to any (body) who will listen

203 Pages·2013·0.91 MB·English

by  Gavin Feller

TO ANY (BODY) WHO WILL LISTEN:
THE EVOLVING ROLE OF MEDIA TECHNOLOGY IN THE CHURCH OF JESUS
CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS’ MISSIONARY COMMUNICATION
STRATEGY
by
Gavin Feller

A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of
The Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Arts

Florida Atlantic University
Boca Raton, Florida
August 2013

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
While all graduate faculty in the Communication Studies program contributed to
this thesis indirectly, I would like to acknowledge a few specific individuals whose
support and guidance made a particular impact. I thank Bill Trapani for his willingness to
step in and help out with this project last minute when he could have just as easily
declined. I thank Melanie Loewing for her priceless counsel in the ongoing
conceptualization of this project, for her insightful feedback and her sharp editorial eye.
As my thesis advisor, Fred Fejes has been an incredibly supportive guide throughout this
project, giving me the confidence and freedom I needed from inception to completion. I
thank my brother Jared Feller and friend Brad Kime for the many long Mormon studies
conversations and resources shared. I thank my mother and father-in-law for hosting and
“just checking” on this disheveled and unkempt hermit during the final weeks of the
project. Above all, I thank my wife Barbara and son Milo. Barbara’s unwavering faith
and confidence in me and her love and support were never questioned or unappreciated.
Milo’s 10-month-old smile and laugh while playing catch on the floor during writing
breaks kept me sane down the home stretch

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ABSTRACT
Author: Gavin Feller
Title: To Any (Body) Who Will Listen: The Evolving Role of Media
Technology in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’
Missionary Communication Strategy

Institution: Florida Atlantic University
Thesis Advisor: Dr. Fred Fejes
Degree: Master of Arts
Year: 2013
This thesis explores how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS)
has used media technology as part of its missionary communication strategy. Particular
attention is paid to the Internet as a space for religious practice and how the LDS Church
has sought to extend its media practices and missionary efforts online. By utilizing new
media technology to find individuals interested in hearing its message, the LDS Church
faces new challenges to its traditional face-to-face missionary program, its centralized
hierarchy of control and its ongoing struggle for identity within American Christian
culture. Throughout its history, the LDS Church’s missionary communication strategy
has used several different methods for finding people to teach but has consistently
focused on ensuring that such methods ultimately lead to face-to-face lessons with
missionaries, viewed as the most transformative communication exchange for both the
missionary and the potential convert.

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TO ANY (BODY) WHO WILL LISTEN:
THE EVOLVING ROLE OF MEDIA TECHNOLOGY IN THE CHURCH OF JESUS
CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS’ MISSIONARY COMMUNICATION
STRATEGY
Chapter 1: The Missionary Age Requirement Policy Change .............................................1
Thesis Chapter Outline ..................................................................................................4
Chapter 2: Theology and Media ..............................................................................5
Chapter 3: Uses and Gratifications and Religious Practices on the Internet ...........7
Chapter 4: Religious Identity Construction and Conversion Narratives ...............10
Chapter 5: Sociological Approaches to LDS Missionary Service .........................11
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................13
Notes ............................................................................................................................15
Chapter 2: Theology and Mass Media ...............................................................................23
Introduction ..................................................................................................................23
Christianity and Catholicism ........................................................................................24
The Body and Physical Presence in Catholicism ...................................................25
Catholic Mass Media .............................................................................................27
Protestantism ................................................................................................................30
The Body and Physical Presence in Protestantism ................................................32
Protestant Mass Media ..........................................................................................33

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Mormonism ..................................................................................................................35
The Body and Physical Presence in Mormonism .................................................37
Mormon Mass Media ...................................................................................................40
Print .......................................................................................................................40
Telegraph ..............................................................................................................42
Film .......................................................................................................................42
Television ..............................................................................................................45
Centralization ........................................................................................................46
Missionaries and/as Media ...........................................................................................47
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................48
Notes ............................................................................................................................50
Chapter 3: Uses and Gratifications and Religious Practices on the Internet .....................64
Introduction ..................................................................................................................64
Uses and Gratifications ................................................................................................65
Religion and the Internet ..............................................................................................70
Religious Internet Uses and Gratifications ..................................................................72
Theoretical Approaches ...............................................................................................75
LDS Internet .................................................................................................................78
SEO .....................................................................................................................81
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................84
Notes ............................................................................................................................86
Chapter 4: Religious Identity Construction and Conversion Narratives ...........................99
Introduction ..................................................................................................................99

