Speak up.

I entered the MTC in May 2004. I went through the temple for the first time in March of that same year. It was a lot to take in. There were things that were difficult for me to understand, but I learned soooo much. Brian and I went to General Conference that April, I had never gone to attend it in person before. I thought I had heard enough about the picketers at Temple Square and the sweaty Bible men that yell and scream at us sinners. I thought I was prepared for what I would encounter as I passed through the crowds. I was wrong. We arrived late (traffic was bad...I know, weird) so instead of going inside the Conference Center we went across the street to watch in the Tabernacle. As we approached the crosswalk there was a man holding up some nonsensical sign and a hanger with sacred clothing displayed for all to see. I felt my heart sink as I thought, "This man has no idea what he is doing." My eyes filled with tears as we crossed the street and all I could feel was darkness, how sad. Here this man was exploiting something whose sacred nature I had only begun to understand. "Who does that?" I thought.

Now, let me clarify that it was not my first encounter with antimormonism, but it was the first time that I felt anguish for the other party. Before I had only gotten frustrated, or not understood why people refuse to listen and/or just appreciate another person's religion.

At the end of Conference, President Hinckley said at the beginning of his talk that Sunday morning, "I cannot understand why so many have betrayed in life the decision they once made when the great war occurred in heaven. But it is evident that the contest between good and evil, which began with that war, has never ended. It has gone on, and on, and on to the present.
I think our Father must weep because so many of His children through the ages have exercised the agency He gave them and have chosen to walk the road of evil rather than good."

I was so glad to hear the prophet (at the time :) say those words. I felt like I got to experience a little of that too.

Now, Big Love (some show on HBO, I'm unfamiliar with it) is airing an episode that exploits our religion, temples, and sacred clothing found therein. My friend shared this letter written by a member of the church in contest of that episode on her blog, and so I am doing the same. If we complain enough, ideally, hopefully, we can stop it from occurring. Google it, you can find the info on the web. Here's the letter:

To Whom it May Concern:

My name is Jimmy Dunn, and I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints – a Mormon. I learned today that one of the upcoming episodes of Big Love will showcase the clothing and ceremonies that take place within the walls of the LDS temples. Trust me when I tell you that there are few things more sacred to an adult member of the LDS church than these. I know that it is tempting to categorize me as just another offended member of a minority group and simply tune me out, but before you do, please let me try to explain just what you are doing to me.

At the risk of sounding crass, I ask you to think of the private parts of your body. There is nothing secret, strange, or dangerous about them. To be frank, we all have them and we all have a pretty good idea of what they look like and what their purposes are. Yet, we wear clothing to keep these parts of our body private and sacred, hidden from public view. This is how I feel about the temple and the ceremonies that take place there. They are not strange. They are not shocking. And they are certainly not dangerous. They are simply precious and sacred to those for whom they hold meaning. They are an integral part of my religion and of how I define myself and my relationship with my family and with God.

One of the most basic rights we have as human beings is to decide whether, when, and where we will share the most intimate pieces of ourselves, our own bodies, with another person. Some of the most powerful and ugly words in the human language are reserved for describing the times when that right is forcibly taken away: sexual harassment, prostitution, molestation, rape.

I want you to know that when you decided to put the most sacred parts of what goes on in a Mormon temple on TV, you committed an emotional and social crime against my people, my religion, and myself. While I will not pretend to use a word so ugly as rape to describe what you have done, it is, at the very least a sinister and unwelcome violation of the privacy and dignity of an entire people. As a religious peeping tom, you have exposed those things that are precious to me to the world.

And there is nothing that I can do to stop it.

That is why I am writing this letter to you, HBO, Tom Hanks, and anyone else involved in choosing the content of the show, Big Love. If you care at all about social responsibility, not to mention human dignity and religious freedom, you will not air the episode in question. The beauty of social media is that this letter can be copied, posted, blogged, and emailed enough that thousands of people will read it. I admit that I am too jaded to believe that even that will be enough to stop you. I can only hope that it will have some bearing on the decisions that you and others in your position make in the future.

Pleading the Case of Decency,

Jimmy Dunn

PS - I would not presume to speak for the LDS Church or its members. These thoughts and opinions are my own and no one else’s.

Well written.