The Book of Mormon Musical and Africa
Filed under: Basic Beliefs of Mormons, Basic LDS Beliefs, Book of Mormon, D & C, Pearl of Great Price, Finding Happiness, Gospel Principles, Practices & Precepts, Jesus Christ
Recently Michael Otterson, head of Public Affairs for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes called the Mormon Church) wrote an interesting On-Faith blog post about the Book of Mormon Musical. The musical’s crude and blasphemous language was designed to mock religion and to suggest God and His churches have nothing to offer in a real world of poverty and suffering. “Specifically, I’m not willing to spend $200 for a ticket to be sold the idea that religion moves along oblivious to real-world problems in a kind of blissful naiveté,” Brother Otterson said. (See Otterson, Michael. “Why I won’t be seeing the Book of Mormon musical.” Washington Post [Washington DC] 14 Apr. 2011: n. pag. Washington Post. Web. 21 Apr. 2011.)
He then went on to evaluate whether or not this concept is true. To do so, he thought about the seven years the creators spent making a musical that mocked God and His followers—not just Mormons, but religious people in general. Some have also suggested it should be condemned for its negative and stereotypical portrayals of Ugandans.
Then he looked at what the Mormons spent those same years doing in Africa. While the creators of the musical were spending their time working on a way to make fun of Africans, Mormons were actually in Africa trying to fix the problems the musical mocked. Read more
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