22AR27-40

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AR 27:40 - Beware the false promises of false gods

In this issue:

MORMONISM - press attention, public disrespect, and bias

SELF HELP - "we would be wise on occasion to consult our brains"

Apologia Report 27:40 (1,593)
November 16, 2022

Please note: Our office will be closed for the next week. Look for AR once again on the week beginning November 27.

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MORMONISM

Seems to us that Mormons are parodied more in the mainstream media than Jehovah's Witnesses. Is that how you're seeing it? If so, why? Are JWs really less conspicuous in mass media than the LDS? Given the groups' superficial similarities (overall size, doorstep proselytizing, unpopular lifestyles, twisted scriptures), we surely notice a lack of media attention on JWs in general ... apart from friendly features on the Witnesses' post-Covid return to our sidewalks, or pedophile scandals popping up in North America and Europe (such as "Pa. attorney general charges four Jehovah's Witnesses with sexual abuse of 19 children.") <www.bit.ly/3hHjoDr>

Might it have something to do with how reluctant the media is to go along with the cyclic LDS leadership's insistent-then-indifferent attitude regarding the use of the "Mormon" name <www.bit.ly/3zH8FyY> as well?

Popular LDS culture reporter Peggy Fletcher Stack (Sep 25 '22, Salt Lake Tribune) suggests as much. Might she be trying to whip up another "Mormon moment" not seen since the 2007-2012 <www.bit.ly/3NznGZl> buzz? Reading this edition of her column <www.bit.ly/3sXRtS1> gauging the public and pundits on the idea, it makes us wonder if she's gone out of her way to cherry-pick this substantial collection ... or, whether she's on to something.

Stack senses that the LDS Church has been seeing a downward trend in the public eye lately. Is it really growing more common to disrespect the movement?

She helpfully offers this unflattering list of recent documentary series and feature films (all available on streaming services):

* - "Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey" - About the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

* - "Mormon No More" - About a lesbian couple who leave the faith over its stance on same-sex marriage.

* - "LuLaRich" - About a multilevel marketing scheme run by Latter-day Saints.

* - "Murder Among the Mormons" - About the infamous case of 1980s bomber-forger Mark Hofmann (a series spotlighting the work of pioneering ex-Mormon researcher Sandra Tanner).

* - "Under the Banner of Heaven" - About the murder of Latter-day Saint mother and her 18-month-old daughter by her brothers-in-law, told through the eyes of a fictional detective (based on Jon Krakauer's 2004 bestseller of the same name).

Then again, maybe Stack was moved to echo the Washington Post opinion column complaint, "An obscene anti-Mormon chant marks a grim irony in the church's history" by Matthew Bowman a few days earlier <www.bit.ly/3GnWVWw> (Sep 21). Bowman observes that "by the 1980s, though, this assimilation and acceptance had begun to fade.

"American evangelical Christians were storming back into politics, and alongside campaigns against abortion and no-fault divorce, some conservative religious leaders engaged in 'anti-cult' efforts that targeted relatively small religious movements, including the LDS church. Baptist minister Ed Decker, a former Mormon, attracted attention in the 1980s with a book and film called 'The 'God Makers,' presenting LDS history and beliefs in the most lurid light possible.

"By the 1990s, this parodic version of the church entered mainstream U.S. culture in the work of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of the television show 'South Park' and the Broadway musical the 'Book of Mormon,' both of which lampoon LDS church members as ostensibly nice, but also terminally stupid and ridiculous. ...

"In the early 1980s, the LDS church joined the successful conservative fight against the Equal Rights Amendment. Later, the church became perhaps the most prominent opponent of the campaign to legalize same-sex marriage. More recently, Brigham Young University's masters' program in speech-language pathology was subjected to an accreditation review due to the university's determination that treating transgender students in the program's clinic was against the university's religious mission."

Both Stack and Bowman ignore the potential "Let's go Brandon" spinoffs that likely fuel such chanting. Bowman overlooks the assorted LDS collaborations with Richard Mouw and other poorly informed evangelical academics since the 1980s.

Coming from the associate professor of history and religion, Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University, in California, we chant "Bias" in response.

(Feel free to weigh in on this one with <apologia.ed@gmail.com> should you care to do so.)