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Religious Identity Construction .................................................................................100
Liza Morong’s Story ..................................................................................................102
LDS Online Proselytizing Experimentation ..............................................................112
The Body and a Hybrid Proselytizing Future ............................................................116
Conclusion .................................................................................................................117
Notes ..........................................................................................................................120
Chapter 5: Sociological Approaches LDS Missionary Service .......................................131
Introduction ................................................................................................................131
LDS Hierarchy ...........................................................................................................133
The Bloggernacle .......................................................................................................135
Assimilation and Retrenchment .................................................................................139
I’m a Mormon Campaign ...........................................................................................140
A Rite of Passage and Instrument of Socialization ....................................................145
Embodied Dialogue ...................................................................................................153
Conclusion .................................................................................................................156
Future Research .........................................................................................................159
Notes ..........................................................................................................................163
Bibliography ....................................................................................................................177

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CHAPTER 1
THE MISSIONARY AGE REQUIREMENT POLICY CHANGE
Introduction
Two weekends a year throughout the world, members (Mormons) of The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) gather around the family computer, television
and radio, in local meeting houses, and for the lucky minority to a granite shelled
conference center in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. Those far away from
Salt Lake City will watch and listen throughout the weekend’s broadcasts, some with
reverence equal to conservative Christian Sabbath worship and others with casual
attention divided between Saturday chores and religious devotion. Those gathered in their
local meetinghouse will sit in a dark room gazing toward a large TV or white screen on
which a succession of men and women in their finest dress appear.
Those seated in the Utah conference center are likewise suited in Sunday best;
nestled among some 21,000 others from various corners of the globe, united in their
desire to be instructed from on high. Some sit patiently, quietly, often praying or simply
starring at the majestic walnut pulpit at the front of the room. Parents wrestle to settle
children, passing Cheerio-filled Ziploc baggies, coloring books and iPads down the
family line. Suddenly all chatter ceases in an instant. Like a well-trained choir, audience
members rise quickly to their feet with a reverberating whoosh that fills the Center then
dissipates into utter, momentary silence. From the back of the balcony to the front row of

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seats, all eyes are fixed on a trail of men and women entering the front of the conference
room. The man in front: a modern prophet of God.
Ordained the prophet and president of the LDS Church in 2008, Thomas S.
Monson waves to the enormous crowd, with his head reaching to from side to side,
painting the surrounding walls with a bright smile.1 He signals for all to sit as he takes his
seat among a row of 15 men, the apostleship, presiding LDS Church authority and
“special witnesses” of Jesus Christ to the world.2
From 1830, the year the LDS Church was established, to today, LDS General
Conference has brought together leaders and members, the former to instruct the latter on
God’s living word.3 Messages of gospel principles such as faith, repentance and
forgiveness are coupled with contemporary rhetorical defenses of family and Christian
values.4 In addition to spiritually uplifting talks, announcements are made of new
callings5, new temples and on rare occasion, Church-wide policy changes. In the October,
2012 General Conference, President Monson made such an announcement, as surprising
and curious as any. He announced a change in age policy for volunteer missionary
service.6 Typically, young American Latter-day Saint men are eligible to serve between
ages 19 to 26 and young women from ages 21 onward (no limit), while in 48 other
countries the Church has traditionally been more flexible with age restrictions.7 The new
change, however, lowered American missionary age eligibility (where the majority of
LDS missionaries come from) to 18 for men and 19 for women, allowing both sexes to
volunteer earlier, especially women.8
The response to the announced change has been monumental. In just two months,
missionary applications increased by 471 percent.9 The Church also reports that more

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than 50 percent of missionary applications are now from women, previous to the recent
policy change, young women accounted for only 15 to 20 percent of the missionary
force.10 The number of missionaries serving throughout the world, a body larger at any
one time than all Protestant denominations’ missionary forces combined, has reached the
highest number in the Church’s history: 70,274.11 These missionaries are divided up
geographically into areas called missions, which numbered 340 until the change
demanded the addition of 58.12
The missionary age policy change is resulting in an incredible increase in
missionary service, but more importantly, it reflects the LDS Church’s broader
proselytizing communication strategy. The LDS Church has long encouraged its young
people to voluntarily serve as missionaries but why did it decide to increase the number
of face-to-face missionaries now when it is already actively engaged in online
proselytizing, search engine optimization (SEO) and a number of social media outlets?13
At a time when many modern Christian churches are migrating to digital proselytizing
platforms and others focusing entirely on digital worship, why the push for increased
embodied communication?14 The LDS Church has readily adopted mass communication
technology from print to social media and shows no signs of reversing course.15 What,
then does this new policy reveal about the way the LDS Church views communication
media and the role of the human body in proselytizing? Why is face-to-face missionary
communication so treasured within Mormonism and how will it continue to be integrated
with new media technology? These questions make up the primary research questions
this thesis seeks to address.

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