The Mormons (2007), Helen Whitney, A-
There’s been some buzz. “Did you catch that PBS thing about the Mormons? Me too! Yeah, I thought the same thing!”
I’ve had some interactions with Mormons in the past few years. In every single encounter I’ve found Mormons to be witty, engaged, kind and (importantly) very good tippers.
Among the many, many, many (many, many) fascinating things about Mormons is just how recent the whole enterprise is. The other so-called major religions cloak their more (how does one say in polite society?) unusual traditions in the mists of time, as it were. We Jews mutilate the genitalia of our young boys because, dammit, we’ve been doing it for thousands of years. Can’t fall back on that when everything points to an upstate New York farm in the mid-19th century.
As a friend and I said over and over again in a phone conversation after part one of The Mormons. “There’s no element to Mormons that isn’t absolutely fascinating.”