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, popularly 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 distinguishing 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 September 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
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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 specific 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 Olympicsrelated 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 outside 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-misunderstood 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 Olympicrelated 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 outside the United States.4 A business-minded institution with assets exceeding $30 billion, 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 orthodox faith.6 Still, most people know something about Mormons or at least have general perceptions about them. Common understandings include the inspirational music
of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir; dietary restrictions which proscribe the use of alcohol, 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 countries with close-cropped hair, dark suits, white shirts, and narrow ties.7 The combination of traditional social values and unorthodox religious doctrines create an image of
Mormon society characterized by assertive piety, old-fashioned prudery, and dull provincialism.
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 fourfifths 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 directives 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 obligated 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 example, the creation in March 2000 of the nation’s first and only Obscenity and Pornography Complaints Ombudsman, a.k.a Porn Czar, charged with prosecuting anti-smut
laws and helping communities write laws to “restrict, suppress, or eliminate” pornography underscored Mormonism’s prudish image and prompted national ridicule.11
That Brigham Young University, an LDS school, chooses not to compete in intercollegiate 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 Boulder town council rejected an application for the community’s first restaurant liquor
license because Boulder was “Mormon country.”13 Few acts more clearly illustrate
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the church’s political clout than its controversial purchase in April 1999 of a blocklong 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 antiOlympics 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 Mormon 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 omnipresent web of sensibility that seems natural and comforting to some, but embarrassing and exclusionary to others. In short, Utah is a monotheistic state where nonMormons 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). In no other state is there such acute religious consciousness. That immediately struck a Swedish student attending high school in Utah during the Olympics,
who commented: “I’m surprised religion means so much to people here.” 19 Nowhere
else in America are people so openly identified according to whether or not they
belong to a particular church. (In Utah “a member” means Mormon, just as “the
church” always means LDS.) After all, Protestants in Boston are not called non-Catholics, and Catholics in Atlanta are not called non-Baptists. Even the Salt Lake daily
newspapers are divided along religious lines. The Deseret News, the self-styled
“Locally Owned Newspaper,” is owned by the LDS church, while the Salt Lake Tribune, historically owned by non-Mormons, proclaims itself “Utah’s Independent
Voice Since 1871.”20
Tolerance and goodwill exist on both sides of the religious divide, but intolerance
from both camps has been the underlying dynamic to life in Utah since the 1850s. It
is a religious issue for Mormons who regard Utah as “theirs” and see non-Mormons as
a threat to a quasi-theocratic way of life in Zion; it is a political issue for non-Mormons who, while chafing at the self-righteousness of individual Mormons, primarily
resent the church’s control over secular affairs. Moreover, Utahns have always been
acutely image-conscious, caring deeply how they were viewed by the outside world - Mormons are concerned about how their religion is perceived and portrayed, while
non-Mormons are sensitive about being marginalized by outsiders who regard Utah
and Mormon as synonymous.
Rural Utah remains markedly homogeneous in terms of race and religion save for
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5
five Native American tribal reservations, but the urban hubs of Ogden and Salt Lake
City encompass a wide range of economic interests, religions, lifestyles, and racial
and ethnic groups. Ironically, Salt Lake City, headquarters of the LDS church and
host of the 2002 Games, is the least Mormon place in Mormondom. With a population that is 65 percent non-LDS and 20 percent Latin, myriad coffee shops and microbreweries. broad-based ethnic and religious diversity, Salt Lake is a bastion of social
and political liberalism in an overwhelmingly conservative Republican state, and, as a
result, the lightening rod for controversies with the Mormon church. The antithesis of
the LDS politician, Ross C. “Rocky” Anderson, liberal Democrat, divorce, ex-rock
guitarist, former American Civil Liberties Union lawyer and alcohol-imbibing, nonreligious ex-Mormon, is the third consecutive non-Mormon mayor of the capital city;
all four chief executives since 1979 have been Democrats. With a metropolitan population of 1.2 million, Salt Lake is the largest city to ever host the Olympic Winter
Games and the most ethnically and religiously diverse community to do so. That Salt
Lake City differed culturally so dramatically from the rest of Utah, but still reflected
Mormon social values, placed the host city and the LDS church on a collision course
in preparing for the 2002 Games.
Salt Lake City
Although local distinctiveness is a cultural given and the dominant religion of an
Olympic host community had never before been an issue -- e.g., Atlanta 1996 was not
known as the Baptist Olympics and Torino 2006 is not cast as the Catholic Games -- it
was inevitable that Salt Lake 2002 would be labeled the “Mormon Olympics.” First
of all, the church’s well-known missionary zeal led logically to the belief that it would
attempt to use the Games to promote its religion. Second, the church’s quasi-theocratic control over the political, economic, and social life of Utah suggested that the
Games would inevitably take on the distinctive aura of Mormonism. Third, curiosity
about Mormonism’s idiosyncratic religious beliefs and social practices inevitably led
outsiders to emphasize LDS culture and influence. Throughout Olympic history, concerns about politics or facilities occasionally have been topics of pre-Games commen-
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tary or criticism, but Salt Lake 2002 was the first time lifestyle and religion were the
subjects of media discourse and, more important, controversy within the host community. Salt Lake 2002 was the most singular example of a predominant political, cultural, and economic institution showcased by the Olympics since the 1936 Nazi
Olympics in Berlin.
The Mormon Olympics
Utah Governor Michael Leavitt considered the 2002 Winter Games a “great
branding moment” and urged city and county leaders to “not underestimate or under
appreciate what a remarkable opportunity this presents for us as a state.”21 Every
Olympic host community tries to use the Games to sell something be it economic
development, recreational resources, tourism opportunities, or an enhanced public
image. Utah had a unique product to promote. While Salt Lake Olympic and governmental officials stressed the economic benefits of hosting the winter Olympics, notably a burgeoning winter and summer tourist industry, it was a religious institution, the
LDS church that stood to gain the most from the exposure. 22 For a militantly evangelical church that believed it was the one true religion, exposure to billions of potential
converts on a global stage was a singular opportunity to further its missionary work.
Nothing of major public consequence transpires in Utah without the advice, consent, and sometimes involvement of the Mormon church. When, beginning in 1965,
representatives of the Utah ski industry and old-line commercial interests launched
exploratory attempts to obtain the 1972 and 1976 Winter Games, the church extended
only tacit approval as an interested bystander. However, the church was aware of the
benefits of Olympics exposure, and in the mid 1980s considered joining the United
States Olympic Committee as a “Group B” member on the basis of its amateur sports
program.23 When more concerted efforts to obtain the Winter Games began in 1985,
the various bid committees routinely consulted with church officials to brief them on
plans, review bid books, and even preview presentations to the International Olympic
Committee (IOC).24 The church did not officially support the quests for the 1992,
1998, and 2002 Games, but from 1985 to 1995 various of its businesses contributed
$210,938 to bid committees in the “spirit of good corporate citizenship.”25 Mormon
bid committee members clearly understood church interests.26 Frank Richards, an exmissionary in charge of soliciting South American support for the 2002 bid, was specific about his motivation in seeking the Olympics for Salt Lake: “I’d like people
throughout the world to become more familiar with our city and our area, to see the
quality of life. And to be honest, I have to say I thought it would be a great thing for
the (LDS) church.”27 Church officials made no public statements about the bid
efforts, relying instead upon others to convey their position. Thus on May 24, 1995,
on the eve of the selection of the host city for the 2002 Winter Games, James Mortimer, publisher of the church-owned Deseret News, wrote to IOC President Juan
Antonio Samaranch. “You have a monumental decision to make on June 16, and all
of us at the Deseret News urge you to select Salt Lake City,” wrote Mortimer, underscoring the point by quoting Brigham Young’s fabled statement uttered upon reaching
the Salt Lake Valley in 1847: “This is the right place!”28
Salt Lake’s winning the bid for the 2002 Games on June 16, 1995, increased the
Olympic stakes for Salt Lake City, Utah, and the Mormon church. The ski industry,
The “Mormon Games”
7
commercial interests, and economic development agencies were the principal promoters of the Olympics, but the church now became the biggest player. While LDS leaders were conspicuously silent when Salt Lake obtained the 2002 bid and in fact made
no official statement about the Olympics until 1998, they promptly began to prepare
for the Games. The key was the Church Olympic Coordinating Committee established in October 1995, “a kind of clearinghouse for the church’s Olympic efforts.”
Co-chaired by Apostles Robert D. Hales and Henry B. Eyring, members of the Quorum of the Twelve, the church’s second-highest leadership group, the committee also
included M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Seventy; H. David Burton, the presiding bishop of Salt Lake; and Bruce L. Olsen, managing director of public affairs
29
for the church. The claim that the committee’s sole function was to consider the Salt
Lake Organizing Committee’s (SLOC) requests for human and financial assistance,
but never to be proactive in solicitations was essentially, albeit not entirely, accurate.30 The church proved a generous partner, eventually loaning large amounts of
real estate and contributing millions of dollars through its corporate subsidiaries for
Olympic preparations. Looking back upon Salt Lake’s successful bid attempt, LDS
President Gordon B. Hinckley said: “Our people [initially] were on both sides of the
question,” but “once that decision was made we backed it with contributions of manpower, facilities, space, resources--everything that was requested of us to make of this
a tremendous party for the world.”31
Brigham Young
The church’s initial support for SLOC came through behind-the-scenes agreements with its Olympic Coordinating Committee and contributions from its corporate
subsidiaries but, in November 1998, the ruling First Presidency for the first time
advised Mormons that it was “supportive of Utah’s efforts to make the 2002 Winter
Games successful and memorable.” The declaration accompanied what would be one
of the church’s most important contributions to the Games. the recruitment of volunteers. Just prior to SLOC’s initial call for volunteers, church leaders sent a letter to
stake presidents and bishops encouraging church members to volunteer for Olympic
8 Olmpika
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service, noting that “Latter-day Saints have a well-earned reputation for rendering
community service.” The timing of the message, read at sacrament meetings on
November 15, indicates the church’s intimate relationship with SLOC.32
The church’s call not only prompted an outpouring of volunteers, but also
ensured widespread LDS support for the Games, or at least diminished opposition to
them. There had been no attempt to create a community consensus for the Olympics
prior to winning the 2002 bid, and only modest efforts at inclusion afterwards. Nonetheless, widespread support for the Olympics existed partly because both daily newspapers were initially Olympic boosters and then official sponsors of the Winter
Games, but principally because of the Mormon church. Once President Hinckley let
it be known that he was grateful for the Olympics, Mormons, predictably faithful to
church leadership, either supported the Games or withdrew from opposition to them.
Public support for the Olympics remained steady at 59 percent from Salt Lake’s
obtaining the bid in 1995 to the eve of Games in 2002, while opposition decreased
substantially during the same time from 33 to 11 percent. The pressure to conform
was great: After criticizing the Mormon influence on SLOC following the appointment of Mitt Romney as CEO in early 1999, wealthy Mormon industrialist Jon
Huntsman, an early critic of SLOC and Olympic finances, met with Romney and
never again publicly criticized any aspect of the Games. Significantly, there was not
a single prominent LDS critic of the 2002 Games and no sizable local protest group
opposed to them.33
Concerns about Mormon influence on the Olympic Games had existed since Salt
Lake bid attempts began in 1965. Initially, when the IOC inquired in 1972 as to
whether Mormon social values, i.e. restrictive liquor laws, might compromise the
Games, the concern was not church involvement per se. But later, when Salt Lake
became a serious contender for the winter Olympics, some IOC members, notably
Europeans, feared the church would exploit the Games for religious purposes and
therefore chose not to meet with the Mormon presidents during visits to Utah.34 Once
the bid was won, it was assumed that the LDS church would contribute to the Olympics, but Mormons and non-Mormons alike worried about an exaggerated presence
during the Games. Thus when a group of Salt Lake advertising executives in the fall
of 1996 held meetings with various groups throughout the state to identify themes for
the winter Olympics, the mostly Mormon communities invariably opposed the suggestion that Utah’s Mormon heritage be included as an Olympic theme, arguing
“leave religion out of the mix” and “these should [not] be the Mormon Games.”35
But given the singular influence of the LDS church and the peculiarities of Utah
society, it was inevitable that concerns about Mormonism would increase steadily and
that the press eventually would dub the Salt Lake Winter Games the “Mormon Olympics.” Only a dozen or so national and international newspapers ran stories on the
topic from 1996 to early 2001, but during the twelve months prior to the Games it
became a conventional perception of the Salt Lake Olympics. For Utahns, the Olympics quickly became a cultural lightning rod.
A March 1998 column by John Harrington in City Weekly, Salt Lake’s alternative newspaper, first openly broached “The Mormon Games” issue and displayed the
emotion that surrounded the subject. His target was Governor Michael Leavitt who,
while attending the Nagano Games, not only told reporters that the Mormon church
“will play a big role in helping assemble the army of volunteers needed to stage the
The “Mormon Games”
9
2002 Games” because it has “the ability to motivate people to participate,” but also
said that he expected former Mormon missionaries “to work at venues and press centers, where people from around the world seek assistance in their native tongue.”
Outraged that the Governor would speak only about the possible contributions of his
church, Harrington first castigated Leavitt for repeatedly “reminding every non-Mormon in Utah that it’s not our state through his sanctimonious, sermon-like public testimonials dripping with religious overtones” and then declared his “audacious attempt
at the religious hijacking of the 2002 Winter Olympics” was “strikingly similar” to
how Adolf Hitler wanted to use the 1936 Olympics “as a prime propaganda opportunity to promote one organization over all others.” It was a pivotal column. Whether
Leavitt’s comments were his personal opinion or, more likely, based on earlier conversations with SLOC and church officials, they greatly heightened local awareness
of LDS involvement in the Salt Lake Games. Moreover, the harshness and ad hominem nature of Harrington’s commentary exposed the depth of religious tensions in
the community, while his observations about “Mormonizing” the Games portended
how Olympic-related issues would grate on already frayed religious nerves. 36
The primary concern was Mormon control of Olympic planning. The membership of the various Salt Lake bid committees and SLOC after 1995 was always predominantly LDS. The five most visible and important 1990s bid committee members
were Mormons: Thomas K. Welch, president; David R. Johnson, senior vice president for games operations; Craig Peterson, vice president for administration; and
committeemen Frank Richards, who solicited South America, and Bennie Smith, the
lone African-American member, who courted the African vote. The Chairman of the
Board of Trustees, Kennecott mining company CEO G. Frank Joklik, a Catholic, was
the principal non-Mormon. Most of the key bid personnel continued on SLOC after
1995, where they were soon joined by former LDS church image-makers such as
Steve Coltrin, coordinator of national media contacts, and N. Alan Barnes, director of
the Salt Lake Olympic interfaith relations, who happened to be President Hinckley’s
son-in-law. The relationship between the local organizing committee and the church
was so intimate that SLOC invited LDS Apostle Robert Hales, co-chair of the
church’s Olympic Coordinating Committee, as a “distinguished” guest to the 1998
Nagano Winter Games where he obtained “firsthand, inside information” that
enhanced the church’s “volunteer and public relations efforts in 2002.” (SLOC did
not accord “distinguished” guest status, which entailed special accommodations and
broad access to events, to members of the Salt Lake City council.) The Mormon connection was so conspicuous that SLOC officials were designated VIPs eligible for
37
front-row seats at the church’s semi-annual General Conferences.
LDS control of SLOC became manifest during the leadership crisis that began
when Tom Welch resigned as president in July 1997 following charges of spouse
abuse and culminated when acting president Frank Joklik and vice president Dave
Johnson followed suit on January 8, 1999, amid IOC bribery allegations. A small
group of Mormon Olympic leaders including Governor Leavitt, Robert Garff, chairman of SLOC’s Executive Committee and Robert Hales, the LDS church’s top Olympic liaison, met at the Governor’s Mansion to chart the future of SLOC. Hales
recommended hiring Willard “Mitt” Romney, Brigham Young University graduate
who had been a Mormon bishop and stake president in Massachusetts, as the new
SLOC President; M. Russell Ballard of the church’s Olympic Coordinating Commit-
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tee counseled Romney about the position, and Garff and Leavitt aggressively convinced “a white knight that is universally loved” to take the job.38 Leavitt also led the
reorganization of SLOC’s board of trustees.
