Hailed by the creator of the I am an Ex Mormon video series as “my favorite video about Mormonism I have ever seen.”
Part 1: Mitt Romney
Part 2: Mormons
Part 3: Exmormons
Part 4: Prophets
Part 5: Park
Part 6: Pundits
After I get done watching, it’ll be interesting to compare and contrast John Sweeney’s approach with that of Helen Whitney in her earlier PBS documentary The Mormons.
Come to think of it, I’m also going to revisit that France 24 report from a few weeks back:
Exmos popping up everywhere these days, even in Provo, with French cameras rolling!
Oh, and others are discussing Sweeney’s documentary here and I particularly liked the comment over there that begins:
“The thing that makes this documentary amazing isnt the amount it relied on ex-members, but the amount it relied on the LDS Church to be embarrassed about its past, to lie about its past and then finally to admit the claims that were being made.”
Steven Wilson is a member of the Church living in the San Francisco Bay area. Twenty years ago, he was introduced to the Church by a recently returned missionary he met in a gay bar. The two eventually moved in together and during the next seven years, Steven developed addictions, contracted AIDS and became severely depressed. As Stevens condition worsened and he began to feel that he was going to die, he turned to an in-depth investigation of the Church.
This is his story about how he joined the Church, and eventually became an ordinance worker at the Oakland Temple. He is now happy and no longer experiences temptations with same gender attraction. He was baptized by the same returned missionary that first introduced him to the Church and with whom he has lived for the past 20 years. During the past 13 years of active Church membership, the two men have maintained a close bond of love, friendship and brotherhood within the gospel. He attributes his success in overcoming same gender attraction and his addictions to the Churchs 12 Step Addiction Recovery Program and to the atonement of Jesus Christ. He shares his thoughts on gay marriage, President Packers October, 2010 Conference talk, and his strong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
And let’s also not forget–let’s not forget, Dude–that keeping wildlife, an amphibious rodent, for uh, domestic, you know, within the city– that isn’t legal either.
Salt Lake City, Utah November 19, 2011. Emily Pearson, author of the newly released book Dancing With Crazy shown in false light on the Friday night ABC Channel 4 News.
An outspoken Ex-Mormon, and daughter of famed LDS writer Carol Lynn Pearson, was shown on an ABC Channel 4 News segment promoting the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The video footage shown was, in actuality, taken from a popular video she made for the I Am an Ex-Mormon video series, but was edited to make it appear that she was endorsing and promoting the LDS Church as a part of their Pro-Mormon video series.
Portraying me publicly as a happy Mormon that is proud to endorse the LDS church undermines who I am personally and professionally and damages the credibility of both me and the book I have written chronicling my journey both in and out of the Mormon Church. Pearson said Saturday. To take my image and words and use them to promote the very institution that caused me so much pain is ridiculous and inexcusable.
Much attention is being given to the I Am a Mormon video series and its attempt to normalize Mormons and portray them in a more positive light. But, there are a huge number of individuals that feel otherwise, have left the Mormon Church and are speaking out about it in their own I Am an Ex-Mormon videos. Equal time needs to be given to those who know, through experience, that being Mormon isnt all that it is advertised to be in this current Church Media Ad Campaign.
And John and Zilpha demonstrate how it’s done in Episode One.
I like this. As much as I enjoy the thematic approach of the regular ME podcast (and MS and MM), I’ve been hoping that a Mormon-themed podcast might come along that allowed guests to simply bring themselves without the pressure of showing up with credentials and homework in hand.
Eldest Osmond brother Alan says in a new interview that the Osmond Brothers’ dancing was too effeminate, so they brought in Chuck Norris, who basically taught them how to add karate-style moves to make it more manly. Says Osmond: “Chuck, we need to toughen up our dance. Can you help us? And he said ‘well let’s learn some karate and you can apply the moves’ cause there’s stomps, and HOOO, YEAH. You know, it was very boyish, and that’s what we wanted.”
Obviously, the next step is going to involve perusing some Osmonds clips and judging how consistently the brothers performed to Alan’s standard (be sure to catch their “Stayin’ Alive” cover in the comments section below).
Brandon Flowers is the frontman of the rock band The Killers. In 2010, he also released a solo album entitled Flamingo.
In late 2001, Brandon Flowers responded to an ad that Dave Keuning had placed in a local paper and they formed The Killers.
Since then, Brandon has performed with Bruce Springsteen, U2, Coldplay, Pet Shop Boys, Lady Gaga, Fran Healy (of Travis), Andy Summers (of The Police), New Order, Bright Eyes, and others. Sir Elton John has listed Flowers as one of his top-five heroes.
Brandon’s solo album, Flamingo, charted in the UK on September 12, 2010 at Number 1.
This was Brandon’s fourth consecutive album to reach #1 on the UK charts, including work by The Killers.
Brandon is currently working with The Killers on their new album to be released in early 2012.
Could Brandon Flowers be our next #gay friendly advocate to the #Mormons? http://mormon.org/brandon @HRC @ChinoBlanco
Whatever the future might hold, for sure, Brandon has already famously got himself one Big Gay Following (easily the biggest of any Mormon profiled at mormon.org).
But it remains to be seen if Brandon will be commenting on his spiffy new page at mormon.org/brandon. I suspect all he agreed to do was a quick video and somebody else posted his profile for him. In fact, just for fun, take a minute to compare his mormon.org profile excerpted above with his Wikipedia page excerpted below:
Brandon Richard Flowers (born June 21, 1981) is an American musician, best known as the frontman of the Las Vegas-based rock band The Killers. He has also released a solo album titled Flamingo.
Brandon Flowers responded to an ad that Dave Keuning had placed in the paper in late 2001 whereupon they became The Killers.
Flowers, himself, has performed with Coldplay, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Pet Shop Boys, Lady Gaga, Fran Healy (of Travis), Andy Summers (of The Police), New Order, Bright Eyes, etc. Sir Elton John has listed Flowers as one of his top-five heroes…
Flamingo charted in the UK on September 12, 2010 at Number 1. It is Flowers’ fourth consecutive album to reach #1 on the UK charts, including work by The Killers.
Sound familiar? It should.
Whoever created Brandon’s mormon.org profile did it by lifting the copy verbatim from his Wikipedia page.
Oops.
Meanwhile, the Maxwell Institute has just published a hit piece taking Laura Compton to task for how she runs her pro-equality Mormons for Marriage website.
And here’s my quick response question: I wonder what the Maxwell Institute will have to say about l’affaire Flowers? I’m picturing an entire issue devoted to uncovering how mormon.org became infected by the modern plague of copy pasta plagiarism.
In 2004, Spin identified Flowers as an ex-Mormon, and he has been candid in the past about his drinking and smoking, activities forbidden for devout members of the Mormon church.
But as the existence of this video suggests, Flowers doesnt see himself as an ex-Mormon, at least not anymore. (If he did, he could have participated in a different video campaign.)
Haglund also mentions and links to a mormon.org profile “by someone who is black, bisexual, and Mormon.” Not for the first time, that profile has now been taken down.
