{"id":7887,"date":"2011-06-14T14:09:33","date_gmt":"2011-06-14T18:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/?p=7887"},"modified":"2011-06-24T08:28:30","modified_gmt":"2011-06-24T12:28:30","slug":"former-mormon-finds-tony-award-winning-book-of-mormon-troubling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2011\/06\/former-mormon-finds-tony-award-winning-book-of-mormon-troubling.html","title":{"rendered":"Former Mormon Finds Tony Award-Winning BOOK OF MORMON “Troubling”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Book<\/a>
Book of Mormon Musical Wins 9 Tony Awards<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Karen Keller<\/em><\/p>\n

Insider humor might be one of the funniest genres of comedy.<\/p>\n

My Mormon brother jokes about the old Mormon male \u2018garments\u2019 \u2013 gauzy white underclothes Mormon adults wear \u2013 saying they were \u2018onesies\u2019 that gave you a wedgie if you shrugged.<\/p>\n

But admittedly, as I watched \u201cBook of Mormon,\u201d the new Broadway musical from the non-Mormon creators of South Park which officially opened on March 26, I cackled at some Mormon-ribbing jokes.<\/p>\n

In one of my favorite scenes a group of na\u00efve but well-meaning missionaries in Uganda belts out, \u201cWe are the tears of Nelson Mandela, the sweat of the \u2018lost boys of Sudan, We are a monkey and a banana, a tribal woman without a bra,\u201d after some locals appear interested in learning about the church.<\/p>\n

Overall, \u201cMormon\u201d storyline spins a heartwarming tale that makes you empathize with the two Mormon missionaries \u2013 one cocky, the other nerdy \u2013 who get sent to Africa, full of optimism, only to confront the brutal reality of local life in one Ugandan village, which features female circumcision and a bloodthirsty local regime.<\/p>\n

I was also pleased that the show also credits Mormons with an ability to turn locals\u2019 lives around for the better. And the show definitely could have been more offensive: It could have depicted Joseph Smith penning the Book of Mormon as he burned midnight oil.<\/p>\n

But other aspects I found troubling.<\/p>\n

Some of the facts were wrong.<\/p>\n

Unlike the show would have you believe, it doesn\u2019t say anywhere in sacred Mormon text that Mormons believe they\u2019ll get their own planet after they die. I’ve heard this misconception over the years and could never figure out where it came from. I never heard it mentioned in my more than a decade of memories inside Mormon churches, and I confirmed it\u2019s not a Mormon belief thorough a church spokeswoman.<\/p>\n

Another wrong detail: Missionaries aren\u2019t stuck with just one partner for two years. They trade off typically at least every six months, said Kim Farah, the LDS spokeswoman.<\/p>\n

Then in the \u201cscary Mormon hell\u201d dream sequence, in which one of the missionary protagonists dreams he\u2019s in hell, felt like they were mixing up Mormons with a Christian fundamentalist group. Mormons don\u2019t obsess over hell. In fact hell is rarely mentioned in church teachings, as far as I remember.<\/p>\n

Then there was the overall snub.<\/p>\n

It was disturbing to me that I couldn\u2019t imagine the show creators choosing to satirize instead \u201cThe Torah,\u201d \u201cThe New Testament,\u201d \u201cThe Koran\u201d or \u201cVinaya Pitaka,\u201d with zero input from members of those religions in the show’s creation.<\/p>\n

Why is liberal society seeming to give a free pass for ridiculing Mormons?<\/p>\n

I should probably disclose here that I\u2019m a direct descendant of one of Joseph Smith\u2019s best friends, Reynolds Cahoon, who\u2019s a decidedly minor figure in Mormon history. My extended family is a patchwork of devout Mormons and Starbucks-swilling atheists. My Jewish fianc\u00e9 and I joke that our kids will be cute creatures known as \u201cMormews.\u201d<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t personally believe in the divinity of any religious text, but that doesn\u2019t get in the way of me wanting to respect others who do.<\/p>\n

