Motivation

A few weeks ago, Mitt Romney gave his well-publicized speech on faith in America, and I thought he did a fantastic job. CNN's coverage of the speech was less than fantastic. During the speech, a side bar was displayed with various bits of "information." A couple were off the mark:

• About 3 million Mormons worldwide; about 6 million in U.S.
• Smith claimed God told him Mormons should have more than one wife.

Okay, first of all, take a look at the first one. Does this mean there are negative 3 million Mormons outside the U.S.? Even if they mean that there are 3 million outside the U.S., they were still off by a factor of 2--there are over 12 million Mormons worldwide.
Second, Joseph Smith did not say that Mormons should have more than one wife. A limited number of people were given this instruction, but it was not given as a directive to the general membership.
Such mistakes incorrect reporting is not limited to CNN. My wife has a subscription to The Week, a news magazine that compiles reporting from other sources. The last two issues have had articles about Romney that included incorrect and misconstrued information.
Why isn't such faulty journalism unacceptable? If another major religion was the subject of such careless reporting, people would be up in arms, resignations might be called for, and official apologies would be issued.
As I was pondering these problems yesterday, I came across a report in the Deseret News of Elder M. Russell Ballard's commencement address at Brigham Young University-Hawaii (Deseret News article, speech transcript). He pointed out that "there are too many people participating in conversation about the Church for our Church personnel to converse with and respond to individually" and called on the students to "join the conversation by participating on the Internet, particularly the New Media, to share the gospel and to explain in simple and clear terms the message of the Restoration."
To help combat the problems of inaccurate media reports about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and to share my faith, I decided to start this blog. As I respond to and comment on articles, I will post links and my responses here. I want to start a dialog, not an argument. As Elder Ballard said, "There is no need to argue or contend with others regarding our beliefs. There is no need to become defensive or belligerent. Our position is solid; the Church is true. We simply need to have a conversation, as friends in the same room would have, always guided by the prompting of the Spirit and constantly remembering the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ which reminds us of how precious are the children of our Father in Heaven." Amen.