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For years, Latter-day Saints have watched nationally televised football games and heard announcers use a term that clanked when it struck their ears.
On Monday, the BYU football program issued a plea asking television announcers and sports reporters not to use the term “mission trips,” a phrase that doesn’t occur in the Latter-day Saint faith or culture.
Mission trip is an evangelical or Catholic term for a short-term mission that may last days to a year, according to Wikipedia. Missions are different in some specific ways within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including the fact that they last 18 to 24 months. That fact and how they are spoken of within the church should be reason enough for reporters to accurately portray them and the language used to describe them.
The news release was written by Jon McBride, the associate athletic director for communications and media strategy at BYU. Basically, he simply asked the media to use the terms Latter-day Saints use. But he also asked reporters and announcers to use the church’s style guide.
Here’s what he wrote:
Dos and don’ts in how to talk about missions
- We request that those referring to missions use terms such as “serving a mission,” “full-time mission,” “two-year mission,” “missionary service,” “Latter-day Saint mission” and “a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
- We request that those referring to missions do not refer to missions as “mission trips,” “Mormon missions” or “LDS missions.”
- More information about using the full name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Church’s style guide.
The news release was an informative guide to missionary service, explaining what it is, why young people serve missions and how many BYU football players have done mission trips served missions. (See what I did there? Haha?)
For the record:
- 64 players on BYU’s current football roster served missions.
- They served in 29 different countries.
- They speak 15 different languages.
- There are also 21 players who have signed or committed to play for BYU who are currently serving missions in 10 different countries, speaking four different languages.
The release listed all 64 rostered returned missionaries, as well as coaches who served and some of the returned missionaries who have played in the NFL.
McBride also shared information about what day-to-day mission life is like, how missionaries learn new languages and photos of players on their missions.
“Missionary service has been a staple within the BYU football program since its inception,” he wrote. “Nearly half of all current BYU football players have served missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That is routinely the case. While those within the church understand the details of what a mission entails, they can be foreign to those not of the faith.”
It’s a good primer. Hopefully, as some announcers and reporters already do, we will see more reporting and references during games that provide insight into Latter-day Saint missions and reflect Latter-day Saint terms.
My recent stories
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President Henry B. Eyring dedicated the Saratoga Springs Utah Temple, the 18th in Utah. This story shows why its dedication launches a coming wave of temple growth in Utah. See photos from the dedication here.
Five Latter-day Saints died in the Maui wildfires, and the church has provided humanitarian aid.
Elder Ulisses Soares welcomed Brazil’s vice president at the Brasilia Brazil Temple open house.
A Latter-day Saint became a justice on South Korea’s Supreme Court.
The Feather River California Temple open house began with media tours and publication of photos of the interior.
The church can build the Cody Wyoming Temple, the city’s zoning board decided last week. No, hold, the mayor said a few days later, instructing the city’s community development department not to issue the permit. The temporary approval, the second of the ordeal, left the height of the steeple up for further discussion. The zoning board rejected both the church’s plan for a 77-foot steeple and a proposed compromise to make the steeple shorter, reported Cowboy State Daily.
What I’m reading
Remember when Cathy Freeman, an Aboriginal Australian, won an emotional 400-meter gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics? Australia’s Women’s World Cup win over France reached a peak audience of 4.9 million Australian viewers during penalty kicks, The Athletic reported (paywall), making it the most-watched sporting event in Australia since Freeman’s Olympic triumph at home. Pretty cool. Australia is hosting the World Cup, and reached the semifinals before losing to England.
Doug Robinson has a piece on what’s next for Kenneth Rooks, the BYU runner who fell but came back to win the steeplechase at the U.S. championships this summer. I especially loved this tidbit: “Matthew Wilkinson, who finished sixth, was among those who did see Rooks fall. He confessed to Rooks that when he saw him fall, he thought to himself, ‘Oh, good, I’m going to finally beat Kenneth Rooks.’” It was not to be!
I love “The Blind Side,” both the book and the movie, so I’m saddened by the ugly rift that has surfaced between Michael Oher and the Tuohy family. Here is an FAQ about what is happening.