At this time that some have called a “Mormon Moment,” the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR) recently announced the creation of the Mormon Defense League. Whereas FAIR is geared toward a Latter-day Saint audience, the Mormon Defense League is designed to be a resource for those not of our faith, and, more particularly, for those writing about our faith. Scott Gordon, president of FAIR, explains the Mormon Defense League’s purpose in this Deseret News article:
“We hope to be a resource for journalists…. Religion writers tend to do a good job. Problems come when you get political writers or sports writers who are not as familiar with the nuances of the religion. So when you get a Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman or a Harry Reid, and someone makes a comment, the journalist may unknowingly pass on something that Mormons consider to be very bigoted, malicious or just inaccurate….
“Our primary purpose is to help people tell stories, not to embarrass people into compliance with what our view of the world is. … We want to be as nice as we can and as informative as we can.”
The intent is to do a lot of the work behind the scenes to contact media professionals who may be misrepresenting Mormonism, with the realization that many do this unknowingly. After all, it’s difficult to get it all right when you have limited space and time to research. There may also be times where misinformation will be addressed publicly on the website or through press releases.
You can find out more about the Mormon Defense League on their website at mdl.org. Some of the articles already up on the site deal with common attacks on or misconceptions about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Note: Neither FAIR nor the Mormon Defense League are official efforts of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Wow, I wrote a Welfare post, too, the next day! http://particlesoffaith.blogspot.com/2011/08/great-welfare-plan.html