Church Article: Commentary: When Entertainment Media Distorts Faith

[smac97]

From the Newsroom: Commentary: When Entertainment Media Distorts Faith

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, like other prominent global faith communities, often finds itself the focus of the attention of the entertainment industry. Some portrayals are fair and accurate, but others resort to stereotypes or gross misrepresentations that are in poor taste and have real-life consequences for people of faith.

I wonder if this is in response to Heretic (the upcoming Hugh Grant horror movie re: sister missionaries), or The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (the upcoming Hulu series about Tiktok influencers who A) are supposedly members of the Church, and B) are into "swinging"), or both.

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While this is not new, a number of recent productions depict lifestyles and practices blatantly inconsistent with the teachings of the Church.

This is likely a reference to The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.

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Others irresponsibly mischaracterize the safety and conduct of our volunteer missionaries.

This is likely a reference to Heretic.

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We understand the fascination some in the media have with the Church, but regret that portrayals often rely on sensationalism and inaccuracies that do not fairly and fully reflect the lives of our Church members or the sacred beliefs that they hold dear.

Millions of Church members around the world are deeply dedicated to family, fidelity, service and the gospel of Jesus Christ. We invite all to consult reliable sources of information and listen to the voices and authentic experiences of individuals and families who find great joy and satisfaction in living these principles.

The true story of our faith is best seen in the countless lives of those who strive daily to follow our Savior Jesus Christ.

A good statement.  Sadly, it will not get anywhere near the attention of the two entertainment properties referenced above.

Thanks,

-Smac

[Dario_M]

The secret lifes of Mormon wifes? Sounds like every mormon house wife has another dubbel life where she does what she want and search for adventure and pleasure. 🤦‍♀️

Edited August 20, 2024 by Dario_M

[Devobah]

On 8/19/2024 at 11:06 AM, smac97 said:

From the Newsroom: Commentary: When Entertainment Media Distorts Faith

I wonder if this is in response to Heretic (the upcoming Hugh Grant horror movie re: sister missionaries), or The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (the upcoming Hulu series about Tiktok influencers who A) are supposedly members of the Church, and B) are into "swinging"), or both.

This is likely a reference to The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.

This is likely a reference to Heretic.

A good statement.  Sadly, it will not get anywhere near the attention of the two entertainment properties referenced above.

Thanks,

-Smac

Hulu has been on a tear the last few years with many LDS related things in the media. It's almost obsessive in the way they love this kind of stuff.

[The Nehor]

On 8/22/2024 at 12:00 PM, Devobah said:

Hulu has been on a tear the last few years with many LDS related things in the media. It's almost obsessive in the way they love this kind of stuff.

Hulu does a lot of trashy shows like this. There is a Mormon Swinger culture but it isn’t like the show and it isn’t pervasive.

[Devobah]

20 minutes ago, The Nehor said:

Hulu does a lot of trashy shows like this. There is a Mormon Swinger culture but it isn’t like the show and it isn’t pervasive.

Man it’s out here turning into TLC!

[Tacenda]

Just had to share this, hopefully it lightens up the darkness of the Hulu malarkey!

https://www.facebook.com/reel/410621591655414/?s=single_unit&__cft__[0]=AZXtYE1ZJMNNS1GNVIIvFvBzqX7zamV5BztO2IynEkRoadLRrsYdoI3npHfXmjgH5vIZq4ct0q9rXQbUle0nlxmdEl3oWuQ0N5ELsVzI7uxevvJYETtBguxOIZTs64y2XRFR4suFLHrQg9a4Lxqz6wkdGAViFeMaMuoO991Lglagzw&__tn__=H-R

 

Edited September 9, 2024 by Tacenda

[MustardSeed]

Most of what I’m seeing after the release of the reality trash is lots of confusion over why “Mormons dont drink coffee”. “ I mean, they drink caffeinated sodas by the litre and they drink hot drinks all the time. “

We are all confused but very obedient.  

“Sheep!”

Sigh. Please pass the Pero and sugar. 

[MustardSeed]

I actually did my best to clarify a comment that somebody made indicating that Mormons can drink hot drinks, but they have to let them cool first.  
It’s interesting how attached people can be to what they believe.  There was no budging this person. She actually suggested I go have a conversation with my Bishop.🤣😂😇

[Snarkclaw]

22 hours ago, MustardSeed said:

It’s interesting how attached people can be to what they believe.  There was no budging this person. She actually suggested I go have a conversation with my Bishop.🤣😂😇

People love our preconceptions and stereotypes.  It is fascinating how we can be sure we know better than those who actually have the experience or live the life.

