{"id":25224,"date":"2015-08-05T09:17:51","date_gmt":"2015-08-05T15:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=25224"},"modified":"2015-08-05T11:23:50","modified_gmt":"2015-08-05T17:23:50","slug":"why-the-book-of-mormon-musical-is-so-troubling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/08\/why-the-book-of-mormon-musical-is-so-troubling.html","title":{"rendered":"“Why the ‘Book of Mormon’ musical is so troubling”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Sound<\/a>
Think back to the cute little scene set here in the film version of \u201cThe Sound of Music.\u201d Can you remember any obscene cursing of God in that portion of the movie? Any mockery of the Catholic Church? I certainly can\u2019t.
(Click to enlarge.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A then-prominent apostate who\u2019s since been excommunicated (but who was still, at that point, claiming to be very much a Mormon in some inscrutable sense)\u00a0made\u00a0an astoundingly\u00a0foolish comment\u00a0to a national news organization back in 2011 about the Book of Mormon musical: \u00a0\u201cI\u2019m super excited,\u201d he said. \u00a0\u201cI think this is our Mormon moment. \u00a0The Jews had\u00a0Fiddler<\/em>\u00a0[on the Roof<\/em>]\u00a0and the Catholics had\u00a0Sound of Music\u00a0<\/em>and now we have this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ummm, no<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fiddler on the Roof<\/em> and The Sound of Music<\/em> offered affectionate portraits of, respectively, the doomed life of an eastern European shtetl<\/em> and the adorable human foibles of a few\u00a0Austrian nuns, but they didn\u2019t ridicule Judaism or Catholicism and neither was even remotely derisive of religious belief as such.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Book of Mormon<\/em> musical is something quite different indeed, as this newspaper article aptly points out:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.deseretnews.com\/article\/865633823\/Why-The-Book-of-Mormon-musical-is-not-just-offensive-2-its-shallow.html?s_cid=Email-4<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the saying goes, we shouldn\u2019t be so open-minded that our brains fall out.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 A then-prominent apostate who\u2019s since been excommunicated (but who was still, at that point, claiming to be very much a Mormon in some inscrutable sense)\u00a0made\u00a0an astoundingly\u00a0foolish comment\u00a0to a national news organization back in 2011 about the Book of Mormon musical: \u00a0\u201cI\u2019m super excited,\u201d he said. \u00a0\u201cI think this is our Mormon moment. \u00a0The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"Why the 'Book of Mormon' musical is so troubling"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    A then-prominent apostate who's since been excommunicated (but who was still, at that point, claiming to be very much a Mormon in some\" 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