Have you noticed the Mormon reaction to the Tony-winning Broadway musical The Book of Mormon? Probably not. There wasn't much of one.
Mormons haven't tried to defend themselves by claiming that it got things wrong. And that is because it didn't. Mormons believe what The Book of Mormon musical claims they do.
Take the song, I Believe, for example. Here are some of the lyrics.
- I believe that ancient Jews built boats and sailed to America.
That is a fair summary of entire Book of Mormon. Ancient Jews sailed to America and separated into two groups: one "fair and delightsome" to God, the other evil and dark-skinned. (God darkened their skin to punish them for their disbelief and to discourage intermarriage with the white folk.) The dark-skinned Jews killed off all their white relatives and thereby became the ancestors of today's Native Americans.
- I believe that in 1978 God changed his mind about black people.
See the 1978 Manifesto in Official Declaration 2 of the Docfrine and Covenants.
- I believe that God lives on a planet called Kolob.
You can read all about it in chapter 3 of the Book of Abraham.
- And I believe that the garden of Eden was in Jackson County, Missouri.
This belief isn't found in any official Mormon scripture, but it is attested to by Brigham Young, who said:
Joseph the Prophet told me that the garden of Eden was in Jackson [County] Missouri.” (Journal of Wilford Woodruff, vol. 5, 15 Mar. 1857, Archives Division, Church Historical Dept., Salt Lake City.)
And Heber C. Kimbal:
From the Lord, Joseph learned that Adam had dwelt on the land of America, and that the Garden of Eden was located where Jackson County now is. (Andrew Jenson, Historical Record, 9 vols., Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson, 1888, 7:439; see also Orson F. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1967, p. 219.)
Richard Bushman, the Howard W. Hunter Visiting Professor of Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University in California, claimed that "The Book of Mormon is like looking into a fun-house mirror; the reflection is hilarious but not really you."
But it is you, Dr. Bushman. It is you, and all Mormons like you, that believe the things you believe. You may not recognize yourself, since you've never looked at your beliefs in a flat mirror before. But your beliefs are bat-shit crazy, as anyone viewing them from the outside knows immediately.
And you seem to understand it, too, when you say this about The Book of Mormon:
I suppose it seems obvious to many people that a moment’s reflection about personal planets, Kolob, and the Garden of Eden in Missouri will plant doubts. Any rational person in the modern world who thinks about such outlandish ideas for one second will see they are preposterous. Mormons can’t think about their faith; they must “just believe.”
I agree with you here. It is obvious to any rational person that Mormon beliefs about personal planets, Kolob, the Missouri Garden of Eden are preposterous. Mormons can't think rationally about their faith; they must just believe.
And as long as they just believe, we will just laugh at them.
If Mormons don't like people laughing at them for believing stupid things, they should stop believing stupid things.
