Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, have produced a Broadway musical about a couple of Mormon missionaries from Salt Lake City to Uganda, and it is supposedly hilarious and very well done as a musical comedy, mocking both Mormonism and American optimism about globally evangelizing people into American optimism. It’s getting good reviews, and I anticipate the first reaction by many Evangelicals is pretty positive. But this is because they hate Mormonism, not because they suddenly love Stone and Parker, or (more to the point) religious mockery in general. For my own part, I have never been bothered by satire directed at my religion. It’s often on target, and when it’s not, I just figure being misunderstood is sort of a thing for Christians and Christianity going back to our Savior. But at the same time, I’m exactly not a fan of mocking other religions. And the reason is that whatever their flaws, the people who believe in them really do believe in them. So if my goal were to reach Mormons, I would find it counterproductive to do so by way of insulting them. Besides, this is a Broadway (New York) production, and it doesn’t really take very much courage to mock Mormonism in New York. And we know that the track record for conservative Christians in response to art/film/comedy directed at our religion hasn’t been particularly tolerant. So, it seems like we’re only interested in protecting our own reputation and not in protecting the respect of persons we really disagree with. I think we all know that Stone and Parker (or New York art culture in general) is just as capable of skewering us as of skewering them. If anything, it seems like the Gospel idea of concern for others above for ourselves would be more patient with criticism of our beliefs and less patient with criticism of other people’s beliefs. My Gospel teaches me that there’s nothing noble about making others pay the price or take the hit for something. Instead, it teaches me that a willingness to take the hit or pay the price someone else might rightly deserve shows love and shows that I’m more than just interested in my own reputation/skin. For instance, maybe in saying this, I get called “soft on Mormonism” or a “Mormon sympathizer.” Well, that sounds awfully similar to the sort of allegations against Jesus, to my ears. So this concern about how we (as believers in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not merely as advocates of some particular religion) respond to mockery of religion, especially religion we disagree with, is a serious question. Do unto others...?
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