PBS' The Mormons

I watched the PBS special The Mormons with some ambivalence. It was not that I was unsure on whether to watch it but that I had conflicting expectations about how it would turn out. There is a long history of people willing to say bad things about Joseph Smith and the Mormon religion. The outside observer would feel obligated to provide these voices a stage in the interests of journalistic integrity, not to mention the interests of ratings and controversy. I have heard enough of those voices to know that if the filmmaker were to pick the loudest and most shrill that it would be a very long four hours.

Some of my fears did materialize. I saw people being interviewed that I had some public acquaintance with. I am sure none of them remember me but I have heard them before in person. The presentation made it hard to put the opinions of some of the people into a broader perspective. While the web site does clear up some of those issues, it is also not perfect and I do not know enough about the typical viewer to guess whether they will use even those resources.

On the other hand there was a lot of inspirational information that could not be hidden. The phrase Who hath ears to hear, let him hear occurs often in the Bible and this sprang to my mind as I heard the words of Harold Bloom near the end of the second night. I understand his mixed feelings about religions in general but his words are striking. "Of all religions that I know, the one that most vehemently and persuasively defies and denies the reality of death is the original Mormonism of the prophet seer and revelator Joseph Smith." What trait could be more expected of a group of people calling themselves Christians than that all of their doctrine and rituals are are based on the presumption of a resurrection?

The other part of the documentary that really struck me was the story of Betty Stevenson. There has not been anything more inspiring on PBS in recent memory. Betty had recently been released from prison but she was still inprisoned by the things she was doing. When she tells later about learning about being connected to her descendants and her ancestors and knowing who she was it was a stirring example of the life changing power of the atonement.