LDS SEEK GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY AT OLYMPICS

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are gearing up for the 2002 Winter Olympics, which will be held in Salt Lake City. While church President Gordon B. Hinckley has stated that proselytizing efforts should not extend beyond their normal bounds, members are hoping to share and even abate common misconceptions about the Mormon faith with the hundreds of thousands of anticipated spectators.

The LDS' Olympic Coordinating Committee has been notified by church leaders to instruct all church members who volunteer at Olympic events not to proselytize. "We don't want to bang anyone over the head with the Book of Mormon," Marjorie Draper Conder told the Associated Press. Conder is the curator of Salt Lake City's LDS Museum of Church History and Art.

Yet, the Mormon influence will not go unnoticed. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir will perform during the Winter Games and Hinckley has pledged to deliver an "extravaganza." However, church leaders are remaining tight–lipped as to the particulars of the promised production. The church already has initiated a campaign on its web site to educate non–Mormons planning to come to Salt Lake City for the prestigious international event.

Others also are working to make the hosting city more palatable to the expected deluge of visitors. The AP reported, "State officials also eased some of Utah's arcane liquor laws in anticipation of the Olympics, a decision the church did not oppose." Mormons are taught that abstinence from alcohol (along with tea, coffee and tobacco) are regarded as "a measuring rod to determine in part the personal worthiness of church members."

Utah is 70 percent Mormon. The LDS church claims 11 million members worldwide.

–MKG

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