for your readers? As a blogger, I try to find and use authoritative sources of information about the Church in my posts. If you’ve done any family history, then you’re probably aware of Elizabeth Shown Mills’ work on the importance of citing primary sources of information. Similarly, when you link to other web sites to explain basic doctrines of the restored gospel you want to be sure you’re giving your readers accurate information.

For example, let’s say you want to mention the restoration of the priesthood in one of your posts. You want to find a page on the web that describes how the Aaronic Priesthood was restored and link to this page from your blog.

As Larry mentioned in a previous post (Answering Questions About the Church), the Gospel Topics section contains authoritative, yet brief explanations to many Church doctrines and practices. Using the example above, you could provide a link to the Aaronic Priesthood page since a description of the restoration of that priesthood is included under the “Additional Information” tab.

Other sources on Church web sites include:

• Leader Biographies contains the official biographies of the leaders of the Church. These are useful when referring to a present Church leader.
• Core Beliefs: How and Why Are Mormons Different? contains answers to basic questions concerning the restoration of the gospel, the plan of salvation, the purpose of temples, the missionary program, etc. Although this page is geared to “newsmakers”, it provides concise information on basic beliefs.
• The General Conference page contains archives of general conference addresses. This section is helpful when you want to cite a specific general conference address in a blog post.
• The Scriptures section provides online access to the four standard works of the Church and includes helpful study aids such as the Guide to the Scriptures, the Bible Dictionary, the Joseph Smith Translation, and others. These are particularly useful when you want to cite a particular scripture or need to provide additional context for a scripture reference.
• The Presidents of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints section provides “basic facts” about each Church president in this dispensation. This section is useful when you want to refer to any Church president and it also includes a section on President Thomas S. Monson.

Some of my favorite non-Church web site authorities include:

• MormonWiki by the More Good Foundation which contains a lot of good content since its stated purpose is to act as an “incubator of content” about the Church.
• The General Authority Pages provide useful information about all the general authorities of the Church in this dispensation.
• The online version of the Encyclopedia of Mormonism provides a wealth of information about the restored gospel in almost 1,500 articles. Although this is not an official publication of the Church, it does cover a wide-range of subjects.

These lists are by no means exhaustive. Many more sections could be cited, but it does provide a starting point. What are your favorite sites or sections of web sites that contain useful information about the Church?

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Non-Mormons commonly look for information about the Church, and the language they use isn’t always the language that members of the Church use. If your neighbor searches for Mormon beliefs but you blog about LDS beliefs, search engines won’t connect the two of you. Good online missionaries bridge language gaps by using the vocabulary that non-Mormons use on their own blogs and Web sites.

Elder Ballard encourages us to ”use stories and words that [non-members] will understand.”

As the head moderator at LDS.net, Heather Newell of the More Good Foundation occasionally receives emails from Church members concerned with their usage of the term Mormon. She writes:

I receive emails expressing concern about using the word Mormon, especially using the term Mormon Church. As members of the church, we all know who we are, what we believe, and that this is Jesus Christ’s Church. Many of us understand the style guide set forth by the church to the media. But not everyone else does.

Even though I’m an active, daily participant in online conversation about the church, in the past I too have struggled with embracing the word Mormon. I want to share the insights I have gathered which have helped me respectfully say, “I am a Mormon.”

Read We Are Mormon and using language that people of other faiths will understand.

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A blog is more than just a place to post family pictures or a soapbox. In the eyes of one BYU professor, blogging is how he and students share the gospel worldwide. For his religion class this semester, Richard Holzapfel changed his usual scripture log assignment to an online blogging assignment where students write their thoughts and feelings on gospel subjects.

Brother Holzapfel said “I read Elder Ballard’s call for members of the Church to engage in the online dialogue about the Church this past summer.” He soon thereafter heard a returned missionary expressing disappointment in no longer being able to continue his mission work. “It hit me. We can continue doing missionary work in Provo and at BYU because ‘The world is our campus,’ and the world is alive online.”

Read the entire story in LDS Living.

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Richard Miller explains how Google Local Search can be used to advantage in online missionary work. Google can now determine by your IP address where you are searching from and tries to make the search results more relevant to your location.

This can actually help when people look for information about our faith, because Google may present them with local search results, such as a blog post from a member in their city or a picture of the temple in their area. These local, authentic experiences may have a greater impact than more general sources. It can make it easier for the person to connect with you if you live close-by. It can also help make your experience show up higher than others that aren’t specific to a location, because Google sees your local result as more relevant for the searcher.

So, when you post your experiences online, use titles that will help you show up in the local search results, such as:

“What it’s like to grow up as a Mormon in Las Vegas, NV”
“How I feel when I visit the San Diego California Mormon Temple”
“Why I was a Mormon missionary in Tulsa, Oklahoma”

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A few months ago, I noticed there was a news story that headlined Book of Mormon Reaches 140 Million Milestone. 140 million printed copies of the Book of Mormon is an extraordinary achievement!

A number of years ago, President Ezra Taft Benson gave a general conference talk entitled Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon using “electronic media and the mass distribution of the printed word.” After rereading that talk , I began to wonder how we could more fully take advantage of the many opportunities to flood the earth with the Book of Mormon using “electronic media”.

Electronic Media to New Media

Electronic media was a foreshadowing of today’s digital or new media. Last year, Elder Russell M. Ballard counseled, “I ask that you join the conversation by participating on the Internet, particularly the New Media, to share the gospel and to explain in simple, clear terms the message of the Restoration” (see Using New Media to Support the Work of the Church).

