No Daylight Between The Brethren And Church's Public Affairs Department

[smac97]

Here: Thus saith Mormon PR boss: We don’t go ‘rogue’

 

> Every word the LDS Church's Public Affairs Department issues on behalf of the Utah-based faith has been vetted and approved by higher Mormon authorities, the church's top spokesman said Friday.

 

> The department does not go "rogue," Michael R. Otterson reaffirmed in a speech, "On the Record," at the two-day FairMormon Conference in Provo. "News flash — we don't freelance."

 

> Otterson was responding to critics who, he said, may not like church statements on the Boy Scouts or immigration reform, for example, and would prefer to believe those messages come from PR staffers, not from their ecclesiastical leaders.

 

==There has been a fairly common refrain from critics on this board who seek to differentiate pronouncements from "The Brethren" from announcements from the Church's Public Affairs Department (referred to - with the intent to disparage, I think - as the "PR" department in the article's title).  I think the Brethren delegate many/most non-ecclesiastical announcements to the PA Dept., but there are often elements of doctrine, policy, etc. in these announcements which are - according to this article - vetted and approved by the Brethren.

 

> His department answers to a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' committee, made up of two apostles, a senior member of the Seventy, the presiding bishop, the church's legal counsel and a female officer. An additional Seventy serves as executive director of the department, who works closely with Otterson. The committee meets weekly, but various members might talk with him daily, even hourly.

 

==So the executive director of the PA Department is ... one of the Brethren.  And the Department reports to a committee which includes additional members of the Church's General Authority quorums.

 

> "The Public Affairs Department does not have its own agenda, independent from the Brethren [LDS general authorities]," Otterson said. "We frequently suggest a response to a breaking issue, but the Brethren are not shy in editing or rejecting those statements or writing their own versions. ... Our task is to find language that most accurately reflects what's in the Brethren's minds."

 

> In his 45-minute speech, the British-born spokesman dealt briefly with an array of topics, both personal and professional.

 

> Otterson said:

...

> • He views "habitual criticism of the Brethren as one of the pernicious of pastimes."

 

==Me, too.

 

> • Several top Mormon leaders gave up lucrative, successful careers to become apostles. "Their stipend and [living ]allowances may literally be less than a tithe [tenth] of what they previously earned."

 

==This tidbit will likely get some attention (mostly from critics attempting to debunk it, methinks).

 

> • Some past language the LDS Church used to describe homosexual behavior was "intemperate, even harsh." Today, there has been a "more careful and considerate choice of language as the church has engaged with the pro-gay-rights movement. ... Our language has changed in order to speak to an evolving audience even as our standards of chastity have remained constant. ... A strident voice from the church is going to do nothing to change behavior."

 

==Interesting!

 

> • LDS general authorities do not "direct the outcome of disciplinary councils [in which members can be excommunicated]. ... A stake president [regional leader] may confer with Area Seventies up their priesthood line for counsel about the process but not about decision and outcomes."

 

==This will (or should) also get some attention, particularly pertaining to excommunications where allegations have been made of general authorities' "interfering" with the process (Denver Snuffer, for example).

 

> • There is "momentum inside the church organization" on women's issues and to address inequities. The Priesthood Executive Committee has six women on it. The "Brethren try to embrace women's voices." To that end, the Public Affairs Department created a "women's outreach group" with about eight "highly professional, faithful, seasoned women."

 

==Cool!  

 

> • No "factions" exist among the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. There is no Boyd K. Packer camp or Dallin H. Oaks group.

 

> "I have seen the diversity of opinion aired [among them] and thoroughly talked through," Otterson concluded, "unless they are united, however, an issue doesn't go forth."

 

==Interesting, but not surprising.

 

==Overall an interesting article.

 

Thanks,

 

-Smac

Edited August 7, 2015 by smac97

[Avatar4321]

Can't say I'm shocked. Not sure anyone would be unless they are just wishfully thinking.

[Scott Lloyd]

It was a great talk by Otterson -- one of the best I've heard at a FairMormon conference.

[Duncan]

I hope a transcript is made available! hint hint wink wink nudge nudge

[Scott Lloyd]

I hope a transcript is made available! hint hint wink wink nudge nudge

I have one, but I won't be publishing it verbatim.

But FairMormon puts full transcripts on its website as soon as they can be prepared.

And you can still sign up for videostreaming of recordings of the session. That's what Scott Gordon announced at the sessions.

[Duncan]

I have one, but I won't be publishing it verbatim.

But FairMormon puts full transcripts on its website as soon as they can be prepared.

And you can still sign up for videostreaming of recordings of the session. That's what Scott Gordon announced at the sessions.

