The Mormon Games, the Mormon Olympics, and the Mo-Lympics

The “Mormon Games:” Religion, Media, Cultural Politics, and the Salt Lake Winter Olympics Larry R. Gerlach* “This was a fairy-land to us . a land of enchantment, and goblins, and awful mystery.” Mark Twain on Utah, August 18611 What transpired in Utah for seventeen days in February 2002 was officially known as the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games. The media, however, popu- larly referred to the event by numerous informal names including the Bribery Games, the Stolen Games, the Patriot Games, the Star-Spangled Games, the Healing Games, the Security Games, Gods Games, the Holy-Impics as well as the Mormon Games, the Mormon Olympics, and the Mo-lympics. Those labels refer to the four distin- guishing features of the Salt Lake Games -- the bribery scandal involving the Salt Lake bid committee and some two-dozen members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC); the unprecedented security measures implemented after the Sep- tember 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon: the Winter Olympics as a national and international unifying event in the aftermath of September 11; and the influence of the Mormon church in staging the Games. Of these, Mormonism was the most distinctive aspect of the 2002 Games. Religion and sport have a long association. Traditional societies used athletic contests as part of religious rituals; indeed the original Ancient Greek Olympics was a celebratory event held in honor of Zeus. In modern times, faith-based youth groups like the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), church operated educational institutions like the University of Notre Dame, non-denominational movements like Muscular Christianity, and organizations like Athletes in Action have all used sport to publicize and promote religion. And it is commonplace for sport to be staged in com- * Larry R. Gerlach is Professor in the Department of History at the University of Utah. U.S.A. OLYMPIKA: The International Journal of Olympic Studies Volume XI - 2002, pp. 1-52 2 Olymnpika Volume XI - 2002 munities numerically dominated by a particular religion; that has been true of most Olympic Winter Games and some Summer Games. It is unusual, however, for a spe- cific denomination not only to be extensively involved in planning a sporting event sponsored by a secular organization, but also to embrace it as a major proselytizing opportunity. It is even more unusual for a particular religion’s history and beliefs to become objects of controversy, even ridicule, relative to a sporting event. Such, however, was the case with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) -- the Mormons -- and the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. From the time Salt Lake was awarded the XIXth Winter Games on June 16, 1995, through the conclusion of the Games on February 24, 2002, the Olympics- related topic most frequently discussed in the press was a composite of Mormons, Mormonism, and the LDS church. Many of the reports in the national and international press were superficial, impressionistic, and frequently inaccurate. Coverage in the local press was extensive, detailed, and divisive. What connected local and out- side media reports was the assumption that the Salt Lake Games were basically the “Mormon Olympics,” that the LDS church intended to use the Games to promote Mormonism. Indeed, on the eve of the 2002 Games, a national news magazine article entitled “Mormon Mission,” began: “Is this the Olympics or the Mo-lympics? That’s the question of the hour in Salt Lake City, epicenter of the booming but oft-misunder- stood Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the LDS or Mormon church.”2 This paper examines the notion of the 2002 Winter Games as the “Mormon Olympics” from the perspectives of the church’s influence in Utah, its Olympic- related activities both secular and sectarian, the role of the press in formulating perceptions of Utah and its dominant religion, and the impact of the Games on the church and the Salt Lake community.3 Background Once a little-known, American-born sect ensconced in the Great Basin of the The “Mormon Games” 3 American West, the LDS church is today the fifth largest denomination in the United States and a world-wide religion of some eleven million members, most living out- side the United States.4 A business-minded institution with assets exceeding $30 bil- lion, the church is one of the wealthiest corporations in America.5 Comprising only about one percent of Americans and residing mostly in the western states, Mormons are generally regarded as curiosities, members of a mysterious sect rather than ortho- dox faith.6 Still, most people know something about Mormons or at least have gen- eral perceptions about them. Common understandings include the inspirational music of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir; dietary restrictions which proscribe the use of alco- hol, tobacco, and caffeinated drinks like coffee and tea; the historical practice of polygamy; genealogical