Romney’s appointment as SLOC’s new CEO on February 11, 1999 was the catalyst that turned attention in Utah from embarrassment over the Olympic bribery scandal to embattlement over the Mormon church’s influence on the 2002 Olympics.
Romney’s appointment was widely resented by Mormons and non-Mormons because
he was both LDS and an outsider.39 Some people felt that Mormon leaders conspired
to hire a venture capitalist, co-religionist to execute their particular vision for salvaging Salt Lake’s tarnished reputation and staging an Olympics that would reflect well
upon the church. Romney’s business partner, Geoff Rehnert, reinforced that belief:
“I’m sure he feels he will be helping his church by restoring the credibility of the
games.”40 Others resented the exclusion of in-state leaders and the apparent religious
requirement for the position. Romney himself fueled the flames by promptly hiring
Fraser Bullock as SLOC’s chief financial officer. Romney’s appointment of a fellow
Mormon as his second in command prompted Utah’s most prominent citizen, Jon
Huntsman, Sr., LDS philanthropist and industrialist, to join the chorus of criticism:
We’ve got a chairman [Garff] who is active LDS, now we’ve got a present
CEO who is active LDS. They claim they’re going out and really scouring
the world to find the best person, so Mitt brings in one of his cronies to be the
COO [chief operating officer]. Another broken promise. Because we’ve got
three LDS folks who are all cronies. Cronyism at its peak. They told the
world and told Salt Lake that we’re going to go out and find the most professional, the best, and to have some diversity--spiritual and ethnic. Diversity
in the Olympic Games is what it’s all about. These are not the Mormon
Games.41
Romney further compounded the problem by immediately calling upon the LDS
church to alleviate SLOC’s shortcomings with finances, facilities, and volunteers.
The church’s donation of several parcels of land, including sixteen acres adjacent to
the Utah Olympic Park near Park City, for use as park-and-ride lots caused little commentary, but its loan of a 10 acre parking lot in downtown Salt Lake City a block west
of Temple Square, plus $5 million for refurbishing, for use as the Olympic Medals
Plaza, caused considerable controversy. During the Salt Lake Games, for the first
time in winter Olympic history, medals in outdoor events would be awarded collectively in the evening instead of on site after competition, making the Medals Plaza the
primary Olympic venue for seventeen days. City officials were miffed that the agreement between SLOC and the church was reached quickly and without any advance
notice or public input. Opponents, including Mayor Anderson, were also concerned
that the location of the lot meant that spectators and television cameras would face the
picturesque Mormon Temple and the LDS Church Office Building; they argued that
the grounds of the historic City and County Building would be an appropriately secular location for the Medals Ceremonies. From the church’s perspective, the Plaza’s
proximity to Temple Square and other church buildings would ensure a steady stream
of visitors to church sites; that a religious structure, not a government building,
formed the backdrop was no small bonus.42 Church-SLOC cooperation was so
The “Mormon Games”
11
extensive that to address SLOC’s shortage of Olympic volunteers, Romney, certainly
with the blessing of LDS leaders, asked the president of the church-owned Brigham
Young University, Merrill Bateman, to cancel classes during the Games because he
could “very productively employ the full number of students which would be
expected to be available if classes were not in session.”43
At a time of organizational crisis, calling upon the institution which controlled
the largest property, financial, and human resources in the community made sense,
but the quick and heavy reliance upon the LDS church reinforced the impression that
SLOC was an appendage of the church, thereby heightening concerns about a “Mormon Olympics.” Increasingly wary about the number of Romney’s requests and concerned about growing criticism of the church’s involvement with SLOC, church
leaders first decided to “respond to requests and invitations” from SLOC, but not go
“to them with offers or suggestions.” Then in June 1999, Robert Hales and Henry
Eyring reiterated the church’s willingness to support the Olympics “from a genuine
desire to serve this community,” but pointedly asked Romney to pare from his list
“any items that you consider to be less than highly significant.”44 He was also asked
to tell SLOC officials that all requests for church assistance -- “No exceptions” -were to come through him.45 Basically, the church decided to scale back tangible
support for the Olympics and focus on its own Games-related public relations
efforts.46
Welcoming the World
The conventional belief that the LDS church wanted to exploit the winter Olympics for missionary purposes was correct in that self-promotion was a natural and reasonable impulse, but incorrect in that public relations, not proselytizing, was the
church’s principal objective. The global exposure of the 2002 Games gave urgency
to two problems that had concerned the LDS church for years. First, as the small,
Intermountain sect grew to a worldwide faith, the cultivated image of Mormons as a
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peculiar people begged for modification.47 Unlike the Amish and Mennonites, who
were respected as truly a people apart, Mormons, outwardly indistinguishable from
most Americans and exemplars of the capitalist mentality, repeatedly received
unfavourable press because of their religious beliefs and practices as well as secular
happenings linked to Mormonism such as the creation of the state Porn Czar,
Brigham Young University banning four Rodin sculptures, including “The Kiss,” that
depicted nudity and one town requiring all heads of households to own firearms and
another declaring itself “a United Nations-free zone”48 A second, more important
issue stemmed from the church’s peculiar, Americanized version of Christianity and
conventional nicknames, “Mormon” and “Latter-day Saint.” During the 1990s various Christian groups, including Southern Baptists, increasingly attacked Mormonism’s place in Christendom by publicizing such LDS doctrines as polytheism and
denial of the Trinity that were contrary to basic apostolic principles of traditional
Christianity. An LDS survey of Utah and California clergy in August 2001 revealed
that only six percent regarded Mormons as Christians and a mere two percent felt they
were “good Christians” while 32 percent labeled them as “non-Christian cultists,” and
12 percent felt they were “a major threat to all Christian denominations.”49 The traditional LDS response, that Mormon doctrine was the true Christian gospel “restored”
by Christ in “these latter times,” was too impolitic to have broad appeal because it
implied that other faiths were inauthentically Christian. Many Mormons simply
rationalized their divergence from other Christian groups by referring to themselves
as Mormon Christians.
Spurred by the coming of the Olympics, LDS officials launched a campaign to
recast Mormonism as a mainstream Christian religion rather than an aberrant cult.
Despite his advanced age, Gordon B. Hinckley, who became church president in
March 1995 at the age of eighty-four, led the effort. The most media savvy president
in church history, Hinckley increased Mormonism’s profile by traveling extensively
around the world and granting liberal access to journalists for interviews.50 Affable
and witty, he made unprecedented appearances on national television interview programs such as “60 Minutes” with Mike Wallace in 1996 and “Larry King Live” in
1998 and 1999. Aside from the obligatory condemnation of polygamy, Hinckley’s
most persistent message combined an admission that Mormon religion and culture
“are a little different” with the assertion “We are not weird.”51
The church also stepped up efforts to emphasize its place as a Christian faith.
The process began in 1982 when the church’s principal text, The Book of Mormon,
received the subtitle Another Testament of Jesus Christ. In the fall of 1995 the church
hired a New York City ad agency to redesign its logo, a four-line rendition of the official name, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Unveiled in December
1995, the new LDS logo featured a disproportionately large “Jesus Christ” in the center of the three-line graphic as a means of making the church appear more “Christbased’ by emphasizing “the central position of the Savior in its theology.”52 In
December 1999, LDS leaders distributed to the media and church members a statement affirming their particularistic beliefs about Jesus as a way of emphasizing both
the uniqueness of the faith and the centrality of Christ in Mormonism.53 Then, in February 2000, church officials urged members and the media to use “The Church of
Jesus Christ” as the secondary reference for the church and to discontinue the longstanding popular designations “LDS,” “Mormon,” “the LDS Church,” and the “Mor-
The “Mormon Games”
13
mon Church.” The pronouncement made sense in terms of the church’s “brand-name
marketing,” but had little impact on usage by Mormons or the media while some
Christian denominations were alienated by the exclusivist nature of the name. Nonetheless, church media relations director Michael Otterson thought the Olympics
54
would provide “a good opportunity” to publicize the informal name change. The
church also increased its ecumenical posture by participating in the Olympic Interfaith Roundtable. Created by SLOC in 1997 to unify all faiths in serving the spiritual
needs of Olympic athletes and visitors, the Roundtable, led by director Alan Barnes, a
Mormon, included more than fifty representatives of Utah faiths. Chairwoman Jan
Saeed of the Baha’i faith observed: “I’ve worked on several interfaith councils, and
this is the first time the Mormons have been there.”55
On a more practical level, the church made arrangements to accommodate the
millions of visitors who were expected for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Work crews
refurbished the most popular tourist attraction in Salt Lake City, Temple Square, site
of the LDS Temple and the Tabernacle, home to the famed choir. The main visitor’s
centre opened on October 5, 2001 after five years of renovations designed to emphasize LDS Scriptures as well as the church’s welfare and humanitarian programs.56
Temple Square’s expanded Christmas lighting display, “the most dynamic in its 36year history” would continue through the Paralympics in March. Added just for the
Olympics were “paper bag luminarias with messages in 100 languages” and “nativity
scenes representative of children from around the world.” 57 Facilities adjacent to
Temple Square were also readied. A special logo depicting the spires of the temple
and the words “Friends to All Nations” adorned the church’s web site and banners
hung in and around church facilities. The Family History Library for genealogy
research and the Museum of Church History and Art expanded staff and hours of
operation during the Games. In addition to increased schedules for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Temple Square Concert series, “Light of the World: A Celebration of Life,” a combination drama, musical, and dance extravaganza featuring 1,500
performers and inspirational religious themes, was performed without charge in the
church’s new 20,000-seat Conference Center. 58
With some 10,000 journalists expected to descend on Salt Lake City, the church
launched an extensive campaign to inform the press, and thereby the public, about the
history of the church and its beliefs. President Hinckley freely granted interviews to
journalists and visiting dignitaries including IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch.
The other two members of the ruling First Presidency, James E. Faust and Thomas S.
Monson, likewise made themselves available for interviews. A refurbished Joseph
Smith Memorial Office Building boasted an Olympic Media Center featuring an array
of computers, a News Resource Center providing information about the church in
various languages and a hospitality room offering free food and drink. The church
also produced 27 promotional television clips, a web site featuring the Olympic logo
that included “100 great story ideas” about Mormonism in a dozen languages and a
video, “Mormonism: Myths and Realities,” narrated by LDS members Steve Young,
ex-NFL football player, and Charlene Wells Hawkes, former Miss America.59
Whereas such efforts to afford the church a strong and positive presence during
the Olympics were unexceptionable, a pre-Games media orientation mailing heightened religious tensions locally and sensitized the national and international press to
the “Mormon Olympics” issue. In early 2001 the church public relations office began
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Volume XI - 2002
a series of mailings to some 3,000 reporters around the world who were likely to
cover the winter Games. The materials included a brochure on Mormon history; a list
of suggested story ideas, many doctrinal in nature, about Mormons and their church;
offers of assistance in interviewing Mormon families, visiting Welfare Square and
other church facilities and, on a personal level, tracing their genealogy.60 Also
included was a seemingly innocuous calendar that unintentionally revealed the reciprocal relationship between SLOC and the church. The problem was not the several
pictures of Mormon buildings and sites, but the phrase “Home of the 2002 Winter
Games” on the calendar cover. When Salt Lake government officials earlier used
similar words in an economic development brochure, SLOC threatened a copyright
protection lawsuit that forced the city to reissue the brochure without any Olympic
references. SLOC director of public relations Caroline Shaw justified the church’s
use of the phrase on the grounds that it was permissible for not-for-profits to distribute material free of charge with SLOC’s approval.61 Since Salt Lake City, a nonprofit
entity, was distributing its brochure without charge, SLOC’s authorization for the
church appeared to be favouritism.
The elaborate press kit reinforced the notion of “Mormon Games.” Church officials insisted they were merely trying to be helpful by distributing the materials, but
the general reaction was that they had crossed the line from civic booster to proselytizer. “I think what the church is doing is going to backfire,” said Mayor Anderson.
“I don’t fault anybody for trying to get their point of view over to the media, but given
the sensitivity as to whether these are going to be the ‘Mormon Games,’ it seems to me
there needs to be some wise restraint exercised.” But evangelicals who believe they
represent the one and only true church and enjoy unquestioned power in a community
are not easily restrained. At the opening of a SLOC-arranged media “familiarization”
tour in February 2001, reporters met with LDS public affairs officials, but not representatives from any other church. Candus Thomson of the Baltimore Sun remarked:
“If they’re trying desperately to say these are not the ‘Molympics,’ that was not the
62
thing to do on the first night. They made us uncomfortable.”
Things were also increasingly uncomfortable in Utah by early 2001. LDS officials repeatedly emphasized to the media that “the Winter Games were awarded to
Salt Lake City and the State of Utah--not the Church” and that while the church was
“fully supportive of the community effort,” it had “no interest in making this the ‘Mormon Games.”’63 However, given Mormon predominance on SLOC and influence
over community affairs, there was no escaping the media linkage between church and
Games, which in turn heightened local religious tensions. By early 2001, Salt Lake
lawyer Pat Shea, prominent non-Mormon and Democratic Party leader who had been
deputy assistant secretary of the Interior in the Clinton administration, observed: “I’ve
never seen the community as divided as it is today.” Jan Shipps, a non-LDS historian
of Mormonism, concurred: “I just have a sense that there really is a growing line of
division between LDS and non-LDS in the shadow of the Olympics, though it’s playing out in non-religious arenas.”64 Religious tensions had become so great that in
February the Mormon-owned Deseret News published an article wondering “Will
Games help unite or widen split over faith?”65
The “Mormon Games” issue came to a head in early spring 2001. On March 16,
two days before the scheduled appearance of a Salt Luke Tribune report on the LDS
church and the Olympics, Mitt Romney hastily called a press conference attended by
The "Mormon Games"
15
15 persons -- a few SLOC officials, leaders of various religions, and representatives
of ethnic groups. Noting that he was the only Mormon present, Romney handed out
flutes filled with champagne or orange juice, then pointedly declared: “These are not
the Mormon Games.” He said he was tired of fielding questions about the church’s
influence in the Olympics, and found such talk “divisive and demeaning” -- divisive
by creating conflict when the Olympics were supposed “to be a uniter, not a divider”
and demeaning by failing to recognize the contributions of all peoples to the Games.
Pointing out that its affiliated corporations, not the church itself, had made contributions to support the Games, Romney peevishly snapped: “I was brought up to thank
people for gifts, not to criticize them.”66 A press conference to issue such a disclaimer
is unprecedented in Olympic history; no local organizing committee or host city, save
perhaps for Berlin in 1936, has felt obligated to declare what the Games were not.
(But, then, off-hand references to the Atlanta Games as the “Coca-Cola Olympics”
did not touch the same nerve as the “Mormon Games.“)
Representatives of the Mormon church were conspicuous by their absence at the
press conference. Romney disingenuously said he did not invite LDS leaders to
attend because there was “no particular reason to.” In truth, their exclusion was a
deliberate attempt to de-emphasize the “Mormon Games” by eliminating a Mormon
presence. However, the church was well-aware of the importance of the issue and
issued a brief statement after the meeting, its first public pronouncement on the
Olympics: “We are pleased that Mitt Romney has repeated what SLOC and the
church have been saying for years. The church is one of many community groups that
are working to help make the Games successful.” Reflecting community divisions,
the Deseret News printed the press release while the Salt Lake Tribune did not.67
Romney kept up the offensive two days later with an op-ed piece in the Deseret
News. Admitting that he found “our community more divided than I had expected”
and that he was “very troubled by the characterization ‘Mormon Games’,” he reiterated his commitment to “fostering the unity the Olympics represents” through “inclusiveness and the broadest sharing of the Olympic experience.”68 It was a partial truth.
