SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - The HBO series "Big Love" will show its version of temple rites belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The episode is scheduled to air Sunday, March 15.
The show's executive producer, Mark Olsen, told
TV Guide magazine, "We go into the endowment room and the celestial room and we present what happens in those ceremonies." In the TV Guide article, Olsen says that, "We researched it out the wazoo." That quote alone might shock many LDS Church members.
Producers seem to be playing up the secretive nature of the LDS temple by claiming this will be a "first". Perhaps, but scholars and students of Mormonism say that is something of an exaggeration. Anyone is welcome to tour the inside of an LDS temple during open houses that are held prior to dedication. There are several books with pictures of the various rooms in temples. There are even sources for every word spoken in the temple rites. They argue that temples and temple ceremonies are not as much secret as very sacred.
One BYU student asked, "Doesn't it say in the scriptures 'cast not your pearls before swine?' Now, I am in no way implying that the people at "Big Love" are swine, but the point is there are some things that are sacred that should be held back and given only to those that seek them." Another said that temples are not closed clubs, but are open to anyone willing to live the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
Several Mormons have sent out e-mails and posted notices on websites calling for protests and boycotts. BYU student Spencer Fields is asking his friends on Facebook to write HBO and complain. "It's about respect," said Fields. "We consider the temple and its rites to be deeply sacred."
A statement posted on the website of the LDS Church entitled, "
The Publicity Dilemma," acknowledges there are many members who have respond to HBO with boycotts and protests. It urges them to conduct themselves with "dignity and thoughtfulness." But the statement emphasizes that as an institution, the Church does not participate in them. "Such a step would generate the kind of controversy that the media loves and in the end would increase the audience for the series."
When the producers launched "Big Love" back in 2006, they said the show wasn't about the mainstream "Mormon" church. Now it appears that has changed.