Another interesting double-standard is knowledge about how accurate media portrayals are.  When the media features (and misrepresents) a passion of Average Person, Average Person gets upset and insistent about how wildly wrong everything is.  When the media misrepresents something Average Person knows little or nothing of, then suddenly Average Person is now an expert in that thing.

While it is frustrating to be misrepresented in the media, the upside is that the media attention does attract some curiosity and attention.  While not everyone will bring our best intentions and some might lose interest when learning that not all church members are wild swingers or routinely go through horror mazes, there might be a few of us left who continue being interested in the church for what it genuinely is.

(This $0.02 brought to you by a current "investigator" or "friend" whose key exposure to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the past several years was primarily through "South Park" and a webcomic.)

[bluebell]

8 minutes ago, Snarkclaw said:

People love our preconceptions and stereotypes.  It is fascinating how we can be sure we know better than those who actually have the experience or live the life.

Another interesting double-standard is knowledge about how accurate media portrayals are.  When the media features (and misrepresents) a passion of Average Person, Average Person gets upset and insistent about how wildly wrong everything is.  When the media misrepresents something Average Person knows little or nothing of, then suddenly Average Person is now an expert in that thing.

While it is frustrating to be misrepresented in the media, the upside is that the media attention does attract some curiosity and attention.  While not everyone will bring our best intentions and some might lose interest when learning that not all church members are wild swingers or routinely go through horror mazes, there might be a few of us left who continue being interested in the church for what it genuinely is.

(This $0.02 brought to you by a current "investigator" or "friend" whose key exposure to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the past several years was primarily through "South Park" and a webcomic.)

Welcome Snarkclaw.   

[Snarkclaw]

3 minutes ago, bluebell said:

Welcome Snarkclaw.   

Thank you and hello.  🙂

[Okrahomer]

2 hours ago, Snarkclaw said:

This $0.02 brought to you by a current "investigator" or "friend" whose key exposure to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the past several years was primarily through "South Park" and a webcomic.)

Welcome Snarkclaw!   I think we have heard about a few examples of folks who have felt their interest piqued by the broadway musical “The Book of Mormon”,  but you may be the first example of someone gaining interest in the Church due to South Park.  I think it must be a fascinating journey.  I hope we get to hear about it sometime.

 

[Snarkclaw]

1 hour ago, Okrahomer said:

Welcome Snarkclaw!   I think we have heard about a few examples of folks who have felt their interest piqued by the broadway musical “The Book of Mormon”,  but you may be the first example of someone gaining interest in the Church due to South Park.  I think it must be a fascinating journey.  I hope we get to hear about it sometime.

 

I do not want to risk derailing this thread, but hah, I would not say "South Park" originally got me interested, as much as it deserves credit for maintaining a level of friendly curiosity.  I originally had a very good experience with church members nearly 30 years ago, but never followed up on invitation to meet the missionaries and start engaging.  Randomly meeting missionaries during a dog walk this spring is what finally got me to "investigate."  But yes, "South Park" and a webcomic did help maintain those positive vibes originally established 30 years ago.  🙂

Representation might be important, but so is an individual's takeaway.  🙂

[Calm]

Love to have you here, Snarkclaw. Always good to learn how others see us. 

I am constantly asking for feedback in my personal life, but besides a sister no one else wants to do it, though whether it’s lack of interest or fear of hurting me or something else, I don’t know.

I love this board because most naturally give feedback without me even asking about everything and anything.  
 

Having said that and guessing this doesn’t actually need to be said, but please be aware that even the believers here aren’t typical members (few members want to talk about religion this much, lol) and we have a mix of devout members of other faiths, agnostics (maybe even declared strong atheists, but I can’t think of any current ones) along with LDS and former members of so many varieties. 

Edited September 10, 2024 by Calm

[MustardSeed]

25 minutes ago, Calm said:

Love to have you here, Snarkclaw. Always good to learn how others see us. 

I am constantly asking for feedback in my personal life, but besides a sister no one else wants to do it, though whether it’s lack of interest or fear of hurting me or something else, I don’t know.

I love this board because most naturally give feedback without me even asking about everything and anything.  
 

Having said that and guessing this doesn’t actually need to be said, but please be aware that even the believers here aren’t typical members (few members want to talk about religion this much, lol) and we have a mix of devout members of other faiths, agnostics (maybe even declared strong atheists, but I can’t think of any current ones) along with LDS members of so many varieties. 