Non-Mormons had played important roles in the Olympics effort, but they were few
in number and leaders of other churches were consulted minimally, if at all, about
planning efforts. When asked if he had been probed about Games preparations, Rabbi
Joseph Goldman of Park City, site of the Deer Valley and Park City venues, replied:
“Not a whisper.” However, few complained, recognizing that the demographic dominance and economic resources of the Mormon church necessarily made it the major
player in Games preparations. “Every church is in the shadow of the Mormon community in the Salt Lake community,” observed the Reverend John Kaloudis of the
Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, “That’s a reality.”69 Rabbi Goldman likely
expressed the views of non-Mormon religious leaders regarding the pervasive LDS
influence in organizing the Games: “It seems to me that it could only happen in Utah,”
adding that Mormon officials “feel it is good for their church, and they also have to
think it is good for the state. I suspect. though, that they would be first inclined to say
they feel it is good for the church.”70
The Tribune’s much-anticipated feature appeared on Sunday, March 18. Editor
James Shelledy introduced the report by noting that the efforts of the LDS church to
use the Olympics as an opportunity “to recast, with first-hand contact, perceptions
that often are fraught with misconceptions and derision” have “given rise, rightly or
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Volume XI 2002
wrongly, to a global perception that these are the Mormon Games.” He then raised the
issue of complicity or neglect by SLOC in dealing with the church by framing the
report in terms of the question “Has the 2002 Olympics, whether by benign inertia or
like-minded deference, become the Games of the Majority?” The lead article, headlined “From SLOC Leadership to Liquor, Church Has Long Had a Powerful Olympic
Voice,” detailed the involvement of church leaders in Olympic affairs since 1985.
The second piece, “The Olympic Mission,” discussed whether the 2002 Olympics
would be the “Mormon Games.” There was little new in the report, but the detailed
account of LDS influence with SLOC and attempts to court the press, intensified the
belief that the church intended to use the Olympics to promote its religion. The report
also prompted a flurry of increasingly intemperate pro- and anti-Mormon letters to the
editor and op-ed pieces in both newspapers, further revealing the growing religious
rift in the community.71 When the Tribune asked readers for their response to SLOC’s
claim that the LDS church has not influenced Olympics decision-making, eighty-four
percent did not believe it.72 A few days later, Tribune cartoonist Pat Bagley, a Mormon, elicited grins and grimaces by depicting a Utah Travel Council representative
exclaiming: “These are not the Mormon Olympics. They’re ‘The Church of Jesus
Christ Olympics.”’73
Several efforts were made to diffuse, or at least mitigate, escalating religious
antagonisms. First, as a follow-up to its Olympics report, the Salt Lake Tribune and
The Associated Press Managing Editors sponsored the Credibility Roundtable, thirtythree religious, civic and media representatives who met on April 26 to discuss what
constituted fair coverage of religion in the media. It was a pressing issue given the
Tribune’s tradition of publishing feature stories on such topics as alcohol, religion,
and the Mormon Olympics which both informed and inflamed the public because of
their implied criticism of the LDS church. Compounding the problem was the ill-disguised hostility raging between Salt Lake’s two daily papers that stemmed in part
from a legal battle over ownership of the Tribune, which, according to Glen Snarr,
chairman of Deseret News Publishing Company, was conducting “a war of hate
The “Mormon Games”
17
against us.”74 When asked why the Deseret News was not represented at the Roundtable, the Tribune’s James Shelledy, who arranged the meeting, uncharitably retorted:
“Not everybody was invited. They are a direct rival paper and traditionally you don’t
invite direct rivals.” The abridged transcripts of the meeting published in two installments in the Tribune revealed “a love fest” lacking in candid discussions. A predictable consensus emerged on two fundamental points: 1) there is an “astonishing
amount of coverage of religion” in the Utah press because of the LDS church and 2)
fairness is “simply in the eye of the beholder.”75
The second initiative was President Hinckley’s annual Pioneer Day Speech.
Before commemorating the arrival of the first contingent of Mormon pioneers into the
Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, the church leader addressed the current round of
religious tensions. Observing that Salt Lake City and Utah had become “the home of
many people of great diversity in their backgrounds, beliefs, and religious persuasions,” he counseled Mormons to adopt “a spirit of tolerance and neighborliness, of
friendship and love toward those of other faiths.” Specifically, he admonished the
brethren: “We must not be clannish. We must never adopt a holier-than-thou attitude.
76
We must not be self-righteous.” It was a bold statement that recognized the special
obligations of the majority faith in confronting religious misunderstandings and
antagonisms.
Then, in mid-September, the Alliance for Unity, a group of eighteen community
leaders concerned about all forms of intolerance in the state, held its first press conference. Organized in May by political opposites Mayor Rocky Anderson and LDS
industrialist Jon Huntsman, the group had spent five months forging a mission statement that the Mormon church and other faiths agreed to read to their congregations
throughout the state. At the press conference. the LDS church’s Alliance representative, Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve and the church’s Olympic
Coordinating Committee. followed up on President Hinckley’s charge by declaring
that some Mormons were “too narrow” because “they don’t know how to accept people of other cultures.” He reiterated the point at the LDS church’s general conference
in October by urging Mormons to be “more inclusive.”77
As Utahns sought to contain the growing friction over the “Mormon Games,”
interest in the church’s role in the Olympics waned outside the state. The Tribune
reported that only 29 national newspapers published from January through August
2001 contained the term “Mormon Olympics” or “Mormon Games.” Similarly,
Michael Otterson, LDS church media director, said that “at least” eighty journalists
had visited his office during the same period and that “very few have gone into the socalled Mormon Olympics.” Since it seemed not to be an issue for most outside
media, the church was “not going to worry about it.”78
But Mitt Romney remained preoccupied with the “Mormon Games” issue. Upon
learning about an article scheduled to appear in September in Newsweek, a highly
respected, mass-circulation national magazine, he fired off a memo to the SLOC
Board of Trustees on August 13 lamenting that he and his staff had found “no effective way to put an end to the story which, in my view, is divisive and demeaning.” “If
you have any suggestions,” he asked, “I’d be happy to hear them.”79 Romney’s hasty
defensiveness was unnecessary as the article dealt sympathetically with LDS history
and current religious issues, not with the church’s influence on the Olympics; a brief
companion piece discussed the availability of alcohol in non-judgmental fashion.80
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Whether stemming from resentment at what appeared to be attacks on his performance as SLOC president as well as his religion, Romney’s obsession with denying
“Mormon Games” charges was both futile and counterproductive. In the eyes of the
world, Utah and Mormonism were inextricably linked, especially given the close connections between the Mormon church and SLOC. Calling attention to the issue only
increased awareness of it.81 Cartoonist Pat Bagley pilloried Romney’s inability to put
the issue in proper perspective by showing him imploring three SLOC advisors:
“Think, Gentlemen, think -- Why are they calling this the Mormon Olympics?”82
The reason for the “Mormon Games” tag was obvious and no one liked it. SLOC
didn’t like the label because it implied undue deference to the LDS church and minimized community involvement in the Games. The LDS church disliked it because it
indicated Mormon domination of community affairs and desire to exploit the Olympics. Mormons disliked it because it provoked resentment and hostility toward their
church. Non-Mormons disliked it because it pointed to the church’s pervasive influence and their minority status. All concerned disliked it because it created religious
antagonisms, failed to recognize the communitywide contributions to the Games and
served to perpetuate the negative perceptions of a theocratic state, thereby making it
less attractive to tourists and businesses. The only ones to benefit from the “Mormon
Games” issue were local journalists, who were assured of a never-ending supply of
popular stories about local cultural politics. In fact, church spokesman Michael Otterson felt “a lot of this is fostered by some local press,” an oblique reference to the Tribune. 83 Still, given the unquestioned power of the LDS church and its relationship
with SLOC, the notion of a Mormon-influenced Olympics was not unreasonable; thus
the perception of “Mormon Games,” if not always the actual designation itself, continued.
Faced with the prospect of continued, if not increased, speculation and controversy, LDS leaders rethought promotional strategies. Otterson admitted “because this
community is so strongly identified with the Mormon Church, we have to try and
debunk the Mormon Games thing. The Church has been careful from the beginning to
walk a fine line between being supportive of the Games and Salt Lake Organizing
Committee, but not acting in a way that detracted from the efforts of the whole community in Utah, not just Latter-day Saints.” The issue was not whether the church
would use the Games to advance its religious interests, but instead how to do so without provoking further hostility in the community, inviting criticism from the press, or
annoying Olympic visitors. Bruce L. Olsen, the church’s managing director of public
affairs and a member of its Olympic Coordinating Committee, diplomatically
remarked: “We have a heightened sensitivity to being good hosts and to being helpful
to people.”84
Thus, in contrast to secular marketers who aggressively sought to capitalize on
the Olympics as a global media event, the church abandoned its proselytizing plans in
favour of an understated, albeit conspicuous, presence during the Games. Church
leaders embraced President Hinckley’s view that the goal was simply to be good hosts
so that “people coming here would see us and who we are and that’s all the influence
85
we need. You don’t need to proactively try to promote yourself.” Otterson
explained: “From our point of view, it’s not an opportunity to convert people, it’s more
an opportunity to educate and inform.” He stressed that “there will be no proselytizing” because “we want to be good hosts and create a legacy of good will.”86 That
The “Mormon Games”
19
meant during the Games there would be no proselytizing by missionaries at the Salt
Lake International airport, competition venues, and the communities hosting Olympic
events. The more than 200 Temple Square guides, all women to avoid the male missionary image, would refrain from proselytizing, answer questions about the church
only when asked, and wear identification badges bearing their names but not church
affiliation. Tact, not tract (the missionary term for solicitation). was now the order of
the day.87
Notwithstanding their close working relationship, the church and SLOC were
careful to avoid any overt association of Mormonism with the Games. Thus, Torino,
Italy, host of the 2006 Winter Games, promptly incorporated an outline of its famous
Cathedral in its Games symbol, while SLOC avoided using the LDS Temple (or any
other Mormon symbol or landmark) in any official capacity because the real and
imagined connotations of the two religious edifices are markedly different. The
Torino Cathedral, containing the reputed burial shroud of Jesus Christ, is regarded
solely as an historic religious shrine, whereas the LDS Temple is also seen as the
symbol of faith-based political power. The church did agree to participate in SLOC’s
“cityscape” program of draping huge banners of Olympic athletes from downtown
buildings. Thus the only public sign of Mormon involvement in the Olympics was
the 21-story-long banner depicting a female figure skater that almost covered the
entire west side of the 28-story Church Office Building, the tallest structure in the
state.88 The largest of the “cityscape” banners, it was visible from downtown entertainment venues and the Medals Plaza as well as the main traffic corridor from the
airport to the city.
Television is the principal public relations instrument of any Olympics and the
church’s relationship with NBC-TV, which would telecast the Games in the United
States. was especially close inasmuch as Utah’s most popular television station, KSLTV, had become an NBC affiliate shortly after Salt Lake received the 2002 bid. In the
fall of 2001, church officials traveled to New York City to discuss plans with NBC
executives for LDS advertising to air during broadcasts of the Games, but later abandoned the network promotional campaign because, as Otterson, explained: “We saw
no way of doing that tastefully as a religion without looking like a corporate entity.
This is a religious organization. It is not a commercial organization looking to market
its goods.” President Hinckley did, however, tape an interview with NBC’s Tom
Brokaw to be aired during the network’s prime time coverage of the Games. 89 At
NBC’s request, the church in November 2001 conducted a seminar led by Apostle
Robert Hales on Mormon history and religion as well as Olympic-related issues for
300 members of the crew that would broadcast the Winter Games. David Neal, executive vice president of NBC’s Olympic division, said, “It was a proactive move by us
to have our staff get a clear picture of what role the LDS Church has and to dispel any
notion about these being the Mormon Games.”90 Neal’s self-serving statement and
the single-perspective presentation indicated the network’s desire to indoctrinate
rather than educate the Olympic broadcast staff. Subsequently, on the eve of the
Games, Neal said the “Mormon Games” issue was “not nearly the day-to-day issue”
with NBC that it “seems to be in other parts of the media” and then offered a specious
analogy: “We liken it to if we were doing the Olympics in Rome” where the Vatican
would “occasionally show up as a visual.”91
As the Games approached, Mormonism remained a hot-button issue locally.92 In
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response to the serious “clash of cultures,” the Tribune in December 2001 published a
six-page special report on “the religious line that divides Utah society.” Titled “The
Unspoken Divide,” the report explored the political and cultural reasons for religious
hostilities, the possible role of the Tribune in fostering tensions and the various ways
individuals and groups could promote religious and cultural tolerance. The report
revealed that the religious divide was a chasm. Independent surveys showed that 86
percent of non-Mormons and 63 percent of Mormons saw a social, political, and cultural divide between those who are and are not members of the LDS church; 62 percent of the LDS respondents felt relations were improving compared to only 23
percent of the non-LDS. Ironically, the report made no mention of the issue that had
sparked the current crisis -- the 2002 Winter Games.93
The omission was significant because current community antagonisms as usual
had little to do with religion and everything to do with secular control. The coming of
the winter Olympics -- or more specifically the impending arrival of an international
contingent of athletes, officials, spectators, and media personnel -- focused attention
on Games-specific issues like the location of the Olympic Medals Plaza and traditional lifestyle concerns that projected images of the community. Nothing polarized
Utahns more decisively than the state’s liquor laws. One of nineteen liquor “control”
states, Utah’s alcohol regulations are formulated by a five member Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Commission appointed by the governor; because the Commission
has never included more than one non-Mormon imbiber, its policies are designed to
inhibit alcohol consumption.94 Non-Mormons consider the regulations as cumbersome, confusing, and demeaning religious impositions, while Mormons regard them
as health and safety measures beneficial to the community. Both groups recognize
that liquor laws are a principal point of emphasis for the LDS church. More than a
manifestation of a religious belief in abstinence, restrictive alcohol legislation has
been the most conspicuous symbol of the church’s ability to control public policy.
During Salt Lake’s various attempts to secure the Winter Games, liquor laws
were seen as the epitome of Mormon social regulation. Some residents hoped the
Olympics would stimulate a liberalization of alcohol regulations, while others feared
such an eventuality. As early as 1994 a Deseret News editorial entitled “Utah can
host Olympics without changing its laws” proclaimed that “there need to be no
changes [in Utah’s liquor laws] for either the bid effort or to host the Olympics.”95
After Salt Lake got the 2002 Games, the Deseret News periodically editorialized
against alcohol consumption and liberalization. In 1997, a Mormon-led anti-alcohol
coalition and the Utah PTA launched an unsuccessful campaign to ban liquor advertisements during the Games.96 Later that year the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors
Bureau was criticized for including two bottles of beer among the local products
given to the 200 journalists who attended the United States Olympic Committee’s
Olympic Media Summit. Although alcoholic gifts were “an industry standard in other
cities,” the bureau director vowed: “It’s not a standard we’ll use again in Salt Lake
City.”97 In 1999, the LDS church made its only two requests of SLOC, both representing primary Olympics-related objectives: 1) to use its downtown parking lot for
the Medals Plaza, and 2) to maintain existing liquor laws during the Games.98 SLOC
agreed to both requests, which produced an outcry when Mitt Romney admitted that
the Olympic Medals Plaza would be dry in deference to church ownership of the
property. Roundly criticized for kowtowing to the church, he emailed SLOC trustee:
The “Mormon Games”
21
“Holy Cow! This boy from Boston and Detroit had no idea how hot a topic alcohol is
in Utah. I assure you, had I known what a hornet’s nest I would be whacking in
answering a question about alcohol, I would not have gone near it.”99 He later
defended the dry-plaza decision by asserting that allowing alcohol on church-owned
property would be like borrowing “a barbecue grill from a rabbi to cook pork
chops”100
Substantial modifications in the sale and promotion of alcoholic beverages had
occurred in recent years due to pressures from a growing non-Mormon population, a
burgeoning tourist industry, and permissive federal court decisions, but liquor advertisements remained a point of contention. While Squatters Pub Brewery playfully
mocked SLOC’s slogan “Light the Fire Within” with “Quench the Thirst Within,”
Wasatch, the state’s pioneering microbrewery, used religious parodies in advertisements, touting its beverages as “The other local religion” and exhorting: “Baptize
your taste buds.” Other Wasatch advertisements poked fun at LDS culture. “St.
