Gary Lawrence: Familiarity breeds contempt (for Mormons)
Gary Lawrence, director of Proposition 8's Mormon grassroots effort.
The Brethren [the top echelon of Mormon leadership] have felt that the best way to organize and pass the Proposition is to have an Ecclesiastical arm and a Grassroots arm to the organization ... The senior folks who run the grassroots are LDS at the coalition and are headed by Glen Greener and Gary Lawrence.Here's Gary, back in August, firing up his Mormon brigades ...
Why Mormons Are In This Fight:
If same-sex marriage advocates [win], the whole structure collapses -- the family, the nation, and in time civilization itself. The time has come for those of us who believe that God, not man, created marriage ... to take a stand and defend it.
Here's Gary again from the summer, this time calling on Mormons from across the land to join the battle ...
While we ... are mobilizing thousands to walk precincts, you can help us from the comfort of your homes ... if you live in the Eastern or Central time zones, you can use free late-evening minutes on weekdays to call when Californians have just finished dinner.Mission accomplished.
And how is Gary celebrating his victory?
By promoting his latest book, of course:
How Americans View Mormonism (Seven Steps To Improve Our Image)
Here's the author taking his turn on KSL5 TV:
My favorite piece of advice from Dr. Lawrence to his fellow Mormons:
Perhaps the good doctor might consider that "being yourself" is a poor prescription for winning friends when "who you are" is someone willing to lead a campaign to strip your own child of his civil rights.
Meet Matthew Lawrence:
"Matthew is gay and is the son of Gary Lawrence, 67, who is the "State LDS Grassroots Director" for the state of California."This kind of heartless crap really upsets me, and I think maybe I need to speak directly to Gary at this point.
What this says about you as a father, Gary, is why it's not surprising that you appear completely oblivious to the absolute incongruity of you, of all people, now touting your advice on the subject of improving Mormonism's image.
How about taking a moment to reflect on your own comments in that KSL interview?
"Thirty-seven percent of all Americans do not know a Mormon, and 55 percent of all Americans do not know an active Mormon. In fact, those who know one Mormon have a worse opinion of us than those who don't know any Mormons."Gary, if you were the only Mormon I knew, and if I thought for a second that all Mormons were just like you, you can bet I'd have a pretty low opinion of Mormonism.
Considering how your own research indicates that the more people get to know you, the less they like you, how can your writing another book about Mormons (not to mention your going on the teevee to promote it) be viewed as anything other than a counterintuitive and boneheaded move? Your own findings would seem to suggest that perhaps the first step to improving the Mormon image would be for Mormon PR flacks like yourself to simply go away.
Here's my advice, Gary: When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
Why not climb out of that hole, use some of the $212,463 that the Prop 8 campaign has so far paid you and Lawrence Research, and take the entire family on a nice vacation somewhere?
Your loved ones might appreciate that, and it would free up the airwaves for all those decent Mormons out there who we need to be hearing from ... and who are the only hope Mormonism's got for repairing the damage you've done.
This is all your doing, Gary.
Jan Shipps: A "Perfect Storm" of Bad PR for Mormon Church
Own it.
I appreciate that everyone here has probably long since tired of hearing about the Mormons.
That said, for what it's worth, this is the third election cycle that we've all been affected by their influence.
Remember the significance of Ohio in 2004? Here are a few numbers to ponder:
Source.
Commentary on the Eagle Foundation, a new 501(c)(4) whose personnel were behind the Ohio push back in '04.
This is no sideshow. It's annoying and noxious, but it is was it is:
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f394/Chino_Blanco/Michelle-Ballard-LDS-HQ.jpg
That's Michelle with Elder Quentin L. Cook and Elder M. Russell Ballard, the two main Mormon ecclesiastical leaders behind Prop 8's passage.
November 21, 2008 8:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
I can speak to the bit about how knowing a Mormon makes you more likely to have a negative view of Mormonism. Up until recently, I had a fairly positive view, due to two things: (1) they're very helpful when researching family genealogy (that had been my only exposure to them, other than a pair of missionaries coming to my door), and (2) I respected their devotion to service, even if I consider it service to an imaginary being.
On the other hand, a colleague of mine who grew up in "Mormon country" (as she described it) has a very negative view of Mormonism.
This whole prop 8 thing has definitely reinforced her vision of their faith and undercut mine.
November 21, 2008 8:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
This Prop 8 thing sucks. Hard.
Back in Nixon's day, we could all content ourselves with "following the money" ... a task which, upon its completion, lent itself to our reassuring ourselves that we'd once again secured the Republic to the mutual benefit of all (even including the corrupt whose indictments came down in some part due to our efforts).
