Popular Mormonism
Yep. This is how it starts. We’re on the path to “favored minority.”
Public law schools and universities in Ohio, Missouri and Illinois will start giving Mormons extra points toward admission in order to remedy past discrimination, while vehemently denying any sort of quota system.
Mormon characters will start popping up on sitcoms. At first they will be fairly sterotypical, used for comic relief. Then they will be used to protray the unfair prejudices in our society against those who are different. As Mormons become more accepted, eventually they will become the “cool” characters. Finally, one of the networks will produce a sitcom where one of the main characters is Mormon.
Then Mormon culture really begins to be a major influence. Mormon Eye for the Atheist Guy. Who Wants to Be a Missionary? Mel Gibson makes a Joseph Smith movie. The Osmonds produce the Super Bowl halftime show. The M in MTV stands for “Mormon.”
BYU’s football team will be more popular than Notre Dame. Monday Night Football will be moved to Tuesdays so as to not interfere with Family Home Evening.
It’s all pretty much inevitable, now.
One could hope, or not. However, having a “cool” Mormon sitcom character would be, well, cool.
I guess it’s not possible to have a Mormon Star Trek character. Am I correct that Rodenberry had society “progressing” to the point that religion was done away with?
Heinlein, on the other hand, has a few Mormon characters scattered throughout his writing. As does Card.
Well, religion in Star Trek is an interesting issue, perhaps worthy of its own post.
I think Robert Heinlein must have had a Mormon friend, because he did make several references to Mormons, and as far as I know none of them were negative.
Not Sci-Fi, but that sounds like Tom Clancy too. I haven’t read one of his books for a long time but his first five or seemed to have at least one page devoted to a positive LDS character.
Did anyone else read the book called “Ghost of a Prophet”?. I can’t remember who wrote it but I read it this summmer. It’s an alternate-history sci-fi-ish book about some heretics in the Mormon Country (literally it’s own nation). They try to pull off communicating with Joseph Smith’s ghost in order to prove that their beliefs are correct doctrine. I found it a curious choice of subject. I don’t think the author is an active member because some of it is derisive (but not unfairly) and only in a way that someone who grew up in Utah or who grew up in the church would know enough about to satirize.
“Ghost of the Revelator” was written by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. He lives in Utah but is not LDS.
I have not read it. I’ve read a couple of his other books, one of which I liked (Adiamante) and one of which I didn’t (The Magic of Recluce). But my brother Michael is a big fan of the Recluce series.
That’s right. Sorry I didn’t remember the name correctly. I don’t recommend the book unless you are curious to see how he treats the subject, I was disappointed because the premise sounded so interesting. Also, it’s a mediocre read, has little character development and sometimes gets tiresome. (I made a pretty good guess about the author living in Utah. He writes like an outsider very familiar with mormon culture.)
Weighing in on the Modesitt issue. I happen to like Modesitt. I have read Adiamanter twice, have read the Saga of Recluse series 2 times, just started it again, and am almost finished with his Spellsong Cycle.
I find his books to be more thought provoking than most books…they make me think like Heinlein, though I would not put him in the same category as Hinlein.
As for the Ghost of the Revelator, I may have to read it myself before I can comment on it.
I sincerely doubt it. People still have the same reservations and prejudices towards Mormons as they always have.