Provo Girl” pilsner ads featured a buxom, blond, biergarten barmaid brandishing
beers and employing the Mormon euphemistic expletive, “If you just said ‘Oh my
heck it’s probably not for you.” The “Polygamy Porter” label, depicting a male surrounded by seven women, asked: “Why have just one?” Other businesses followed
suit, including Brighton Ski Resort, which also parodied polygamy in advertising its
four-person lift -- “Wife. Wife. Wife. Husband.” -- and encouraged youthful skiers
by playing off Brigham Young’s name, “Bring ‘em young.” The ads were enormously
popular as Mormons and Gentiles alike savoured the in-jokes. As LDS church
spokesman Bruce L. Olsen observed: “Most of us just chuckle at this and don’t take
umbrage. There’s no reason to get uptight about these kinds of things.”101
Then, on October 13, 2001, Reagan Outdoor Advertising, the state’s largest billboard company, suddenly announced cancellation of future Brighton and Polygamy
Porter advertisements because “polygamy is not a socially acceptable practice” and
company policy prohibited “spoofs or follies against any religious leader or religious
groups.” Reagan, a Mormon-owned company, rejected the advertisements the day
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after the Mormon-dominated ABC Commission voted to ban alcoholic beverage ads
that “depict religious figures, symbols or themes.” The vote, clearly aimed at
Wasatch Brewing, followed a hearing during which the commissioners received,
among other things, a twelve-page epistle from the LDS church opposing alcohol
advertising.102 Faced with a potential lawsuit, the Commission retracted the ruling a
week later, but its initial vote and Reagan’s decision not to produce any more billboards for Wasatch Beer or the Brighton Resort led to the “underlying speculation
that powerful people didn’t want the billboards up with the Olympics coming.”103
While the popular notion that it was difficult to get a drink in Utah was inaccurate, after all beer flowed on Sundays, many people felt that revisions in the state’s
confusing and restrictive alcohol regulations were necessary to welcome the world to
the winter Olympics. Shortly after taking office in January 2000, Salt Lake Mayor
Rocky Anderson, whose city would be the hub of socialization and entertainment during the Games, insisted that alcoholic beverages were a major component of Olympic
hospitality and thus pressed for liberalization and relaxation of city and state liquor
laws. Perturbed that Mitt Romney refused to allow alcohol in or adjacent to the Medals Plaza, Anderson convinced the City Council to pass an ordinance allowing the
sale of alcohol on the grounds of the City and County Building as well as some public
parks, but was unsuccessful in persuading the lawmakers to allow bars and danceclubs to remain open past the 2:00 a.m. curfew or to change city laws that permitted
104
only two bars or clubs per block. The Deseret News continued to espouse the
church’s hard line, but accommodations obviously had to be made. Eventually Provo,
seat of the largest Mormon community in the state, agreed to sell suds, even on Sunday, at the Peaks Ice Arena, site of Olympic hockey games; the Farmington City
Council likewise approved beer sales during the Cultural Olympiad rodeo.105 The
ABC Commission also provided some latitude during the Olympics by authorizing a
variety of temporary, one-of-a-kind liquor licenses and agreeing, without an official
vote, to allow greater discretion in imposing penalties on establishments that violated
liquor laws.106
As the Games drew near, Anderson, the self-styled “patron saint of sin” (a.k.a.
Party Mayor and Minister of Fun), became increasingly frustrated in his efforts to
promote the capital city as “an amazing place that is misrepresented . . . a real island
of progress in a state not known for its progressivity.”107 He wanted to talk with visiting journalists about Salt Lake as a modern, cosmopolitan, multicultural, and
dynamic city with outstanding educational, high-tech, and artistic offerings, but they
were interested only in Mormons, polygamy, security, and alcohol, especially alcohol. So, to spotlight the city’s thriving bar and club scene, he handed visiting reporters a press kit including a pamphlet, Salt Lake: Saltier Than You Think!, and a
description of Utah’s liquor laws with the notation that there were 1,038 places to buy
a drink within the Games area, twice as many as in Lillehammer and Nagano. To
demonstrate partying possibilities, he took scribes on all-night forays to pubs and
dance clubs, often accompanied by the ten members of “the astoundingly beautiful
Utah Bikini Team.”108
Anderson’s “party animal” campaign and efforts to liberalize the liquor laws,
including the advent of liquor-by-the-drink by eliminating private clubs, did not sit
well with Mormon leaders, Throughout the fall of 2001 the church continued its
opposition to more liberal liquor laws as well as alcohol advertisements despite the
The “Mormon Games”
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recent court ruling.109 In January 2002 church officials made a rare appearance at the
state legislature to request no changes in the state’s liquor laws, and the Deseret News
defended the community’s staid image and obliquely chastised Anderson by declaring
that “efforts to try to make Salt Lake something it isn’t by liberalizing its liquor laws
during the Olympics go against its basic character.”110 The Mayor bristled: “There are
a lot of people, they don’t have any fun in life--they don’t want anybody else to have
any fun in life . . . You wonder, Why don’t these people move to an Amish village?
A lot of people think this is an Amish village.”111
The Games
After almost seven years of anticipation, excitement, and controversy, the winter
Games finally came to Salt Lake in early February 2002 with the arrival of the Olympic Torch. A commercialized promotional spectacle orchestrated by each local organizing committee, the Olympic Torch Relay nevertheless exhibits the host
community’s primary interests, values, and dynamics. So it was on February 8 when
a group of modern-day Mormons, led by Torch bearer Alan S. Layton, president of
Days of ‘47, the organization responsible for staging the annual Pioneer Days Celebration on July 24 to commemorate the Mormon arrival to the Salt Lake Valley in
1847, brought the Olympic Flame into Salt Lake City through Emigration Canyon,
the route of the first Mormon settlers. At the mouth of the canyon, a horse-drawn carriage carried the Torch into the This is the Place Heritage Park containing a recreation
of a nineteenth-century Mormon village. There, James Arrington, dressed as
Brigham Young, welcomed the Flame by repeating the words supposedly uttered by
the Mormon leader upon first viewing the Great Salt Lake Valley: “This is the right
place.”112 As the Relay wound its way through the city, Torch bearer Robert Hales,
head of the church’s Olympic Coordinating Committee, carried the flaming icicle to
the steps of the LDS Church Administration Building and handed it to the three members of the ruling First Presidency, each wearing an official Salt Lake 2002 parka; the
Torch passed in order of seniority to President Hinckley, who, hoisting the Flame
aloft, paid a brief but carefully-worded tribute to the athletes, the Games organizers,
the “people of Salt Lake City who have brought these Games here” and the state of
Utah “whose party this is.” Another LDS Apostle, Neal A. Maxwell. then carried the
Torch to the next Relay exchange point. The “decidedly Mormon flavor” of the ceremonies associated with the arrival of the Torch to the host city appropriately recognized the Mormon origins of modern Utah history and the prominence of the LDS
church in the community and Olympics planning. It was also fitting that Rocky
Anderson put a secular exclamation point on the day’s activities by hosting a “people’s
party” featuring musical entertainment, lighting a cauldron, and fireworks as the
Torch arrived at the City and County Building that night.113
Mormon and non-Mormon residents as well as SLOC officials were anxious
about the next night’s Opening Ceremony. How Mormonism was represented during
the globally televised extravaganza would create lasting impressions about the
church’s connection to the 2002 Games. Opening Ceremonies inherently are pleas for
recognition, but instead of being a Mormon pageant, the LDS presence was understated in Salt Lake 2002. Consistent with the theme of Utah’s place in the history of
the American West, the program included representatives from each of Utah’s five
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Native American tribal nations along with Mountain Men, wagon trains, and the
transcontinental railroad, Mormon handcart pioneers and a frontier hoedown and the
Cathedral of the Madeleine Choir and the world-renowned Mormon Tabernacle
Choir, the latter included at the insistence of NBC.114 The Mormon presence in the
Opening Ceremony was substantially less than many people expected; indeed, a number of national newspapers and magazines never mentioned a LDS component.115
The church was pleased with the modest portrayal, which coincided with the low-key
stance planned for the Games themselves. When award-winning producer Don Mischer met with key community groups to elicit preliminary ideas for the ceremony,
Hales and Eyring told him they didn’t “expect the ceremony to be a showcase for the
church,” that it “didn’t necessarily want to be profiled.”116 In the end, the spectacular
Opening Ceremony presaged a Olympic Winter Games in which the LDS church was
a conspicuous, but unobtrusive, reality.
The athletes, administrators, media representatives, and spectators who poured
into Salt Lake City for the Games were laden with preconceptions about Utah culture
and the host city. Thinking of Utahns as people who partied too little and married too
often, visitors generally had two things on their mind besides athletic contests -polygamy and alcohol.
Plural marriage, “the Principle” as it is known, has always been the most distinctive and controversial aspect of Mormonism. Founder Joseph Smith and other Mormon leaders practiced polygamy from the 1830s until the church in 1890 disavowed
the practice but not the principle as a prelude to statehood. Threats of church excommunication and a Utah constitutional proscription notwithstanding, Utah’s “dirty
little secret” continues to embarrass modern Mormonism as it persists within the Mormon church as well as various fundamentalist splinter groups in Utah and the surrounding states. The trial of polygamist Tom Green, prosecuted after appearing on
national television talk shows and eventually sentenced to five years in prison for four
counts of bigamy, was a cause celebre during the spring and summer of 2001, and in
fall of that year curiosity about polygamy increased when a fifteen-year-old Utah boy
fled from the 1,000 member Kingston clan.117 The appearance of five books on
polygamy on the eve of the Olympics and numerous requests to interview polygamists from non-Utah journalists, including a Sports Illustrated columnist, demonstrated continuing curiosity about the church’s most sensational heritage.118 Perhaps
to stifle media reports on polygamy during the Winter Games, the Utah State Attorney General’s Office, which normally ignores polygamy, reportedly issued an unofficial gag order by suggesting to leaders of the 30,000 to 50,000 polygamists in the
state that they keep quiet during the Games in order to avoid prosecution.119 The
Attorney General denied the rumor, but the Green family was the only polygamist
group that agreed to media requests for interviews. Visitors could read about
Brigham Young and his 56 wives in a Tribune column, but they encountered only the
fictitious “Brigham-Leavitt-Smith Polygamous Group,” who showed up in downtown
Salt Lake offering to pose in photographs for $5.00.120
Whereas polygamy was a curiosity, alcohol was a practical concern most visitors
had about Utah. In response to the words “alcohol,” “Olympics,” and “Utah,” a web
site referencing the worlds largest publications produced no fewer than 686 stories at
the outset of the Games.121 The Deseret News continued to warn about the dangers of
alcohol consumption and the need to enforce the state’s liquor laws, while the Tribune
The “Mormon Games”
25
assisted Olympic visitors by publishing a guide explaining where and how to obtain
alcoholic beverages.“’ Bars came up with specialty drinks, such as the Dead Goat
Saloon’s “Olympic Torch,” a shot glass full of flaming Amaretto dropped into half a
mug of beer and then chugged.123 Despite confusing and annoying laws, visitors had
no trouble finding spiritous beverages. Temporary license permits were popular.
Olympic sponsor Anheuser-Busch turned the Gallivan Center, site of SLOC headquarters, into Bud World, an entertainment pavilion featuring beer and contemporary
music. Heineken House, Splash Club, the Ice House, the Thuringen Biergarten, and
nearly two dozen national “hospitality houses” attracted thirsty throngs day and
night.124 Bartenders at the Norway House voiced the celebratory air by inviting people to “Come in and grab an Aass.”125 Booze flowed for private parties at the University of Utah and Weber State University, where alcohol consumption normally got
one expelled faster than you could say “Jack Daniels.” Even Governor Leavitt
obtained special liquor permits for Olympic parties.126 Conversely, the highly publicized Ethnic Village barely survived for not selling beer.127 As the Wall Street Journal noted, “No matter what you’ve heard, it’s almost as easy to get a drink here as
anywhere else.”128
The assertion by ABC Commission chair Nicholas Hales, a Mormon, that “There
will be no relaxation of liquor law enforcement during the Olympics” was wishful
thinking.129 Alcohol enforcement officials and city police ignored liquor laws as people roamed the streets with open containers of beer and patronized private clubs without having memberships. As for overenthusiastic imbibers. police were urged “to
handle matters in as informal a manner as possible,” be “very patient and very
lenient” and let “people be warned rather than arrested.”130 Even accounting for
leniency, police logs had fewer alcohol-related entries than normal during the Olympics. “Salt Lake’s infamy as a slough of sobriety is largely undeserved,” concluded
Canada’s National Post. 131
Restrictive liquor laws and a button-down reputation notwithstanding, Salt Lake
City for seventeen days was a party town until the wee hours of the morning. Coca-
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Cola and Budweiser, two beverages eschewed by LDS faithful, flowed freely and
ubiquitously amid social revelry. The dry Olympic Medals Plaza also contributed to
the “party-on” atmosphere that engulfed the entire downtown area. In addition to
video highlights of the day’s competitions, the presentation of medals and fireworks.
the Plaza each night rocked for more than four hours with music and dance featuring
hip headliners like the Dave Matthews Band, ‘N Sync, Sheryl Crow, Creed, Foo
Fighters, Smash Mouth, and a group of Canadian guys known as Barenaked
Ladies.132 Salt Lake welcomed the world and a good time was had by all, skeptics
and cynics included. One resident, flushed with Olympic excitement, said Salt Lake
is “perceived as a Mormon weirdo community. It’s not that way at all. This has
shown the real Utah to people.” Another resident brought his family downtown on the
last night of the Games “just to see Salt Lake City like I’ve never seen it before.”133
The much-anticipated religious proselytizing occurred, but only by non-LDS
groups. Joining the Mormon church in not proselytizing during the Games were the
other members of SLOC’s Interfaith Roundtable, agreeing with Director William
Shaw, a Mormon, that the Olympics “are not a platform to proselytize, but to provide
134
visitors with services and hospitality.”
But dozens of other groups voiced their religious messages. Southern Baptists sponsored Global Outreach 2002, which brought
more than 1,000 members from around the country to win souls in Salt Lake and Park
City, where they traded pins and operated warming stations to attract attention.
