Mormons to Let the Games Reign

When the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics unfold next month, the world will see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir starring at the Opening Ceremony, the Mormon Temple soaring above the nightly medal presentation, and a Mormon bishop, the Games’ affable organizer, welcoming athletes and guests from all over the globe.

The XIX Winter Olympics will be a showcase for both Salt Lake City and the institution that dominates the city: the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormons are formally known.

But the games also pose a dilemma for a religion with 60,000 missionaries. How to capitalize on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to promote its message to an international audience yet avoid a heavy hand lest they offend visitors in town just to watch the curling competition?

To combat criticism that the church may turn the Games into a prime-time bully pulpit, Mormon leaders have already dramatically lowered the church’s profile in its hometown.

The Mormons banished their dark-suited missionaries from downtown streets, forbade them from going to the airport or Olympic venues, and instructed the 200 “missionary guides” who work at the downtown Temple Square to refrain from proselytizing.

Stephen Pace, head of a citizens group concerned about the public cost of the Games and one of the church’s critics, laughed when asked if the church would have a high profile during the Games.

“From a local perspective, the question is, ‘Why would it be any different during the Olympics?’ ” said Pace, a local business consultant. “The church has never shown much of a gift for having a light touch with anything. Utah is a theocracy. The reason they don’t go overboard in their excesses is that you have this complication called the U.S. Constitution.”

The Mormon Church is an inescapable fixture on Utah’s landscape. This city and the state have been, for more than 150 years, headquarters for what is now the world’s fastest-growing religion and its massive network of missionaries in 162 countries.

More than 70% of the state’s 2.2 million population is Mormon (1.8% of the U.S. population is Mormon), although in Salt Lake City the figure is less than 50%. The state’s entire congressional delegation is Mormon, as is the governor and 90% of the state Legislature, all of the state Supreme Court justices and 85% of Utah’s mayors and county officials. Even the local television station that will broadcast the Games is owned by the church.

The church’s influence in Utah’s secular life is a subject of constant debate; Mormon leaders are not reluctant to weigh in on political issues. Some say the line between church and state is blurred.

“The church is a major player regarding legislation in Utah,” said Dan Wootherspoon, editor of Sunstone, a magazine of independent Mormon thought. “Just 10 days ago, a delegation from the church met with some legislators in a pre-legislative session to talk about tightening alcohol laws. Certainly they have a right, like any big corporation, to make their views known. The difference here is that there is a reluctance on the part of the legislator, when it’s his faith, to go against the wishes of his leaders.”

Although the church was officially neutral during the bidding process, church-owned businesses donated $211,000 to Salt Lake City’s campaign to host the Games. Since then, the church has donated millions of dollars and loaned substantial tracts of land to the Games.

“Clearly the reputation of Utah, the reputation of Salt Lake City and the reputation of the church is tied up together,” said Michael Otterson, the church’s chief spokesman. “Because this community is so strongly identified with the Mormon Church, we have to try and debunk the Mormon Games thing. We understand why it’s there, but it’s not fair or accurate. This is a religious organization. It’s not a commercial organization looking to market its goods.”

The stage is certainly set for extraordinary exposure. The church loaned the 10-acre site in front of the massive tabernacle and the majestic temple for the Medals Plaza and gave $5 million to transform the former parking lot into a pedestrian mall. As many as 100,000 people are expected to gather there every night, not to mention the anticipated 3 billion people watching on TV.

It amounts to free advertising for the church, critics say.

“Uninformed nonsense,” Otterson said, adding that news organizations are going to include shots of church buildings in their coverage anyway, as part of the city skyline, much as the Opera House in Sydney was a lasting visual impression of the 2000 Summer Games.

“We’re not going to throw a shroud over” the temple, he said. “It’s going to be a widely seen image, with or without the Medals Plaza.”

Mitt Romney, the head of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee and a Mormon bishop, wants the temple to play a symbolic role during the Games.

In an e-mail obtained by the Salt Lake Tribune through an open records request, SLOC board member Ken Bullock wrote to Romney: “As you shared with me some months ago, I know your ultimate goal is to have the LDS Temple serve for the Salt Lake Games the role that the Buddhist Temple served for the Nagano Games, namely the structure the world remembers.”

Romney and other Olympic officials have been patiently dealing with this topic for months. His responses illustrate the knife-edge community leaders here walk: Acknowledge the church’s prominence but don’t overemphasize it.

“The church is an important strand in the community fabric,” said Romney, the son of former Michigan governor and presidential candidate George Romney. “But it would demean the extraordinary contributions of all faiths in the community to think that it was just the Mormon Church that pulled this off. Conversely, we couldn’t have done it without the Mormon Church.”

Salt Lake City’s mayor, Rocky Anderson, says the church is fully integrated into the image of the city, and he has no problem with that.

“To talk about coming to Salt Lake and not experiencing the presence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is like going to Rome and not expecting to notice the presence of the Catholic Church,” Anderson said.

The mayor, a former Mormon, acknowledges his town is different, saying, “There are little things in our culture that are odd.”

City boosters proudly tout Salt Lake City, home to 80% of the state’s population, as a clean, safe and prosperous large city. But it takes a divergent path with its conservative social agenda, a reflection of Mormon mores.

Its alcohol laws are one example. Alcohol is available in restaurants, but diners may not order a double. And drinkers must also be diners--no alcohol is served to non-eaters.

The state’s convoluted liquor laws irritate Anderson, and he’s launched a campaign to educate visitors. His office has produced a pamphlet to be distributed during the Games informing Olympic tourists how to get a drink in Salt Lake City.

With more than 10,000 international media in town, there will be public relations efforts on many fronts. Winter clothing and ski equipment manufacturers will be here, as will all Olympic product sponsors. Protesters of all stripes will converge on Salt Lake City. And other religious denominations have let it be known they have no intention of keeping a low profile.

The Mormon Church has a downtown information center for Olympic media and a sophisticated Web site that pitches “100 great story ideas” relating to Mormonism, in 12 languages. A “Friends to All Nations” campaign--emphasizing the church’s increasing ethnic diversity--is in full swing. Months ago, Mormon leaders met with NBC officials to preview the church’s educational “Myths and Realities” video. A Tom Brokaw interview with LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley will be aired during the Games.

“From our point of view, it’s not an opportunity to convert people, it’s more of an opportunity to educate and inform,” said Otterson, the church spokesman, adding that, while people around the world have heard of the church, many know little about its precepts. For example, the church banned multiple marriages in 1890, but the idea persists that Mormons practice polygamy.

Mormons understand they must define themselves to a skeptical world. Otterson said it was likely the church would do some polling after the Games to gauge the success of their educational effort.

The church-owned daily newspaper here has already anticipated media portrayals of Mormon culture: “They’ll talk about how wholesome we are and point out the irony of our role in the biggest scandal in Olympic history,” the Deseret News editorialized. “They’ll walk over to [the mall] and buy that old standby, the ‘Eat, Drink and Be Merry, for Tomorrow You May Be in Utah’ shot glass. At some point they’ll mention Donny Osmond. We’ll emerge as caricatures of ourselves.”

Utah and its Mormon population may be weary of their cultural stereotypes, but that doesn’t prevent them from poking fun at themselves. Among the myriad official Olympic pins is one depicting a jiggling bowl of green Jell-O, named Utah’s official snack food last year by the state Legislature, and another with a foaming mug of beer, with 3.2 stamped on the front, making fun of the local brews’ low alcohol content.

One of the hottest sellers: a colorful pin showing two Mormon missionaries feverishly pedaling bicycles, hot on the trail of a convert, their black ties flying behind them in the wind.