*Sects Increasingly Using Media to Bolster Ranks*
The highways leading to Atlantic City, New Jersey are lined
with billboards advertising the city's many gambling
establishments. But one billboard advertising "world peace" stands
out. The way to achieve it, the billboard proclaims, is to join the
Baha'i Faith.
While not many sects lease billboards alongside major highways
to attract new converts, many have more subtle ways of getting the
public's attention. The new religions and cults are increasingly
using the media to promote their causes and bolster their ranks.
In recent months on various cable television stations --
including Ted Turner's WTBS, TNT, CNN, and Headline News -- The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) has been
buying commercial time for what they consider to be
"straight-forward" messages, according to the July 28, 1990 issue
of the weekly _Church News_ supplement of the Mormon-owned _Deseret
News._
For years the Mormons have bought advertisements in
publications like _Reader's Digest_ and _TV Guide_ to carefully
cultivate a wholesome, all-American image for church members,
concentrating on their apparent clean lifestyles instead of their
belief system.
In one of the new Mormon commercials, an attractive female
librarian is pictured saying that of all the great books written by
great authors, she prefers to read about the Savior. She then
explains that, besides the Bible, there's another testament of
Jesus Christ -- the Book of Mormon.
Jesus is pictured in another major Mormon commercial. It
portrays Christ as a baby and then continues with His life until
the crucifixion. It concludes that after Christ's resurrection His
ministry continued, and it didn't end with the Bible -- it ended
with the Book of Mormon.
Both commercials give toll-free numbers viewers can call to
receive a free copy of the Book of Mormon.
Have these commercials been successful? According to the
previously mentioned _Church News_ article, the results have been
"impressive." In addition to these new commercials, the Mormon
church is underwriting a film called "Legacy," according to a
recent _Associated Press_ story. The film will be shown to Salt
Lake City visitors and Utahans in the Fall of 1991, and is set to
focus on the history of the Mormon church....
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