Action Ministries International, an organization of Christian athletes, and the More
than Gold coalition of Christian churches also handed out leaflets in downtown Salt
Lake. The primary conversion target was, ironically, the Mormon church. The Utah
Games Coalition, composed of some forty, mostly evangelical denominations, produced a training video, “Bridges Helping Mormons Discover God’s Graces,” designed
to attract Mormons.135 Some of the groups were openly critical of Mormonism. Stationed at the entrances to Temple Square, anti-Mormon proselytizers handed out a
series of pamphlets, including a tract deceptively titled Temple Square Visitor’s
Guide, containing theological arguments that Mormons were not Christians.136 Such
groups were able to solicit around Temple Square and the Main Street Plaza without
incident thanks to the church’s relaxation of its free-speech restrictions on property.137
The Games even attracted the National Alliance, an anti-Semitic, white supremacist
group based in West Virginia that distributed flyers in some neighbourhoods.138
In contrast, the Mormon church maintained a passive, albeit inescapable, presence throughout the Games. Missionaries, Temple Square guides and personnel at
church facilities scrupulously refrained from any form of proselytizing. To accommodate Olympic visitors, the church set aside Sabbatarian proscriptions, normally
articles of faith for Mormons. Even in Provo, erstwhile capital of Utah Mormondom,
the faithful operated businesses and engaged in various Olympic-related activities
after church. Mayor Lewis Billings insisted that such activities did not violate the traditional Sabbath: “Most people consider this different than conducting business and
making money. They view it along the lines of this being done in the spirit of the
Games. It’s really a component of goodwill.139 The only promotion of Mormonism
came, ironically, in the Salt Lake Tribune, where LDS columnist Robert Kirby
offered daily snippets about church history and Mormon mores.140
Although the church did not actually engage in proselytizing, it did so indirectly
through the efforts of the mostly Mormon volunteers who served at the sports venues
The “Mormon Games”
27
and other Olympic sites as well as church facilities. Mormons traditionally turn out
en masse to meet special community service needs, so it is not surprising that thousands heeded the church’s call in November 1998 for volunteers to help SLOC with
Games operations. Of the 68,000 people from across the country who signed up to
fill 25,714 available positions, some seventy percent, presumably mostly Mormon,
were from Utah. Prospective volunteers were screened in 20-minute interviews and
then required to attend nine hours of workshop training that included strict orders not
to impose their religious beliefs or personal values on visitors.141 Olympic volunteers
were not identified by religion, but they certainly were largely Mormon; Ed Eynon,
SLOC senior vice president for human resources, said at least 85 percent were from
Utah while another large contingent came from Mormon-dominated southeastern
Idaho.142 The church subsequently enlisted more than 5,400 volunteers, nearly half of
whom were former missionaries, to serve at various church sites. Church volunteers
were also given “sensitivity training sessions” which included instructions about
proselytizing.143 LDS volunteers serving SLOC or the church were especially helpful
inasmuch as many were bilingual returned missionaries who could provide foreign
language assistance.144
The Olympic volunteers universally impressed visitors with their unfailingly
friendly, polite, helpful, good-natured, and “as nice as nice can be” demeanor.145
Eynon understood that “volunteers are the face of the Games and in large part what
the spectators will remember.”146 No aspect of Games management, not even security, received as much media attention as the volunteers. Since spectators, reporters,
and broadcasters assumed the “culture of nice” was representative of Mormonism, the
volunteers projected a wholesome, positive image of church. Given face-to-face contacts with more than 1.5 million visitors over seventeen days, the “nice offensive”
conducted by volunteers may have been the single most successful missionary enterprise in Mormon history.
The church also derived favourable recognition from an unexpected source -collectible Olympic pins. In addition to the usual decorative and sports pins, the Salt
Lake Games featured a much larger than usual assortment related to local culture. A
few pins acknowledged the infamous bribery scandal and Utah history, but most of
the local interest offerings depicted aspects of Mormonism. There was an array of
standard LDS iconography ranging from church buildings and historic events like the
Days of ‘47 Parade to religious representations of the Angel Moroni that adorns the
Temple and two white-shirted missionaries on bicycles. But by far the most popular
official pins featured Mormon cultural food favourites such as Jell-O, of which
Utahns are the nation’s leading consumers (preferably lime with shredded carrots);
funeral potatoes, the ubiquitous potato and cheese casserole served by Mormon Relief
Society women after funerals; fry sauce, a ketchup-mayonnaise-spices dip for French
fries invented in Salt Lake City; and red punch, the abstemious beverage of choice.
Other hot items were unofficial pins depicting alcohol -- mugs of 3.2 beer and Polygamy Porter and St. Provo Girl labels - and those created by Pat Bagley, Mormon cartoonist for the Salt Lake Tribune, which satirized Mormondom’s foibles and follies.
Especially sought-after were the “Extra Virgin Porn Czar,” a polygamous family entitled “7 Wives for One Brother” and the outline of the state in front of the Salt Lake
Temple captioned “Utah: A Holy Owned Subsidiary of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints.”147
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Olympic pins usually are simply memorabilia, but in some instances they can tell
a compelling cultural story. The extensive array of Mormon and Utah pins proved
extremely popular because they assumed sociopolitical significance during the Salt
Lake Games. By gently poking fun at the “local culture” in ways that countered the
dour image and eccentricities of Mormonism, some pins diffused hostility with
humour. Others served to “mainstream” Mormon culture -- Iowans love Jell-O too,
regional “funeral casseroles” are commonplace (it’s candied sweet potatoes in the
South), Utah is not the only 3.2 beer state, and so on. That SLOC approved so many
LDS pins may have involved cultural promotion as well as an attempt to cash in on
curiosity about Utah and Mormonism. SLOC’s licensing department approved only
one Jewish item, a Hanukkah menorah, and rejected several pin proposals from Catholic Community Services because they were “too religious,” a decision that prompted
charges of favouritism.148
Pins provided Utahns with a much-needed sense of humour given the media’s
response to the arrival of the winter Olympics. By Games time the press, especially
the international press, turned from an earlier preoccupation with the Mormon Olympics to the peculiarities of Mormonism and life in Utah as lead-ins to the Games.
There were few substantive reports.149 Instead, cheap-shot journalists pandered to
voyeuristic readers by relying on stale stereotypes and hoary cliches instead of investigative reporting. Strange liquor laws, persistent polygamy, unorthodox religious
beliefs and quaint social practices were now media staples. Saturday Night Live set
the tone on February 2 by opening its television comedy program with a skit wherein
a pair of Mormon missionaries on skis, bent on conversion, pursued a female Olympic medalist. Television talk-show hosts Jay Leno and David Letterman featured
150
(It is hard to imagine religious-based
Utah and Mormon jokes in their monologues.
jokes being made so freely about, say, Jews or Catholics.) The press employed the
usual negative characterizations -- “polygamy capital of the world,” “puritan and
white-bread,” “arcane liquor laws,” “a theocracy,” “exotic and insulated.” “a holierthan-thou Hicksville” and like labels. Sports Illustrated's Rick Reilly sarcastically
complained that the Salt Lake Games “will have the Mormon Tablernacle Choir but
almost no caffeine, liquor, cigarettes, bars that stay open past -- what? --9 p.m., strip
clubs and massage joints.” The Miami Herald poked fun at Mormon euphemisms
like “dang” for the “d-word” and “flip” for the “f-word.” The Washington Post considered Salt Lake “the omphalos of sweetness and lite,” a “happier version of Margaret Atwood’s novel ‘The Handmaids Tale’ -- a pleasantly theocratic and militarized
life, with corporate and municipal logos watching over you.”151 The potshots became
so frequent that conservative television talk-show host Alan Keyes devoted his February 11 program to discussing “Is Mormon bashing the newest Olympic sport?”152
The journalistic turning point came on February 12 when Denver Post columnist
Woody Paige, notorious for an insulting, inflammatory brand of satire, wrote a nasty
diatribe against Salt Lake’s Olympic preparations and, especially. Mormons. Asserting that Salt Lake “royally screwed up the Olympics,” primarily for traffic problems,
he railed against “the Church of the Latter-day Whatevers” for making the Olympics
“a massive Mormon marketing scheme.” “There is no separation of church and Olympics,” he wrote. “Young women, who act like they are straight out of ‘Stepford
Wives,’ stand 10 feet apart downtown at venues and thrust Mormon literature at passers-by,” while “tables offering Mormon information and men offering Mormon salva-
The “Mormon Games”
29
tion are all over the city.” None of it was true. Worse still, were his derogatory
comments about Mormon beliefs and practices including worshipping “a salamander,” marrying “three of your mother’s cousins,” considering non-whites “inferior” and wearing “weird underwear.”153 The inaccurate and mean-spirited piece
prompted “thousands” of letters, phone calls and emails from around the country.
The avalanche of criticism was so great that the Post removed the column from its
online edition, an ethically questionable move perhaps not unrelated to Utah newspaper politics, and subsequently disavowed the column, acknowledging that it “should
not have been published” and apologizing for the “editorial breakdown.” Paige also
issued an apology for going “over the line of propriety.” He subsequently suggested
that Mormons should thank him for the article because it deterred other negative articles. “Dozens of columnists would have written similar-type pieces, but as soon as
everything occurred, they knew not to do anything negative, facetious, sarcastic or
humorous. Since then, everyone has been sweet and kind.” 154
Paige was correct in that after his bigoted column the press shied away from articles about Mormon idiosyncrasies and the secular influence of the LDS church. Perhaps reporters had spent their curiosity about LDS peculiarities, found nothing
newsworthy in the church’s low-key stance during the Games, or were fearful of
appearing as unappreciative guests if they wrote about church-related issues. Whatever the case, there were precious few articles about Mormons and none that discussed the commercialization of the Salt Lake Games, the insider dealings on land
purchases and infrastructure construction, environmental issues, Olympics-related
protest and free-speech issues, SLOC’s unquestioned ability to demand whatever it
wanted, or about the Games as texts designed to convey cultural and political messages.155 Instead, media attention focused narrowly on such Olympic matters as athletic competitions. transportation and security, entertainment and ceremonies.
Post-Games Analysis
The Closing Ceremonies of the 2002 Games ended Utah’s generation-long quest
for a fleeting moment in the spotlight of the worlds most famous international winter
sporting festival. The quest, which began in 1965, had two major objectives. First,
economic interests, most notably a developing ski and tourism industry, hoped to
demonstrate to the world that Salt Lake City and Utah were not bland, backward, or
inhospitable. Second, once the bid was won, the Mormon church sought to demonstrate that it was a mainstream Christian religion and not a quaint religious cult. Both
goals were met. Visitors and locals partied on, Utah was portrayed favourably and
the Games were a rousing success, producing a sizable operating surplus and breaking records for television broadcasting, ticket sales, and licensing and sponsorship
revenue.156 SLOC’s remarkable success in staging the Games combined with the
physical beauty of the host city and the Olympic venues prompted the pundits of the
press and airwaves to declare that the Salt Lake Games ranked close behind Lillehammer 1994 as the best and prettiest Olympic Winter Games in history.
Using the concept of Winners and Losers as a way of recapping the Salt Lake
Olympics, USA Today listed Salt Lake City first as “a big winner” because “all of the
important issues-- transportation and security--came off with nary a hitch.” The
administrative compliment was deserved praise for SLOC and a backhanded slap at
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the host city, whose attempts to alter its popular image by showcasing its social, cultural, and physical attributes were largely ignored. “The Mormons” were declared “a
winner” for being such “oh-my-heck-nice” hosts, for not proselytizing and for contributing so much money, land, and human resources to the Games, for which the
church “got priceless exposure in return.”157
By identifying “the Mormons” as the Olympic hosts, USA Today unintentionally
acknowledged that the term “Mormon Games” aptly applied to Salt Lake 2002. Once
a press staple, the term was virtually abandoned during and after the Olympics.
Indeed, a poll conducted during the Games revealed that only 17 percent of Utahns
and 11 percent of nonresidents felt the 2002 Games would be known as the “Mormon
Games.”158 But the label, which originally had negative connotations, was actually
an apt description of the most distinguishing feature of the 2002 Games. Whether it
was used cynically because Salt Lake was the headquarters of the Mormon church,
flippantly because of Mormon social and religious oddities, or realistically because of
the church’s contributions to and expectations from the Olympics, “Mormon Games”
applies to the Salt Lake Olympics for a number of reasons.
These were the “Mormon Games” because the LDS church accomplished its
Olympic promotional mission. Certainly Mormons and their church could bask in a
sense of accomplishment after the Olympics. Visitation at church facilities was less
than expected. but some 10,000 to 20,000 persons per day visited Temple Square
while nearly 1,300 journalists from 39 countries used the equipment in the church’s
media center.159 Most important, the church realized its primary public relations
objective of modifying popular perceptions of Mormons and Mormonism. In addition to numerous newspaper stories, television put a personal face on Mormons by
filming families at worship and at home.160 After the Games, President Hinckley concluded that some visitors and media persons “came with suspicions and, I think, with
prejudices [but] left with an appreciation and respect. I think it is a great compliment
to our people. We’re friendly, hospitable and gracious. I think the whole world saw us
as we are, and I think they came to appreciate and respect us.”161
These were the “Mormon Games” because the church received disproportionately high praise in the press, primarily for not proselytizing and maintaining a
restrained presence during the Games. The London Evening Standard called Salt Lakers “heavenly hosts,” while Paris’s Le Monde awarded the church “the gold medal for
public relations.”162 A Deseret News article headlined “Silence During Games Proves
Golden for Mormons” might be expected, but compliments also came from unexpected sources.163 The Salt Lake Tribune applauded the church for not proselytizing
and, acknowledging the harsh abuse dished out by some national reporters and antiMormon protesters at Temple Square, praised “Utah’s majority faith [for] handling
extreme provocation with grace.”164 Even City Weekly, the most forthright critic of
undue Mormon influence in secular affairs, congratulated the church for receding into
the background and allowing the Olympics “to shine.”165
Congratulations for curbing its inherently aggressive missionary impulse were in
order, but the decision was less a calculated choice than recognition of reality. In
order to make the most of a global media presence for some three weeks, abandoning
proselytizing was the only feasible course of action. Since tracting certainly would
have unleashed a torrent of criticism and ridicule from media at home and abroad, tact
was the only option. In the end, the church could only benefit from what it didn’t do
The "Mormon Games"
31
during the Games. Bruce Olsen, managing director of public affairs for the church,
acknowledged the point: “If we had missionaries and church members on the streets, I
don’t think we would have been seen as nearly as welcoming.”166 Actually, failing to
proselytize was no great loss inasmuch as Olympic visitors were preoccupied with the
Games and not the usual target prospects for conversion. Besides, the LDS church
sought gold not through Games-time conversions, but by projecting the church as a
mainstream Christian faith with attractive personal and familial values so as to
enhance conversion opportunities after the Olympic flame had been extinguished.
Winter Games exposure likely did not prompt anyone to convert, although visitors
and television viewers were probably left with a kinder. gentler sense of Mormons
and their church.
These were the “Mormon Games” because of the enduring popular images taken
from the Olympics. Immediate and long-term perceptions of a given Olympics are
media creations. People who saw the Olympics in person or on television will ever
think of Salt Lake City and Utah in terms of beautiful mountains and skiing. But like
those who read about the Games, they will continue to think of the city and state in
primarily terms of such Mormon images as the LDS Temple, strange liquor laws,
polygamy, missionaries. the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Donny and Marie Osmond,
and “nice” volunteers. The perception persists, reinforced repeatedly by the media,
that Mormons are synonymous with Utahns; after all, the media praised the LDS
church and Mormons as kind, friendly, and gracious hosts, not the people of Utah or
the diverse population of Salt Lake City, most of whom are not LDS.
These were the “Mormon Games” because the local church trumped Utah’s capital city in media commentary. Normally, the Olympics showcase the host city, but
the LDS church overshadowed Salt Lake’s efforts to publicize its social and cultural
attributes. That was due in part to the unmistakable physical presence of the church,
the media’s fascination with Mormon eccentricities, and the long-standing identification of Salt Lake with church headquarters. Despite Mayor Anderson’s efforts to promote the community’s diverse attributes, newspaper commentary on Salt Lake City
dealt overwhelmingly with the availability of alcohol and nightlife. In contrast, prior
to the winter Olympics virtually every major newspaper from the United States and
nations participating in the Games ran a substantive story on the church or Mormonism. The church’s media office was inundated by more than 1,000 calls as reporters
from around the world rushed to print at least one article about Mormons. More than
100 pieces a day appeared in Germany alone; all were positive and dealt mostly about
the church itself and the Tabernacle Choir, but some discussed such things as the
church’s genealogical and welfare programs. As the Games progressed, Mormonism
became a non-topic and afterwards Mormons and their church could breathe a massive sigh of relief. The church had received extensive positive publicity, but no commentary on its influence in politics, community affairs, and like matters that were at
the heart of the antagonisms between Mormons and non-Mormons in Utah. In a classic understatement, Michael Otterson, director of media relations for the church con167
cluded that the “vast majority of the publicity about the Church has been very fair.”
