A Single Story of Secrecy

 Read more at: http://www.pbs.org/mormons/faqs/

 See more at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymfSVPFGXH4 

What LDS scholars say:

• http://ldsmag.com/ldsmag/articles/080213mormonism.html
• http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865561288/Time-to-end-the-secrecy-allegation-against-Mormons.html?pg=all
  

MY ANALYSIS

Provo is an exception to the rest of the United States. Here, Mormons are no minority. However, for the rest of the world, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are considered a relatively small crowd. There are about as many Jews as there are Mormons currently in the United States.

Mormons are a minority group often covered in the secular media, more so recently in light of Mitt Romney’s recent run in the presidential election. This media coverage has portrayed a single story, despite the Church’s efforts to counter the stereotype. That is, that Mormons are portrayed as secretive. These five artifacts include images run widely on the internet including memes, political cartoons, and documentaries aired on national television. ABC and PBS are sources that are considered legitimate sources of information for non-LDS audiences and therefore they have a responsibility to report fairly and accurately. Perhaps, clips like the ABC documentary do relay accurate information, but journalism always has a focus, an angle. While reporting could be considered factually accurate, it is arguably unfair to focus on secrecy as the only element of coverage. The angle is just as important as the coverage. In Dan Harris’ coverage of the LDS church, the angle is very much the secrecy of the Mormon Church. This group of artifacts create an image of the Church and convey the message that it is secret, rather than as LDS authorities have often said, “sacred”. Some elements, from financial information to temple ceremonies, are in fact not publicized, but that is a very narrow portion when covering Mormonism.

Creating a single story like this is dangerous and not to mention limiting. Creating an image of a people has the power to create unnecessary hatred and bigotry. Taking for example, the Jews throughout history. An inaccurate depiction of them has caused decades, and even wars to break out because of an inaccurate stereotype. It is important to remember that the secular media is not the only one’s to blame for telling a single story, but this idea of a single story is rampant, even within the LDS church. Just as an example of that lies in the decades long idea that the Catholic church is the “great and abominable church.” This is a statement that is simply false.

According to Deseret News reporter Lane Williams, other problems with presenting Latter-day Saints as secretive include, firstly, that it perpetuates anti-Mormon stereotypes. Second, the word secret has a sinister undertone that may have political consequences and thirdly, he writes, is that secretiveness is a two-way street. This means that something may appear to be secret, simply because people are unwilling to listen.

In culmination, these artifacts were not hard to find by a typing a single word into Google. They all prominently display and center on secrecy. It is the image and story of Latter-day Saints that has been created by the media in the United States. This should be a lesson to us all as budding media-professionals. Rather than starting to criticize the inadequacy or unfairness of coverage of our church, instead let’s use this as an opportunity to learn that we too can sometimes create just a single story. Let’s keep that golden rule, and not do unto others as we don’t want done unto us.