Respect isn\u2019t something Parker and Stone can say they\u2019ve showed to Mormons \u2013 despite the tomes of reviews to the contrary.<\/p>\n

The funnyman pair has asserted in a flurry of interviews that the show is actually a love letter to Mormons. But there\u2019s something decidedly passive-aggressive about Stone and Parker saying Mormons are wholesome and cuddly, then depicting Mormon belief as a sham.<\/p>\n

Saying a group is nice doesn\u2019t pass as respecting them.<\/p>\n

Blasphemous lines in the show include a missionary talking about \u201cancient upstate New York\u201d taking place the 19th century. The missionary mixes up the facts \u2013 Mormons believe Joseph Smith recovered a long-buried ancient text in upstate New York in 1827. It\u2019s a character making the comments, not an omniscient narrator, but the joke is clearly meant to ridicule Mormons as gullible.<\/p>\n

In another scene, one of the missionaries says he feels ridiculous for believing the Jews-sailing-to-America plot of the Book of Mormon, when it isn\u2019t backed up by archealogical proof in Central America, he says.<\/p>\n

So the show\u2019s creators get the facts wrong. Then they stab the heart of Mormonism by calling out the church as afake.<\/p>\n

Then they even claim to have Mormon cred, of sorts.<\/p>\n

Parker and Stone frequently cite having Mormons friends growing up, implying that this somehow gives them a right to speak for them. (It\u2019s not true that either grew up Mormon, as rumor has it \u2013 even my Mormon bishop father believed this, sadly)<\/p>\n

In Colorado as kids, the pair gush, they always admired Mormons\u2019 stereotypical wholesome, upbeat attitude. Parker talks about having a Mormon girlfriend once.<\/p>\n

I grew up around a ton of Asians and Mexicans in the Bay Area, but I don\u2019t feel at all Asian or Mexican. I had a Muslim boyfriend once, but I don\u2019t feel like I have a special voice to represent Muslims.<\/p>\n

Sure, \u201cMormon\u201d isn\u2019t the first controversial religious-themed musical. But in the case of probably the most famous example, Jesus Christ Superstar, the 1971 Broadway rock-opera hit that fixates on Jesus\u2019s relationship with Judas, the show offended both Christians and Jews.<\/p>\n

\u201cMormon\u201d is about a minority group, and that feels more offensive. Jesus Christ Superstar riffs off of the Bible \u2013 a book at least 175 million Americans hold sacred including Mormons. The Book of Mormon, by contrast, is considered a holy book by roughly 3.2 million people in the U.S. in 2008, according to the U.S. Census.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig Love\u201d doesn\u2019t really enter the conversation, by the way.<\/p>\n

Different from what you may think, the HBO series isn\u2019t about Mormons. The Mormon church doesn\u2019t recognize the sect depicted in the show. The Church outlawed polygamy in 1890. The average Mormon thinks polygamy today is just as strange as most people do. Plus \u201cBig Love\u201d creators deserve applause: They took three years to research the group to get the facts right and to ensure the show wouldn\u2019t come off as prejudiced.<\/p>\n

Speaking of getting facts straight, in a stunning riff of jokes in a Daily Show interview, Stewart, Trey Parker and Matt Stone (the two South Park creators, and two of the three \u201cMormon\u201d writers) share a laugh about how the third \u201cMormon\u201d writer, Robert Lopez, doesn\u2019t have a \u2018Mormon-sounding name.\u2019<\/p>\n

More Mormons speak Spanish than English, in fact, said Farah, the LDS spokeswoman.<\/p>\n

Of the church\u2019s 14 million members worldwide, 5.5 million live in Latin America and that doesn\u2019t count the more than 700 Spanish-language Mormon congregations in the U.S.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something weirdly clubby about the Daily Show discussion, where the members are holding forth on minority they really don\u2019t know much about. Ironically, it is this sort of insularity Mormons get accused of.<\/p>\n