These were the “Mormon Games” because of the impact of the Olympics on the
LDS church and its members. To Governor Leavitt the winter Games was a “branding event,” but for Mormons it was a “bonding event.” Despite an understated yet
apparent self-righteous confidence, the church and its communicants suffer from a
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chronic, deep-seated inferiority complex born of persecutions in Illinois and Missouri, nurtured by removal to a western desert and accentuated by being the only religious group in America systematically and openly subjected to jokes and ridicule
about its heritage and practices. That Mormons, like Jews, in public life are regularly
identified by religion is a matter of both pride and prejudice. The old saw that Mormons want two things above all --to convert and to be liked -- is only a slight exaggeration. The constant need for validation and assurance results in systematic church
socializing and publicizing contributions of the group. Thus, two LDS sports writers,
anticipating Salt Lake winning the bid for the 1998 Games, published a faith-promoting chronicle of Mormon participation in previous Olympics.168
The 2002 winter Olympics provided LDS leaders with an opportunity not only to
present the church in a positive light to a global audience, but also to use the Games
as a faith-affirming event for Mormons. This was accomplished through the LDS
Church News, a tabloid included with the Saturday edition of the Deseret News. Containing editorials, scripture lessons, messages from church leaders, faith-promoting
articles, and church-related news from around the world, the Church News is a primary means of communication among devout Mormons. Other than the First Presidency’s call for volunteers in November 1998 and February 2001, the Olympics did
not make the publication until January 12, 2002. whereupon it dominated each issue,
cover photographs included, through the end of the Paralympics on March 16. For
ten weeks, the Church News contained editorials linking common attributes of sport
with religion; articles about Mormon Olympians past and present, LDS members who
served as hosts or volunteers, Olympic-related cultural events and activities at church
sites; pronouncements by church leaders and accounts of their involvement in Olympics activities; profiles of Mitt Romney and Bob Garff as church members instead of
SLOC administrators; and excerpts, all positive, from the national and international
newspapers about Mormons and the Games.169 By detailing the extent of LDS
involvement in the Olympics and the recognition the church received, something that
was absent in the local media, the inspirational and uplifting Church News reassured
Mormons about their faith and the efficacy of their good works. Articles like “Olympics earn friends and respect for Church” praised church members for their support in
making the winter Games such a success and promoting the faith. President Hinckley
was blunt: “I think we will be pleased and benefit from [the Olympics] not only
abroad but right here at home in the great relationships we’ve had in this season putting on these world games.”170
These were the “Mormon Games” because SLOC executives and church officials
saw the Olympics as Providential intervention favorable to Mormonism. Asserting
that “there were many instances where we received assistance beyond our capabilities,” including favorable weather throughout the Games, Mitt Romney and Fraser
Bullock were “certain, absolutely certain, we had a divine hand with us.” President
Hinckley declared at a church conference that the Olympics were the fulfillment of
Brigham Young’s prophecy to early Mormon settlers that “Kings and emperors and
the noble and wise of the Earth will visit us here.” The prophecy was true, explained
Bullock, because “during the Games we had over 140 dignitaries from around the
world, in addition to our own president, vice president and almost all of his Cabinet.”
Bullock also believed that the Mormon church had benefited immeasurably from
Gods Olympic favor. “In my opinion,” he told a Brigham Young University audi-
The “Mormon Games”
33
ence, “a change has occurred around the world regarding the perception of the church,
the reverberations from which we will not fully comprehend for years to come.”171
These were the “Mormon Games” in the most fundamental respects -- Mormon
domination of the bid committees and SLOC, the intimate relationship between
SLOC and the LDS church and, especially, the church’s extensive contributions to the
Games. President Hinckley emphatically asserted: “This is the Salt Lake Olympics,
not the Mormon Olympics. But as citizens and residents here, we . . . are making our
contribution as part of the community, and I think that contribution is significant.”172
Actually, the church’s contributions were critically important to the success of Salt
Lake 2002. Every Salt Lake bid committee and SLOC official knew that the church
was their ace in the hole, the resource that would ensure a successful winter Games.
Mayor Rocky Anderson, ever sensitive to Mormon influence in community affairs,
regarded the church’s participation as “enormously generous and entirely appropriate.
I’ve never understood those who feel that the LDS Church shouldn’t have a major
presence in the Olympics, in the sense that this city is its world headquarters.”173
After the Games, Caroline Shaw, a non-Mormon who was SLOC’s Chief Communications Officer, wrote a letter to the editor of the Deseret News profusely thanking the
church for its contributions to the Games, concluding “We could not have done it
without The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”174 It was true: Only the
Mormon church was able to provide land, money, and human resources on a scale
necessary to ensure the success of the Games.
LDS support of the Games was essential, but not disinterested. The church had a
vested interest in the success of the Games as it benefited from reflected glory. If the
Games went off well, Salt Lake City and Utah would look good and so would the
Mormon church. Michael Otterson knew as much: “Clearly the reputation of Utah,
the reputation of Salt Lake City and the reputation of the church is tied up
together.”175 What is good for the Mormon church is not necessarily good for Utah,
but what is good for Utah is surely good for the Mormon church --a truth made abundantly clear by success of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. The LDS church was the
greatest benefactor from the success of the 2002 Games partly because of its own
efforts and partly because the outside world before, during, and after the Games
equated Utah with Mormonism.
Finally, these were indeed the “Mormon Games” because of the impact of the
church’s Olympics-related activities on the community. Its influence, real and imagined, on the winter Games was the major topic of local Olympic discourse. Mormon
domination of the bid committees and SLOC, the nature and extent of the church’s
support of pre-Games preparations and conflicts over lifestyle issues such as liquor
regulations -- all intensified by a newspaper war -- brought long-standing religious
tensions and hostilities to the fore. The social antagonisms were so great that community groups and even the President of the LDS church took steps to promote cultural
understanding and tolerance. The Games themselves and the accompanying seventeen-day celebration brought unprecedented unity and harmony to the Salt Lake community. But as the 2002 Games came to an end, many Utahns wondered if the glow
of Olympic goodwill would disappear once the flame was extinguished and the usual
religious divisiveness would reappear. The answer came on the eve of the Closing
Ceremony; predictably, alcohol was the signifying issue.
On February 23, the night before the Games ended, Salt Lake police in riot gear
34 Olympika
Volume XI - 2002
were called upon to quell a disturbance. Frustrated by the premature closure of Bud
World due to overcrowding, a few hundred beery youths took to the streets throwing
bottles and cans and causing minor property damage, including breaking the windows
of a police car. The Salt Lake police chief and Mayor Anderson emphatically
declared the ruckus was not a “riot,” agreeing with the national media’s characterization of the affair as a “melee,” “unruly crowd,” or “beer brawl.” The fracas resulted
not only in the arrest of 21 people, mostly Utahns, but also assailed the availability of
alcohol for the remainder of the Games as well as attempts to liberalize the liquor
laws. The next day the Deseret News leapt at the opportunity to reiterate its concern
about alcohol consumption and opposition to efforts “by local government to enliven
Salt Lake City by loosening restrictions on alcohol while extending nightclub business hours.” Although the News editorial clearly signaled that liberalization during
the Olympics would not carry over to Mayor Anderson’s efforts to loosen liquor laws
as part of campaign to rejuvenate downtown Salt Lake, there was as usual more to the
alcohol issue than alcohol. The sensitivity over church control of social policy was
evident in the two-fisted response by the Salt Lake Tribune. Chastising “the newspaper owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” for suggesting the
“beer brawl” was “the inevitable result of allowing people freedom of choice to consume alcohol,” the Tribune snapped that such an attitude was the mindset of “fanatics
who really want to return the state to Prohibition.” Since Deseret News editorials are
approved by LDS church authorities prior to publication, the Tribune interpreted the
176
“broadside” as “a stem reminder” that “this is still a company town.” The alternative newspaper, City Weekly, declared that the News had more generally served notice
that the Olympics were “an aberration,” that the church, like good hosts, had put on its
most hospitable face for visitors, but intended to revert to normalcy as soon as they
left.177
Rather than being a liberalizing catalyst for the future, Salt Lake 2002 brought
about a period of social regression. Shortly after the conclusion of the Winter Paralympic Games on March 16, a series of events in April signaled an aggressive resurgence of Mormon influence on secular matters. When local LDS stake presidents
sent letters to Pleasant Grove government and school officials asking that Monday
nights be reserved for family activities, the mayor and city council members
attempted to ban Monday night sports activities; similarly, the mayor of Hurricane in
May sought to prohibit school events and city-sponsored activities after 5:00 on Mondays, but tabled the resolution pending an investigation of the matter by the city attorney.178 Non-Mormon religious groups had handed out literature, some of it
unabashedly anti-Mormon, with impunity around Temple Square during the Olympics, but LDS complaints in early April during the church’s semi-annual conference
led to the arrest of two men, a Baptist minister and an evangelist, for handing out religious pamphlets near the controversial pedestrian plaza owned by the church. The
church initially complained that the material was “contrary to the LDS religion,” but
later conceded the men were arrested to maintain “the quiet serenity” of the area;
charges were eventually dropped.179 In April a group of citizens proposed the
removal of a long established state liquor store in downtown Salt Lake because of its
proximity to a public park.180 Prior to the Republican County convention in April, an
anonymous letter distributed in one legislative House district attacked a GOP candidate for not being a Mormon and having a wife who was “a Democrat and abortion-
The “Mormon Games”
35
181
ist.” When Utah Congressman Jim Hansen, a Mormon, encountered opposition to
his bill authorizing the church to purchase 1,640 acres of federally owned land in
Wyoming as a LDS historic site, he charged critics with “Mormon-bashing, plain and
simple,” a view that coloured all future discussions on the issue.182 Finally, organizers of an Ogden street festival scheduled for June, mindful of the Bud World brouhaha, canceled two beer courts and a Budweiser-sponsored venue.183
Conclusion
Hosting the Winter Olympics provided once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for Salt
Lake City, the state of Utah, and the LDS church. Except for massive security measures undertaken after September 11, Salt Lake 2002 was similar to previous Olympics in the essentials of venue construction, Games management, logistical
operations, and fundraising. But the Salt Lake Games were also unique in a number
of respects, making them among the most unusual in winter Olympic history.
Host communities always envision the Olympics as a positive public relations
event, but Utahns, chafing at the persistence of unflattering stereotypes and misconceptions about Utah and Mormonism, were uniquely hopeful that media exposure
would create more favourable impressions of the Beehive State, its capital city and
the dominant church. The desire to project an accurate picture of life behind the Zion
Curtain influenced every aspect of Olympic planning. For advocates from Salt Lake
City Mayor Rocky Anderson to LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley, Salt Lake 2002
was as much about education as promotion. The winter Olympics did modify some
misconceptions -- one can get a drink in Utah, polygamy is not commonplace, Salt
Lake is a cosmopolitan city, Utah skiing is superb, Mormons are strange but nice. Yet
for all the first-hand experiences and media reports, the winter Olympic experience
did little to change either the basic perceptions of outsiders about Utah and Mormonism or the realities of life in the Beehive State. Utah remains a markedly distinctive
place because of the pervasive influence of the Mormon church. The greeting that
once adorned Utah Travel Council billboards placed at the borders of the state still
applies: “Welcome to the Different World of Utah.”
Local culture(s) give a distinctive aura to each Olympics, but Salt Lake 2002 was
unique in that the Mormon culture that so dominated life in Utah also dominated
Olympic planning, Games-time social policies, and popular perceptions of people and
place. Alcohol regulations, polygamy, dietary restrictions, missionary activities, and
other aspects of Mormonism were the common currency of visitor and press discourse. The 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics marked the only other instance where a
particular cultural and ideological entity coloured every aspect of hosting the Games.
As a result, media coverage of Salt Lake 2002 differed from the norm in terms of
the amount of attention given to a single local institution, the LDS church, and the
religious beliefs and social practices of its members. The national and international
press may have skewed the realities of life in Utah by painting all Utahns with the
brush of Mormonism, but everyone who witnessed the Games had Mormons on their
mind. At the local level, the two daily newspapers were also fixated with the church’s
influence on the Games and its control of Games-time social policies, both of which
increased religious tensions in the community.
The Salt Lake Games were unique in that the usual community pride and unity
36 Olympika
Volume XI - 2002
derived from the Olympic experience, particularly widespread during the Olympics,
was compromised by overt conflict and antagonism between Mormons and non-Mormons. While appreciating the church’s contributions to the Games, many non-Mormons saw LDS involvement with SLOC as yet another instance of church domination
of secular affairs and its insistence upon holding fast on liquor-laws during the Games
as a further indication of its determination to impose Mormon values on the community. Confrontations over Olympics issues are nothing new, but for the first time, the
interplay was between secular and sectarian forces, with the latter having the upper
hand. Baron de Coubertin’s vision of the Games as promoting brotherhood, peace,
and understanding did not always apply to Salt Lake 2002.
The 2002 Games were unique in their dependence for support upon a single institution. Salt Lake joined the so-called Nazi Olympics of 1936 as the only instances
when a single, non-Olympic entity was the focal point of the Olympics and marked
the first time in Olympic history that a sectarian institution occupied centre stage.
The LDS church played the key role in the 2002 winter Games because of its influence as well as the predominately Mormon heritage of the state. Headquartered in
Salt Lake City, the Mormon church alone had the ability to mobilize the material and
human resources necessary to underwrite a winter Games, and a successful Olympics
was assured once LDS leaders decided to support the enterprise. These were most
certainly the “Mormon Games” because without the contributions of the LDS church,
there would have been no Salt Lake 2002.
Finally, Olympic Games routinely represent a moment in the sun with only shortterm benefits for host communities, but the 2002 Winter Games may fundamentally
impact the quality of life in the Utah capital, if not the state. Although everyday life
in Utah quickly returned to normal, the winter Games dramatically changed, if only
for seventeen days, attitudes and activities in Salt Lake City and beyond. During the
Olympics Utah welcomed the world and pretended to be part of it; for two weeks Salt
Lake was what it could and should be, a vibrant, inclusive, accommodating place.
The Olympic experience, the Games themselves and the local controversies attendant
to them, showed Mormons and non-Mormons alike the possibilities for a more cosmopolitan, culturally tolerant future. Alas, the bitter dispute that erupted during the
fall of 2002 over public access to the plaza built by the church on the block of Main
Street purchased in 1999 reveals that the Olympic spirit forged only a temporary
bonding of a community still fundamentally rent by secular and sectarian divisions.184
From the perspective of Olympic history, scholars and journalists will always
view Salt Lake 2002 as the Scandal Games for the bid scandal that preceded it and the
figure skating scandal that marred it. From the perspective of local history, they
should also think of the Salt Lake winter Olympics, if not as the Mormon Games, then
at least as the Olympics that took place among the Mormons. Given the pervasive
influence and ubiquitous presence of the LDS church in Utah and in the 2002 Games,
how could it be otherwise?
The “Mormon Games”
37
Endnotes
1.
Roughing It (Hartford, CT: American Publishing Company, 1872. Modern Language Association edition, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), p. 89.
2.
U.S. News & World Report, January 28, 2002: 50.
3.
This paper is based primarily on newspaper articles, personal experiences and
germane scholarly writings. Because Salt Lake City’s two dailies are so different
in terms of editorial positions and perspectives, it is often necessary to cite both
papers in notes. The Salt Lake Organizing Committee papers, to be donated to
the University of Utah, will not be catalogued and available for examination for
the foreseeable future, while materials in the LDS church archives pertaining to
church officials remain closed to researchers. Attempts to interview key persons
about the church’s role in the Olympics were unsuccessful, but it is highly
unlikely that their comments at this time would differ from the public record.
4.
Church records list 5.2 million U. S. members, 5.9 million in 161 other countries.
