PBS The Mormons

Post by **_moksha** » Tue May 01, 2007 4:45 am

I thought it was really good. I missed the first half hour though, but I hope to see it later, it will be rebroadcast and I think it is available on the PBS site.
Does anyone know if Dr. Daniel C. Peterson was in the first half hour?

Part two is tomorrow (Tuesday May 1) night.

There will be a joint discussion hosted by KBYU and KUED about this special at 7 PM this Friday night. If there are points in the PBS special that need refuting, then I wonder if Dr. Peterson and Elder Dallin Oaks will be on this discussion panel?

Post by **_Blixa** » Tue May 01, 2007 4:48 am

Yes, Dr. Peterson appears. He does not contribute to the great Mormon dance tradition, though. Sadly.

Post by **_moksha** » Tue May 01, 2007 4:48 am

Blixa wrote: Where is this big "dance tradition" in Mormonism?
Dancing? DANCING?

We are not at liberty to discuss any nude clogging in the Temple.

Post by **_Blixa** » Tue May 01, 2007 4:54 am

Ahhh, well that explains it then. I always wondered why everyone dressed in white....the endowment ceremony is restaging of Swan Lake!

Post by **_Bond...James Bond** » Tue May 01, 2007 5:00 am

Blixa wrote:Ahhh, well that explains it then. I always wondered why everyone dressed in white....the endowment ceremony is restaging of Swan Lake!

Dang...and I thought it was an interpretive dance of the Rudyard Kipling poem The White Man's Burden.

Post by **_Dr. Shades** » Tue May 01, 2007 6:50 am

KimberlyAnn wrote:
truth dancer wrote:Hi Blixa... yeah that whole dance thing was weird. And that poet... why in the world was he a part of the discussion?~dancer~

I didn't watch much of the PBS special, but my husband recorded it on the DVR and watched it. He called me to come see the strange poet with the bulging eyes... that dude was seriously weird and like you, I've no idea why he was part of the discussion. Just thinking about him makes me laugh!

The poet you mention is Alex Caldiero, Wikipedia.org link here. I received my Associate's and Undergraduate degrees from Utah Valley State College, and I've seen him perform his poetry three times and talked to him briefly once.

Yes, I really did say "perform." When he does poetry reading, it's much more like performance art. He even has his very own entry in the book Mondo Utah, a book which has to be seen to be believed.

But back to the topic:

THIS is what the MA&Dites were so up-in-arms about? Is this the documentary which is supposedly so hostile to Mormons and such a major disappointment to them?

My goodness, this show went way, WAY easy on them. It skipped over or outright ignored LOTS of potentially damaging controversies.

Who knows, maybe I've been embroiled in the world of Online Mormonism for so long that I've forgotten what's shocking and what's not, but it seems like this is by far the most favorable possible documentary they could've expected from a bunch of non-Mormons.

But who knows what was said that has just rocked the foundations of Chapel Mormonism?

Post by **_Bond...James Bond** » Tue May 01, 2007 7:01 am

You have probably been in the online Mormon cookpot too long Shades...you've become desensitized too the fact that most people view:

Disappearing Golden Plates as weird
polygamy as creepy, manipulative, and sexist
translating with a rock in a hat as crazy
MMM as a massacre of innocents
The Book of Mormon as utterly false
missionaries as irritating little gnats
and so on and so forth....

Mormonism on its best day is still a series of bad nightmares that Mormons wish would disappear forever.

Post by **_Dr. Shades** » Tue May 01, 2007 7:09 am

You have probably been in the online Mormon cookpot too long Shades...you've become desensitized too the fact that most people view:

Disappearing Golden Plates as weird
polygamy as creepy, manipulative, and sexist
translating with a rock in a hat as crazy
MMM as a massacre of innocents
The Book of Mormon as utterly false
missionaries as irritating little gnats
and so on and so forth....

You're right about all of that. But with all due respect, I believe you missed my point: I'm wondering how Chapel Mormons--baptized, believing members--will view the documentary, not non-Mormons.

Mormonism on its best day is still a series of bad nightmares that Mormons wish would disappear forever.

That Mormons wish would disappear forever, or that non-Mormons wish would disappear forever?

Post by **_Bond...James Bond** » Tue May 01, 2007 7:16 am

Dr. Shades wrote:You're right about all of that. But with all due respect, I believe you missed my point: I'm wondering how Chapel Mormons--baptized, believing members--will view the documentary, not non-Mormons.

I'm sure it'll be quite a shock...I just checked RfM and saw a post where a guy's wife realized Joseph Smith was "just a horny old bastard" (or something like that)...whatever apologists want to say about polygamy being plutonic and about getting into heaven, most people are going to assume it's about sexual gratification.

That Mormons wish would disappear forever, or that non-Mormons wish would disappear forever?

Perhaps both. Both I'm sure the informed (ie Internet) Mormons wish these things would go away...personally I wish all organized religion would go away...but that's just me. Most non-Mormons would settle for the missionaries leaving them alone.

Post by **_CaliforniaKid** » Tue May 01, 2007 7:27 am

I thought it was well-balanced.

Who was the intense historian chick who looked half the time like she was on the verge of breaking out into tears?