PBS Special

[Jeff Lebowski]

I realize that I am absurdly late to this discussion, but we finally finished watching the PBS special "The Mormons" last night. I had it on my DVR and we watched it one hour at a time as a family. It prompted quite a few good discussions. All in all, I thought it was an outstanding documentary and the producers did an admiral job in terms of balance. I especially liked how they did not disclose the background of many of the commentators in most cases. The bits toward the end with the girl with a terminal illness and the man who lost his wife during childbirth were particularly touching.

I can't understand why some folks got so upset with the special. The CES guy in Oklahoma for example. I am also puzzled as to why the church would distribute that letter to wards just prior to the airing, indicating that it is not a church production. Would anyone be stupid enough to think that it was? I worry that such a letter would discourage members from viewing it, and that would be a darn shame.

Bravo to:

The black sister from Oakland
Terryl Givens
Marlin K. Jensen
Ken Verdoia

As some of you may know, Ken is a producer at KUED. I read in the DNews a while back that he has received quite a bit of hate mail for his role in the special. For the life of me, I can't imagine why. He did a great job. For a non-member to have that much knowledge and insight into our faith is terrific. I thought he handled all issues with taste and respect.

Anybody catch the PBS special on the JW's that aired recently? I was going to DVR that but missed it.

[jay santos]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lebowski

I realize that I am absurdly late to this discussion, but we finally finished watching the PBS special "The Mormons" last night. I had it on my DVR and we watched it one hour at a time as a family. It prompted quite a few good discussions. All in all, I thought it was an outstanding documentary and the producers did an admiral job in terms of balance. I especially liked how they did not disclose the background of many of the commentators in most cases. The bits toward the end with the girl with a terminal illness and the man who lost his wife during childbirth were particularly touching.

I can't understand why some folks got so upset with the special. The CES guy in Oklahoma for example. I am also puzzled as to why the church would distribute that letter to wards just prior to the airing, indicating that it is not a church production. Would anyone be stupid enough to think that it was? I worry that such a letter would discourage members from viewing it, and that would be a darn shame.

Bravo to:

The black sister from Oakland
Terryl Givens
Marlin K. Jensen
Ken Verdoia

As some of you may know, Ken is a producer at KUED. I read in the DNews a while back that he has received quite a bit of hate mail for his role in the special. For the life of me, I can't imagine why. He did a great job. For a non-member to have that much knowledge and insight into our faith is terrific. I thought he handled all issues with taste and respect.

Anybody catch the PBS special on the JW's that aired recently? I was going to DVR that but missed it.

What was the deal with the CES guy in OK?

[pelagius]

Originally Posted by jay santos

What was the deal with the CES guy in OK?

Jay, you can find the letter here: http://www.connorboyack.com/blog/pro...bs-the-mormons

[BlueK]

Originally Posted by jay santos

What was the deal with the CES guy in OK?

If I'm thinking of the same guy, he wrote a letter to PBS going through a point by point criticism of the program. I believe someone posted his letter on Cougarboard or he did.

[BlueK]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lebowski

I realize that I am absurdly late to this discussion, but we finally finished watching the PBS special "The Mormons" last night. I had it on my DVR and we watched it one hour at a time as a family. It prompted quite a few good discussions. All in all, I thought it was an outstanding documentary and the producers did an admiral job in terms of balance. I especially liked how they did not disclose the background of many of the commentators in most cases. The bits toward the end with the girl with a terminal illness and the man who lost his wife during childbirth were particularly touching.

I can't understand why some folks got so upset with the special. The CES guy in Oklahoma for example. I am also puzzled as to why the church would distribute that letter to wards just prior to the airing, indicating that it is not a church production. Would anyone be stupid enough to think that it was? I worry that such a letter would discourage members from viewing it, and that would be a darn shame.

Bravo to:

The black sister from Oakland
Terryl Givens
Marlin K. Jensen
Ken Verdoia

As some of you may know, Ken is a producer at KUED. I read in the DNews a while back that he has received quite a bit of hate mail for his role in the special. For the life of me, I can't imagine why. He did a great job. For a non-member to have that much knowledge and insight into our faith is terrific. I thought he handled all issues with taste and respect.

Anybody catch the PBS special on the JW's that aired recently? I was going to DVR that but missed it.

I also read the Des News article about Verdoia. The guy sure knows his stuff when it comes to Utah history. IMO, he more than went out of his way in his comments in the documentary to be fair.

