{"id":3836,"date":"2007-04-29T17:14:56","date_gmt":"2007-04-29T21:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=3836"},"modified":"2007-05-09T17:32:16","modified_gmt":"2007-05-09T21:32:16","slug":"the-mormons-on-pbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2007\/04\/the-mormons-on-pbs\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Mormons” on PBS"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have never suffered a shortage of outside experts who would explain us to ourselves and the world.<\/p>\n

The first clipping in my newspaper file dates to April 1831, barely a year after the founding of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In the sixth number of your paper I saw a notice of a sect of people called Mormonites; and thinking that a fuller history of their founder, Joseph Smith, Jr., might be interesting to your community … I will take the trouble to make a few remarks on the character of that infamous imposter.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d [1]<\/p>\n

The latest entry in the catalog is the four-hour documentary \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Mormons\u00e2\u20ac\u009d airing in two 2-hour blocks: Monday, April 30 on PBS\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s American Experience and continuing Tuesday, May 1 on PBS\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Frontline (beginning at 8 p.m. on both nights on KUED and KBYU in Salt Lake City; check your local listings \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and if anyone knows whether and where \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Mormons\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be watched via the Internet, please comment with that information).<\/p>\n

What can we expect from this report? <\/p>\n

The storytelling and production values will undoubtedly be of the highest quality \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the producer is Helen Whitney, whose experience in covering religious themes includes \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153John Paul II: The Millennial Pope.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d In a recent interview by KSL-TV<\/a>, Ms. Whitney tells us that her film will \u00e2\u20ac\u0153make it much easier for people to understand what this church is about. I think so many stereotypes will be shattered.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Speaking of LDS members, she says \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I hope that they will like it and be interested in it and discover themselves in it and perhaps even be surprised by parts of their history they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know about.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Ms. Whitney is clearly aware that her work will be viewed by two distinct audiences: Those inside the church, and those outside of it.<\/p>\n

We need to keep in mind the existence of those two audiences as we anticipate, view, and later discuss \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Mormons.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Whether or not we are satisfied by this program could be greatly affected by whether or not we acknowledge the existence of both audiences.<\/p>\n

I am a Mormon. If my expectations are completely shaped by my Mormon interests and loyalties, publicity for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Mormons\u00e2\u20ac\u009d gives me much reason for suspicious discomfort. I visit the program\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s website <\/a>and discover concerns in three areas:<\/p>\n

Accuracy: The website refers to someone named \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Wilfred\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Woodruff. If they can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get their facts right on simple matters that a cursory review should have caught, what hope is there that they will handle more subjective matters with any degree of accuracy?<\/p>\n

Stereotypes: Ms. Whitney believes her work will \u00e2\u20ac\u0153shatter stereotypes.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Yet the website prominently features fundamentalist polygamy and Mountain Meadows. While we recognize these as valid matters for press exploration, active Mormons can and do practice Mormonism for a lifetime without such things playing any role in their religious lives. Will the apparently heavy emphasis on these topics shatter stereotypes, or reinforce them? Can we \u00e2\u20ac\u0153discover ourselves\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in this film if these remote and tangential matters take center stage, crowding out a depiction of life in the church as we know it?<\/p>\n

Fairness\/Context: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153”The only marriage sanctioned by God is of a man to a woman,” says Marlin Jensen, official LDS historian. “In the case of a gay person, they really have no hope. … And to live life without hope on such a core issue I think is a very difficult thing.” What a lot of ground might lie buried under those three little dots! I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what Elder Jensen went on to say \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that a gay person has no hope of having a homosexual union sealed in the temple, perhaps? \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but as the elided quotation now stands someone who falsely believes that Mormonism condemns anyone for orientation can legitimately suppose Elder Jensen was saying that a gay person has no hope of salvation (Mormons, after all, believe marriage is a prerequisite to exaltation), or no hope of full fellowship in the church (Mormon life, after all, is centered on the family), or any number of other stereotypical but inaccurate statements.<\/p>\n

If I were not a Mormon, I doubt I would be at all concerned by trivial issues of misspelled names. I would be very much interested in the more sensational matters connected to Mormonism (\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfess up, friends \u00e2\u20ac\u201c if this program were about the Amish, you would be far more interested in shunning and genetic birth defects and matters of appearance and “wacky”[2] beliefs about pacifism than you would be in subtleties of doctrine and the daily worship that is central to Amish life). The chief audience for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Mormons,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d then, is understandably the wider American culture, not Mormons in particular. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a legitimate target audience \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not the audience I care most about, but a legitimate audience. I need to evaluate “The Mormons” for what it is rather than for what I wish it were, or at least I need to realize that I might not be part of the producer’s primary audience.<\/p>\n

What are your expectations for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Mormons\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? Make your predictions now, and come back to discuss your reactions after watching “American Experience” on Monday evening.<\/p>\n

[1] “Mormonites,” Evangelical Magazine & Gospel Advocate <\/em>(Utica, New York), 9 April 1831.<\/p>\n

[2] This word is used because it was recently applied to Mormon beliefs; I do not consider pacifism a mock-worthy doctrine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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