The 64 videos on the Mormon Messages site have been viewed more than 6 million times!

Below is a list of the most popular videos at MormonMessages, along with the number of times the videos have been viewed, as of 10/7/09:

• An Apostle’s Easter Thoughts on Christ: 568,095
• Why Mormons Build Temples 455,492
• What Matters Most 311,322
• Finding Hope 281,410
• Dieter F. Uchtdorf – Create 272,943
• Gordon Hinckley – Lessons I Learned as a Boy 212,796
• You’re Never Alone 212,796
• The Blessings of the Temple 212,796
• The Women in Our Lives 189,839
• Hope Ya Know, We Had a Hard Time 188,238

Most of the videos are in English, but some have been posted in other languages. I’ve enjoyed reading the many comments that have been posted about the videos, both from members and nonmembers. This is a great way to share gospel messages with your friends!

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See the new site at bookofmormonwitness.com created by Connor Boyack in response to Elder Holland’s testimony of the Book of Mormon.

Declare your witness of the Book of Mormon to the world!

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In a major address to BYU-Idaho students yesterday, Elder Dallin H. Oaks spoke on the importance of preserving the religious freedoms guaranteed by the United States Constitution. 

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Have you read the article “Finding and Sharing the Gospel Online” by Michelle Stocking in the October Ensign magazine? It gives several great ideas about how you can create a blog to share the gospel.

At the end of the article, on page 27, see “Better Blogging: Tips for Safety and Courtesy.”

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From Deseret News, August 14, 2009

Stop being defensive about your religion.

That’s the message Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve delivered to 2,422 BYU graduates at the Marriott Center Thursday during commencement exercises for the Class of June 2009 and August 2009.

Ballard recounted the early struggles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which owns the university, and a resulting sense that church members need to adopt a defensive posture. Things have changed, he said.

“This isn’t 1830, and there aren’t just six of us anymore,” the Mormon apostle said. “Constantly anticipating criticisms or objections can lead to an unhealthy self-consciousness and a defensive posture that doesn’t resonate well with others. It is inconsistent with where we are today as a church and as a great body of followers of Jesus Christ.”

 He said the church’s rapid growth has given the religion, now the fourth largest in the United States, a higher profile than ever, and that church members would find themselves in more discussions about their beliefs than in the past.

“You need to be honest, open, forthright, engaging, respectful of others’ views and completely non-defensive about your own,” Ballard said. “If we want to be respected today for who we are, then we need to act confidently – secure in the knowledge of who we are and what we stand for, and not as if we have to apologize for our beliefs.

“That doesn’t mean we should be arrogant or overbearing,” he said.

Ballard offered two suggestions to remaining non-defensive in conversations.

“Don’t let irrelevant issues drown out the more important subjects,” he said, mentioning polygamy as a specific example.

“This ended in the church as an official practice in 1890. It’s now 2009. Why are we still talking about it?” he asked.

His second suggestion: “Emphasize that Latter-day Saints follow Jesus Christ and what Jesus Christ teaches.”

“Whenever you are having a conversation about the church, you should try to make this a point. We follow Jesus Christ. We try to live as he taught,” Ballard said. “That’s the basis of our faith and our lives. This is the strongest non-defensive position you can take.”

Refer to our previous blogs about advice Elder Ballard has given on how to use modern technology in sharing the gospel.

See news report in the Church’s Newsroom

Read full text of Elder Ballard’s address

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The July 2008 issue of the Ensign magazine included an article by Elder M. Russell Ballard titled “Sharing the Gospel Using the Internet.”

Many people have asked to get translated copies of this article in other languages. Here’s where you can access them:

• Elder Ballard’s article in Cambodian
• Elder Ballard’s article in Cebuano
• Elder Ballard’s article in Danish
• Elder Ballard’s article in Dutch
• Elder Ballard’s article in English
• Elder Ballard’s article in Finnish
• Elder Ballard’s article in French 
• Elder Ballard’s article in German
• Elder Ballard’s article in Italian
• Elder Ballard’s article in Mongolian
• Elder Ballard’s article in Norwegian
• Elder Ballard’s article in Portuguese
• Elder Ballard’s article in Russian
• Elder Ballard’s article in Samoan
• Elder Ballard’s article in Spanish
• Elder Ballard’s article in Swedish
• Elder Ballard’s article in Tagalog
• Elder Ballard’s article in Tongan
• Elder Ballard’s article in Ukrainian

After reading the article, you may want to consider ways you can share the gospel online.

