Responses to the documentary
I've been reading some responses to the recent documentary about the Mormons.
I, personally, found it to be pretty well-balanced. I thought that maybe it spent too much time talking about polygamy, but I can understand why--it's one of the big divisive issues separating LDS from the rest of the country in the 19th century.
There's a lot of people who comment (here, on the PBS show's comments page, for example), saying that it's anti-Mormon. As far as I can tell, this is mostly because it doesn't acknowledge that the LDS church is true, that Joseph Smith really was a prophet, that the Book of Mormon was divinely revealed, and that the Church did nothing wrong. In other words, showing it in the least bit unflattering light is anti-Mormon. It occurred to me that if this is what they think, then maybe they might be able to understand what other people think about the LDS church. Through this documentary, they're looking at the Church as other people see it, without the filter of their own faith and testimony. And what they see is uncomfortable.
I, personally, found it to be pretty well-balanced. I thought that maybe it spent too much time talking about polygamy, but I can understand why--it's one of the big divisive issues separating LDS from the rest of the country in the 19th century.
There's a lot of people who comment (here, on the PBS show's comments page, for example), saying that it's anti-Mormon. As far as I can tell, this is mostly because it doesn't acknowledge that the LDS church is true, that Joseph Smith really was a prophet, that the Book of Mormon was divinely revealed, and that the Church did nothing wrong. In other words, showing it in the least bit unflattering light is anti-Mormon. It occurred to me that if this is what they think, then maybe they might be able to understand what other people think about the LDS church. Through this documentary, they're looking at the Church as other people see it, without the filter of their own faith and testimony. And what they see is uncomfortable.