All American prophet

I went to see The Book of Mormon on Tuesday night. Mormons may be offended, but I thought it was a funny and clever satire of Mormon beliefs and practices. It was gentle without being malicious. I wish more satirists would take that approach towards religion, especially Christianity.

I don't know how many Christians were in the audience. I'm guessing that most of the audience were secular; either atheist or agnostic. If so, I pray that they will come to faith in the one true God, and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. 

Reach for the stars and rule your own planet

I write this in hope that a musical theatre promoter with a sense of humour brings this show to Australia. Until yesterday I had no idea that Trey Parker and Matt Stone, best known as the creators of South Park, have created a successful Broadway musical about Mormomism called The Book of Mormon, and they also plan to do a film version. The musical is about a couple of Mormon missionaries and their adventures in Uganda.

Here's a clip of a song from the show, I Believe. One thing that is evident from this clip is how well actor Andrew Rannells uses facial expressions and voice to convey the earnestness and dedication of his character. 

This isn't the first time Parker and Stone have satirized Mormonism. I blogged here a couple of years ago about the South Park episode All About Mormons. I don't normally watch that show, but  if you appreciate satire that episode was hilarious. Before that Trey Parker created the black comedy Cannibal!: The Musical, which had a 19th century Mormon as its main character.

I have never been a Mormon, nor do I ever want to be. They probably regard me and my ilk as apostates. My interest in them, which is and shall always remain purely academic, was first sparked by random and sometimes unpleasant encounters with Mormon missionaries on the streets of different cities around Australia. These prompted me to read widely on a number of cults and new religious movements, including Mormonism.

The church has a strong musical pedigree, which encompasses the world famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and of course the Osmonds, a Mormon boy band who were massively popular in the 1970s. It's a pity these musical ambassadors are not using their talent to honour the one true God, but that's another issue that I have also written about in a more serious fashion elsewhere.

Spiritual snakeoil?

When I saw this picture in the latest issue of Christianity Today, I couldn't resist the urge to scan and upload it here. If I had Photoshop, I'd slightly alter this image by replacing the dove above Benny Hinn's head in this billboard with a pigeon. Doing this would succintly express my opinion about Mr. Hinn and his ilk, if you get what I mean, and I don't mean because it would bring him good luck. This billboard, which describes him as a "world-renowned healing evangelist," is slightly misleading. Hinn may be known worldwide, but he is hardly world renowned.

In fact, he is a controversial figure, attracting negative coverage in both the mainstream and Christian media. His critics charge that rather than genuinely delivering people from illnesses or physical infirmities, his healing crusades are actually conducted to raise money for his organisation. Since it appears that no one has ever actually experienced genuine healing at one of these crusades, it's questionable whether these funds are used to benefit others, or to finance Hinn's opulent lifestyle.

A non-prophet organisation

Firstly, a disclaimer. I'm neither a fan nor a regular viewer of South Park. This program often contains lots of clever satire, which I like, which is usually overshadowed by excessive crudity, which I don't like. However, last week I relented when SBS aired the episode All About Mormons, which manages to provide a mostly accurate account of the origins of Mormon history and theology.

In the episode, a Mormon family moves into the town of South Park. Their son Gary (pictured above, bottom left) befriends Stan Marsh at school and invites him over for dinner, where they explain their beliefs to him, and then later to Stan's father and the entire Marsh family. During these scenes the episode then breaks off into a sub-story, partially told in a hilarious song, about the origins of Mormonism, as outlined below.

Mormonism was founded by Joseph Smith (1805-1844), a self-proclaimed prophet and restorer of the true church. The story goes that one day Joseph Smith was praying in the forest near his home town of Palmyra, New York, asking God which denomination he should join. God and Jesus appeared to him (or an angel, according to different versions of this story) telling him he shouldn't join any of them, but instead start his own. In another appearance, an angel named Moroni also revealed to him the location of a set of mysterious golden tablets which contained another testament of Jesus, buried in the ground somewhere near his home. He dug up the tablets, which were written in the hitherto unknown language of Reformed Egyptian.

Fortunately for Smith, or so Mormons would have us believe, also buried with the tablets were two magic peepstones, called the urim and thummin, which Smith placed in a hat and peered through to translate the tablets into King James English, dictating the words to his scribe, Martin Harris, a wealthy Palmyra farmer. Financed by Harris, in 1830 Smith published the Book of Mormon, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as it later became know, was born. This episode can be watched as a primer on Mormonism, because its full history is more complex and controversial.

In mainstream Christianity, Mormonism is rightly regarded as a cult, and the above story has no credibility whatsoever. As for its founder, Joseph Smith, his harshest critics have accurately labelled him as an occultist, bigamist, and con artist, amongst other things, and also highlight his involvement in Freemasonry. The website http://www.cults.co.nz/lds/index.html gives Mormonism a "danger" rating, which sounds like sage advice to me. I'm no expert on cults, but I've done enough reading and research to know that anyone who knows what's good for them should steer well clear of Mormonism. For more on Mormonism, I highly recommend reading the chapter in The Kingdom of the Cults, by Walter Martin (Bethany House, ISBN 0764228218).