Since all my blog postings are called "Jude's Thursday Dish" lately, I'm wondering if I need to tack on a subtitle or even an episode number like "Jude's Thursday Dish #40" or something. Or a subtitle could be "Jude's Thursday Dish - yes, all she talks about is Lost." Hmmm? Any thoughts?
I only have time for one entry today, so here we go...
1. I've been thinking about this for days and I don't really know where to begin. How can I not dish about the "Big Love" controversy? Yes, I'm going there. Not all of my friends have the same beliefs as I do, but I know they all respect my opinion and don't mind if I go off on church stuff once in a while. :) As you know, I'm a little more liberal about my entertainment than more conservative members of my religion. I fully respect people's right for their freedom of speech, but I'm completely offended by HBO's choice to depict a temple marriage on TV. Just because you have the freedom to DO something, doesn't mean you should. There's something to be said about creating entertainment that's sensitive to its audience. Yes, Mormons watch "Big Love" and Mormons watch "HBO"; we are their audience. Clearly, even though they cite it's important to their plot, they know depicting a sacred temple ordinance would be offensive to active LDS members. It's for certain embittered ex-Mormons are the people advising them in this subject and it's really disappointing they have such little regard for such sensitive matters. I like this quote: “The rituals and the teachings that take place in those we consider to be sacred and not appropriate for public view,” says BYU Associate Dean of Religion Kent Jackson. “Latter-day Saints will find this very disheartening that something like this is taking place.” Jackson says this shows an insensitivity to sacred things. “Good people honor other people’s sense of the sacred.” We're not the only religion, or group for that matter, that holds things sacred. It shows such little regard and tolerance for those of any faith to exploit their beliefs or rituals. Taken out of context, these things give us further reason to be misunderstood. I've been really impressed by the Church's PR department and how they've handled it. Their statements have been really articulate and thought out. I also admire their Christlike attitude of not calling on a ban to HBO or bringing more attention to it. It just goes to show you how "peculiar" we really are. Being"peculiar" used to allude to "oh, they're kind of different", but as the world is getting more and more divided in their beliefs, being "peculiar" is becoming truer to its real definition:
1. Unusual or eccentric; odd.
2. Distinct from all others.
3. Belonging distinctively or primarily to one person, group, or kind; special or unique.
Anyway, the whole thing really disappoints me. I'm not in the group of banning HBO or their programs, mainly because I don't HAVE HBO and all I do is watch "Sex and the City" reruns on TBS. It's probably going to bum these banners out when they realize Tom Hanks produces "Big Love" so if you're going to ban anyone involved in the show, does that mean you have to ban everyone's favorite "Should be a Mormon" actor?
3 comments:
I don't think you need a new tagline- I love seeing your dish on my reader, even if I skip over all the Lost hoopla. I agree with you on the BigLove issue. I joined the facebook group before I read the press release from the church, and then the gacebook group got cancelled, so I didn't have to retract. But I think it's interesting that Tom Hanks can consider us unamerican for standing u for our beliefs, yet he can so insensitively blast something sacred to us across the airways and in the TV guide. I don't heart Tom anymore.
Preach on sista.
I wrote a rambling blog post about it (before deletion, ha!). Since you asked, what spurred me to start writing about it was all the Mormon e-mail forward petitions about banning the show and writing into HBO. And I hate when these e-mail campaigns start up - and people don't realize how counterproductive they are. By sending out petitions, writing HBO, it's turning into a big scandal. Yes, it's insensitive to show religious ceremonies, but starting an angry e-mail campaign about it? That just makes it look like Mormons are a secretive cult, angry that their freaky temple practices have been outed.
And then I "blah blah blah"d for a while longer, haha. I have seen all the seasons of the show (up to this one - wish we still had free HBO!) and actually like it. I just read a detailed recap of what was shown on the episode tonight (the last part of the temple ceremony) and the (LDS members) recapping all said it was surprisingly tasteful and wasn't that bad. There were some random holes in the ceremony, but the ceremony was word-for-word.
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