[Sleeping in EQ]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lebowski

I realize that I am absurdly late to this discussion, but we finally finished watching the PBS special "The Mormons" last night. I had it on my DVR and we watched it one hour at a time as a family. It prompted quite a few good discussions. All in all, I thought it was an outstanding documentary and the producers did an admiral job in terms of balance. I especially liked how they did not disclose the background of many of the commentators in most cases. The bits toward the end with the girl with a terminal illness and the man who lost his wife during childbirth were particularly touching.

I can't understand why some folks got so upset with the special. The CES guy in Oklahoma for example. I am also puzzled as to why the church would distribute that letter to wards just prior to the airing, indicating that it is not a church production. Would anyone be stupid enough to think that it was? I worry that such a letter would discourage members from viewing it, and that would be a darn shame.

Bravo to:

The black sister from Oakland
Terryl Givens
Marlin K. Jensen
Ken Verdoia

As some of you may know, Ken is a producer at KUED. I read in the DNews a while back that he has received quite a bit of hate mail for his role in the special. For the life of me, I can't imagine why. He did a great job. For a non-member to have that much knowledge and insight into our faith is terrific. I thought he handled all issues with taste and respect.

Anybody catch the PBS special on the JW's that aired recently? I was going to DVR that but missed it.

You bring up plenty of good issues here. My own observation is that some Mormon viewers wanted more information on the background of the commentators so that their comments could be more easily dismissed. People do this frequently. If they can label someone, then they don't have to engage with that person's ideas (or so it is hoped). In some degree it's understandable, though, because Mormons who haven't really studied their religion in a scholarly way were probably feeling some cognitive dissonance. A little fever from the innoculation.

The only real anti in the whole film was Tal, and his statements were contrasted with some very ordinary acting missionaries and Elder Jensen's powerful testimony. Margaret Toscano came off as disaffected, and troubled by her excommunication, but as someone who still has deep and warm feelings for LDS people. She seems to think of herself as a Mormon in some sense.

The letter was read to my ward and the counselor conducting said that it shouldn't be construed as either encouraging or discouraging viewing of the program. My Aunt's ward was told to not watch the program.

I, of course, very much lilked the program. It wasn't perfect, but it was quite good.

[MikeWaters]

my ward didn't mention anything about it.

[jay santos]

Originally Posted by pelagius

Jay, you can find the letter here: http://www.connorboyack.com/blog/pro...bs-the-mormons

Lame letter. In my ward there was a testimony in testimony meeting with the same sentiment. The Gospel Doctrine teacher, also a CES guy, talked about how Satan tries to attack us through the media. It's too bad. I really thought it was a fair presentation. We can't expect non-LDS media to portray it exactly as we'd like.

What does this say for Oklahoma State? They take our religion department retreads for their history department. At least we don't really even try to make our religion department out to be a legit academic group do we? And Ok St passes for a research institution?

[Tex]

Contrary to what some might think (and to the shock of my own family), I didn't think the program was that bad. Jensen was priceless. I had the opportunity to interact with him on a personal basis at a priesthood meeting about a year or so ago, and by my weak estimation, he is truly worthy of his call as a Seventy.

Margaret Toscano was a complete turn off. I'm still amused/annoyed by her use of the term "violence" in describing her excommunication. For all her supposed intellect, she seems incapable of comprehending the purpose of church discipline.

[SoonerCoug]

Originally Posted by Tex

Margaret Toscano was a complete turn off. I'm still amused/annoyed by her use of the term "violence" in describing her excommunication. For all her supposed intellect, she seems incapable of comprehending the purpose of church discipline.

I think it was "violent" to her because she wanted to remain a part of the Church.

The problem with most intellectuals who have been excommunicated is that they have no humility when confronted by their bishops and stake presidents. If they would simply act naive or say that they are sorry and they don't mean anything offensive, then excommunication or even disfellowship would be unlikely. All they have to do is act humble and submissive, and their problems would be minimized.

My point is that you can write a lot of different things and say a lot of different things about the Church within your family and among your friends, but once you come to Church and arrogantly push a "crazy liberal idea," then you're screwed.

Now if you push a crazy conservative idea (like Blacks are descendants of Cain), then you'll probably be just fine. Someone might tell you that you're wrong, but you won't get called in to see the Stake President.

For example, when I go to CougarBoard and suggest that we should kill every last Iraqi in order to win the war, my opinion is treated as a valid viewpoint. Your average conservative Mormon just respectfully disagrees with me...perhaps suggesting that it would be better to kill 20% instead. If I were to suggest on CougarBoard that we pull out of Iraq immediately and that George Bush is a criminal, then I would be attacked and verbally abused.