I enjoy listening to the Glenn Beck radio talk show on the way home from work each day (570 on the AM radio in the Salt Lake area). It’s the third most listened to talk show in the country. Glenn doesn’t hesitate to mention he is a Mormon when the subject is relative. Watch an 8:44 min. video of Glenn Beck talking about his religion, family, God, and wife.
There are several Web sites of famous Mormons, such as
http://www.famousmormons.net/
http://www.adherents.com/largecom/fam_lds.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latter-day_Saints
How can we better promote heartfelt testimony of the gospel where people (famous and infamous) explain in their own words how the gospel makes them better people? The above-referenced clip by Glenn Beck is a good example of that. Are there sites that compile positive video testimony about the Church?
I have a great interest in this question because one of the first things I did when I got a website was to publish my testimony on the site. Unfortunately that site is currently defunct, but I still recognize the importance of letting our light shine. I have seen many sites where members have chosen to share their testimonies, but there are a wide variety of factors that keep people from publishing their testimonies.
While it is possible to provide a forum where people would be able to share their testimonies there would be plenty of work to make sure that the forum was not abused by those who would share false testimony. Also, the real strength of testimonies being shared is their individuality. In other words, there is something to be said for a testimony that is shared in an unorganized setting, such as a personal website rather than a public website dedicated to testimonies. The best way to promote testimonies where people share what the gospel means to them would be to maintain a list (likely an unofficial list) of testimonies that individuals have published on their own.
Individuals would be encouraged to submit links to sites which they view as good examples of personal testimonies which have been published. It would be necessary to have a moderator to verify the contents of sites submitted, and it would be a good idea if the moderator sought permission from the author before publishing a link to their testimony. They might also be invited to submit a biography – name, age, location (not specific), gender, convert or lifelong member) which would allow the list to be sorted according to criteria so that visitors would have to option to see something like “What does a young father in Africa think about the church?” Thus it could be used as a missionary tool when someone asks, “What does the church have to offer someone like me?”
If such a site were implemented, it would be wonderful to have an RSS feed for now testimonies as they are added to the list, and it would be nice if the main page of the site displayed a random testimony site from those already in the list.
I got curious, after writing my comment, about some of the testimonies I have seen on the internet so I started looking at them. In the process I stumbled upon this site http://www.writerspost.com/testify/ It appears somewhat similar to what I had proposed above.
Here is an interesting example of a website dedicated to the sharing testimonies http://www.mormonconverts.com/
I was finishing up a conversation with a friend after several of us went out for lunch in Indianapolis and he told me that I am his second favorite Mormon after Glenn Beck. I guess that is a compliment!
I believe that the LDS webmaster community should do be more pro-active and generous in cross-promoting faith promoting LDS websites. This is important to counteract the many anti-mormon groups that are google bombing the major search engines.
Please see me list of over 100 LDS websites at http://www.maintour.com/spt/mormon.htm
I encourage other LDS webmasters to do the same and to copy that list or to build their own list.
AllAboutMormons.com has also been collecting testimonies in three different languages (English, Spanish, and Portuguese). http://www.allaboutmormons.com/mormon_testimonies.php .