Olympics Place Spotlight on Tensions between Mormons and Non-Mormons in Salt Lake City

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

On February 28, 2001, The Christian Science Monitor reported that the winter Olympic Games of 2002 in Salt Lake City is throwing the spotlight on the city and on the divisions in "thecity population now evenly split between Mormon adherents and non-Mormons...The battles include what critics say are antiquated liquor laws, charges ofdiscrimination, and complaints that the church stifles basic freedoms." One Mormon said the Mormons"'want the Olympics to correct misunderstandings about the church. Others wantSalt Lake City to be seen as a typical American city.' Given the gulf betweenthe two, he adds, 'the tension is overt.'" The church "continues to try to shed its perceivedseparateness" and enter the mainstream.