For another take on public perceptions of Mormonism, see Tad Walch's data-rich feature "Survey: Latter-day Saints are everywhere in media, but Americans still know little about them" (Deseret News, Nov 5 '22) <www.bit.ly/3Gkn7RG>

Josh Coates, the executive director of the B.H. Roberts Foundation, describes "the amount of ignorance" people have about his church as "shocking." The Foundation conducted a national survey of 1,157 Americans. Coates laments that "two-thirds of the people that responded either thought we practice polygamy, or they weren't sure if we practice polygamy." What's more, 15% of respondents think Mormons can't eat chocolate, and 23% think Mormons can't have blood transfusions. (Religious group that's friendliest toward Mormons: Muslims, "possibly because their beliefs match those of Latter-day Saints in numerous ways, from abstinence from alcohol to the importance of families to the wearing of sacredclothing.") Full survey available <www.bit.ly/3UFTkXW>

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SELF HELP

"G.K. Chesterton had it that people who choose not to believe in God will believe in anything. P.T. Barnum supposedly quipped that a sucker is born every minute. What would these shrewd fellows have made of America's 'wellness' industry? I think we can guess." -- and "we" think you'll find lots to like in The Gospel of Wellness, by Rina Raphael <www.bit.ly/3E0c7qU> (she's a journalist who specializes in health, wellness, tech, and women's issues. Well To Do, <www.bit.ly/3sXhwck> is her wellness industry newsletter.)

Reviewer Meghan Cox Gurdon reports (Wall Street Journal, Sep 21 ‘22) that "Wellness is at once an idealized state of being, a godless spiritual movement and pure marketing gold. ... 'The Gospel of Wellness,' a survey and critique of a sprawling $4.4 trillion business, wellness has become an 'aspirational obsession for some and close to religious dogma for others.' ...

"A former reporter for Fast Company who has written for a variety of media outlets, Ms. Raphael focuses most of her attention here on women - especially in the middle- and upper-income brackets - and with good reason: American women make something like two-thirds of domestic spending decisions and four-fifths of all decisions having to do with health...."

"In her view, the main reason we're such easy marks is that our lives are unfairly hectic and demanding: We are stressed out by partisan politics (hers lean left), we're denied access to inexpensive child care, and we find ourselves doing the, ah, lioness's share of domestic labor.

"Maybe, but after reading her account of ... therapeutic crystals and 'chemical-free' beauty products (which, as Ms. Raphael wryly notes, are composed of chemical compounds like everything else in life), it's hard to disagree with the old-school ad men. We modern women do seem possessed of intense emotionality and inarticulate longings. Other forces are at work that probably intensify our susceptibility. The devices that bring us Instagram's beguiling targeted ads for wellness products, for example, are the same devices that feed our social anxieties. ...

"The problem, in Ms. Raphael's opinion, is that millions of Americans are looking to 'wellness' to supply something it can't: refreshment in deep places that have been left parched in the long, slow withdrawing of organized religion. Two decades ago, 70% of Americans belonged to a church, mosque or synagogue; today it's fewer than half. During that same period, demand has soared in the wellness-industry subsection known as 'mystical services,' which traffics in tarot cards, psychic readings and astrology. Oriented toward the self and its narcissistic satisfaction, such purchases can create their own 'meaning crisis,' Ms. Raphael writes. ...

"Ms. Raphael recounts several awkward exchanges from an expensive wellness-themed weekend in Utah. In the course of conversation, three people inquired about her meditation 'practice.' When Ms. Raphael said she didn't meditate but instead centered herself by reading traditional Jewish prayers, she was met with bewildered embarrassment. 'I really don't know what to say to that,' one fellow managed, after a long pause. 'That's different.'"

Raphael is "particularly good at pointing out the credulity of too many consumers. ... No woman needs 'gluten-free' shampoo, unless she plans to drink the stuff. In our quest for wellness, it seems, we would be wise on occasion to consult our brains. We would be wise, too, Ms. Raphael suggests, to beware the false promises of false gods.

(Or as Publishers Weekly puts it, as Raphael "vividly describes boutique fitness studios such as "The Class" and "SoulCycle" and weekend retreats like the "Ganja Goddess Getaway," she explains how "participation in these 'churches' of wellness culture offers women some of the benefits of traditional belief communities but can leave them feeling abandoned and alone when a real crisis hits.") <www.bit.ly/3UUUY84>

"Near the end of 'The Gospel of Wellness,' Ms. Raphael quotes the late David Foster Wallace, who, like Chesterton and Barnum, noticed certain human propensities. 'There is no such thing as not worshiping. Everybody worships,' he observed. In what now seems like prophecy, the novelist went on: 'Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you.'" <www.bit.ly/3g9jTWs> (regist-paywalled)

Keep an eye on Raphael's Substack for related trends. Exhibit A: "Kids' wellness takes a turn into questionable territory" (Jun 1 '22.) Excerpt: "Childhood experts are split on wellness modalities customized for children. Many applaud teaching meditation, yoga, and self-care to kids, especially as mental health issues have skyrocketed." See the full story at LA Times, "Wellness culture gone wrong has come for kids," May 17 '22 <www.bit.ly/3TBecOQ>. (Want more? See Barbie's "Self-Care Collection" YouTube channel.) <www.bit.ly/3UE06NU>

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