How the Mormons Conquered America - Issue 14: Mutation
▻http://nautil.us/issue/14/mutation/how-the-mormons-conquered-america
At the end of the smash Broadway musical, The Book of Mormon, the protagonist, Elder Price, a zealous young Mormon missionary in Uganda, triumphantly sings, “We are still Latter day Saints, all of us / Even if we change some things, or we break the rules.” The ribald musical, written by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, mocks the Mormon religion and its visionary founder Joseph Smith. At one point Smith has sex with a frog to rid himself of AIDS. The musical gleefully incorporates how the real church will react to it, having an outraged Mormon leader, Mission President, declare, “You have all brought ridicule down onto the Latter Day Saints!” If the real Mormons feel like Mission President, they aren’t showing it. Instead the church has consistently bought ad space in cities (...)