Wednesday, May 02, 2007

The Mormons

The Mormons documentary wasn't too bad. The first night was far better than the second. Ken Verdoia did an excellent job of speaking about LDS history in a way that I think non-Mormon people will relate too while remaining correct and positive. I was extremely impressed with Ken's pieces.

I think anti-Mormons will be disapointed with the coverage and I think that some Mormons will be as well. That means that they probably got it about right.

Elder Oaks' on Mountain Meadows was good. I thought they made Will Bagely look pretty dumb. They let him say "Brigham Young ordered it" but didn't let him give any justification. I guess you just have read his book if you want to find out how he formed his opinion.

The bit on dancing in the middle was odd but fun. Both my sister (in Boise ID) and brother (in Seattle WA) had their spouse turn to them in that part and say "but you can't even dance!" My wife was asleep by then.

The second night was pretty slow and less balanced. The disaffected intellectuals got lots of air time to comment on the state of the church generally.

Mormon intellectuals are fine. The problem is that one can't actively advocate positions that oppose the LDS Church _and_ remain a member of the LDS Church. People are free to oppose the LDS Church, you just can't be a member while you do it. It's neither complicated nor oppressive. I am probably over simplifying the situation, but if you oppose the LDS Church and don't believe it's fundamental claims or positions, then why do you care if you remain a member or not? I am sure it's more difficult than that because Toscana seemed to sincerely struggle with the actions of others, her decisions and their consequences.

3 comments:

dawnawanna said...

I got kind of bored during last night's episode.

I also think the same way you do about the intellectual thing.

Overall, I thought they did a pretty good job.

dawn

Frank Staheli said...

I consider myself (whether correct or not, I'm not sure) a Mormon intellectual, and I have no problem with an angel bringing gold plates to a backward farm boy.

Alice said...

Several people I talked to about The Mormons, were a bit upset about the show.

I enjoyed it.

I think that as mormons, we don't often hear or talk about the negative, and so those are the parts of the documentary that stick out in our minds.

I did think there was some freaky artwork in there...