I grew up in the desert, the daughter of a fundamentalist religion. Our prophet was revered, and his memory considered sacred.
An interesting juxtaposition occurred on the planet last night. Just a day after violence in Libya resulting in the deaths of four U.S. State Department employees, including the ambassador, celebrities from Neil Patrick Harris to Kathy Griffin and Jane Seymour walked the red carpet in Hollywood for the west coast premiere of a hit Broadway musical--The Book of Mormon.
Our prophet was visited by an angel. He had many wives.
Probably few have made a connection between the two events, although people have long made a connection between the two religions, and the two prophets. Even Joseph Smith himself, the founder of that uniquely American religion of my childhood in the American west, Mormonism, called himself a modern Muhammed.
"I will be to this generation a second Mohammed, whose motto in treating for peace was 'the Alcoran (Koran) or the Sword.' So shall it eventually be with us."--Joseph Smith
The lines attributed to Joseph Smith reportedly delivered in the town square of Far West, Missouri, in the autumn of 1838, bear little modern-day resemblance to the religion parodied by South Park creators on television and Broadway. For at least a hundred years--or more--probably no one has gone to their bed at night afraid that they would perish for making fun of, or even representing in any form visually, the person considered to be a prophet by millions of followers, Joseph Smith. In fact, it has become something of a comedy staple.
An article on the premiere of The Book of Mormon in Hollywood has, to the right of the page, this headline: Anti-Islam movie made by California filmmaker.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone have not been known for playing it safe, for steering away from controversy. They included both prophets in their depiction of the "Super Best Friends," and have had extended episodes on Mormonism, including depicting a young Joseph Smith staring into a hat to translate the Golden Plates. But while the Joseph Smith references might have caused consternation among the faithful, they did not incite violence. Neither did their previous foray into Mormon characters in the film "Orgazmo." Their current success on Broadway, wildly popular, goes even further.
In February 2011, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued the following statement about The Book of Mormon musical premiering on Broadway: "The production may attempt to entertain audiences for an evening, but the Book of Mormon as a volume of scripture will change people's lives forever by bringing them closer to Christ."
If someone were to attempt to stream Episode 201 of South Park, they'd get the following message on their screen:
I've been to the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. I've been to Nauvoo, and to Carthage Jail.
Security had to be stepped up at Comedy Central when Episode 201 aired. In response to the controversy and threats from extremists, several Pulitzered cartoonists signed a petition defending Parker and Stone:
"We, the undersigned, condemn the recent threats against the creators of South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker. . .Freedom of expression is a universal right and we reject any group that tries to silence people by violence or intimidation. In the United States we have a proud tradition of political satire and believe in the right to speak or draw freely without censorship."
It would be difficult to imagine a Broadway hit based on a prophet, or one doing unspeakable things with a reptile, set to catchy song-and-dance numbers. But it's the hottest ticket in town. And most people performing in it or associated with it, including those who are themselves Mormon, don't fear for their lives because of it. Some Mormons have even laughed along with it.
In fact, the Mormon Church bought three full pages of ad space in the playbill for the current run of Parker and Stone's The Book of Mormon musical, premiering last night in Hollywood.
"It's the best. Mormons taking out the playbill ad. It's almost like, done. We should just shut down the show. The joke is complete. You know what I mean? It's just done." - Matt Stone
I grew up in the desert, the daughter of a fundamentalist religion, descended from polygamists and stories of angels and sacred texts. Our prophet was revered, and his memory considered sacred.
*******
"It's tricky. You pick your battles. You have to judge how real the threat is against how funny the joke is. How much do I care about the joke?" - Seth McFarlane
"The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation. But let me be clear: There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind." - Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton
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Comments
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Lezlie
If this play were about Islam, you can be sure no Islamic religious organization would do any such thing. And Parker and Stone would either be in hiding or dead.
r.
However, this is more of what America suffers worst from, false equivalence of the highest order.
Smith, a known scam artist far before he ordained himself, was one of many, many so called new prophets in rural New York in the early 19th Century, a time of relative peace in the area, the native americans already headed for the eventual trail of tears. They were literally popping up on every corner, using the absurd, and Barnum-esque, "seeing stone" divining scam. A suckers game, to put it mildly, basically typical sheep-shearing. In fact, I've always found it a laugher that his friends wife dumped the "transcribed from golden plates" original notes where they belonged, in the early american version of a dumpster. Smith, not to be separated from the flock he hoped to sucker, had to find a second magic monacle and do it again!!, this time a bit more careful where he stored his forged, frauded notes which bore so much identical content to the KJ version of the Little Books, well, because that's exactly what they are. In all, he was a joke, a flim flam man, who, like others, never underestimated the level of credulity of many saps, er, early americans.
