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GetReligion.org recently linked to a fantastic interview with Richard Bushman. Mr. Bushman fielded questions from some of the nation’s top media outlets, discussing Mormon church history, the implications of Mitt Romney’s presidential candidacy on the Church, and the public’s perception of Mormons. I thought it was an awesome read. GetReligion.org has highlights.

Near the end of the interview, Sally Quinn of the Washington Post said it has been difficult to find Mormon bloggers for the On Faith blog. So far, all the weight has fallen on Michael Otterson’s shoulders. Quinn commented to Bushman, “[M]aybe you have an answer to why people have been so reluctant to speak out and to talk about it.” Bushman replied:

I don’t know; Mormons are very talky about their faith. I think it may be a kind of defensiveness; they don’t know whether they can trust you, whether it is a trap. I think I could easily find well-spoken Mormons who would be very pleased to take part in an operation of that sort.

If, as Mr. Bushman says, Mormons are “very talky about their faith,” is there a hesitancy to participate online? How can we make participation on the Internet more appealing and “safer” for a greater number of Church members?

Jesus was not afraid of mixing with sinners and publicans to do His work on the earth. In fact, He was often criticized by the Pharisees for not being like them (self-righteous and focused on their own interests, I would say).

We read in Matthews 9: 10-13:

“And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Where are the sinners and publicans of our generation? First of all, we are all, at least in part, sinners and publicans, but where are those who are lost in the world and don’t really know where to go or what to do to improve their lives? Probably at least some of them spend some of their time on YouTube watching videos, even those that may not be appropriate. Also, many very good people who are not members of the Mormon Church are constantly on the Internet looking for something.

I had an interesting experience with a very, very good man. I talked with him recently about our site MormonTestimonies and he was impressed and said that he would take a look and perhaps help with something.

However, the next day I received a call from him. He was very alarmed, “You have a major problem with your site” – he said. I got really concerned. He continued, “When a video testimony ends, there are links to several inappropriate videos, even against the Church.”

“This is not good, for sure”, I thought. I knew a little bit about this problem and we were already thinking of fixing it someway, but I didn’t think someone could be so concerned about it. I never watched those bad videos, but apparently my friend watched at least part of them. So, similarly to my friend, other people may think that we sponsor those bad videos. We don’t want to give that impression.

To fix it, we decided to “embed” videos from Google Videos instead than from YouTube, since we don’t have yet our own system for videos. When someone watches a video testimony from our site that is embedded from Google videos, there aren’t links at the bottom, so that there is no way to find negative content from our site, only the good testimony.

I am grateful to my friend for his suggestion.

However, I thought, what about YouTube in general, should we remove all of our videos from there because they can be listed close to a bad video?

Are we afraid of being seen with sinners and publicans?

So, should we avoid posting good content on YouTube or Google videos because we don’t want our name or face to be “seen” close to less positive material? Even more, are we afraid of doing anything on the Internet because – obviously – in some Google search our site can come up close to a bad site? If we go this route we are in serious troubles, since even Church websites show up in Google close to bad ones.

I believe that in order to do missionary work we need to lose some concern with ourselves and we need to be willing to be seen “eating with publicans and sinners” sometimes, because we want to help them find the truth. And the Internet is a very safe place to do it, after all, since we don’t even have to sit close to them physically, we are only sending a short video of ourselves and I don’t think we have anything to be afraid of.

Jacob Durrant of AllAboutMormons.com is on a streak. He’s recently created eight videos explaining Gospel teachings in his own words:

A Crash Course in Mormonism

He’s also begun translating the videos into Portuguese, and all his videos are available on YouTube.

Here’s what Jacob is doing right:

1. He has created excellent videos using “consumer” level tools.
2. He shares his videos on YouTube, in addition to his own website, so more people will find them.
3. He uses his ability to speak Portuguese to translate the videos and reach even more people.
4. His explanations use terminology that persons of other faith will understand.
5. He explains Gospel principles in his own words, not claiming to be an official representative of The Church. His disclaimer makes it clear that his words are his own.

I believe these videos are amateur work in the best sense of that word, a word that derives from the Latin word for love.

Did you know you don’t need any video editing software or equipment to create a video on YouTube? Any Church member with a web cam can use YouTube’s Quick Capture option to record video testimonies.

Giuseppe worked a little magic and connected with Ed J. Pinegar, who kindly agreed to bear his testimony for the camera so we could publish it on YouTube and Google Video. We hope this will be the beginning of hundreds of video testimonies from prominent and not-so-prominent Church members. Find more text and video testimonies at Mormon Testimonies.

Ed J. Pinegar’s testimony

Recently the Foundation has created a list of 12 Ways to Share the Gospel on the Internet. As we have been doing these 12 things ourselves, we realized that some of the suggestions could use some explaining and direction. So, I will personally be going through and doing each and every suggestion on the list. I will then report on the ease or difficulty of each item, pass along any hints I might discover (if any of you know some of these already please let me know!), and open it up to any questions or concerns.