 

oooh!!!!!!!!!! I am watching DVD's of Law and Order as it is so this would a good thing! thanks!

[Stone holm]

That's disappointing to hear, I think I would have preferred to believe that the GAs were not aware of some of the statements.

[Kenngo1969]

That's disappointing to hear, I think I would have preferred to believe that the GAs were not aware of some of the statements.

Or, perhaps they really don't mean what you've inferred them to mean?  (Or are you, alone among the teeming masses of humanity, able to see things as they are, rather than as you are?)

[Thinking]

His department answers to a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' committee, made up of two apostles, a senior member of the Seventy, the presiding bishop, the church's legal counsel and a female officer.

 

No doubt a result of the Ordain Women movement!

[Calm]

But FairMormon puts full transcripts on its website as soon as they can be prepared.

I will post it here when up if someone else doesn't get to it first. Pretty sure it won't be too long. I am guessing it will be handled similar to the Sharon Eubank talk. However, people are attempting to have some decent sleep and then get home at this point.

Edited August 8, 2015 by calmoriah

[Bernard Gui]

It was a great talk by Otterson -- one of the best I've heard at a FairMormon conference.

Agreed! Sister Gui and our daughter Inveresta loved it, too. I think it should be given broader exposure.....hint, hint.

Edited August 8, 2015 by Bernard Gui

[Scott Lloyd]

Agreed! Sister Gui and our daughter Inveresta loved it, too. I think it should be given broader exposure.....hint, hint.

I'll be filing a Church News story, if that's what you're hinting at.

Were you, Sister Gui and Inveresta at the conference, or did you watch it on the stream? 'Twould have been a delight to meet you.

[Scott Lloyd]

No doubt a result of the Ordain Women movement!

The female officer is a member of one of the auxiliary presidencies.

In the Church, such auxiliary leaders -- both general and local -- are often referred to as officers, as in setting apart or sustaining "officers and teachers."

Edited August 8, 2015 by Scott Lloyd

[Scott Lloyd]

Here: Thus saith Mormon PR boss: We don’t go ‘rogue’

> Every word the LDS Church's Public Affairs Department issues on behalf of the Utah-based faith has been vetted and approved by higher Mormon authorities, the church's top spokesman said Friday.

> The department does not go "rogue," Michael R. Otterson reaffirmed in a speech, "On the Record," at the two-day FairMormon Conference in Provo. "News flash — we don't freelance."

> Otterson was responding to critics who, he said, may not like church statements on the Boy Scouts or immigration reform, for example, and would prefer to believe those messages come from PR staffers, not from their ecclesiastical leaders.

==There has been a fairly common refrain from critics on this board who seek to differentiate pronouncements from "The Brethren" from announcements from the Church's Public Affairs Department (referred to - with the intent to disparage, I think - as the "PR" department in the article's title). I think the Brethren delegate many/most non-ecclesiastical announcements to the PA Dept., but there are often elements of doctrine, policy, etc. in these announcements which are - according to this article - vetted and approved by the Brethren.

> His department answers to a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' committee, made up of two apostles, a senior member of the Seventy, the presiding bishop, the church's legal counsel and a female officer. An additional Seventy serves as executive director of the department, who works closely with Otterson. The committee meets weekly, but various members might talk with him daily, even hourly.

==So the executive director of the PA Department is ... one of the Brethren. And the Department reports to a committee which includes additional members of the Church's General Authority quorums.

> "The Public Affairs Department does not have its own agenda, independent from the Brethren [LDS general authorities]," Otterson said. "We frequently suggest a response to a breaking issue, but the Brethren are not shy in editing or rejecting those statements or writing their own versions. ... Our task is to find language that most accurately reflects what's in the Brethren's minds."

> In his 45-minute speech, the British-born spokesman dealt briefly with an array of topics, both personal and professional.

> Otterson said:

...

> • He views "habitual criticism of the Brethren as one of the pernicious of pastimes."

==Me, too.

> • Several top Mormon leaders gave up lucrative, successful careers to become apostles. "Their stipend and [living ]allowances may literally be less than a tithe [tenth] of what they previously earned."

==This tidbit will likely get some attention (mostly from critics attempting to debunk it, methinks).

> • Some past language the LDS Church used to describe homosexual behavior was "intemperate, even harsh." Today, there has been a "more careful and considerate choice of language as the church has engaged with the pro-gay-rights movement. ... Our language has changed in order to speak to an evolving audience even as our standards of chastity have remained constant. ... A strident voice from the church is going to do nothing to change behavior."

==Interesting!