Indeed.  This board doesn’t even come close to resembling my 55 year experience at actual church. ❤️

[Calm]

14 minutes ago, MustardSeed said:

Indeed.  This board doesn’t even come close to resembling my 55 year experience at actual church. ❤️

Even if one removes anything critical of the Church or about other faiths, it’s still not close.  They don’t deep dive scripture or history at Church (those are left to personal study) or talk about current events usually.  It’s about how to be better disciples of Christ.

If you have a fantastic seminary or institute teacher you may get some in-depth history and scripture.  I had a good Doctrine and Covenants and Church History teacher in seminary, though I mostly zoned out as I am not a morning person (seminary is often before schools for areas that can’t get released time during school hours) and a good Old Testament institute teacher at BYU, but he still didn’t discuss Bible criticism much, though the Isaiah class I took from him got into variant readings.  Those are classes for high school and college aged kids, but they often aren’t professional teachers.  My Book of Mormon seminary teacher was a sweet old lady that was there because they couldn’t find anyone else, I dropped out and took it independent study so I could sleep an extra 45 minutes and was able to complete the Church workbook in less than a month, so simple, hopefully it’s harder now 50 years later.  My sister-in-laws have taught seminary.  Both are very smart, one does travel tours of church sites, but neither are trained educators as far as I know (I just realized I don’t know what either got their college degree in). 

[Snarkclaw]

41 minutes ago, Calm said:

Love to have you here, Snarkclaw. Always good to learn how others see us. 

I am constantly asking for feedback in my personal life, but besides a sister no one else wants to do it, though whether it’s lack of interest or fear of hurting me or something else, I don’t know.

I love this board because most naturally give feedback without me even asking about everything and anything.  
 

Having said that and guessing this doesn’t actually need to be said, but please be aware that even the believers here aren’t typical members (few members want to talk about religion this much, lol) and we have a mix of devout members of other faiths, agnostics (maybe even declared strong atheists, but I can’t think of any current ones) along with LDS members of so many varieties. 

Heh, thank you for the warning; I have figured that after reading some of the threads here.  This board is representative of this board, not of any one group outside of it.

That said, I find this forum board interesting precisely because of the deep interest in discussing religion.  After meeting with the missionaries of my local ward for maybe longer than usual (I do not know what is "normal" but have been assured that I am not it :-)), I continue weekly discussions with very engaged members who originally served as chaperones during my meetings with the missionaries and who enjoy my extensive questions and attempts to learn as much as I can.  My interest in this board is as another supplement and a source of different views, rather than as a replacement to attending church and meeting my local ward members.

I was "declared strong atheist" for decades, but now consider myself atheist-leaning agnostic after some recent doubts about my disbelief.  😉  I share many values with those I have met in my local ward; we just disagree about the source of those values.

15 minutes ago, MustardSeed said:

Indeed.  This board doesn’t even come close to resembling my 55 year experience at actual church. ❤️

Hah, no, no organ music, for one thing.  😉

 

I deeply apologize to anyone who feels I hijacked this thread.

[Snarkclaw]

6 minutes ago, Calm said:

Even if one removes anything critical of the Church or about other faiths, it’s still not close.  They don’t deep dive scripture or history at Church (those are left to personal study) or talk about current events usually.  It’s about how to be better disciples of Christ.

If you have a fantastic seminary or institute teacher you may get some in-depth history and scripture.  I had a good Doctrine and Covenants and Church History teacher in seminary, though I mostly zoned out as I am not a morning person (seminary is often before schools for areas that can’t get released time during school hours) and a good Old Testament institute teacher at BYU, but he still didn’t discuss Bible criticism much, though the Isaiah class I took from him got into variant readings.  Those are classes for high school and college aged kids, but they often aren’t professional teachers.  My Book of Mormon seminary teacher was a sweet old lady that was there because they couldn’t find anyone else, I dropped out and took it independent study so I could sleep an extra 45 minutes and was able to complete the Church workbook in less than a month, so simple, hopefully it’s harder now 50 years later.  My sister-in-laws have taught seminary.  Both are very smart, one does travel tours of church sites, but neither are trained educators as far as I know (I just realized I don’t know what either got their college degree in). 

This post was made while I was composing my last one; otherwise I would have commented on it, too.

I have been incredibly lucky that two of my meeting chaperones are enthusiastic teachers who teach various classes for church and who love a good deep-dive.  That is why we continue meeting.  🙂  The missionaries were lovely people, but we often railroaded over their intended lessons and got deep into discussions that lasted long after they had to leave the meeting... poor boys.