research for the proxy baptism of the dead; and an aggressive evangelism personified by an army of 60,000 mostly male missionaries in 162 coun- tries with close-cropped hair, dark suits, white shirts, and narrow ties.7 The combina- tion of traditional social values and unorthodox religious doctrines create an image of Mormon society characterized by assertive piety, old-fashioned prudery, and dull pro- vincialism. The LDS church has dominated Utah since Mormons became the first permanent white settlers of the area in 1847. The state remains remarkably monocultural: 71 percent of its 2.2 million residents are nominally Mormon, 89.2 percent are Caucasian.8 The governor, 90 percent of the legislature, all of the supreme court justices, 80 percent of state and federal judges, 85 percent of the mayors and county officials, and the state’s entire congressional delegation are Mormon. Utah is also the most Republican of the fifty states: The governor, two-thirds of each house of the legislature and four- fifths of the congressional delegation are Republican.9 Consequently, in no other state does a single entity have such unquestioned control over public life as the LDS church in Utah. While secular policies are largely Mormon-made, church leaders infrequently speak publicly on non-religious issues. Instead. they rely either on direc- tives sent to stake presidents and bishops, who in turn convey the messages to the faithful at ward houses on Sunday, or on devout members in business and politics who advance church interests as a matter of course.10 Because Mormons are obli- gated to act out, to demonstrate their religious convictions, they are especially faithful in applying religious precepts to everyday life. While it is appropriate for individuals to follow spiritual beliefs when addressing community issues, the control of public affairs by a single denomination is seen as a political religious issue. Given its virtually unchallenged control of state and local government, the LDS church is conspicuously successful in imposing its “Mo-rality” on society. For exam- ple, the creation in March 2000 of the nation’s first and only Obscenity and Pornogra- phy Complaints Ombudsman, a.k.a Porn Czar, charged with prosecuting anti-smut laws and helping communities write laws to “restrict, suppress, or eliminate” pornog- raphy underscored Mormonism’s prudish image and prompted national ridicule.11 That Brigham Young University, an LDS school, chooses not to compete in intercol- legiate athletics on Sunday is a matter of institutional prerogative, but church-state lines are blurred when local Mormon public officials, usually at the request of church leaders, periodically seek to ban community sports participation on Sundays and Monday evenings to avoid conflict with LDS religious activities.12 In 1997 the Boul- der town council rejected an application for the community’s first restaurant liquor license because Boulder was “Mormon country.”13 Few acts more clearly illustrate 4 Olympika Volume XI - 2002 the church’s political clout than its controversial purchase in April 1999 of a block- long section of Main Street in downtown Salt Lake City in order to connect adjacent blocks housing Temple Square and LDS administrative buildings. Religious tensions surrounding the sale increased when church officials, who promised to create a free access park-calling it “a little bit of Paris”--instead established a restrictive, religious-themed plaza exempt from First Amendment protection.14 To Salt Lake anti- Olympics activist Stephen Pace, “Utah is a theocracy. The reason they [LDS leaders] don’t go overboard in their excesses is that you have this complication called the U.S. Constitution.”15 A British reporter concurred, judging Utah’s politics as “the most right wing in the United States” and the state “the nearest the western world gets to a functioning theocracy.”16 The Mormonization of the Beehive State has been a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it accounts for many positive attributes including the exceptional quality of the performing arts, the state’s flagship university, community volunteerism, and the health indexes of its residents. As one LDS historian put it, were it not for the Mor- mon influence, Utah would “just be another Wyoming or Nevada.”17 On the other hand, the usual tension between the will of the majority and the rights of minorities is exacerbated not only because of the size of the Mormon majority, but also because Mormonism extends beyond a matter of private conscience and Sunday observance into a determined effort to control secular lifestyle policies. Mormonism is an omni- present web of sensibility that seems natural and comforting to some, but embarrass- ing and exclusionary to others. In short, Utah is a monotheistic state where non- Mormons are, in varying degrees, outsiders.18 Not surprisingly, Utah society historically has been divided absolutely on religious grounds between Saints (Mormons) and Gentiles (non-Mormons including Jews).

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