Hopefully this will help motivate and make it easier for you to start/continue sharing the gospel online!

Yesterday I did something that I usually don’t do. I started watching TV at night, skipping through different channels. While I was looking for something interesting, I found Glenn Beck’s show. I was struck by what he was saying and by his tone. This is what he said right in the beginning:

Tonight’s program is deeply personal. For the first time since I’ve been doing this show, I have no idea how it’s going to play out, what’s going to happen. I do know that the show will be honest and, hopefully, include an example of integrity. Here is the point tonight…

Earlier this week Reverend Al Sharpton, who has appeared on this program many times, was involved in a debate about atheism with the author Christopher Hitchens, himself an atheist.

When Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith was introduced into the debate, Sharpton said, quote, “As for the one running—the one Mormon running for office—those that really believe in God will defeat him anyway. So don’t worry about that.

Wow! I thought, this is going to be really interesting! And it was.

I am not interested here to comment on what Al Sharpton said or intended to say about Mormons, but I want to underline something about Glenn Beck. He said, among other things:

I’m a Mormon. I’m a Christian, and I’m not a bigot and I am offended.

He was bold enough and willing to take a risk in his personal career to defend his faith. He gave his testimony of what he knows by defending the Church several times. For example, in response to Al Sharpton’s comment on the status of blacks in Mormonism, he said,

And to go back and say, “Were you a part of this? Are you still a bigot?” is very offensive, especially . . . especially since most of America has no real clue as to the history of the Mormons. We’re the first religion—the only religion —to have an extermination order against us in the United States of America. Until 1978 or ‘79, it was legal, in Missouri, to kill a Mormon. It was removed after 19— the ’70s.

They (the Mormons) left—the reason why they were chased out of Missouri, one of the main reasons, is because they were abolitionists. They were fighting and standing up against slavery. And then to be called bigoted and, “Were you a part of that” is offensive.

I loved this.

However, I am sure that Glenn Beck has not been the only one to stand up for the Mormon faith with Al Sharpton. Others must have talked with Reverend Al Sharpton in the past few days because during the program he admitted,

Now, in the last 48 hours, I’ve heard a lot about Mormons that I didn’t know.

I am sure that Reverend Al Sharpton is learning more about the Mormons in these days. And while I think that his comment was not completely innocent, I also believe that in part his wrong perceptions are due to lack of true knowledge. When I say true knowledge, I mean testimonies coming from members of the Mormon Church, as opposed to misleading information coming from people who don’t really know what they are talking about or that try to mislead on purpose.

I hate commercials on TV, so as soon as the first commercial started I changed the channel. Interestingly enough, Marie Osmond, another famous Mormon, whose brother Alan is by chance my good neighbor, was on Larry King’s show.

She was also great in defending his Church, as when she said that obviously Mormons are Christians, in fact the name of the Church is Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! Duh!

So now what? I think we should all be bold enough and share our testimonies every time we can, to help people like Al Sharpton (and other, less famous people) to understand what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints really is and what it really stands for. We need to show the light to dispel darkness.

To help you with this, we have created MormonTestimonies, a site that needs your help. Go now and write your testimony and/or make a short video. Also, share this idea with your family and friends, with your ward mission leader, your bishop, your stake president, and so on.

Here there are a few video testimonies for you to see . . . and you can do even better!

The California San Jose Mission produced a video to encourage member missionary work. It depicts a teenage girl who shares a Book of Mormon with her classmate. Her testimony, written in the front cover of the book, is first tossed aside, but later the classmate reads the Book of Mormon, prays, and is baptized along with his family.

The second half of the video includes several interviews from Church members explaining how and why they joined the Church.

To me the video brings a peaceful feeling of gratitude for the many blessings of the Restored gospel and also a reminder of the importance of sharing the gospel.

(This video has been removed for copyright concerns.)

Also, if you speak Portuguese, you might like the videos Giuseppe recorded of members of his ward. Several of them shared their beliefs and testimony in a short video. If you live in Utah and would like to do this with your ward, we’d be glad to help personally. If you don’t live in Utah, maybe you can find a video camera, round up a few ward members, and post the videos online yourself. We’d love to know about it.

UPDATE: The music used in this video wasn’t properly licensed from its copyright owner, so we have removed it. You can still see watch video testimonials from members of Giuseppe’s ward.

Whitney Johnson at Know Your Neighbor has an article in Meridian Magazine about reaching out to persons of other faiths by discussing religion over dinner. She calls the idea Dinner and a Mormon (a play on the TBS program Dinner and a Movie) and the idea is that we Mormons are less likely to be misunderstood and misjudged if we can help people get to know us. Sometimes we make it difficult by being exclusionary and cliquish.

Of the last five people/families that you spent time with socially, how many were not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?

Can we each find someone in our neighborhood who might have questions about Mitt Romney, or the Book of Mormon, or “what’s this polygamy thing,” and take them to dinner? We may be able to clear up misconceptions, and in any case we can make a friend.

Read: Dinner and a Mormon