An Analysis of the Newspaper Coverage of Latter-Day Saint Temples Announced Or Built Within the United States from October 1997 Through December 2004

Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 2005 An Analysis of the Newspaper Coverage of Latter-Day Saint Temples Announced or Built Within the United States from October 1997 Through December 2004 Kevan L. Gurr Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the Journalism Studies Commons, Mormon Studies Commons, and the Public Relations and Advertising Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Gurr, Kevan L., "An Analysis of the Newspaper Coverage of Latter-Day Saint Temples Announced or Built Within the United States from October 1997 Through December 2004" (2005). Theses and Dissertations. 4731. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/4731 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. AN ANALYSIS OF THE NEWSPAPER COVERAGE OF LATTER-DAY SAINT TEMPLES ANNOUNCED OR BUILT WITHIN THE UNITED STATES FROM OCTOBER 1997 THROUGH DECEMBER 2004 by Kevan L. Gurr A thesis submitted to the faculty of Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Religious Education Religious Education Brigham Young University April 2005 Copyright © 2005 Kevan L. Gun- All Rights Reserved BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY GRADUATE COMMITTEE APPROVAL of a thesis submitted by Kevan Gurr This thesis has been read by each member of the following graduate committee and has been found to be satisfactory. BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY As chair of the candidate's graduate committee, I have read the thesis of Kevan Gurr in its final form and have found that (1) its format, citations, and bibliographical style are consistent and acceptable and fiilfill university and department style requirements, (2) its illustrative materials including figures, tables and charts are in place; and (3) the final manuscript is satisfactory to the graduate committee and is ready for submission to the University library. Accepted for the Department Accepted for the College ABSTRACT AN ANALYSIS OF THE NEWSPAPER COVERAGE OF LATTER-DAY SAINT TEMPLES ANNOUNCED OR BUILT WITHIN THE UNITED STATES FROM OCTOBER 1997 THROUGH DECEMBER 2004 Kevan L. Gun- Religious Education Master of Arts in Religious Education President Gordon B. Hinckley, the fifteenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, excited the membership of the Church by increasing the number of temples available to members. He announced that the Church would construct smaller buildings - as compared with existing temples at the time - thereby allowing for greater numbers of temples to be built. He set a goal to build 50 temples in a two and half-year period: double the number the Church had ever attempted to build in any decade. Thirty-four of these temples were built in the United States, and newspapers ~ both local and national - covered the construction of these temples with over 330 articles. This thesis analyzes the newspaper coverage of temples built within the United States from October 1997 through December 2004, and draws important conclusions from this data regarding the nation's perception of the Latter-day Saint temples. Each of the 330 articles was scored according to specific criteria, and grouped by region (as defined by the Church's official web-site). Then, after individual and regional scoring, overall newspaper exposure for the Church's small temple building was scored for the United States as a whole. As each temple's unique story unfolded in the newspapers, the general public's view of the Church's small temple construction became clear. Although quite a few of the proposed temples experienced opposition with regard to building specifics and anti-Latter-day Saint efforts, Church departments and members negotiated, compromised, and softened the impact of this opposition, and many people welcomed the temples into their communities. In addition to gaining a sense for the public's viewpoint, some global observations emerged from this study, revealing the importance of professionalism within Church departments and programs when working with the media and public. A few observations also revealed three lessons to be remembered in future temple building relations. But most importantly this study shows that not only did the Lord's revelation through a prophet open the way for the Church to build more temples, but as a by product of this revelation, the smaller temple concept helped to lessen the controversial and negative articles that the larger temples tended to generate. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Accomplishing a task such as a thesis takes considerable encouragement from a supporting cast. In this project, my supporting cast has first consisted of professors Donald Q. Cannon, Richard O. Cowan, John B. Stohlton, and D. Kelly Ogden, who instructed and guided me through the technical and academic aspects of the project. I am grateful to them for their constant availability and suggestions. Secondly, I am ever grateful for those who have been blessed with talents and skills in editing: Cami Hewett, my father (Marsh Gurr), and my wife (Sherri Gurr) have all assisted in revising numerous editions of this paper. To each of you, thank you for sharing your talent on my behalf. Finally, I have always felt the constant love and support from Sherri, my wife. From moving to Utah during the summer to take the Religious Education courses, to countless hours, evenings, and days of not only editing this work but being the lone caregiver in the home during the writing stage of this project, she has been my closest confidant and help throughout this journey. I will forever remember the discussion after which I saw clearly the direction this project needed to go, and the day the final words were typed and our family was dancing for joy around the living room. My greatest hope in pursuing a Masters degree was to do something that would be of benefit to others, but now I realize that this project has most of all been beneficial to me personally, and I am totally satisfied. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 2 The West Coast, Hawaii, and Alaska Region 21 Chapter 3 The Mountain West Region 53 Chapter 4 The Southwest Region 73 Chapter 5 The Midwest Region 95 Chapter 6 The Southeast Region 120 Chapter 7 The East Region 146 Chapter 8 The Northeast Region 161 Chapter 9 Conclusion 172 Works Cited 186 Vlll Chapter 1 Introduction "We approach the subject of temples with deep reverence," explains Elder Boyd K. Packer, an Apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He continues, "The work of the temples is transcendent in nature, its prospects so supernal that the mind of man could not have conceived it. This work and the ordinances central to it came from Deity."1 As we can conclude from Elder Packer's statement, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints cannot fully enjoy all that their religion has to offer without participating in the ordinances of the temple. The subject of temples is so significant and sacred to Latter-day Saints that it inspires both great interest and numerous questions among the public. Some common questions deal with what goes on inside a temple, why it is closed to some people, and where the next one will be built. These topics receive special coverage in newspapers whenever a new temple is built. This Introduction will discuss the background of temple building, the thesis's structure for cataloging and analyzing newspaper coverage of temples, and the pattern for sequencing articles that emerges therein. Background The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, hereafter referred to as "the Church," took 120 years to construct the first 50 operating temples. Shortly after the dedication of the St. Louis Missouri Temple—the 50th in operation—the prophet of the Church, President Gordon B. Hinckley, made an announcement that completely changed 1 Packer, Boyd K., The Holy Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, 1980, Introduction. 1 traditional temple building and sparked great excitement among Church members worldwide. The Man Behind the Announcement President Hinckley has had a long-term interest in temple building. This interest began in 1954, when President David O. McKay, the president of the Church at the time, instructed Brother Hinckley, then an employee in the Church's missionary department, to find a way to minimize the number of temple workers needed to perform temple ordinances.2 This assignment deepened Brother Hinckley's desire to be involved in the progress of temple building and temple work throughout the world. Consequently, on numerous occasions after he became a General Authority in 1958, Elder Hinckley shared information with the general membership of the Church to keep them abreast on the status of temple building. On one such occasion, in his October 1974 general conference address, Elder Hinckley described some of the great hardships and sacrifices Latter-day Saints living outside of the United States experienced in order to attend the temple: I have seen a group of Latter-day Saints from Japan who had denied themselves food to make possible the long journey to the Hawaii Temple. In London we met those who had gone without necessities to afford the 7,000-mile flight from South Africa to the temple, in Surrey, England. I remember hearing in New Zealand the testimony of a man from the far side of Australia who, having been previously sealed by civil authority and then joined the Church with his wife and children, had traveled all the way across the wide continent, then across the Tasman Sea to Auckland, and down to the temple ..

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