Why CAN’T Mormons Send Flowers?

Our 2021 theatrical film, Witnesses, was dedicated to the memory of “Richard Lloyd Anderson, a witness to the witnesses.”  Now it comes down to you.  One of the many spin-offs of the overall “Witnesses” project is this one, which is available for your viewing:  “Episode 17: What is your Witness?”

Witnesses of the Book of Mormon—Insights Episode 17: What does it mean to be a witness? How can you be a witness? This is Episode 17 of a series compiled from the many interviews conducted during the course of the Witnesses film project. . . .  These additional resources are hosted by Camrey Bagley Fox, who played Emma Smith in Witnesses, as she introduces and visits with a variety of experts. These individuals answer questions or address accusations against the witnesses, also helping viewers understand the context of the times in which the witnesses lived. This week we feature Gerrit Dirkmaat, Associate Professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University. For more information, go to https://witnessesofthebookofmormon.org/. Learn about the documentary movie Undaunted—Witnesses of the Book of Mormon at https://witnessesundaunted.com/.

Witnesses, by the way, is available for free streaming at The Witnesses Initiative throughout the month of February 2025.  Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon has been made permanently available for free streaming, also via The Witnesses Initiative.  And Six Days in August is now streaming on Fandango, Amazon, AppleTV, Google Play, Spectrum, and Microsoft.  We hope that you’ll enjoy it.

And, new today on the never-changing Interpreter Foundation website:  “Nibley Lectures: Come, Follow Me Doctrine and Covenants Lesson 7 (2025) “That You May Come Off Conqueror”: D&C 10-11

During 1978, 1979, and 1980, Hugh Nibley taught a Doctrine and Covenants Sunday School class. Cassette recordings were made of these classes and some have survived and were recently digitized by Steve Whitlock. Most of the tapes were in pretty bad condition. The original recordings usually don’t stop or start at the beginning of the class and there is some background noise. Volumes vary, probably depending upon where the recorder was placed in the room. Many are very low volume but in most cases it’s possible to understand the words. In a couple of cases the ends of one class were put on some space left over from a different class. There’s some mixup around D&C 90-100 that couldn’t be figured out, so those recordings are as they were on the tapes. Even with these flaws and missing classes, we believe these these will be interesting to listen to and valuable to your Come, Follow Me study program.

This week we have two Lectures relevant to the February 10-16 Come, Follow Me lesson, “That You May Come Off Conqueror” covering D&C 10-11 .

I wasted a few minutes last night browsing idly through a list of “The Top Movies Filmed in Every State in America.”  Although Utah offers an exceptionally rich selection of films from which the winner could have been chosen, I wasn’t at all surprised to see that Footloose (1984) was the movie chosen to represent Utah.  However, I was amused to read the paragraph that accompanies the selection:

Even if you haven’t seen Footloose, starring a young and lively Kevin Bacon, it’s likely you know the lyrics to at least a couple of the songs (whether you’d like to admit it or not). It’s a highly iconic musical about a kid who moves to a small town and tries to get rid of the local ban on dancing. It seems fitting that it was filmed in Utah, doesn’t it?

But does it really seem “fitting”?  To whom?  And on the basis of what?  Clearly, there’s a stereotype at work here.  But it could scarcely be more wrong.  Did you know that Mormons can’t dance?  If you did, you’re in very good company!  Ted Danson also knew that Mormons aren’t allowed to dance:  “Cheers & Mormons: No Flowers or Dancing?”

This link alone should probably be enough to make my point:  “BYU Ballroom Dance Company,”  If, though, it’s coupled with the image of dancing pioneers that is shown above, the evidence is pretty conclusive.  And I should know.  I spent much of my youth and my early married years desperately seeking ways to escape dancing.  Not out of any moral or theological reservations, but simply because of my respect for the innocent public around me as well as because of my earnest ambition to be regarded as a sinister buffoon, and not merely as a buffoon simpliciter.

Those who feel continually oppressed by the crimes and depravities imposed upon innocent, suffering humanity by religions and religious people certainly won’t feel like dancing when they read these dispatches, which have been taken from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™:

• “Mothers in Guatemala learn better nutrition for their babies: Member-focused child nutrition effort provides resources and support to treat malnourishment”
• “Church members’ service promotes social inclusion and accessibility in 2 South American countries: Recent efforts in Argentina and Peru ‘allow us to serve our community and strengthen social inclusion beyond our beliefs’”
• “Latter-day Saints Around the World: February 2025: Ghana university receives high-tech computer lab, donation blesses children with disabilities in the Dominican Republic and a Samoan meeting place gets refurbished: Newsroom features stories from its dozens of websites worldwide to show what members and leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are doing to serve their communities. Today, we feature news from Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ghana, the Philippines and Samoa.”