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The More Good Foundation has just offered a new way to help members of the Church share their voice online and have a positive impact on the content that honest seekers find when they google information about Mormons.

The foundation is offering you the chance to “adopt” one of their existing Web sites in an area that you might have an interest. Learn more at siteadopt.org. For example, if you have a great interest in single adult life, Mormon youth activities, German food, the Frankfurt Germany mission, the arts, or student life, the More Good Foundation is willing to create a Web site around those themes and let you manage it to share your thoughts, photos, videos, and posts about that topic.

The fact that you are a Mormon doing this means that people who visit the site will automatically learn more about who we are as a people, our diversity, and our varied interests. This can often lead to further interest in our faith and serves in a significant, yet simple way to dispel misperceptions that are otherwise prevalent on the Internet and in the media about us. You can share your interests online and be an influence for good.

If you decide to adopt a site, the foundation will design and host the site and then train you how to upload content, photos, videos, and posts. It can be an individual or group project. All you need to know is how to type and have an interest in a particular topic that you would like to share online as a Mormon in a positive, non-preachy way.

If you are interested, please contact Karen at the More Good Foundation at adopt@moregoodfoundation.org.

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The PEW Forum on Religion and Public Life just released a study titled A Portrait of Mormons in the U.S. which has some very interesting facts about members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (”Mormons”).

Key findings:

• Mormons make up 1.7% of the American adult population, a proportion that is comparable in size to the U.S. Jewish population.
• The Mormon population in the U.S. is heavily concentrated in the West (76%). In fact, roughly one-third of all American Mormons (35%) live in Utah, the state founded by its early leaders. An additional 13% live in California while 7% reside in Idaho, 5% in Nevada and 4% each in Oregon and Arizona.
• Mormons make up 58% of Utah’s population.
• As a group, Mormons are among the most devout and conservative religious people in the country.
• Mormons tend to be slightly younger than the general population. Two-thirds (66%) are under age 50, compared with 59% of the public as a whole.
• A majority of Mormons are women (56%), although women make up more than half of other major Christian traditions as well.
• Nearly three-quarters of Mormons (71%) are married, compared with 54% among the general population.
• Mormons (83%) and Hindus (90%) are the most likely of all the major religious traditions to be married to someone of the same faith.
• Nearly nine-in-ten Mormons in the U.S. (86%) are white, compared with 71% of the general population. Just 3% of US Mormons are African-American and 7% are Latino.
• Mormons are significantly more likely than the population overall to have some college education. 61% have at least some college education, compared with half of the overall population. However, the proportion of Mormons who graduate from college (18%) or receive postgraduate education (10%) is similar to the population as a whole (16% and 11%, respectively).
• US converts to the Church tend to be older than lifelong Mormons. 48% are over age 50, compared with 29% lifelong members. Converts also tend to be less educated than nonconverts (16% did not graduate from high school, compared with just 6% of lifelong members) and they earn decidedly lower incomes (40% make less than $30,000 a year, compared with 21% among nonconverts).
• US converts are more likely than lifelong members to come from minority racial and ethnic groups. One-in-ten converts to Mormonism are black. An additional one-in-ten are Hispanic. Just 72% are white; by contrast, 91% of lifelong Mormons are white.
• Converts also are less likely than lifelong members to be married (64% vs. 74%)
• Mormons are remarkably observant in their religious practices, with three-quarters attending church and reading Scripture outside of services at least once a week and more than eight-in-ten praying daily.

A better understanding of ourselves and how others view us can help as we share the gospel with others.

Read more details from the PEW Forum on Religion and Public Life about demographics, Religious Beliefs and Practices, and Social and Political Views.

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Rachel Esplin is a junior from Blackfoot, Idaho working on a degree at Harvard in East Asian Studies. The video below shows her part in a panel moderated by Washington Post reporter Sally Quinn. The panel discussion was titled “Engaging Religious Difference: Personal Quests for Purpose” and was part of an all-day series of events on “Faith Live on the Harvard Campus: Personal Quest, Public Conversation, and Global Citizenship.”

In this 21-minute segment, Rachel explains her background growing up in Idaho, and how coming to Harvard impacted her religious views and convictions. She articulately responds to questions such as

• “What does religious diversity mean?
• What does it mean to be in a secular environment?
• What does it mean to come face to face with what I don’t know and what I have to learn?

I share the video here to encourage us all to talk openly and matter-of-factly about what we believe. As we do so, we can make friends, build bridges, and forge alliances.

Day of Faith: Personal Quests for a Purpose – 3. Rachel Esplin from Harvard Hillel on Vimeo.

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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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