But yes, this forum provides a different layout and approach entirely.  As a newbie very much out of my depths, I expect to be much more a lurker than I have been here, and instead absorb the interesting concepts and ideas forum members share here.

[MustardSeed]

28 minutes ago, Snarkclaw said:

But yes, this forum provides a different layout and approach entirely.  As a newbie very much out of my depths, I expect to be much more a lurker than I have been here, and instead absorb the interesting concepts and ideas forum members share here

Welcome 🤗

——- 

Im finding a LOT of social media stir around the secret wives show the past few days . Might just be my algorithm (shamefully possible) - 

I predict within three months nobody will remember the program.  we get bored quickly, especially after an influx of excessive discussion over any particular topic. 

 

 

[The Nehor]

On 9/9/2024 at 11:03 AM, MustardSeed said:

Most of what I’m seeing after the release of the reality trash is lots of confusion over why “Mormons dont drink coffee”. “ I mean, they drink caffeinated sodas by the litre and they drink hot drinks all the time. “

We are all confused but very obedient.  

“Sheep!”

Sigh. Please pass the Pero and sugar. 

To be fair anyone trying to read the Word of Wisdom to figure out what the Word of Wisdom is would end up incredibly confused. Some parts of it we follow, some we ignore, some we reinterpret, some we do the exact opposite of what it actually says, and there are also lots of unwritten bits that are attached to it that are nowhere in the text.

[MustardSeed]

6 hours ago, The Nehor said:

To be fair anyone trying to read the Word of Wisdom to figure out what the Word of Wisdom is would end up incredibly confused. Some parts of it we follow, some we ignore, some we reinterpret, some we do the exact opposite of what it actually says, and there are also lots of unwritten bits that are attached to it that are nowhere in the text.

💯. That’s what’s frustrating.  There’s no defense.  Makes us seem really bizarro. 

[Stargazer]

19 hours ago, MustardSeed said:

Indeed.  This board doesn’t even come close to resembling my 55 year experience at actual church. ❤️

 

[Stargazer]

1 hour ago, MustardSeed said:

💯. That’s what’s frustrating.  There’s no defense.  Makes us seem really bizarro. 

I don't feel frustrated at all.  

And I'm OK with seeming really bizarro. 

[MustardSeed]

9 minutes ago, Stargazer said:

I don't feel frustrated at all.  

And I'm OK with seeming really bizarro. 

I am very frustrated and I’m not OK with seeming bizarro.  it’s super hard to motivate others in any type of missionary effort when there’s this huge wall between us of misunderstanding. I am quite normal. I tell all my questioning friends, “ yes the policy is very confusing and I don’t have any good answers. My decision to not drink coffee has nothing to do with whether or not it’s healthy but rather it’s an issue of integrity for me. I’ve made a promise and I’m going to keep it. That is the end of it.” When I have an opportunity to say this, people understand that I’m not weird that in fact, I am a person of integrity with regards to this particular issue.  Then they want to know more about me. 
instead, when I dig in and insist that there’s probably a decent reason that we were told not to drink coffee because it’s probably unhealthy for us, and then I participate in hypocritical behaviors, like eating, something sugary after every single activity that exists at church, and looking like a complete idiot and nobody wants to get closer to that . 
 

back in the day when 90% of my social circle was LDS, I never thought about this. Now that 90% of my social circle is not LDS, I have a completely different perspective. 

And yes, I am frustrated. I think of my health issues would be better treated with natural treatments rather than chemical treatments that can cause dependency. I think we have made a complete mess of the word of wisdom. I cannot drink coffee to stay awake, but my husband can poison himself with three cans of NOS. Somebody told me what kind of sense that makes? Before you tell me that I can make those decisions for myself, no, I can’t. One of these choices keeps me out of the temple. That’s all I care about right now. I know exactly what my body needs.  And the hill we choose to die on is coffee. In my opinion, it’s absolute insanity.

For the record, I’ve never tasted coffee. My integrity matters more than being alert. I’ve made a promise and I will stick with it, but I’m not happy about it.

Edited September 11, 2024 by MustardSeed

[Snarkclaw]

9 minutes ago, Stargazer said:

And I'm OK with seeming really bizarro. 

Early on in our meetings, I told one of the chaperones that the main reputation within mainstream I see of Mormons is, "You are successful, happy, and weird."  He loves that description and loves to share it with other members or have me share it with others.