PBS is producing a documentary on the Mormons

[Ian David]

PBS is producing a documentary on the Mormons
by: David
Mon Mar 05, 2007 at 22:49:47 PM EST

PBS will be running a four-hour documentary on the Mormons on April 30 and May 1. According to Alex Beam's column today,

It's vintage public broadcasting, plodding at times ... and cloyingly fair-minded. And there's the rub. The shows do not paint a flattering portrait of what filmmaker Helen Whitney calls "one of the most powerful, feared, and misunderstood religions in American history."

The Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormons call themselves, cooperated with "The American Experience" and "Frontline," the show's co-producers. Whitney in turn pays the church the compliment of taking its faith very seriously indeed. The positives are there for all to see: the Mormons' triumph over persecution in mid-century America; the dramatic "exodus" from Illinois to Utah, the "country no one else wanted," according to Wallace Stegner, a great admirer of the Mormon pioneers; the devotion to family and community.

But also on view are doctrines and practices that most Americans would view as strange.

It's great that PBS is doing this. Here's hoping it's as "cloyingly fair-minded" as Beam says.

More:
http://www.bluemassgroup.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6514


See also:

Are there parallels between Battlestar Galactica and Mormonism?
http://www.kobol.com/archives/BG-FAQ.html#E21

Battlestar Galactica and Mormonism
http://www.michaellorenzen.com/galactica.html

Battlestar Mormonica
http://www.holysmoke.org/cos/battlestar-mormonica.htm

[TheBaldyMan]

1. That will be interesting, will they be stressing the non-religion aspects of it

being British I look on Mormons as a massive con-job, along with Scientology they seem to typify everything that is wrong with freedom of religion. Any old tripe can get tax-exempt holy status. It's a farce.

At least FSM is a harmless bit of fun.

[Retrograde]

2. Who's funding it?

PBS did a show on the origins of Mormonism a few years ago which was heavily subsidised by the LDS.