My wife and I just saw The Book of Mormon in LA last night and enjoyed it quite a bit. I’m curious what actual mormons think of it. Is anyone here a mormon who’s seen it? Or who knows someone who does?
It obviously spends a lot of time mocking mormon beliefs, but it also seems to have a solid core of affection for mormon people, and plenty of it is very funny (although profane) about things not directly relating to mormonism…
The current head of the Mormon church saw it, and said it was good, “but the book is better.”
I liked the official statement put out by the Mormon Church.
It said something like"You can see the book of mormon in a theater,and you will be entertained for an evening. Or you can read the book of mormon in a church, and you will be changed for life"
So–they showed a sense of humor…not bad for a stuffy,conservative religious organization.
Compare that to other Christian denominations: when various movies , art exhibits and theater shows have been made about Jesus, they usually react with boring rants about sacrilege, and useless screams of outrage…
Those are good, subtly funny quotes. The second one seems a little bit preachy (like how JWs advertise when they’re not being bellicose) but still funny. I want to see it but would have to go to it and apparently it’s out of my price range.
But which other church reacts with outrage? Fringe nutjobs like Bill Donohue? Fringier folks like Fred Phelps? I am sure that you can find people foaming at the mouth on the internet, but I’ll guess most Mormons haven’t have much on an encounter with tBoM. As in, won’t seek it out, but don’t get outraged. I am a little surprised by the non-reaction (Monson?).
Trey and Matt previously did Mormons on South Park. They basically said that most of the beliefs are a sham, but that most Mormons are good people. The other episode devoted entirely to one religion was “Trapped in the Closet,” about Scientology. They were… not kind.
When I saw it in LA a few months ago I was amused to find that the LDS had bought up half of the advertising in the program.
Can I have a cite that Scientology is an actual religion?
Anyway, back on topic, Parker and Stone grew up in an area in Colorado with a sizeable number of Mormons and Parker actually dated one. Thus they understand the religion(heresy?) and the typical adherent very well.
Cite?
Never mind.
I wonder if the national tour went to SLC. Would be interesting how the ticket sales were there…
The majority of people in SLC are not Mormon. They even elect Democrats as mayor/president. Might be a bigger issue in #3, Provo, which is 88%.
Well, Dogma’s release had a protest mob outside of it that Kevin Smith (himself a Catholic) joined just for the fun of it.
But they don’t tend to be (D), e.g. 74% Republican. Many will and have voted for a Republican over Harry Reid. Still, SLC has had Democratic mayors for some time (I got tired of counting)
South Park has also done episodes about Judism and Catholicism, but they seem to have more of an insiders perspective. I know that Matt is Jewish, and while I don’t know, it wouldn’t suprise me to learn that Trey was raised Catholic.
Yes, cite please?
I wouldn’t be surprised if Monson joked that “the book is better.” That’s the gist of the ads in the program. But without a cite I refuse to believe that Monson “saw it,” and it’s absolutely impossible that he “said it was good.”