The Mormon Messages channel on YouTube is an official source of information regarding the LDS Church, its practices, and teachings. A new video (ebedded below) regarding the reasons why the LDS Church builds temples has been created in order to inform the public regarding this sacred practice, including discussion by LDS and non LDS experts in ancient scriptural temple practices. I applaud this proactive approach using current technology / media solutions particularly in anticipation of questions which the public may have regarding HBO’s episode of Big Love which portrays the sacred temple ceremony on national television.
The LDS Newsroom has also published a statement regarding this episode and documented other instances when negative publicity regarding LDS Church practices have proved to have little impact on Church affairs.
From ldswebguy comes a quote from Elder M. Russell Ballard, dated April 19, 2008, as presented to the Brigham Young University Management Society in Washington, D.C.,
If a national conversation is going on about the Church, are you going to be an active participant or a silent observer?
Church leaders must not be reluctant to participate in public discussion. Where appropriate, we will engage with the media whether it’s the traditional, mainstream media or the new media of the Internet. But Church leaders can’t do it all, especially at the grass-roots, community level. While we do speak authoritatively for the Church, we look to our responsible and faithful members to engage personally with blogs, to write thoughtful, online letters to news organizations, and to act in other ways to correct the record with their own opinions.
I think that it is amazing how far the LDS Church has come with regards to the use of technology and in particular in how it encourages internet use. Those of us who have been involved in technology has seen the potential for years, but now it is really hitting the mainstream church members. It has become not only an accepted channel, but one of the primary channels for communicating to the public about what we as a Church believes.
It is amazing what good a language like Java can do in the hands of the right people. I am acquainted with the Java developers who created the mormon.org site, but even the best software is a hollow shell without a great design and content.
When I lived in Oregon a few years ago, I had friends who when they found out that I was a Mormon, treated me differently… as if I had contracted some bizarre disease that was contagious if they got too close to me. These are the kind of people that wouldn’t answer the door if the missionaries rang their doorbell. But if they are curious enough about what makes us tick, they will want to find out more. That is where the information found at mormon.org is so powerful. From the safety of their own internet connection, they can hear the pure testimony of others like them who have found some glorious truths in the Mormon faith. Did you know that they can even chat online with missionaries? It isn’t available 24 hours a day since it is staffed with missionaries from the Provo, Utah Missionary Training Center, but they can chat from 7am to 10:30pm Mountain Standard Time.
In my last post, I mentioned that people who frequent YouTube may not know about the current efforts of the LDS Church. But did you know that the Church has a channel on YouTube since October 2007?
Elder Russell M. Nelson, one of the apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) Introduces JesusChrist.lds.org, a new website about the Savior Jesus Christ.
For years the use of technology to communicate about religion has been more on a grass roots level. It was done all time, but religious leaders were risk averse to providing their own content. Now we are seeing it more and more as these leaders have come to recognize the importance of using this medium of the internet.
With the success of mormon.org and similar sites, the LDS Church has continued to try new things… even if they are “old hat” to those who frequent YouTube. The video on this site (http://specialmagazine.lds.org/) is the latest expansion into what the LDS Church has done in this area.
In my 