Bump in Mormon Curiosity?

January 1, 2021 10:28 AM

I'm wondering if there are any statistics on whether or not the "Book of Mormon" musical resulted in any new or renewed interest in Mormonism. I've heard from several people who said they heard that Mormons were gently discouraged from seeing the show. But I can't believe many didn't go to check it out. Reading interviews with Trey Parker, he said many Mormons came up to him and essentially told him he "nailed" it.

So, I wonder if the show with all of its embarrassment and revelation for the faith, actually brought people to it rather than discouraged people from it, and is there any discussion about that?

posted by CollectiveMind to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

I, an exmo, have an idea about this. I believe that seeing The Book of Mormon was highly discouraged by leadership. And while some people play it a bit looser on the “Follow the Prophet” rhetoric, most devout members of the church will do as counseled and stay away from the production. There is also a drive of sorts within Mormonism to only research the religion through approved sources - the sources, of course, being the church’s own sources and not “outside” sources. So that would discourage questions that would arise from the play being researched outside of the religion’s approved sources. As I’ve seen and experienced the big player in people scrutinizing Mormonism is more due to the vast information found on the internet and not necessarily the play.

I think most devout and even many lay members are oblivious to the content of the play and if given a choice would most likely opt out of seeing the play since it would most likely be a mockery of the sacredness of Mormonism. ANY production or discussion or literature not produced by a well-meaning active member of the church is labeled as “anti-Mormon” content and warned by leadership to be avoided at all costs. Only those in the church are capable of producing “truth”.
posted by Sassyfras at 10:59 AM on January 1, 2021 [1 favorite]

Here’s something from the Wikipedia article about the musical:

When asked in January 2015 if he had met Mormons who disliked the musical, [Josh] Gad stated "In the 1.5 years I did that show, I never got a single complaint from a practicing Mormon ... To the contrary, I probably had a few people – a dozen – tell me they were so moved by the show that they took up the Mormon faith.”

posted by theodolite at 11:10 AM on January 1, 2021

You probably already know this, but the church advertised in the playbills. They had a full-page ad that said something along the lines of “You’ve seen the show—now read the book!” and a link to their website to get a copy of the Book of Mormon.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 11:15 AM on January 1, 2021 [9 favorites]

I was coming in here to say the same thing about the Playbills. They kept that up - it was in the Playbills on the latest tour that closed due to Covid.
posted by BlahLaLa at 11:23 AM on January 1, 2021

At least one audience member subsequently converted to Mormonism and received some press coverage.
posted by cushie at 11:57 AM on January 1, 2021

On the one hand, the musical is very foul-mouthed and blunt about the awful things happening in Uganda. I assume Mormon leadership wouldn't be crazy about baby raping talk and the like.

On the other hand, frankly, I think as a non-Mormon it seems very nice to its Mormon characters. It does poke fun at the more ridiculous parts of the story (the plates!*) or at least does straight out say "this is what they believe about getting their own planets", but not in a particularly mean way. It has one character throwing in pop culture to make the Book of Mormon story more interesting and does some crazy things, but Mormons themselves generally come off as sincere, nice, caring, and wanting to make the world a paradise planet. I actually think the Mormons come off great in this show, and Parker and Stone have been open over the years about their fascination with Mormonism. So I secretly suspect Mormon leadership may not be as bothered as you'd think.

* I dearly love the Mormon episode of South Park for specifically pointing out the craziness of the whole plates thing. Lucy Harris, smart smart smart! Martin Harris, dumb.
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:07 PM on January 1, 2021 [5 favorites]

Another ex-mormon opinion: seconding Sassyfras for the most part. If counseled to avoid a thing, most (active) members will avoid it without questioning too much. Did some members see it anyway? Probably, but almost certainly a lot fewer than you'd think.

From the other side of things, it's harder to say since I haven't seen the show. If it was relatively kind to the Mormons portrayed in it, it may have prompted some curious souls to investigate Mormonism, but active Mormonism is a whole lifestyle packaged with a lot of... let's say, unique beliefs and if you're not sufficiently motivated to adopt a significant lifestyle change already it's not going to result in much more than a wiki-walk or whatever. Some probably did find their way into the church via this production, but likely a lot fewer than you'd think. Similarly, it may have turned off folks that were interested, but I'd argue that most people already aren't interested enough for it to do much more than confirm existing perceptions.
posted by Aleyn at 1:21 PM on January 1, 2021

Also, to more directly address the question, the Mormon church doesn't keep any sort of statistics about why people joined or left, and so the best you could do is look for some correlation in the data, and beyond some twice-yearly global membership counts I don't believe they make public the numbers that would allow that kind of deep analysis. It's possible the church has done its own analysis on whether this is a thing, but if they have, they haven't talked about it publicly.
posted by Aleyn at 1:30 PM on January 1, 2021 [1 favorite]

100% of the LDS members I still know well saw the show and loved it, but all of them transitioned into more “cultural Mormons” after their missions (or their now husband’s missions) , and none of them are the types to blindly follow the church elders, which makes them rare super-rebels, Mormon-wise.
posted by sideshow at 9:41 PM on January 1, 2021