The Anglə "On 'Big Love.'"

Featured on CNN.com
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-230885

A response to the choice by producers of HBO's "Big Love" to depict portions of LDS temple ordinances.

This episode of The Anglə has been featured on CNN.com via iReport.com

http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-230885

I first heard about the temple episode of "Big Love" on March 13 through an LDS Film e-mail list that I signed up for on LDSFilm.com.

I really wasn't too surprised by it and it certainly isn't unprecedented for HBO, their 2003 miniseries "Angels in America"--based on Tony Kushner's play--featured Mromon characters and borrowed imagery directly from Mormon theology. It also discussed LDS temple garments and even showed characters wearing them. It surprised me then, but I wasn't offended. "Angels..." is a very popular work of fiction that deals with a great number of social topics and Mormonism was just one of them.

"Big Love," on the other hand (as far as I know), deals specifically with characters that identify themselves as Mormons but are living a lifestyle that is not compatible with that of members in full fellowship with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. From what I could infer from the scene I watched online, one of Bill's wives apparently has a current temple recommend, hence her ability to go into the temple, but is aware that her choices may result in disciplinary action by the Church. Members who choose to practice polygamy today are excommunicated.

I imagine it was just a matter of time before more details of the LDS Temple Endowment would make their way into the main stream media. Much of the narrative of the endowment ordinance has been on the internet for years and there are certainly many disgruntled former members who think nothing of disregarding covenants they made when they were still members of the Church. If "Big Love" didn't do it, we may very well have seen it in another TV series or film.

i was very pleased with the Church's official response to HBO's "preemptive apology" which pretty much amounted to acknowledging that some members would be offended but the Church doesn't instigate boycotts as such actions draw more attention to the cause of those trying to illicit an angry reaction from the Church.

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/commentary/the-publicity-dilemma

Personally, I wasn't offended by it, for reasons expressed in my iReport. I prefer to remember the counsel given by David A. Bednar, an Apostle in the LDS Church, that if we become offended by something it's usually because we choose to be offended. If we simply make the conscious choice to not take offense by the sayings or actions of others, we'll live a much more peaceful life.

http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-646-32,00.html

Orson Scott Card's National Review essay on "Big Love":
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MmJmZDFiYmVkOTdlYjVmZmNiMzhhODEwYmYzMTRlMzg=&w=MA==

Another Card essay in the Mormon Times:
http://www.mormontimes.com/mormon_voices/orson_scott_card/?id=6685

An essay on what's sacred (in reference to "Big Love") by Terrance D. Olson in Meridian Magazine:
http://www.meridianmagazine.com/churchupdate/090310sacred.html


*You can also subscribe to The Anglə on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/josephpuente

And CNN's iReport.com:

http://www.ireport.com/people/puente Distributed by Tubemogul.