If you're new here, read more about the More Good Foundation. We help members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon church) share their beliefs on the Internet. Learn more about what Mormons believe or talk with Mormons at LDS.net.

Eight videos of Elder Ballard answering common questions about Mormonism are now available on YouTube. The videos were first posted on the Church’s own Newsroom site but are now available through the Church’s new YouTube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/LDSPublicAffairs

(You can also subscribe to these videos by RSS.)

Elder Ballard answers questions like these:

• Are Mormons Christian?
• Why do people say Mormonism is a cult?
• How Do Mormon Beliefs Differ From Other Christians?

Very savvy of the Church to go where the traffic is.

This month’s Ensign has an article about using the Internet to do family history work. Anyone in the world can visit FamilySearchIndexing.org to signup as a volunteer and begin doing “extraction work,” the work of transcribing names from old court documents, birth certificates, and death records. This family history work, along with temple work, brings about the redemption of the dead, one of the threefold missions of the Church. The Church’s Family History Department has long been adept at using technology in its mission.

What about the other two missions of the Church: “Perfect the Saints” and particularly “Proclaim the Gospel”? If the Internet is to be used to proclaim the gospel, how will it be done? How can the Church use the Internet to proclaim the gospel as effectively as it has used the Internet to enable redeeming the dead?

How can we use the Internet to proclaim the gospel? Here are some ideas that come to mind:

1. If we participate on the Internet, people who interact with us may see our good example and ask about our religion.
2. If we participate on the Internet, people who don’t even know us may find our thoughts and feelings about the Church.
3. Perhaps we can use web applications and other Internet technologies to better manage our real life missionary work.

What else comes to mind for you?

In the Ensign article, Sister Susana Doty said she never intended to get an email address, but she became actively involved on the Internet when she was able to do family history work online. How can we make proclaiming the gospel online equally appealing?

A recent Times and Seasons blog post suggested that the Mormon Church’s recently published article on the Mountain Meadows Massacre represented “new openness” on the part of the Church. The Church replied that it’s simply a response to the Internet and and “social media” formats that have brought “new communication opportunities to the Church through its Web sites.”

The Internet and social media allow fast, authentic, many-to-many communication, quite different from the few-to-many, broadcast media formats from just a few years ago. By posting the Mountain Meadows Massacre article on its website, the Church allows the “most thorough scholarship on the topic” to reach a wide audience in a way that sound bites cannot.

What’s more, Church members like us can participate!

While Church websites provide the official voice, we members can participate online to share our beliefs, opinions, and faith and dispel misinformation:

Many Church members on their own initiative take part in sharing their beliefs and opinions on the Internet. Thoughtful expressions of their personal faith and experiences with the Church help dispel stereotypes and misinformation.

If you would like to share your faith online, here are 12 ways. There are dozens more.

Source: The Church and New Media: Clarity, Context, and Official Voice

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!

If you’re in the U.S., be sure to watch The Frontline/American Experience special “The Mormons,” which will air this Monday and Tuesday on PBS. (We wrote about “The Mormons” previously.)

On PBS.org you’ll find information about the show including a 6-minute trailer.

For the Church’s statement on the upcoming show, please see PBS Film Likely to Cause Debate at newsroom.lds.org. Since controversy, novelty, and dissenting opinions drive traffic and sales, expect to see disproportionate coverage of controversial topics and opinions.

A few scholars, including some who appear in the documentary, have seen substantial parts of the program.

Their initial reaction: Church leaders and members are extraordinarily eloquent in explaining the tenets of their faith. The film is not superficial, which is often a criticism leveled at television coverage.

However, some raised concern about what they feel is a disproportionate amount of time given to topics that are not central to the Church’s faith. For instance, polygamy comes in for extensive treatment in the first program, including substantial attention to present-day polygamous groups that have nothing to do with today’s Church. The time devoted to portrayals of modern fundamentalist polygamy seems inconsistent with the filmmaker’s stated purposes of getting inside the LDS experience, and of exploding, rather than reinforcing, stereotypes. (source)

In any case, the film should be interesting and should help improve public understanding of the Church, at very least by raising questions and sparking curiosity. I am excited to see the show and think it will be a net positive.

There are many videos online about the Mormon Church, some good and some not really good. We think that another way of making our voices heard on the Internet is to share our testimony on a short video.

A week or so ago I decided to use an opportunity in my ward at a high priest social to ask some people to give their testimony on video. We had a dinner and then I showed an inspiring video from the San Jose mission about missionary work. After the presentation I asked the high priests if they would like to give their testimony on a video. Several of them accepted the challenge even if they were not expecting that.

We have posted a few of those videos on YouTube. They are in all in Portuguese but even if you don’t understand Portuguese, you can get an idea. We have then included a link to those videos from the site Mormon Testimonies so that people can not only read your testimonies but also hear them.

