Nate on "The Mormons" part 1

Hi family,

We watched the first segment of the PBS special last night.

Personally I thought it was very good. It does spend two of the six segments on polygamy and the Mountain Meadows massacre, but in my opinion these topics are covered very fairly. I know some people have complained that the documentary spends so much time on these topics, but the intent of the documentary is to address misperceptions people have about Mormons, and these are two significant parts of our
history that people hear various things about and would naturally be curious to know about.

The segment on Mountain Meadows begins by explaining the difficult circumstances the Saints were in having been driven so many times from their homes, knowing that 20% of the U.S. Army was on its way to crush what they thought was a rebellion against the U.S. government, and knowing that the wagon train coming through Mountain Meadows was
on its way from Missouri and Arkansas, where Haun's Mill massacre occurred, the extermination order was issued, and Parly P. Pratt had just been murdered. Will Bagley, a non-Mormon historian who just published a book about Mountain Meadows, appears in the film giving what he admits is his personal opinion, based on his research, that Brigham Young secretly encouraged the massacre. The Church historian
Glen Leonard appears next countering that he does not believe Brigham Young encouraged it, but says the evidence is clear that he tried to cover it up. (Leonard will be publishing his own book on Mountain Meadows later this year.)

Given that September Dawn, Hollywood's version of the Mountain Meadows massacre, will come out June 22, this will be a topic that will generate a lot of interest. I don't think we could ask for a better source to point people toward for a balanced perspective than this PBS segment.

The polygamy segment started off with the fact that Joseph Smith instituted it secretly, much to the dismay of Emma, and began teaching it privately to other men like Brigham Young, who at first was so appalled by it that he wished he could trade places with a corpse (the film shows a photo of a funeral procession in what is
presumably old Nauvoo). The film shows several humorous time-period caricatures poking fun of the Mormon polygamists and discusses the misconceptions about it that survive to today. It quotes someone who points out the contrast between Mormons who married and cared for their multiple wives, and their hypocritical opponents who cheated on their spouses and accepted no responsibility for the women they took
as prostitutes. It talks about the stress the saints were under by the U.S. government to abandon polygamy, showing several prison photos, culminating finally in Wilford Woodruff's manifesto which, it says, was not worded like a typical revelation and not originally treated as a revelation. Eventually the Church became more firm in
its stance against polygamy and in the early 1900s worked openly with law enforcement to help end it. There is a clip of President Hinckley speaking about how we no longer practice polygamy and that those who do are excommunicated. The rest of the segment then takes a very sympathetic look at those who broke away from the Church on the
polygamy issue, showing photos of a crackdown in the 50s that resulted in backlash when the public saw how peaceful families were being torn apart, and showing a modern-day polygamist family that appears to be very normal and happy and convinced they are carrying on the true Celestial order established by Joseph Smith. The film also points out that LDS Mormons still establish polygamist relationships in temples when they remarry after a spouse dies.

Given that polygamy is such a prominent part of our history, it makes sense that the film would spend a lot of time on it. I thought the treatment was very fair and sympathetic.

It's kind of interesting, amusing, and embarrassing to read the online discussion at the PBS web site: http://www.pbs.org/mormons/talk/. Some people think the film is obviously skewed in favor of Mormons and some think it is obviously skewed against them. The most embarrassing entries are the ones that say the film is a pack of lies
and if you want the truth you should call the missionaries and pray about it, and close with testimony. ;-) As far as our small opinion group (consisting of me, Molly, Josh, Charity, and Molly's mom), we all agreed that the film was fair and generally positive in its portrayal of Mormons. A couple felt that there were some inaccuracies
and parts that were misleading, but overall was quite fair and sympathetic. I thought it was very well done. There are of course some things that would have been nice to have included (e.g., accounts of miracles, especially on the trek west; the crickets and seagulls; zion's camp; etc.) but she also could have dwelt on several other negative things as well. The fact that opinions on the discussion page are all over the map show the difficulty of handling a topic like this, and show that she did a pretty good job of being balanced.

If you were hoping the film would be propaganda that would motivate your neighbors to take the discussions, you'll be disappointed. But if you only expect fair and sympathetic context for the defining parts of our history, I think you'll agree that the film is quite good.

By the way, for those of you who weren't able to watch it, you can view the entire first half online at http://www.pbs.org/mormons/view/ . (I believe the second half will be available after it airs tonight.) It will also be available for purchase as a DVD on June 11.

I'm very interested to hear your reactions, and please don't feel intimidated if you disagree with mine.

Love,
Nate