> • LDS general authorities do not "direct the outcome of disciplinary councils [in which members can be excommunicated]. ... A stake president [regional leader] may confer with Area Seventies up their priesthood line for counsel about the process but not about decision and outcomes."

==This will (or should) also get some attention, particularly pertaining to excommunications where allegations have been made of general authorities' "interfering" with the process (Denver Snuffer, for example).

> • There is "momentum inside the church organization" on women's issues and to address inequities. The Priesthood Executive Committee has six women on it. The "Brethren try to embrace women's voices." To that end, the Public Affairs Department created a "women's outreach group" with about eight "highly professional, faithful, seasoned women."

==Cool!

> • No "factions" exist among the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. There is no Boyd K. Packer camp or Dallin H. Oaks group.

> "I have seen the diversity of opinion aired [among them] and thoroughly talked through," Otterson concluded, "unless they are united, however, an issue doesn't go forth."

==Interesting, but not surprising.

==Overall an interesting article.

Thanks,

-Smac

The bit about the "factions" among the Brethren came in response to a question submitted during a Q and A. The questions are written on note cards and gathered from the audience. I'm guessing Daniel Peterson, who was in the audience and who was the concluding speaker, submitted the question about the factions, as he has reacted in the past to Scratch's nonsensical babblings pertaining to this.

[rockpond]

Here: Thus saith Mormon PR boss: We don’t go ‘rogue’

> Every word the LDS Church's Public Affairs Department issues on behalf of the Utah-based faith has been vetted and approved by higher Mormon authorities, the church's top spokesman said Friday.

> The department does not go "rogue," Michael R. Otterson reaffirmed in a speech, "On the Record," at the two-day FairMormon Conference in Provo. "News flash — we don't freelance."

> Otterson was responding to critics who, he said, may not like church statements on the Boy Scouts or immigration reform, for example, and would prefer to believe those messages come from PR staffers, not from their ecclesiastical leaders.

==There has been a fairly common refrain from critics on this board who seek to differentiate pronouncements from "The Brethren" from announcements from the Church's Public Affairs Department (referred to - with the intent to disparage, I think - as the "PR" department in the article's title). I think the Brethren delegate many/most non-ecclesiastical announcements to the PA Dept., but there are often elements of doctrine, policy, etc. in these announcements which are - according to this article - vetted and approved by the Brethren.

> His department answers to a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' committee, made up of two apostles, a senior member of the Seventy, the presiding bishop, the church's legal counsel and a female officer. An additional Seventy serves as executive director of the department, who works closely with Otterson. The committee meets weekly, but various members might talk with him daily, even hourly.

==So the executive director of the PA Department is ... one of the Brethren. And the Department reports to a committee which includes additional members of the Church's General Authority quorums.

> "The Public Affairs Department does not have its own agenda, independent from the Brethren [LDS general authorities]," Otterson said. "We frequently suggest a response to a breaking issue, but the Brethren are not shy in editing or rejecting those statements or writing their own versions. ... Our task is to find language that most accurately reflects what's in the Brethren's minds."

> In his 45-minute speech, the British-born spokesman dealt briefly with an array of topics, both personal and professional.

> Otterson said:

...

> • He views "habitual criticism of the Brethren as one of the pernicious of pastimes."

==Me, too.

> • Several top Mormon leaders gave up lucrative, successful careers to become apostles. "Their stipend and [living ]allowances may literally be less than a tithe [tenth] of what they previously earned."

==This tidbit will likely get some attention (mostly from critics attempting to debunk it, methinks).

> • Some past language the LDS Church used to describe homosexual behavior was "intemperate, even harsh." Today, there has been a "more careful and considerate choice of language as the church has engaged with the pro-gay-rights movement. ... Our language has changed in order to speak to an evolving audience even as our standards of chastity have remained constant. ... A strident voice from the church is going to do nothing to change behavior."

==Interesting!

> • LDS general authorities do not "direct the outcome of disciplinary councils [in which members can be excommunicated]. ... A stake president [regional leader] may confer with Area Seventies up their priesthood line for counsel about the process but not about decision and outcomes."

==This will (or should) also get some attention, particularly pertaining to excommunications where allegations have been made of general authorities' "interfering" with the process (Denver Snuffer, for example).

> • There is "momentum inside the church organization" on women's issues and to address inequities. The Priesthood Executive Committee has six women on it. The "Brethren try to embrace women's voices." To that end, the Public Affairs Department created a "women's outreach group" with about eight "highly professional, faithful, seasoned women."

==Cool!

> • No "factions" exist among the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. There is no Boyd K. Packer camp or Dallin H. Oaks group.

