There has been a lot of news recently about the Book of Mormon Musical being performed on Broadway right now. It is always intriguing to members of the Church like me to see how people portray us and our culture in the secular arena.
The Church released a statement about the Book of Mormon Musical that very candidly and accurately describes the relationship between the new play that playfully mocks our religion and the Book of Mormon itself.
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.
In June of 1997, when the Bulls came to Salt Lake City to play the Jazz in the NBA Finals, some people said that Dennis Rodman was one of our greatest missionaries after he made some disparaging comments about the Church, complaining that it was hard for him to “get in sync because of all the [expletive] Mormons“. Although he was obviously not purposely promoting the Church, his comments brought up the question, “Who are these Mormons Rodman’s talking about?” among basketball fans, many of whom would have had no other incentive to pay any attention to the Church had Rodman not insulted the Church. The benefit to the Church at that time was that people did ask about us as a result. Undoubtedly there were some who came to see the Church for the example of good that it really is because of the negative publicity.
The net effect of the musical will likely be similar to what Dennis Rodman accomplished, except on a much greater scale. The play has gotten and will continue to get much more attention than Dennis Rodman’s thoughtless statement. The question still remains, though: How should members of the Church respond to the secular world’s use of something sacred to us as an object of classless humor? In the case of the Book of Mormon musical, there was a lot of thought – albeit from people who don’t rank very high for being thoughtful or respectful- put into their production, specifically with the intent of drawing a significant profit by making fun of religion in general and our religion in particular.
It’s natural to be ambivalent about situations like this. On one hand, it’s disappointing that there are so many people in this world who are as ungodly as are the creators of the Book of Mormo. After all, following the trend of their other productions, the play is laced with expletives and ultimately extremely crass. It’s surely not the best way to spend a Family Home Evening nor a big chunk of your food storage budget. On the other hand, if people like the South Park folks want to make fun of the restored gospel, it does give us many opportunities to explain the Book of Mormon, which has influenced so many millions of people for good, many times through channels, including this particular play, that only God could understand.