DiscussMormonism.com

BYU--or some division of it--has proposed a business plan to help the church. It's goal is akin to the More Good Foundation, that of getting pro-LDS links to the top of all search results pages. You can see the link to the proposal here.

Their outline states, in part, that "the LDS Church tracks about 6,500 anti-LDS Web sites." So much for the FAIRites' denials thereunto. Big Brother, anyone?

At any rate, there are two more utterly priceless quotes in that article. Can you find them?

I particularly liked this one:

Only vast quantities of positive material, correctly optimized, can resolve this problem

Hmmm. Wonder what "correctly optimized" means?

Oh, I liked this one too:

Much of the present information about Christ on the Internet is either embarrassing or inaccurate.

Hmm, does fairboards.org jump to anyone's mind?? ;)

Wow... 6,500 sites? And all this time the LDS online community didn't think the church even knew of the less than faith promoting sites! :-)

I have to say... if I were a believer trying to spread the message of the church throughout the world, I would most likely do the exact same thing.

What other choice is there?

They can't really share the problems more openly because that is exactly WHY people are leaving the church and not joining. They can't remotely suggest the issues are not real or that the non-believers are lying because at this point it is pretty clear the issues raised over the years are indeed problematic.

Now, there is the option of coming clean, revising the truth claims, and hoping a new, more healthy belief system comes forth but I do not think this is very likely given the history of the church.

Personally, I think the younger generation is too saavy to not research the church, and even those who have been around are discovering new information that makes them reevaluate life and their beliefs!

~dancer~

Remember that Daniel Peterson has repeatedly denied that the church tracks websites that oppose the church. I guess that's why he's moved on to embarrassing himself in Jewish forums.

Using keywords to push competitors down is standard practice on the net, but somehow it gives a very negative impression for a church to be doing this. I don't think it's going to make any difference anyway. Most LDS forums are dead, or moving at snail's pace. MA&D is alive because it allows criticism, and has a wide range of posters. The ratio of TBMs to critics on MA&D is 50-50. Without that cherished principle of "opposition in all things", most websites would die. I think this plan is ill-conceived. It sounds like a very "canned" approach.

Dr. Shades wrote:BYU--or some division of it--has proposed a business plan to help the church. It's goal is akin to the More Good Foundation, that of getting pro-LDS links to the top of all search results pages. You can see the link to the proposal here.

Their outline states, in part, that "the LDS Church tracks about 6,500 anti-LDS Web sites." So much for the FAIRites' denials thereunto. Big Brother, anyone?

At any rate, there are two more utterly priceless quotes in that article. Can you find them?

It may surprise you to know that the D&C mandates Church tracking and copying of anti-Mormon publications to use as a testament in the hereafter. The Church has the world's largest paper and electronic copy of anti-Mormon publications in the world. But, nobody is employed to read or act upon what is copied and deposited in the archives. [The Church is about 10 years behind the commercial world in data mining, however. The church's approach to technology is very very dated; the Family History system (which generates the IGI), for instance, is not a real time system.] The archives are available to researchers. Hugh Nibley has written about this library and what the Church does with it.

I can't help thinking that much of the effect of discovering information on the internet could be eliminated if we embraced our true history rather than faith promoting legends. The difference between the two can help damage some members faith when exposed to the internet.


I do know that they can program a computer to generate a novel mimicking Jacqueline Suzanne. Perhaps a server farm could disseminate the thoughts of Dr. Peterson across the internet to all those 6,500 sites on a daily basis in a similar way.

Hi Plutarch,

It may surprise you to know that the D&C mandates Church tracking and copying of anti-Mormon publications to use as a testament in the hereafter.

So are those who share less than faith promoting information that is true going to hell? (or OD, TK).

I'm observing that little of what is shared by former believers is not true. I discovered this on the FAIR board. Basically everything I heard (and thought was an anti lie) turned out to be completely true)!

Like Ray, I wonder if the church were more honest and upfront, if the negativity would automatically go down? I tend to think so for two reasons.

First, members would not have to discover the truth from a less than faith promoting site, and second, folks would be about a thousand times less angry if they left.

Just a thought,

~dancer~

That many anti sites wow....who would have thought....6,500.....Must keep em pretty busy...are we one of those sites????

I hope so because...because lately the Mormons have been leaving alone...which I like...