> "I have seen the diversity of opinion aired [among them] and thoroughly talked through," Otterson concluded, "unless they are united, however, an issue doesn't go forth."

==Interesting, but not surprising.

==Overall an interesting article.

Thanks,

-Smac

Very cool to hear Bro. Otterson talk about his work. I was excited to see PFS' write up in my FB feed this morning.

It's great to know (roughly) who the committee is but interesting it doesn't include the prophet.

I'm glad to see them publicly admit that they have been harsh and intemperate to the LGBT community in the past. I agree that the language has changed for the better! And I agree that their audience has evolved.

[Teancum]

Here: Thus saith Mormon PR boss: We don’t go ‘rogue’

 

> Every word the LDS Church's Public Affairs Department issues on behalf of the Utah-based faith has been vetted and approved by higher Mormon authorities, the church's top spokesman said Friday.

 

> The department does not go "rogue," Michael R. Otterson reaffirmed in a speech, "On the Record," at the two-day FairMormon Conference in Provo. "News flash — we don't freelance."

 

> Otterson was responding to critics who, he said, may not like church statements on the Boy Scouts or immigration reform, for example, and would prefer to believe those messages come from PR staffers, not from their ecclesiastical leaders.

 

==There has been a fairly common refrain from critics on this board who seek to differentiate pronouncements from "The Brethren" from announcements from the Church's Public Affairs Department (referred to - with the intent to disparage, I think - as the "PR" department in the article's title).  I think the Brethren delegate many/most non-ecclesiastical announcements to the PA Dept., but there are often elements of doctrine, policy, etc. in these announcements which are - according to this article - vetted and approved by the Brethren.

 

> His department answers to a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' committee, made up of two apostles, a senior member of the Seventy, the presiding bishop, the church's legal counsel and a female officer. An additional Seventy serves as executive director of the department, who works closely with Otterson. The committee meets weekly, but various members might talk with him daily, even hourly.

 

==So the executive director of the PA Department is ... one of the Brethren.  And the Department reports to a committee which includes additional members of the Church's General Authority quorums.

 

> "The Public Affairs Department does not have its own agenda, independent from the Brethren [LDS general authorities]," Otterson said. "We frequently suggest a response to a breaking issue, but the Brethren are not shy in editing or rejecting those statements or writing their own versions. ... Our task is to find language that most accurately reflects what's in the Brethren's minds."

 

> In his 45-minute speech, the British-born spokesman dealt briefly with an array of topics, both personal and professional.

 

> Otterson said:

...

> • He views "habitual criticism of the Brethren as one of the pernicious of pastimes."

 

==Me, too.

 

> • Several top Mormon leaders gave up lucrative, successful careers to become apostles. "Their stipend and [living ]allowances may literally be less than a tithe [tenth] of what they previously earned."

 

==This tidbit will likely get some attention (mostly from critics attempting to debunk it, methinks).

 

> • Some past language the LDS Church used to describe homosexual behavior was "intemperate, even harsh." Today, there has been a "more careful and considerate choice of language as the church has engaged with the pro-gay-rights movement. ... Our language has changed in order to speak to an evolving audience even as our standards of chastity have remained constant. ... A strident voice from the church is going to do nothing to change behavior."

 

==Interesting!

 

> • LDS general authorities do not "direct the outcome of disciplinary councils [in which members can be excommunicated]. ... A stake president [regional leader] may confer with Area Seventies up their priesthood line for counsel about the process but not about decision and outcomes."

 

==This will (or should) also get some attention, particularly pertaining to excommunications where allegations have been made of general authorities' "interfering" with the process (Denver Snuffer, for example).

 

> • There is "momentum inside the church organization" on women's issues and to address inequities. The Priesthood Executive Committee has six women on it. The "Brethren try to embrace women's voices." To that end, the Public Affairs Department created a "women's outreach group" with about eight "highly professional, faithful, seasoned women."

 

==Cool!  

 

> • No "factions" exist among the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. There is no Boyd K. Packer camp or Dallin H. Oaks group.

 

> "I have seen the diversity of opinion aired [among them] and thoroughly talked through," Otterson concluded, "unless they are united, however, an issue doesn't go forth."

 

==Interesting, but not surprising.

 

==Overall an interesting article.

 

Thanks,

 

-Smac

This makes sense to me and what I have supposed all along.

So I have a question . Can we assume when Public Affairs at the high level says something it is as good as coming from the brethren?

[smac97]

No doubt a result of the Ordain Women movement!

 

Really?  You have evidence that the inclusion of a female officer of one of the auxiliary presidencies is a recent thing?