Again, no one was in danger.
False Equivalency!!! it makes you look like a credulous sucker to educated people around the world.
Mohammed, by contrast, and I don't for a minute believe he heard
God in a cave, however, he lived in a time of long standing ware and violence on the Arabian peninsula that threatened everyone there. No on believed him either, hence the side trip to Medina, but, nonetheless, he was heralded the way he was because he finally brought peace to a region with thousands of years of turmoil.
THAT'S HOW YOU BECOME A PROPHET, NOT BY SUCKERING SAPS AND GETTING CHASED FROM TOWN TO TOWN, STATE TO STATE, BY IRATE LOCALS.
False equivalency, the hallmark of the right wing authoritarian, and the basis for Fear and UnBalanced News, is also the hallmark of ignorance, credulity, fear of the other, and a profound lack of education.
AUWE (ALAS)
You know what Mohammed said about wives don't you? I'm paraphrasing here, but it was something to the effect that a man should have as many wives as he could keep happy. I'm asking all the married guys out there---isn't it difficult enough pleasing one woman (in bed or otherwise)?
I refuse to believe that the Prophet had no sense of humor (and he probably had a bit of an ego if you know what I'm sayin'). Its a shame fundamentalists of every persuasion take the humor out of religion. Laughter is sacred.
Christians in the west have been forced, thankfully, to obey and respects limits, even by the lunatic behavior of their fundamentalists , by the secular states (with still a lot of blood however being spilled
from time to time).
In the Muslim world as religion is also the law of the land the above is far more difficult to enact (paradoxically it works to a certain extent in moderate Muslim countries and in dictatorial ones), but not in those trying to achieve democracy ( the countries of the Arab spring for example) without having a Rousseau, a Locke, etc..
But keep a sharp eye on your fundamentalists (I cringed when I heard Romney declared that America was chosen and modeled by God, the Christian one of course), if it were left to him and his cohorts the crusaders will be upon us again (probably getting the gear ready again).... but I am apocalyptically digressing
Saluti
The rule makers are all dead. I like reading the books, but none of the rule makers are gods who live forever.
I value the life of each human who has lived and is alive now. I do not value the life of the rule maker over the everyone else.
Great, thought-provoking post, masterfully written and something I'll be pondering for quite a while. Way to go, LDS!
@oahu: If both groups of people are devoted to their religion and give allegiance with full hearts to their beliefs, then how is there false equivalence? There isn't. Not to the devoted of either religion.
False equivalence is only possible as a mental construct to an outsider who believes not.
hippies were visiting Places of Worship with bare feet. People were shaving heads,
chanting, begging,
and there was a group`
`
Jews For Jesus. Honest.
I met a Jewish Mortician.
He was at `Fort Mead.
`
I still am confused.
I looked in Faiths.
I have no Words.
`
I Believe Something.
I can't explain Belief.
No wear clown shoes.
No wear Red Noses.
`
Spiritually is not Religion.
We all have Inner Psyches.
Be Still. Calm. Inner Exam.
`
Oedipus?
`
He was/is a Greek Tragedy.
Fools can be a Pitiful Fool.
Folk Rabble and still Babble.
`
My Neighbor reads here.
She's a nice real seeker.
She cleans dirty houses.
`
She has her own business.
She thinks my P.U. stinks.
I clean up my own messes.
`
Honest. She's very mature.
She is too young to smooch.
just love her views on Life.
"I bumped into ` Just Thinking. I think a small bit of spiritual study won't hurt. "
I'm not sure whether you're telling me I need spiritual study or not, or whether that even refers to me, exactly, but to clarify for anyone interested:
My comment about false equivalency was not about the religion or its founders, as Oahu makes it, but about the hearts of the devoted in those religions: my point is that for the devoted, there isn't false equivalency and to dismiss their religion as false because you don't believe in it is just...your own belief....no matter how "rational/factual/logical you think you're being.
Spiritual devotion is in the heart, no matter the religion, or spirituality, of choice.
Just like the devout who might, or likely would, dismiss your convictions about the falseness of their devotion as well as your mind and heart, no one's going to make you believe differently about the validity of the devoted-to-their-beliefs mind and heart, either.
"I bumped into ` Just Thinking. I think a small bit of spiritual study won't hurt. "
I'm not sure whether you're telling me I need spiritual study or not, or whether that even refers to me, exactly, but to clarify for anyone interested:
My comment about false equivalency was not about the religion or its founders, as Oahu makes it, but about the hearts of the devoted in those religions: my point is that for the devoted, there isn't false equivalency and to dismiss their religion as false because you don't believe in it is just...your own belief....no matter how "rational/factual/logical you think you're being.
