Criticism of Mormonism/Video

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Analysis of videos and films critical of Mormonism

Jump to Subtopic:

• Response to 8: The Mormon Proposition
• Big Love's episode "Outer Darkness"
• Response to The Bible vs. Joseph Smith

Response to 8: The Mormon Proposition

Summary: A June 2010 documentary called "8: The Mormon Proposition," written and produced by Reed Cowan, claims to be an expose of the role that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints played in the passage of California Proposition 8. Reviews of the film generally agreed that it was a polemical treatment of the issue, pitting the Church as villain in a quest to limit or remove the rights of same-sex couples. FAIR reviews some of the individual claims made in the documentary.

Big Love's episode "Outer Darkness"

Summary: It is not our intention to discuss details of the portrayal of the temple ceremony here. We will, however, address some of the portrayals of other LDS beliefs and practices that were depicted in this episode. We found these portrayals to be highly inaccurate. In fact, there is ample evidence of anti-Mormon "advice" present in the episode. We treat some of these in the following sections.

Response to Religulous

Jump to details:

• Question: How accurately does Bill Maher's film Religulous portray Latter-day Saints?

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Search for the Truth DVD (Jesus Christ/Joseph Smith)

Summary: This video claims to contrast the beliefs of Mormonism and the beliefs of Christianity. Although the producers of this video state that it was produced out of love, the numerous mischaracterizations, misrepresentations, errors, and outright falsehoods found on the DVD make it difficult for believing Latter-day Saints to see that expression of love as sincere.

September Dawn

Summary: "When an independent film company produced a grossly distorted version of the Mountain Meadows Massacre two years ago, the Church ignored it. Perhaps partly as a result of that refusal to engender the controversy that the producers hoped for, the movie flopped at the box office and lost millions." (The Publicity Dilemma, LDS Newsroom, March 9, 2009.)

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The God Makers

Summary: The God Makers is an anti-Mormon film that was produced in 1982 by Jeremiah Films. The film represents an appeal to ridicule, by taking beliefs or doctrines of the church and presenting them in a manner which makes them appear so strange and bizarre that nobody could possibly accept them.

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John Dehlin / Mormon Stories Foundation, "Why People Leave the LDS Church" (2008)

Summary: John Dehlin produced a popular video purporting to explain why members leave the Church. The video evinces little effort to explore both sides of the issues raised.

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John Dehlin / Open Stories Foundation, "Understanding Mormon Disbelief" (2012)

Summary: A deeply-flawed, unscientific survey served as the basis for presentations and media claims related to reasons for disaffection from the Church.