Sacramento Media Specialist Lisa West presented a PowerPoint review of the book How Americans View Mormons by Gary Lawrence. Some of the misconceptions people have of us come from the following factors:
Ignorance (they don't know what we believe)
Polygamy (aren't aware of history and facts, break-away groups confused with Mormons.)
Power (fear we would use force)
Weird (what they think of pre-mortal life, ordinances for the dead, etc.
Secretive (don't want to talk about certain things, such as temple ceremonies)
Exclusionary (think we leave others out)
There is a lot of work to be done in public affairs to present the Church in a positive light.
Other classes were held on community communication, effective service projects and using the web to communicate.
In the above picture, Sandra Lunceford (left) an executive assistant in Sacramento teaches a class attended by Adelle Barrette, Marlene Fitt and Ann Kerr. President Anderson takes notes during a presentation on service projects.
