PBS Documentary

Last week, PBS showed a documentary on Mormons over two nights. I've been thinking about this for a few days, so now I'd like to share some thoughts. A lot of people have been asking me about it. My doctoral advisor, who knows I am Mormon, asked me what I thought, and I told him mostly what I will say here. It's very rare that we even speak about non-academic issues, so that really told me how significant this documentary was.

As members of a church long regarded as on the fringes of American society, one might understand why our community was a bit apprehensive. Recent events involving polygamous split-off groups and Mitt Romney's political aspirations have put a spotlight on us in ways we may or may not be comfortable with. Add to that a Mormon persecution complex and a general fear among us of learning too much about our past, and our fears becomes even more understandable. I think this is the best review of the documentary. It does a good job of highlighting the good and bad aspects.

There was a big build-up during the week before the airing. The Church actually posted an article about it on the official website, clarifying that the Church itself had cooperated with the filmmakers but had not had any control over the final product. Then the NY Times and other major newspapers reviewed it rather favorably. I resolved to watch it before passing any sort of judgment.

Well, I thought it was good overall. I appreciated that they spoke candidly about many issues, and I liked that they allowed both friend and foe alike to speak. I think that it gave a generally good view of the complexity of Mormon life. Many Church members were upset at the portrayal of modern polygamy, but I thought that the documentary did a good job of distancing the official Church from that problem, and I especially liked how they portrayed the difficulties some face in trying to find a place in our culture.

The only major issue I have is the coverage of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and this comes from my training as an historian. The documentary devoted 20 minutes to this topic, giving it a separate segment all to itself. While this was a heinous act perpetrated by a group of Mormons, looking at the MMM out of context is quite problematic. The documentary gave much more space to this single incident than they did to the persecutions the church suffered in New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. Also, they relied too much on the work of the "historian" Will Bagley (actually a newspaper columnist), who can't actually find evidence to back up his assertions of complicity among Church leadership (because there isn't any). The massacre, perpetrated by a relatively small group of isolated Mormons and Native Americans in the context of the Utah War, really deserved better treatment than it received.

Other than that, I found it relatively fair and insightful, if uncomfortable for some members of the Church.