 

Thanks,

 

-Smac

[smac97]

This makes sense to me and what I have supposed all along.

So I have a question . Can we assume when Public Affairs at the high level says something it is as good as coming from the brethren?

 

That sounds like a safe conclusion.  From the article: "Every word the LDS Church's Public Affairs Department issues on behalf of the Utah-based faith has been vetted and approved by higher Mormon authorities, the church's top spokesman said Friday."

 

I suppose some caveat can be made for a spokesperson who is speaking "off the cuff," but generally I think the Latter-day Saints, and the world at large, can generally rely on official statements made by the Public Affairs Department.  Better still are published statements from the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve.  And of course canonized statements/revelations are the Gold Standard:

 

"It makes no difference what is written or what anyone has said, if what has been said is in conflict with what the Lord has revealed, we can set it aside. My words, and the teachings of any other member of the Church, high or low, if they do not square with the revelations, we need not accept them. Let us have this matter clear. We have accepted the four standard works as the measuring yardsticks, or balances, by which we measure every man’s doctrine.  You cannot accept the books written by the authorities of the Church as standards in doctrine, only in so far as they accord with the revealed word in the standard works.  Every man who writes is responsible, not the Church, for what he writes. If Joseph Fielding Smith writes something which is out of harmony with the revelations, then every member of the Church is duty bound to reject it. If he writes that which is in perfect harmony with the revealed word of the Lord, then it should be accepted."

--Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3:203–204. (emphasis added).

 

"It is not to be thought that every word spoken by the General Authorities is inspired, or that they are moved upon by the Holy Ghost in everything they speak and write. Now you keep that in mind. I don’t care what his position is, if he writes something or speaks something that goes beyond anything that you can find in the standard church works, unless that one be the prophet, seer and revelator — please note that one exception [when he is speaking as the prophet, taught from earlier in the paragraph] — you may immediately say, 'Well, that is his own idea.' And if he says something that contradicts what is found in the standard works (I think that is why we call them 'standard' — it is the standard measure of all that men teach), you may know by that same token that it is false, regardless of the position of the man who says it."

--Harold B. Lee, “The Place of the Living Prophet, Seer, and Revelator," The Charge to Religious Educators, 141; BYU, 8 July 1964.

 

Thanks,

 

-Smac

[Thinking]

The female officer is a member of one of the auxiliary presidencies.

In the Church, such auxiliary leaders -- both general and local -- are often referred to as officers, as in setting apart or sustaining "officers and teachers."

 

Really?  You have evidence that the inclusion of a female officer of one of the auxiliary presidencies is a recent thing?

 

I was joking. That's why I ended with .

[Scott Lloyd]

I was joking. That's why I ended with .

I recognized that. I wanted to be sure folks understood that officers is a long-established term for members of auxiliary presidencies.

[jwhitlock]

There's been quite a bit of sneering antipathy towards the church PR department from some on this board in the past. Hopefully this article will clear up the wrong perspectives those critics have.

[Calm]

I don't know if it makes any difference, but he actually said "one of the female general officers".

 

As in:

 

​Other General Authorities or General officers include the senior president of the Seventy, the Presiding Bishop, the Church’s legal counsel, one of the female general officers, and an additional seventy who serves as executive director of the department.

 

 

http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/fair-conferences/2015-fairmormon-conference/on-the-record

[The Nehor]

That's disappointing to hear, I think I would have preferred to believe that the GAs were not aware of some of the statements.

 

I have found that focusing on things from the Brethren I do not like is healthy.

[Russell C McGregor]

This makes sense to me and what I have supposed all along.

So I have a question . Can we assume when Public Affairs at the high level says something it is as good as coming from the brethren?

 

Sure, but with a rider.  I would say that the brethren use the PA department when they want to make something known outside of the Church.  Their communications to the members go through ecclesiastical channels.

[PeterPear]

Very cool to hear Bro. Otterson talk about his work. I was excited to see PFS' write up in my FB feed this morning.

It's great to know (roughly) who the committee is but interesting it doesn't include the prophet.

I'm glad to see them publicly admit that they have been harsh and intemperate to the LGBT community in the past. I agree that the language has changed for the better! And I agree that their audience has evolved.

The committee includes Prophets, Seers and Revelators. Maybe they're frustrated as Mormon stated because of the evolution of their audience:

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/moro/9.4?lang=eng#3

4 Behold, I am laboring with them continually; and when I speak the word of God with sharpness they tremble and anger against me; and when I use no sharpness they harden their hearts against it; wherefore, I fear lest the Spirit of the Lord hath ceased striving with them.