Spiritual devotion is in the heart, no matter the religion, or spirituality, of choice.
Just like the devout who might, or likely would, dismiss your convictions about the falseness of their devotion as well as your mind and heart, no one's going to make you believe differently about the validity of the devoted-to-their-beliefs mind and heart, either.
Really a very interesting take on the religions. Good job. I upset my Mormon architect once, and he frowned and made some design errors, but the building is pretty cool in a Mormon sort of way. The Mormon's send their youth around the world on mission's, so I would venture to say that they are more worldly than most Americans. They seem to not let fear divert them from their goals, however one might agree or disagree with those goals. You indicate that some of them have something resembling a sense of humor. That is something that would serve us all well during this difficult time.
This that I wrote, ought to have had a comma inserted:
"Just like the devout who might, or likely would, dismiss your convictions about the falseness of their devotion, (inserted -- and important to context -- comma here) as well as your mind and heart, no one's going to make you believe differently about the validity of the devoted-to-their-beliefs mind and heart, either."
This does not say much about cause, but it does provide an interesting area for inquiry and study.
http://www.elbertlewisjr.com/islamvschrist.html
Thank you for doing it!!!
Rated -- Religiously Clear-Eyed
I'm posting your piece on FB
Andrea
Thank you for doing it!!!
Rated -- Religiously Clear-Eyed
I'm posting your piece on FB
Andrea
In fact, the craziness among religious groups stems from the people themselves, not from the religions, from prejudice, not from belief.
The person who claimed that Mohammed said you could have as many wives as you wanted was wrong. He actually said you could have up to four but, if you only knew better, you would stop at one.
Beck's comment that the Maccabee uprising supports his thesis about how religions experience a fundamentalist revival around 1400 years after their foundation is dead wrong.
First of all, the Maccabee began around 184 BC. Using the earliest date for the foundation of the Kingdom of Israel, 1020 BC, the Maccee Uprising began only 856 years later, not 1400 years later. Secondly, the Maccabee uprising was a popular uprising against specific religious repression and was, in fact, a political revolution, not a repressive movement. Some forced conversions took place, but that was consistent with ancient Jewish policy, which was join up or get out. If you date the emergence of the Jewish people to the Exodus, which the general consensus puts at 1313 BCE, then the Maccabee uprising took place 1149 years later.
In fact, if you want to trace Jewish extremism back to its origin, you will find that it is a 19th-20th century phenomenon because, before that, Jews had no country where they were in a position to oppress anyone else, unless you accept the thesis that Christianity is a Jewish heresy, in which the Christian extremism would qualify as also being a Jewish heresy. Even then, Beck thesis has a major problem, because the period of Christian fundamentalist violence really dates back to the date of the First Crusade, 1096 ACE, because it was only then that the Christian world came into violent opposition to a non-Christian community. Of course, that theory also falls apart when you consider the extreme sectarian violence that marred that first thousand years of Christian rule over Europe, during which a number of intramural wars broke out between different Christian sects.
No, the reality is that war follows religion the way flies follow a trail of shit.
Psychotic aberrations exist in all cultures and all religions at all times. There are always violent factions seeking control over the body politic, and the party currently in power always looks for external wars with which to distract the rebels.
Right now, in the Middle East, that's exactly what's really going on. In each of the countries where these events are taking place, there's been a recent transfer of power, or some other destabilizing event, that makes these domestic disturbances a perfect alternative for an exterior war, or interior revolt by focusing the anger of the mob on some third party, usually either Israel or the United States, if not both.
And the reason for the selection of the targets is simple. Everyone hates Israel. Even some Israelis hate Israel. And the United States is everywhere so, if you want a convenient target to attack without having to do much preparation, the United States is always going to be the target of choice.
What we have to grow up about is this persistent belief that they should love us.
We need to get over ourselves.
It's fascinating to think about this, I feel.
There are, of course, many Muslims around the world who do have respect for others' rights of expression and way of life, and who may even be able to laugh about or even transgress their own religious rules from time to time. I know several people like this. I feel like many religions go through major evolutionary shifts. During the Middle Ages, Christians were extreme, the Roman Catholic church ruled just about everything to a degree. Today, while there are still some extremists, they are, thankfully, very much a minority. I hope Islam, whose followers were once preservers of all sorts of knowledge from the ancients, that was often considered "blasphemous" to Christians, will experience a major change.