A Vision and a Challenge

In President Benson’s talk, he mentioned he had a “vision” of how the earth could be flooded with the Book of Mormon and issued a series of challenges to all Church members. In part, he said:

I challenge the homes of Israel to display on their walls great quotations and scenes from the Book of Mormon… I have a vision of artists putting into film, drama, literature, music, and paintings great themes and great characters from the Book of Mormon… I have a vision of the whole Church getting nearer to God by abiding by the precepts of the Book of Mormon. Indeed, I have a vision of flooding the earth with the Book of Mormon.

What If?

I wonder what would happen if not only the homes, but also the thousands of blogs and web sites in use by Church members could help achieve this goal. In that context, here’s a series of “what ifs” just to get people thinking about what could be done to more fully flood the earth with the Book of Mormon using new media.

1. What if someone hosted an LDS Widgets/Gadgets site and enlisted the support of thousands of interested developers (LDS Tech?) in creating gospel-oriented widgets and gadgets? For example, see Yahoo! Widgets, Google Gadgets, Windows Sidebar and Gadgets, Apple Dashboard Widgets, and many others.
2. Following President Benson’s line of thinking, what if some of these widgets/gadgets contained images, videos, and podcasts of favorite scriptures, talks, pictures, lessons, and many other categories that could be posted on personal blogs and web sites?
3. What if someone managed the Widgets/Gadgets forum and promoted this week’s “popular” widgets, “up and coming widgets”, “all time popular widgets”, etc.
4. What if someone was chartered with managing and marketing the site to provide basic assistance and encourage development around specific categories?
5. What would happen if static and rich media content was made available to a large Christian-oriented audience?
6. What if these widgets/gadgets targeted specific content areas on Church and “friends of the Church” web sites and enlisted bloggers and web site owners to make them available?

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In today’s Internet world, an increasing number of Latter-day Saints are encountering anti-Mormon information. Since most members don’t have all the answers at their fingertips, LDS-critical claims can be unsettling or create doubt. Some arguments have caused a few members—even active members with strong testimonies—to lose their faith.

One good source for answering questions about the Church is the Gospel Topics section of the Gospel Library on LDS.org. (You can also get there using the shortcut topics.lds.org.)

You may also be interested in Shaken Faith Syndrome, a new book published by the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR). Backed by extensive research and decades of experience dealing with anti-Mormon allegations, Michael Ash explores how we can be both critical thinkers and devout believers. The first half of the book offers suggestions on strengthening our intellectual foundations against challenging issues, including a greater understanding of the inherent limitations of science, history, and even the scriptures. The second half of the book exposes common anti-LDS tactics and engages some of the most frequent criticisms.

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Check out Testimony Tag for ideas on making blog entries that share your testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ or an experience you have had with the Gospel. This Web 2.0 idea for sharing the gospel can help provide accurate and fair information about the Church.

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Last week I added a video sidebar widget to my personal WordPress blog called Video Widget. The primary reasons I chose this particular widget are because it:

• 1. Supports videos from over 25 video sources such as YouTube, Flickr, Google Videos, Metacafe, and others.
• 2. Is easy to configure and can run just one video or have a different video appear upon each page refresh.
• 3. Requires no HTML code pasting, just add an ID from each video source.

Videos are a great way to connect with your audience and keep them engaged on your site. In this particular case, I can use this widget to share gospel-oriented videos and other types of videos I think will be of interest to my audience.

Installation and Configuration

Like other WordPress plugins, upload the video-widget folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ folder and then activate the plugin via the Plugins menu.

Video Widget is fairly simple to configure. Just choose the title you want displayed in your blog’s sidebar, plug in the desired width and height of the video, and then add all the video IDs you want to play in the Multiple videos dialogue box.

Or, if you want to have just one video available in your sidebar, delete the preset ID and videos listed in the Multiple videos dialogue box, and then plug in the ID of the video of your choice for a Single video. That way, only that video will be available for viewing.

I installed the widget on both the main post sidebar and on each individual post sidebar of my blog. Each can be configured separately so different sets of videos are available to your visitors.

Share Videos About the Gospel

Although you can share any video or set of videos you want using this widget, one of the reasons I installed it on my blog is to share gospel-oriented videos. Below is an image from the LDS Public Affairs video Are Mormons Christian? on YouTube which is one of the videos available on my site.

There are a number of high-quality videos on the LDS Public Affairs YouTube Channel to choose from (a hidden resource that is slowly growing in popularity). And there are also some great videos being produced by Church members and other organizations. Here’s just a short list of those who are actively adding videos from which I chose to put on my blog:

• lds9999 on YouTube
• SethAdamSmith on YouTube
• fairldsorg on YouTube
• William J. Hamblin (hamblinwj) on YouTube

There are scores of others. Just visit a few video sites, do a search and add the ID to the widget. It’s that simple.

Let us know your favorite gospel video sources.

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The Church has just distributed the 140 millionth copy of the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ according to a news release on Newsroom.lds.org. The Church currently sells about 5 million copies a year.

The Book of Mormon is currently available in 107 languages. You can read The Book of Mormon online in nine languages: Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. While there (at scriptures.lds.org), you can also listen to it (by clicking Listen at the top of any page) or download the audio files in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Audio files in more languages are being prepared now.

The Newsroom also has a great story about Understanding the Process of Publishing the Book of Mormon. You can also read a general story about translating Church materials.

In 2003, Book magazine searched for the twenty novels and nonfiction titles that have had the greatest impact on the history of America–the ones that have led to concrete, definable changes in the way Americans live their lives. They named the Book of Mormon one of the “20 Books That Changed America.”

Have you personally taken Elder Craig C. Christensen’s challenge from last conference to use The Book of Mormon to share the gospel message with family and friends?

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