I would invite all of you to share your testimonies in writing and / or in video and then point your friends to them from Mormon Testimonies and other websites of your choice.

In the last weekend in Salt Lake City The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had its 177th Annual General Conference.

Many talks were highly inspiring but thinking about MGF and missionary work online this is my take of the Conference (all personal opinion, obviously).

I can’t remember of any specific talk given about missionary work, but several speakers, including the Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley and Elder Tom Perry, gave straightforward testimonies of the truth of the message of the Church. Perhaps we are approaching the time in which nothing less than a direct testimony will save the world (or at least some of his inhabitants). People need to choose, as Joshua said a long time ago, who they want to serve.

We should follow our leaders in giving more frequently our testimonies to the world, and since very few of us have the opportunity of being broadcasted on television to millions of people, we may consider the easier medium offered by the internet. Our Mormon Testimonies Website can help you in doing it. You can do it individually or you can organize a group of members and have them write their testimonies (and stories) on the website.

President James E. Faust described the great forgiving attitude of the Amish. The Amish obviously don’t use Internet, but I am sure that those people involved in that great forgiving episode, if they were using the Internet, they wouldn’t be involved in criticizing the Mormon Church. They have better things to do, and I am sure that they are getting closer to the Lord because of that.

I have the impression that even more that in the past, what really matters is not the official religious affiliation, but where people’s hearts are. In other words, the ways of the Lord and the ways of the world are diverging always more and good and honest people from all denominations (such as that groups of Amish, for example) will be attracted to the truth soon or later, even if after this life. On the other hand, even some members of the truth Church, who are simply members for other reasons than the love of the truth, will not be able to stand the day and will fall away, eventually.

So, let us be courageous (as President Monson said) and let us help the Church by writing our testimonies, so that the world will read them and some souls will be converted. Don’t worry if your writing is not perfect. Joseph Smith’s writing wasn’t either!

Amazon and Google employ complex algorithms that generally deliver, respectively, relevant book recommendations and relevant search results. Here are a couple of exceptions:

1. On Amazon.com, the Doubleday version of the Book of Mormon is being advertised in tandem with a book about Freemasonry, as if they were related. (See screenshot.)
2. If you search Google.com for the term “Jew”, you’ll see a disclaimer explaining that you may find unpleasant results. (See screenshot.)
   

   If you recently used Google to search for the word “Jew,” you may have seen results that were very disturbing. We assure you that the views expressed by the sites in your results are not in any way endorsed by Google…. A site’s ranking in Google’s search results is automatically determined by computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page’s relevance to a given query. Sometimes subtleties of language cause anomalies to appear that cannot be predicted.

   The page goes on to explain that “Jew” is often used in an anti-Semitic context, while Jewish organization are more likely to use the term “Jewish,” so search results for the former are generally more negative than search results for the latter. Sound familiar?

Plenty of sites that Google considers relevant for “Mormon” are full of doctrinal inaccuracies. Google, can we get a disclaimer too?

(Hat tip to Will F. for noticing the Amazon.com issue.)

As many of you know, the Church launched a new version of its main website, www.lds.org, just two weeks ago. Then last week the Church launched a new version of its site for News Media, newsroom.lds.org. We’ve produced a short tour of these two sites in the form of a video screencast. The screencast gives an overview of the new sites and highlights some of the new features found on lds.org.

This morning I received an email about one of our sites, referring me to the Church’s style guide:

I was surprised to find numerous references to “the Mormon Church” on your website, seeing as the Church discourages the use of that term.

This is a fair question. Why wouldn’t we more closely follow the Church’s media style guide in referring to the Church?

We see it like the story of Ammon with King Lamoni. The missionary Ammon asked King Lamoni if he believed in God. When Lamoni didn’t understand, Ammon changed his vocabulary to “Great Spirit,” a term that he would understand.

24 And Ammon began to speak unto him with boldness, and said unto him: Believest thou that there is a God?
25 And he answered, and said unto him: I do not know what that meaneth.
26 And then Ammon said: Believest thou that there is a Great Spirit?
27 And he said, Yea.
28 And Ammon said: This is God. …
Alma 18:24-28

If the King Lamonis of today are typing “Great Spirit” into Google, we need to create websites and blog posts that mention the “Great Spirit”. Later we can explain that “this is God.”

Instead of requiring the handcart companies to arrive in the Salt Lake valley alone, Brigham Young said “go and bring in those people now on the plains.”

For an interesting comparison, search “Mormon church” and “LDS church” on Google. You’re certain to get better results for “LDS church”, but Overture stats suggest that “Mormon church” is searched almost 3 times more than “LDS church”. Are we doing what we can to “bring in those people”?