New York Times, January 26, 2002; Deseret News, February 16, 2002; Salt Lake
Tribune, March 2, 2002. On the Mormon church, see Jan Shipps, Mormonism:
The Story of A New Religious Tradition (Urbana: University of Illinois Press,
1985, 1987) and Richard N. and Joan K. Ostling, Mormon America: The Power
and the Promise (San Francisco: Harper/SanFrancisco, 1999).
5.
David Van Biema, “Mormons, Inc.: The Secret of America’s Most Prosperous
Religion,” Time, August 4, 1997: 50-57; Salt Lake Tribune, July 28, 1997; “Salt
Lake City’s new image,” The Economist, February 13, 1999: 34.
6.
According to an article on the “Mormon Cultural Region” forthcoming in The
Social Science Journal, Utah matched national averages in only six of twentyfour categories. For example, alcohol consumption, per capital income and death
rates for cancer and heart disease are lower than the country as a whole, but
divorce, fertility and urban population rates are higher. Deseret News, February
16, 2002.
7.
More knowledgeable observers would be aware of some LDS religious beliefs
based upon a translation of gold plates that includes the appearance of Jesus in
South America, polytheism, tithing 10 percent of one’s net income, wearing
sacred undergarments, secret temple rituals, the exclusion of blacks from the
priesthood until 1978 and the denial of the traditional Christian Trinity.
8.
The figures are from the 2000 Federal Census. According to various demographic characteristics, the cultural distinctiveness of cultural Mormondom, basically comprising Utah and the contiguous states, is increasing compared with the
nation as a whole. See the Salt Lake Tribune, February 8, 2002.
38 Olympika
9.
Volume XI - 2002
There has been only one non-Mormon governor in Utah history, Simon Bamberger, a Jew, who served from 1916 to 1920.
10. The principal governing body of the LDS church is the First Presidency, composed of the church’s President and two counselors. The president is the
supreme authority, considered to speak and act with the divine guidance of Jesus
Christ. The Presiding Bishop, also known as the Bishop of Salt Lake, is in
charge of managing the church’s temporal affairs such as member tithing, welfare programs and the construction of churches and temples. The second-highest
administrative body is the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, which is responsible
for directing the church’s domestic and international ministry as well as overseeing the Stakes. The Twelve are assisted by the Quorum of the Seventy, whose
members are assigned a variety of functions. A Stake, comparable to a diocese,
is administered by a stake president and two counselors and supervises the activities of from five to twelve wards or individual congregations. A Bishopric,
made up of a bishop and two counselors, direct the activities of individual wards
or congregations. See Daniel H. Ludlow, ed., The Encyclopedia of Mormonism:
The History, Scriptue, Doctrine and Procedures of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. 5 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1992).
11. The legislation was passed in February and signed into law in March. Salt Lake
Tribune, March 18, 2000.
12. The LDS church has designated Monday day night as “Family Home Evening,” a
time for families to join together for religious instruction and social interaction.
In 1994 the mayor of Provo attempted to close the city’s golf course and swimming pool on Sundays; in 1995 the major of Mapleton tried to ban all city-sponsored activities on Monday afternoons and evenings; in 1998 the Centerville
mayor wanted to ban Monday night baseball; Orem city officials decided to prohibit golf on Sundays; the Farmington city council in 2000 and 2001 ordered the
city swimming pool closed on Sundays. See the Salt Lake Tribune, January 7,
March 10, July 14 and 17, 1994; April 27 and June 30, 1995; September 19 and
October 5, 1997; March 27, April 1 and 14, May 3, 1998; February 20 and April
17, 2000, March 20, 2001.
13. Salt Lake Tribune. October 31, 1997.
14. The lengthy debate over the controversial sale quickly divided along religious
lines as did the final 5-2 city council vote to approve the sale for $8.1 million.
Opponents of the sale argued it was unlikely that the city would sell a portion of
its Main Street to the Catholic or Baptist church. A council member who
opposed the sale, Deeda Seed, agreed: “We are making a special exception, selling Main Street, because it is the LDS Church asking.” Salt Lake Tribune, April
14, 1999 and August 31, 2000
15. Ibid., January 17, 2002.
16. The Guardian, January 25, 2002.
The “Mormon Games”
39
17. On the Mormon influence on the state, see Richard D. Poll. “Utah and the Mormons: A Symbiotic Relationship,” David E. Miller Lecture on Utah and the
West, University of Utah, April 23, 1980. Bernard Machen is the second consecutive non-LDS president of the University of Utah, whose student body, about 50
percent LDS, is drawn from all 50 states and 102 foreign countries.
18. Dale Morgan, editor, Utah: A Guide Book (New York: Hastings House, 1941),
p. 6.
19. Deseret News, February 23, 2002.
20. The News is an afternoon paper with a circulation in May 2002 of 71,000 daily
and 69,000 Sunday compared with 134,000 daily and 163,000 Sunday for the
morning Tribune. The News suffers from a lack of credibility even among
devout Mormons for its bias; its subscriber appeal is largely the Saturday-edition
supplement, LDS Church News. The distribution of the Church News is greater
than circulation figures indicate because it is frequently passed around to members.
21. Salt Lake Tribune, September 10, 2001.
22. The church also stood to gain financially through its numerous commercial ventures including a strategically located hotel, The Inn at Temple Square.
23. Salt Lake Tribune, March 18, 2001.
24. Salt Lake was the United States Olympic Committee’s choice to bid for the 1972,
1998, and 2002 Winter Olympics; it had also unsuccessfully competed to be the
U.S. bid city for the 1976 and 1992 Games.
25. The expenditures were revealed in January 1999 during the bid scandal investigation. Salt Lake Tribune, March 18 and November 21, 2001.
26. Ibid.. June 17, 1995; Historian Jan Shipps interview with President Gordon B.
Hinckley subsequently reported in the Deseret News, February 3, 2002.
27. Deseret News, June 17, 1995.
28. Quoted in the Salt Lake Tribune, March 18, 2001.
29. Ibid., December 24, 2001.
30. Ibid., Deseret News, January 13, 2002.
31. Church News, February 9, 2002.
32. The letter was printed in full in the Church News, November 21, 1998. SLOC’s
public solicitation in the form of announcements in the Salt Lake Tribune and
Deseret News appeared on November 16. See also Salt Lake Tribune, September
40 Olympika
Volume XI - 2002
9 and November 24, 1998.
33. Steven Pace, founder of Utahns for Responsible Spending, was always featured
in the press as the chief opponent of SLOC and the Games. The most persistent
and wide-ranging local criticism came from the Citizens Activist Network
(CAN), a small coalition of community activists who sponsored a series of panel
discussions and workshops devoted to Olympics issues and animal right’s groups
such as PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and SHARK
(Showing Animals Respect and Kindness), whose confrontational protests alienated much of the community. Opposition to the Olympics increased during the
bid process, but then declined; support for Games remained modestly steady after
obtaining the bid, but opposition decreased substantially. In February 1989, 76
percent favoured and 20 percent opposed the Olympics; by May 1995, 65 percent
supported the Olympics while 33 percent opposed them; on the eve of Games 59
percent supported the Olympics, 14 percent said they were “torn” but would follow the Games and only 11 percent opposed to the Games in principle. Deseret
News, June 17, 1995; Salt Lake Tribune, December 8, 2001.
34. Salt Lake Tribune, March 18, 2001.
35. See, for example, the Deseret News, October 12, 1996.
36. Salt Lake Tribune, February 14, 1998; Salt Lake City Weekly, March 12, 1998.
Hereafter cited as City Weekly.
37. Salt Lake Tribune, May 8, 2001.
38. Ibid., February 5, March 18, 2001.
39. Ibid., February 12, 1999. SLOC officials were also criticized for not considering
any women for the post. Ibid, February 5, 2001.
40. Ibid., February 5, 1999.
41. Ibid., March 18, 2001.
42. Deseret News, September 1, 1999; Salt Lake Tribune, March 18, 2001.
43. Salt Lake Tribune, July 8, 2001. BYU, located some forty-five miles south of
Salt Lake City, agreed to close for several days during the Games, tripling the
number of student volunteers to 3,814. Deseret News, February 9, 2001; Salt
Lake Tribune, July 8, 2001.
44. Salt Luke Tribune, June 22, 2001.
45. Deseret News, February 2, 2002.
46. For a sampling of SLOC requests to the LDS church, see Salt Luke Tribune, July
8, 200l and Deseret News, February 2, 2002.
The “Mormon Games”
41
47. Once controlled by a handful of families associated with the founding of the
church in the 1830s the Intermountain group is now a minority within the United
States and American members are a minority worldwide. Yet top-level Church
leadership has always been exclusively Caucasian, largely Utahn and almost
exclusively American. In 2002 President Hinckley and the other two members of
the First Presidency were Utahns; the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles were all
Americans, eight being Utahns; only one of the seven presidents of the Quorums
of the 70, a Belgian, was not American. New York Times, January 26, 2002.
48. In November 2000, the Virgin city council passed an ordinance requiring every
head of household, except those exempted by religion or law, to have a firearm
and ammunition in their home. Salt Lake Tribune, November 5, 2000. On July
4, 2001, the La Verkin city council voted 3-2 to prohibit the use of city funds to
support the United Nations and its affiliated organizations and to require citizens
who did so to file an annual report with the city and post a sign in their yard indicating such support. Salt Lake Tribune, July 5, 200l; Deseret News, July 26 and
28, 2001. In October 1997 BYU refused to display four Rodin pieces including
“The Kiss” that were part of a national traveling exhibit. Salt Lake Tribune, October 28, 1997.
49. Deseret News, August 4, 2001. The Foundation for Apologetic Information and
Research (FAIR), an LDS group dedicated to countering anti-Mormonism, conducted a survey of 500 clergy, 95 of whom responded.
50. Hinckley held a press conference immediately after his ordination, the first by an
LDS president in twenty-two years. Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune, March
14, 1995. See also ibid., March 14, 1995, February 16 and March 1, 1998.
51. Church News, December 23, 1995; Salt Lake Tribune, September 8 and 9, 1998
and December 18 and 25, 1999; Deseret News, December 25, 1999; USA Today,
February 19, 2002. Hinckley’s appearance on “Larry King Live” came about at
the suggestion of King’s wife, Shawn Southwick, a Mormon from Provo, Utah.
In July 2000 Hinckley published a prescriptive book for youths, Way to Be! 9
Ways to Be Happy and Make Something of Your Life (Salt Lake City: Deseret
Publishing Company, 2002), a path-breaking book that avoided LDS doctrine
and “church-speak” and instead was nondenominational and cross-cultural in
nature.
52. The old logo was divided thusly: The Church of/Jesus Christ/of Latter-day/
Saints. Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News, December 20, 1995; Church News,
December 23, 1995. On the Church’s attempts to be accepted as a Christian faith
and points of divergence from traditional Christianity, see the Salt Luke Tribune,
March 31, 2001.
53. Salt Lake Tribune, December 25, 1999.
54. Church News, February 17, 2001; New York Times, February 19, 2001, reprinted
same date in the Deseret News. Subsequently, the Missouri-based Reorganized
42 Olympika
Volume XI - 2002
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which split from the Brigham
Young-led Mormons over the succession to Joseph Smith, changed its name to
the Community of Christ to avoid confusion with the Utah church. Salt Lake Tribune, April 6, 200l.
55. Salt Lake Tribune, January 24, 1998, January 15, 2000, February 17 and December 24, 2001; New York Times, January 20, 2002,
56. Salt Lake Tribune, January 13, 2001; Church News, November 10, 2001
57. Church News, November 24, 2001. The article was headlined “Temple Square
lighting set for Olympics.”
58. Ibid., February 2 and 9, 2002.
59. Salt Luke Tribune, December 24, 2001; Deseret News, January 13, 2002; Los
Angeles Times, reprinted in the Salt Lake Tribune, January 14 and 17, 2002;
Church News, March 2, 2002.
60. Suggested topics for stories, the same as appeared on the church’s web site,
included “The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ,” “Sexual
Morality a Key Tenet,” “Families Can Be Eternal,” and “Tithing: Foundation of
Church Finances.”
61. Salt Lake Tribune, March 18, 2001.
62. Ibid.
63. Church News, February 10, 2001.
64. Deseret News, February 9, 2001.
65. Ibid.
66. Ibid., March 16, 2001; Salt Lake Tribune, March 17, 2001.
67. Deseret News, March 16, 2001. Previous church statements about the Olympics
were in the Church News, an in-house Mormon publication and dealt with the
solicitation of volunteers.
68. Deseret News, March 18, 2001.
69. Ibid., March 16, 2001.
70. Salt Lake Tribune, March 18, 2001.
71. See Ibid., February 18, March 13, 18 and 25, 2001.
72. Of the readers who responded, 68 percent did not believe SLOC and felt the
church should not be involved in Olympic decisions; 16 percent did not believe
The “Mormon Games”
43
SLOC but felt the church’s involvement was helpful; 11 percent believed SLOC;
and 5 percent believed SLOC and thought the church should be involved. Ibid.,
March 25, 2002.
73. Ibid., March 21, 2001.
74. The Catholic McCarthey family, principal descendents of Thomas Kearns who
bought the Tribune in 1901, merged the paper with AT&T in 1997, but retained
managerial control for five years with an option to repurchase in 2001. Because
the Tribune and the Deseret News had a joint operating agreement with the
Newspaper Agency Corporation, which handles advertising, circulation and
printing for both papers, each paper had to consent to any ownership transfer of
the other newspaper. Although a U. S. District Court ruled in favour of the
McCarthey’s right to reacquire the paper, the News refused to endorse their repurchase from Denver-based MediaNews, owner of the Denver Post, which had
obtained the Tribune in January 2001. The Salt Lake Tribune published a detailed
“Anatomy of a Newspaper War” on June 9, 2002; the Deseret News followed
with its version of the struggle on June 30, 2002. See also the Deseret News,
June 26, 2002 and the Salt Lake Tribune, June 27 and 30, July 21, 2002. On July
22, 2002, a U. S. District judge, Mormon by faith, ruled against the McCartheys
thus ending more than a century of local, non-Mormon ownership of the Tribune.
Deseret News, July 22, 2002; Salt Lake Tribune, July 23 and 28, 2002.
75. The News CEO, John Hughes, took the high road in response to exclusion: “It
would have been logical to invite the Deseret News to the Tribune seminar. We
were surprised not to be. Had we been running the seminar, we would have
invited the Tribune.” Salt Luke Tribune, April 27, 29 and May 6, 2001; Deseret
News, April 27, 2001.
76. Church News, July 28, 2001.
77. Salt Lake Tribune, September 17 and 23, 2001; Deseret News, September 17 and
18, 200l.
78. Salt Lake Tribune, August 30, 2001.
79. Ibid.
80. Kenneth L. Woodward, “A Mormon Moment,” Newsweek, September 10, 2001:
44-51; Ana Figueroa, “Salt Lake’s Big Jump,” ibid.: 52-53:
81. Deseret News, March 17, 2001.
82. Salt Lake Tribune, September 2, 2001.
83. Deseret News, March 17, 2001.
84. Salt Lake Tribune, January 14, 2002; New York Times, January 20, 2002.
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85. Salt Lake Tribune, December 24, 2001.
86. Ibid., January 17, 2002; Deseret News, February 9, 2002.
87. Deseret News, February 9, 2002.
88. Church News, February 2, 2002
89. The eight minute segment aired on February 23 just prior to 7:00 p.m. Ibid., February 23, 2002.
90. Ibid., November 8, 2001. The article’s headline suggested as much: “NBC gets
LDS briefing.”
91. Ibid., January 30, 2002.
92. Religious sensitivities were so great that several persons who watched the telecast of Ute Frank Arrowchis conducting a blessing of the Olympic flame on its
arrival in Utah on February 4, 2002, complained, incorrectly, that Arrowchis, a
Catholic, had offered a Mormon prayer. Salt Lake Tribune, February 5, 2002.