And then Stewart asked depressingly lowball questions. No thoughtful question such as how would the show have gone over if it were about the Jews or the Buddhists or the Methodists. There could be a good answer to this question, but Stewart didn\u2019t ask it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a form of bullying.<\/p>\n

And no, \u201cMormon\u201d isn\u2019t just another offensive South Park episode.<\/p>\n

People seem to be excusing the inherent prejudice to the show by saying South Park is an equal opportunityoffender. But \u201cMormon\u201d has a more mainstream stamp of approval by appearing on Broadway, one of America\u2019s oldest and grandest cultural institutions.<\/p>\n

Modern mainstream has been turning up the heat on people who bully, with sensitivity to gay issues in particular skyrocketing recently with the suicide of the bullied New Jersey gay teen, Tyler Clementi. Kobe Bryant\u2019s $100,000 fine for using the word \u2018faggot\u2019 in April.<\/p>\n

Although I wouldn\u2019t classify Mormons as suffering the same harassment as gays, they\u2019re also a mocked minority, and there are signs society doesn\u2019t accept slurs against Mormons, either.<\/p>\n

Last year, San Diego State issued a formal apology after fans at a basketball game chanted, \u201cYou\u2019re still Mormon\u201d late in a game with BYU, the Mormon university, when BYU was winning.<\/p>\n

Why should a Broadway musical be any different?<\/p>\n

Far from providing any clues to new ways modern society can deal with hurtful stereotyping, \u201cMormon\u201d is arguably a throwback to the days of \u201cUncle Tom\u2019s Cabin.\u201d<\/p>\n

The show fits into an American tradition of works of fiction that portray minorities in an empathic way, well-intentioned, even, but are intrinsically prejudiced. Harriet Beecher Stowe didn\u2019t set out to offend blacks in \u201cUncle Tom\u2019s Cabin.\u201d But the novel etched into history some humiliating and persistent stereotypes including the \u2018Uncle Tom,\u2019 a black male who is subservient to whites.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t mean to say discrimination against Mormons is at all similar the horror of slavery and the more than acentury of discrimination blacks endured. But both \u201cMormon\u201d and \u201cUncle Tom\u2019s Cabin\u201d are ultimately patronizing, and should be faulted for it.<\/p>\n

Then there are the glowing reviews of \u201cMormon,” which make little attempt to interview Mormons. Most reviews just tack on the obligatory one-liner about the show being sure to offend some Mormons. <\/p>\n

The show\u2019s PR woman tartly denied my request to interview Clark Johnsen, the lone Mormon cast member of \u201cMormon\u201d (who has a non-speaking part), even though I haven\u2019t read his thoughts anywhere. She also denied me the opportunity to speak to Parker or Stone.<\/p>\n

After the show ended, I approached a group of four 20-something men of different races, and asked them what theythought about Mormonism and if the show changed that opinion. I didn\u2019t reveal my background. They said they didn\u2019t believe the show was prejudiced, and in fact made them feel more positive about Mormonism because they sympathized with the characters.<\/p>\n

