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For week ended January 24, 1999 Posted 2 Feb 1999
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Did LDS Culture Play Role in Oly Scandal?

Summarized by Kent Larsen

Did LDS Culture Play Role in Oly Scandal?
Salt Lake Tribune 23Jan99
By Peggy Fletcher Stack: Salt Lake Tribune
Some say obedience to authority, need to be accepted allowed IOC bribes to take place

and

Reader Advocate: Story on LDS Culture, Olympic Scandal Meant to Provoke Thought, Discussion
Salt Lake Tribune 31Jan99
By Shinika Sykes: Salt Lake Tribune

Since many of those involved in the Salt Lake Olympic bid were members of the LDS Church, the Salt Lake Tribune consulted with LDS thinkers and ethicists in the area to see what in LDS Culture, if anything, may have led to the scandal.

When asked about this issue, LDS Church spokesman Mike Otterson said "That's a dumb question . . . the community knows what its values are and the community is outraged." He otherwise declined comment.

But others are not so sure. Since arriving in Utah, members of the LDS Church have had both a persecution complex and a desire for approval. While proud of their heritage, Mormons are still offended by jokes about polygamy and other stereotypes.

Paul Richards, a former editor of The Provo Herald says "We want to be liked, So much of what we do is based on that."

On the other hand, Mormons abhor conflict and look to leaders for answers to most questions. "When you challenge someone, that is seen as being of the devil," says Richards. "We are not a self-reflective people."

University of Utah professor Reba Keele observes of her students, "They repeatedly say that if they follow the instructions of a leader who tells them to do something wrong, the leader is to blame, not them. They truly want to believe it because it is easier to live that way."

So, it may be that some LDS members involved in the Olympics reasoned that since the Olympics will bring attention to the LDS Church and possibly converts, anything that they had to do to get the games is OK.

"There is in that a kind of utilitarian logic," says BYU Organizational Behavior professor Bonner Ritchie, "We are all utilitarian in one sense because ends are important. It is hard to know when to apply the means criteria and when to go for result. When you get to things like war, ends are pretty important. If you are going to be overrun, you can do some pretty compromising things."

Ritchie says that there is a tension in the Church over who decides when the means justify the ends. "That's a real tension in our church,."

The rest of this article expands on what these issues mean for the LDS Church and for the state of Utah today, going well beyond the current issue of the Olympics.

The followup article, published on January 31st, is from the Salt Lake Tribune's Reader's Advocate, who attempts to deal with the feelings of many readers that were uncomfortable with the original article. Many readers were upset or angry at the suggestion that something in Mormon culture could have led to the illegal activities of the SLOC.

Readers observed that since the activities were not specific to Salt Lake, that the scandal doesn't imply a problem in LDS culture. "The aspect of LDS culture that makes it susceptible to scandal is that the LDS culture is made up of human beings. Evidence demonstrates that the IOC problem did not originate in Salt Lake City," wrote Michelle Van Tassell Nielsen of York, Pa. "Apparently, cultures around the globe are also susceptible to scandal. I propose the reason is that they too are made up of human beings."

Other readers commended the Tribune's article. "Although I commend [The Tribune's] efforts to address a possible connection between the LDS Church and the [2002 Olympic bid], I am outraged that no mention was made of the enormous bribes that were finally paid to both U.S. congressmen and several major newspapers by the LDS Church for the purpose of helping Utah attain statehood," said Dan Hansen. "This state was born of bribery. Brigham Young's historical defense was that bribery was not a bad thing because the ends were `good.' "


Copyright 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Kent Larsen · Privacy Information