93. Ibid., December 9, 2001. The report may have excluded the winter Olympics
because it had been the subject of an earlier report or because the paper wanted to
focus on a long-standing problem. A year earlier the Episcopal church devoted
the entire issue of its Diocesan Dialogue, vol. 10 (December 1999) to a forthright
examination of church and state in Utah including the role of the LDS church in
politics, church-state issues in Utah and an essay on “The trouble with dominant
religions.”
94. Regulations in 2002 restricted package liquor sales to state-run liquor or wine
stores; allowed only 3.2 beer to be sold in taverns and grocery stores; limited
mixed drinks to one ounce of alcohol per serving; and prohibited liquor-by-thedrink except in restaurants with liquor licenses or in private clubs.
95. Deseret News, August 28, 1994.
96. Salt Lake Tribune, July 8, 1997
97. Ibid., November 10, 1997.
98. Ibid., March 18, 2001.
99. Ibid.
100. New York Times, February 17, 2002,
101. Alcoholic beverage ads were illegal in Utah from 1933 to 1996, when a federal
court ruling allowed the advertising of 3.2 percent beer. The ban had led to such
circuitous means of advertising as signs for “BEER NUTS” and “COLD BEE?.”
Salt Lake Tribune, July 4 and 7, September 21, 1996. The door to alcohol pro-
The “Mormon Games”
45
motion opened even wider on July 24, 2001, the day Mormons traditionally celebrate their pioneer heritage, when LDS president Hinckley admonished the
brethren to be more tolerant of cultural diversity, and, at practically the same
time, when the federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver ruled that Utah’s ban
on wine and liquor advertisements were “irrational and likely unconstitutional.”
Ibid., July 3 and 7, August 25, 2001; Deseret News, July 25 and 28, August 2,
2001.
102. Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News, October 13, 2001.
103. City Weekly, November 8, 2001 and March 7, 2002; Salt Lake Tribune, November 6, 7 and 11, 2001; December 7, 2001; and February 18, 2002; Deseret News,
November 8, 2001. The lawsuit involved the Commission holding a series of
secret telephone meetings in violation of state law, including the one that resulted
in a ban of religious-themed advertisements. Salt Lake Tribune, October 17, 19
and 20, 2001.
104. Ibid., September 28, 2000; October 12, 2001; and November 1, 2001.
105. Deseret News. July 24, 2001 and January 12, 2002; Salt Lake Tribune, January
12, 2002.
106. Salt Lake Tribune, April 29, November 1 and December 16, 2001
107. New York Times, February 17, 2002.
108. Baltimore Sun article reprinted in the Salt Lake Tribune, November 4, 2001;
Washington Post, January 28, 2002; New York Times, February 17, 2002; Salt
Lake Tribune, October 12, 2001; Deseret News, January 29, 2002.
109. Deseret News, October 10, 11 and 13, 2001; Salt Lake Tribune, October 11 and
14, 2001.
110. Deseret News, January 3, 2002.
111. New York Times, February 17, 2002. After being criticized by the Deseret News
for his comment, Anderson subsequently tried to soften his remarks. Deseret
News, February 18 and 25, 2002.
112. There are no eyewitness or other contemporaneous accounts that Young made
the pronouncement that has become a staple of Mormon folk tradition; it was
first attributed to him several years after his death.
113. Salt Lake Tribune, February 7-9, 2002; Deseret News, February 9, 2002.
114. Deseret News, February 5 and 10, 2002; Salt Lake Tribune, February 9, 2002
115. For example, Sharon Begley, “Showtime in Salt Lake,” Newsweek. February 18,
2002: 46-49; Joel Stein, “Good Mourning, America,” Time, February 18, 2002:
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Volume XI - 2002
70; Richard Hoffer, “Fellowship of the Rings,” Sports Illustrated, February 18,
2002: 38-41.
116. Salt Lake Tribune, March 19, 2001.
117. Ibid., May 19 and 20, August 25, October 11, 2001. The attorney who prosecuted
the case admitted that he did so “because of the wealth of evidence against the
polygamist, including numerous clips of Green parading his lifestyle to the news
media.”
118. Rick Reilly, Sports Illustrated, February 18, 2002: 90; Salt Lake Tribune,
December 3, 2001 and January 26, 2002. See Sarah Barringer Gordon, The Mormon Question: Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth-Century
America (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 2002); Kathryn
M. Daynes, More Wives Than One: The Transformation of the Mormon Marriage System, 1840-1901 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001); Mary
Mackert, The Sixth of Seven Wives: Escape ,from Modern-Day Polygamy (Salt
Lake City: xpolygamist.com, 2000); Kathleen Tracy, The Secret Story of Polygamy (Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2002); and Shane LeGrande Whelan, More
Than One: Plural Marriage, A Sacred Pioneer Heritage (Woods Cross, UT:
Zion Publishers, 2001). The Whelan book, written by active Mormons for active
Mormons, is a proud defense of polygamy as a gospel principle and the LDS pioneer heritage. The book was published in December 2001, but the local newspapers ignored it until the following summer when billboard advertisements
appeared and the Olympics were long gone. Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune, July 15, 2002.
119. Salt Lake Tribune, January 26, 2002; Deseret News, February 1, 2002.
120. Salt Lake Tribune, February 21, 2002.
121. Deseret News, February 10, 2002.
122. Salt Lake Tribune, February 8 and 15, 2002.
123. Ibid., February 16, 2002.
124. Ibid., September 28, 2000; September 16, 2001
125. Ibid., February 21, 2002.
126. Daily Utah Chronicle, January 15, 2002; Deseret News, January 18 and 31,
2002; Salt Lake Tribune, January 18 and February 1, 2002.
127. The multi-ethnic organization in charge of the village had obtained a license to
sell beer, but failed to act upon it in deference to the wishes of the largely Mormon Native American constituency. Deseret News, February 9, 2002.
128. Wall Street Journal. February 12, 2002.
The “Mormon Games”
47
129. Ibid.
130. Salt Lake Tribune, December 17, 2001 and February 13 and 28, 2002; Deseret
News, January 15 and February 10 and 18, 2002.
131. Salt Lake Tribune. February 12, 2002.
132. Ibid., December 2, 2001, February 16 and 25, 2002; Deseret News, December 19,
2001; New York Times, February 17, 2002.
133. Salt Lake Tribune, February 24, 2002.
134. Ibid., February 17, 2001.
135. Ibid., February 8, 14, 2002; Deseret News, February 16 and March 14, 2002; City
Weekly, February 21, 2002.
136. Also offered were pamphlets prepared by the Institute for Religious Research in
Grand Rapids, Michigan: The Book of Mormon Today; New Light on Joseph
Smith’s First Vision; Are Mormon Temples Christian? and Is Mormonism Chrislian?.
137. In June 2001 Mayor Anderson, at the urging of the American Civil Liberties
Union, urged the church to relax its free-speech rules on the plaza. Salt Lake Tribune, June 7, 2001.
138. Salt Lake Tribune, February 18, 2002.
139. Ibid, February 11, 2002.
140. “Utah 101: Beehive State of Mind,” Ibid., February 9 to 24, 2002.
141. Workshop training was built around the acronym CHARGE --Committed, Helpful, Adaptable, Respectful, Gracious. Enjoy. Training included instructions
about interpersonal communications, particularly with non-American cultures,
and how to respond to anticipated questions such as the bribery scandal. The only
allowable promoting concerned the state’s economic potential as Governor Leavitt gave volunteers a cue card with key messages to impart to visitors. The Governor’s talking points were “growing workforce,” “education oriented,” “tech
savvy,” “affordable” and “livable.” Ibid., February 8, 2002.
142. Ibid., February 16, 2002; Larry R. Gerlach, personal discussions during the
Olympics with several volunteers from Idaho who indicated their wards and
stakes were well-represented and with Salt Lake volunteers, both Mormon and
non-Mormon, including University of Utah senior history major Lindsay Law,
who said that there was no inquiry or mention of a volunteer’s religious affiliation.
143. Potential volunteers filled out a long application form and then went through
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Volume XI - 2002
three or four interviews. Volunteers could have no visible tattoos, body piercing
or facial hair unless well established and were forbidden to chew gum or smoke
cigarettes in public. Salt Lake Tribune, November 26, 2001, February 8, 2002;
Deseret News, November 8, 2001, January 15 and February 2 and 9, 2002.
144. The sister missionaries serving as Temple Square guides wore the flag of their
native country as “an instant reminder of the international nature of the women
servicing here” and thus the ability to offer tours in 40 languages. In addition,
some 300 BYU students, who collectively spoke 60 languages, manned a “Language hotline” offering translation and interpretation services. Nearly half the
male residents of Salt Lake City are bilingual. Salt Lake Tribune, February 8 and
16, 2002; Church News, February 16, 2002.
145. Wall Street Journal, February 13, 2002.
146. Deseret News, October 19, 2001.
147. Salt Lake Tribune, December 19, 1999; Ibid., January 5, 2002; Deseret News,
February 3, 200l.
148. The rejected pins depicted bingo, a ski-jumping nun, a skiing nun with rulers for
ski poles, fish for Fridays and a Trappist monk from the Huntsville, Utah, monastery holding bread and honey. Salt Lake Tribune, 2002.
149. The New Yorker ran a lengthy article on the interplay between Mormon history
and contemporary issues such as polygamy and gender; The Nation explored the
anguish of parents and their gay son in the face of the church’s belief that homosexuality was a sin second only to murder and grounds for excommunication;
Time, apropos Utah’s place as one of the nation’s most urbanized states, examined
the changes occurring in the state through growing cultural diversity and urbanization; and USA Today profiled four nationally prominent sports figures, three
non-Mormon, to explore the everyday realities of life in Utah. Lawrence Wright,
“Lives of the Saints,” The New Yorker, January 21, 2002: 40-57; Katherine Rosman, “Mormon Family Values,” The Nation, February 25, 2002:18-21; Terry
McCarthy, “The Drive Toward A New Utah,” Time, February 11, 2002: 58-62;
USA Today, February 8, 2002. USA Today profiled Steve Young, Mormon
former NFL player, Utah Jazz basketball star Karl Malone, University of Utah
men’s basketball coach Rich Majerus and former Jazz coach and president Frank
Layden. Eighty-seven percent of Utahns live in cities compared with the national
average of seventy-five. Deseret News, February 16, 2002.
150. Salt Lake Tribune, February 21, 2002. Making light of Mormonism eventually
carried over into the Olympic Medals Plaza, where host Steve Young, former
Brigham Young University and professional football star, cracked Mormon jokes
with rotating celebrity co-hosts. Television personality Bob Sagas said he found
it easy to get a drink in Utah, that he had gone out with Young and had a Mormon
Martini -- a glass of water with an olive. Young yucked, the audience groaned, a
sensitive issue had been trivialized.
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49
151. Washington Post, February 3, 2002; Salt Lake Tribune, February 3, 2002;
Deseret News, February 3, 7 and 11, 2002; Sports Illustrated, January 21 and
February 18, 2002.
152. Deseret News, February 12, 2002. Only three persons called in to discuss the
issue.
153. After receiving their “endowments” (full-membership) in special temple ceremonies, Mormon men and women wear special elbow-to-knee garments next to
their bodies -- i.e., under any kind of underclothing -- as a symbol of religious
commitments. See “Mormon Garments: Sacred Clothing and the Body,” in Colleen McDannell, Material Christianity: Religion and Popular Culture in America (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995), pp. 198-221. In a specious
letter written by documents forger Mark Hofmann, while Mormon founder
Joseph Smith was translating the Book of Mormon from Gold Plates, a white
salamander transformed itself into an “old spirit” and struck Smith and forbade
him to carry off the plates. See the “White Salamander” file, Special Collections,
Marriott Library, University of Utah.
154. Denver Post, February 12, 14, and 17, 2002; Salt Lake Tribune, February 14 and
17, 2002; Deseret News, February 14, 2002. The dubious act of deleting a published column may have occurred because Dean Singleton. the publisher of the
Denver Post, also owned the Salt Lnke Tribune thanks to an assist from the
Deseret News. See endnote 74.
155. The major exception was Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, “Snow Job,”
Sports Illustrated, (December 10, 2001): 78-97, an expose of the federal political
and financial dealings that enriched SLOC and Utah businessmen. Essentially
the same information appeared six years earlier in an article with the same title,
Christopher Smart, “Snow Job,” City Weekly (December 14, 1995): 12-16.
156. Salt Lake Tribune, June 17, 2002; IOC report appearing in USA Today, June 18,
2002. SLOC wound up with a profit in excess of $100 million. Salt Lake Tribune, September 18 and October 1, 2002.
157. USA Today, February 25, 2002.
158. Deseret News, February 15, 2002.
159. Ibid., February 18 and 28, 2002.
160. Church News, January 12, 2002.
161. Deseret News, February 27, 2002.
162. Quoted in the Church News, March 16, 2002.
163. For example, Daily Utah Chronicle, March 1, 2002; Deseret News, February 25
and 27, March 16, 2002; Salt Lake Tribune, March 2, 2002;
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Volume XI - 2002
164. Salt Luke Tribune, February 10, 17, 21 and 24, 2002.
165. City Weekly, February 21, 2002.
166. Salt Lake Tribune, February 25, 2002.
167. Church News, March 16, 2002. Despite an overwhelmingly positive press, Mormon insecurity abounded. From the beginning of 2000, the church’s Public
Affairs Department catalogued more than 3,200 articles from more than 32 countries scheduled to send journalists to the Games and also checked television
reports from around the world for content. Media officials then systematically
posted corrections to various statements in the press on the church’s web site.
Self-consciousness about the press was not limited to the church. The local
newspapers published daily sidebars, called “Media Watch” in Deseret News and
“How Are We Doing: World Reaction” in the Salt Lake Tribune containing
national and international press commentaries, pro and con, about the Games and
the host community.
168. Lee Benson and Doug Robinson, Trials & Triumphs (Salt Lake City: Deseret
Book Company, 1992). An appendix containing a listing, incomplete, of all
Mormons who participated in the Games includes those who converted to the
faith after their Olympic career, a decision that speaks to an inordinate desire for
inclusiveness and group achievement.
169. Church News, January 26, and March 9, 2002.
170. Ibid., March 2, 2002.
171. Deseret News, October 2, 2002; Salt Lake Tribune, October 3, 2002.
172. USA Today, February 19, 2002.
173. Salt Lake Tribune, June 22, 2001.
174. Deseret News, May 20, 2002.
175. Salt Lake Tribune, January 14, 2002.
176. Deseret News, February 24, 25, 28 and 29, 2002; Salt Lake Tribune, February 25,
26, 27 and March 3, 2002; City Weekly, March 7, 2002.
177. City Weekly, February 28, 2002.
178. Salt Lake Tribune, March 29 and April 2, 2002; Deseret News, May 18, 2002.
179. Deseret News, April 8 and 18, 2002; Salt Lake Tribune, April 9, 14 and 18, 2002;
City Weekly, May 2, 2002.
180. Deseret News, April 17, 2002.
The “Mormon Games”
51
181. Salt Lake Tribune, April 26, 2002.
182. See Ibid, May 3 and 7, 2002. Both the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News
disavowed Hansen’s charge. See the Tribune, May 7, 2002.
183. Deseret News, June 25, 2002; City Weekly, August 1, 2002.
184. Under the terms of the sale of the Main Street block to the Mormon church, Salt
Lake City retained the public access easement to the property. But when the
plaza opened to the public in October 2000, the LDS church imposed restrictions
on speech, dress and behaviour. In October 2002 the Tenth Federal Circuit Court
ruled in favour of a suit brought by the Utah chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, thereby denying the church’s ability to curtail free speech on the
plaza. In November 2002 the church began a public relations and political campaign designed to acquire the easement from the city. From early October to
December 1, at which point the issue remained unresolved, virtually every issue
of the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune had at least one article on the matter.
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Volume XI - 2002