11 Facts About Mike Otterson

Michael R Otterson was the managing director of Public Affairs for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 2008 to 2016.

Mike Otterson remained there until 1979 as Public Relations director for the LDS Church in the United Kingdom, when the church invited him to move back to Australia to open a new public affairs office in Sydney.

Mike Otterson remained in that post for 12 years before moving to the United States in 1991 to manage the worldwide training program for church public affairs operations.

Mike Otterson managed the church's news media relations from 1997 to 2008, when he became managing director of LDS public affairs.

In 2003 Mike Otterson responded to a Newsweek article about the LDS Church, taking issue with its characterisation of the LDS Church as acting on superficial instead of deeply held beliefs.

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In 2003, Mike Otterson was the LDS Church's main point man in its response to Jon Krakauer's book on Mormonism, Under the Banner of Heaven.

In 2005 Otterson downplayed John M Haddow's attempt to make the exclusion of Mormons from the National Prayer Breakfast connected with the National Day of Prayer into an issue of concern.

Mike Otterson was engaged as early as 2006 in positioning the church as politically neutral in relation to Mitt Romney running for president and once wrote an article in which he argued that Romney's religion should be a non-issue.

Mike Otterson was very vocal in stating that the LDS Church would give no institutional support to Romney.

In 2008 Mike Otterson confirmed that Proposition 8 was one of the initiatives the LDS Church had been most heavily involved in.

Mike Otterson has a regular blog published by The Washington Post on Mormon-related issues.