Category Archives: “The Mormons” (PBS)

Upcoming posts: Mormon perspectives on life, the universe, and, well, everything

"The Mormons" (PBS), LDS Doctrine, LDS Organization, LDS Society, Main, Media, Politics

As a response to both on-going silly postings on the net and the PBS broadcast “The Mormons”, I’ve wanted to write about several subjects, including:

  • LDS cosmology (the nature of the universe)
  • LDS ontology (the nature of reality, including God and humanity)
  • LDS epistemology (the nature of truth and ways of knowing it)
  • the organization and functioning of the LDS Church

The challenge is that they are all interrelated, which is why you get so many goofy and misinformed postings about the LDS Church and its doctrine (as a parallel example, try to write intelligently on the Catholic doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary without reference to original sin, St. Augustine, or the Fall). I’m not quite sure yet how I’m going to tackle all this — except that I may just pick an arbitrary starting point and go from there.  ..bruce..

The Trek: Explanation and Status

"The Mormons" (PBS), LDS History, Main, The Trek

I’ve actually been tracking this over on my other blog (And Still I Persist) but felt it was more appropriate here at Adventures in Mormonism. The rest of this posting is a slightly updated version of my original post explaining why I’m walking 1305 miles by early October. Now I’ve got to go walk my 11 miles today. ..bfw..

A friend of mine used to say that if I wasn’t playing in a ‘big enough game’ (referring to life itself, not World of Warcraft or even The Lord of the Rings Online, which, uh, I actually am playing in), that I’d screw things up in order to make things more interesting. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately, since — in my own opinion — I’ve been mostly coasting for the past year or more. On top of that, I’ve been unhappy with my general state of physical fitness, including my weight and blood pressure (both stubbornly high).

And thus was born the Trek: I plan to walk 1305 miles between April 1 and October 6 of this year.

Why 1305 miles and why those particular dates? Funny you should ask.

Continue reading The Trek: Explanation and Status →

Mormons, education, and intellect

"The Mormons" (PBS), LDS Doctrine, LDS Organization, LDS Society, Main

In a previous post, I stated my objections to the portrayal of LDS Church disciplinary councils and procedures in the PBS show, “The Mormons”. I felt the same segment (about the excommunication of the “September Six”) left some misleading impressions regarding the role of education and intellect in the LDS Church — in particular, that the LDS Church somehow devalues, denigrates, or is afraid of education and intellect, or that Mormons who pursue the intellect end up leaving the LDS Church.

Actually, just the opposite is true.

Continue reading Mormons, education, and intellect →

LDS disciplinary councils (PBS show “The Mormons”)

"The Mormons" (PBS), LDS Organization, Main, Media

The PBS show “The Mormons” discussed the excommunication back in 1994 of several so-called “Mormon intellectuals”. While I think the incident itself was a fair one to raise, I thought the segment was both far too long and very unbalanced for a number of reasons, which, of course, I’ll now discuss at length.

Continue reading LDS disciplinary councils (PBS show “The Mormons”) →

The PBS Special: “The Mormons”

"The Mormons" (PBS), Main, Media

I watched this earlier this week when it was broadcast. My overall grade for the show is a “B”. I give it an “A” for production values, a “B” for effort, and a “C” for overall balance and accuracy. Case in point: referring to the various polygamous sects in Utah as “fundamentalist Mormons” is about as accurate as referring to the Church of England a century after Henry VIII as “fundamentalist Catholics”. I may post a more detailed critique of the show (which I recorded) later; I do intend to post on some of the specific issues raised. ..bruce..

[UPDATED 06/15/07 – 2036 MDT]

Since I seem to be getting a steady stream of people coming into this post (usually via Google), here are two follow-up posts I have written on the PBS special, “The Mormons”:

And here are a few other posts that, while not directly responding to the PBS special, do address some of the issues raised therein:

And, finally, here’s my own background and qualifications to write about all this.

Welcome to the site; I hope these posts are useful. ..bruce..