Now, we're faced with the task of "following the believers" ... i.e., who is it who's finagled a choice spot in the apparatus due to their undying belief in some religion or other?
That's admittedly much harder to counter.
But it's no less imperative that we do.
Because it's still all about the money.
And the power.
It's just that we've now got a few more layers to dig through before we get to what it all means.
To those believers in the middle who'd convinced themselves that their work was all about promoting a world-historical agenda these past eight years: Sorry, kids, but that agenda is (and always has been) irrelevant to both your masters and to those of us who oppose your efforts.
You worked hard, but you've been had.
And, yeah, this is me looking at you, Kyle and Monica.
That said, for what it's worth, you've made our work harder.
Which is why Obama is important. He's not going to do the work for us, but I expect we'll have an easier time getting it done going forward.
As it always has been, it's once again our country now.
November 21, 2008 9:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Considering that a majority of Americans is not in favor of same-sex marriage, at least yet, I'm not certain why Mormons' stance on Proposition 8 is going to "hurt their image." It may hurt their image amongst the more liberal elements of society, but it will likely help them with a lot of Catholics, Protestants, and Evangelicals who distrust them because of our theological differences with them.
Perhaps the good doctor might consider that "being yourself" is a poor prescription for winning friends when "who you are" is someone willing to lead a campaign to strip your own child of his civil rights.
Considering that the majority of Americans do not yet support same-sex marriage, why should a position against same-sex marriage really make it more difficult for them to "win" friends? It is not as if they can't try to win friends on the anti-same-sex marriage side.
You may believe that same-sex marriage is a fundamental right and that it is a grave injustice what happened in California. But I find it strange that you write as if the vast majority of Americans shared your views and as if the Mormons' position on this issue is a fringe position, when obviously that is not the case.
It is as if I wrote about how difficult it will be for Obama to get support for his agenda when he doesn't believe in repealing Roe v. Wade. The fact that I may find his position wrong, or even repugnant, does not mean that the majority of Americans agree with me or that his position on Roe v. Wade is a radical one.
November 21, 2008 11:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Did you follow the Yes on 8 campaign at all?
Watch any of the ads?
It was ugly.
If I had a gay son and worked for a campaign like that, that'd make me a sorry excuse for a father and a human being in my book.
November 22, 2008 12:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
If I had a gay son and worked for a campaign like that, that'd make me a sorry excuse for a father and a human being in my book
My point is that I don't think that someone with a gay son who approves of his son engaging in homosexual behavior is the sort of person that the Mormons are targeting when they try to "make friends." Mormonism is a fairly socially conservative religion, and I don't think that changing their position or their outspokenness on homosexuality would make be enough to make people of a more liberal social bent get chummy with them.
And there are enough people without gay children and/or who disapprove of homosexuality that Mormons still have plenty of people they can try to make friends with.
I guess my point is that your statement would make a lot of sense if Dr. Lawrence were specifically talking about improving the image of Mormons amongst social liberals or in an area (e.g. San Francisco) that was known for social liberality.
But the real targets of Mormon image-improvement campaigns are likely to be Evangelicals, as well as conservative Protestants and Catholics. So the LDS position on Proposition 8 is likely to help them improve their image with the people that they are actually targeting.
November 22, 2008 2:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
By the way, Rod Dreher did a good job with this piece:
Why Prop 8 victory was Pyrrhic for conservatives
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/points/stories/DN-dreher_16edi.State.Edition1.2a6f40b.html
Also, pls note this graf:
"Opposition to gay marriage was strong in 2004, but it has dramatically receded since then, polls show. This year, nonpartisan Pew Center found that a slight majority (52 percent) of voters oppose gay marriage, but the steady trend lines do not favor the antis."
November 22, 2008 4:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't disagree with your assessment, but you're not addressing the question that Dr. Lawrence raises, which is: how effective can your outreach be if your unfavorables actually go up the more you reach out?
That said, it's always fascinating (for me) to watch a real PR pro at work. I'm making hay with Lawrence's observation, but I'm also aware that he's presenting this conundrum to his audience precisely because it's a great way to drive his book sales.
In any case, I wish the Mormons every success in improving their image with Evangelicals and other religious conservatives. Positioning themselves as the country's wealthiest theocon sect is gonna make it much easier for us to counter their involvement. They flew under the radar for 10 years supporting marriage amendments all across the US and they never got called on it like they did this time around.
November 22, 2008 4:24 AM | Reply | Permalink