My brother, who lives in California and listened to me describe the show, summed it up this way:<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one likes to be mocked. Everyone has tender feelings for something in life (or perhaps everyone should). It doesn’t really matter what it is. Now imagine the essence ofthat thing being openly mocked, and the masses, the majority of other people, your peers and co-workers finding it funny,\u201d he wrote in an e-mail. \u201cThe counter-point that the storyline is warm and funny isn’t much of a solace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karen Keller is a writer living in New York city. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Karen Keller Insider humor might be one of the funniest genres of comedy. My Mormon brother jokes about the old Mormon male \u2018garments\u2019 \u2013 gauzy white underclothes Mormon adults wear \u2013 saying they were \u2018onesies\u2019 that gave you a wedgie if you shrugged. But admittedly, as I watched \u201cBook of Mormon,\u201d the new Broadway…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1643],"tags":[1901,1904,1902,1401,1905,1906,1903],"class_list":["post-7887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","category-theater-2","tag-book-of-mormon","tag-joseph-smith","tag-matt-parker","tag-mormon","tag-south-park","tag-the-tonys","tag-try-stone"],"yoast_head":"\nFormer Mormon Finds Tony Award-Winning BOOK OF MORMON "Troubling"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2011\/06\/former-mormon-finds-tony-award-winning-book-of-mormon-troubling.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former Mormon Finds Tony Award-Winning BOOK OF MORMON "Troubling"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Karen Keller Insider humor might be one of the funniest genres of comedy. My Mormon brother jokes about the old Mormon male \u2018garments\u2019 \u2013 gauzy white underclothes Mormon adults wear \u2013 saying they were \u2018onesies\u2019 that gave you a wedgie if you shrugged. But admittedly, as I watched \u201cBook of Mormon,\u201d the new Broadway…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2011\/06\/former-mormon-finds-tony-award-winning-book-of-mormon-troubling.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-06-14T18:09:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-06-24T12:28:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/2011\/06\/book-of-mormon-musical.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Evan Derrick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Former Mormon Finds Tony Award-Winning BOOK OF MORMON \"Troubling\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2011\/06\/former-mormon-finds-tony-award-winning-book-of-mormon-troubling.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Former Mormon Finds Tony Award-Winning BOOK OF MORMON \"Troubling\"","og_description":"By Karen Keller Insider humor might be one of the funniest genres of comedy. My Mormon brother jokes about the old Mormon male \u2018garments\u2019 \u2013 gauzy white underclothes Mormon adults wear \u2013 saying they were \u2018onesies\u2019 that gave you a wedgie if you shrugged. But admittedly, as I watched \u201cBook of Mormon,\u201d the new Broadway…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2011\/06\/former-mormon-finds-tony-award-winning-book-of-mormon-troubling.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2011-06-14T18:09:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-06-24T12:28:30+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/2011\/06\/book-of-mormon-musical.jpg"}],"author":"Evan Derrick","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2011\/06\/former-mormon-finds-tony-award-winning-book-of-mormon-troubling.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2011\/06\/former-mormon-finds-tony-award-winning-book-of-mormon-troubling.html","name":"Former Mormon Finds Tony Award-Winning BOOK OF MORMON \"Troubling\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2011\/06\/former-mormon-finds-tony-award-winning-book-of-mormon-troubling.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2011\/06\/former-mormon-finds-tony-award-winning-book-of-mormon-troubling.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/2011\/06\/book-of-mormon-musical.jpg","datePublished":"2011-06-14T18:09:33+00:00","dateModified":"2011-06-24T12:28:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/68e4e9ba5576f099b2ee841da00ac7cb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2011\/06\/former-mormon-finds-tony-award-winning-book-of-mormon-troubling.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2011\/06\/former-mormon-finds-tony-award-winning-book-of-mormon-troubling.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2011\/06\/former-mormon-finds-tony-award-winning-book-of-mormon-troubling.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/2011\/06\/book-of-mormon-musical.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/2011\/06\/book-of-mormon-musical.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2011\/06\/former-mormon-finds-tony-award-winning-book-of-mormon-troubling.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Former Mormon Finds Tony Award-Winning BOOK OF MORMON “Troubling”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/","name":"Idol Chatter","description":"Beliefnet Entertainment blog, TV blog, Movie blog, Religion in entertainment blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/68e4e9ba5576f099b2ee841da00ac7cb","name":"Evan Derrick","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/696\/69618058107b6a9925e9d26d35615d32x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/696\/69618058107b6a9925e9d26d35615d32x96.jpg","caption":"Evan Derrick"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/author\/ederrick"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7887"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7896,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7887\/revisions\/7896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}