MEET THE MORMONS

MEET THE MORMONS is a religious documentary that follows the very distinct lives of six deeply religious members, and their families, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. MEET THE MORMONS takes the viewing audience on a trip into the daily realities of people living in the United States, Costa Rica, and Nepal. Each individual’s story, which contains individual passions and daily struggles, paints a portrait as rich and unique as the next while confronting the presuppositions of the Mormon faith.

It is obvious, just by the title alone, that the dominant worldview that MEET THE MORMONS presents is Mormon paganism. The movie contains many positive references to Jesus Christ, Scripture quoting, redemptive elements, and positive family portrayals. Sadly, however, they intentionally and strategically overemphasize and highlight all these Christian elements in order mask the true identity of the Mormon faith. Their sole intention is to sell Mormonism by misrepresenting themselves as Christians, or as a mainline denomination of Christianity.

First of all, throughout the movie, the characters use the terms “Christians” and “Mormons” interchangeably. Secondly, the characters a lot of the times prefer to state that they are part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and immediately speak a lot about Jesus in order to give the impression that they are followers of Jesus Christ (i.e., Christians). Thirdly, the characters only speak on doctrines (i.e. Jesus, Scripture, Missions, the Gospel, service, etc.) that are compatible with that of the Christian faith. Fourthly, they never make any reference or mention of any controversial founders or leaders of the Church of Latter-day Saints such as Joseph Smith or Brigham Young. Fifthly, they don’t reference or quote the Book of Mormon, but simply show it on screen. Finally, there is a scene where Jermaine Sullivan (the Bishop) and his sister (a member of a Baptist church) share this “wonderful” (the term used lightly) ecumenical gathering to speak on theological differences but highlight the truth that they all are followers of Jesus.

MEET THE MORMONS strategically and intentionally omits the heretical tenets, doctrines and practices of the Mormon faith in order to appeal to everyone, especially Christians. There is one scene that shows that Christianity and Mormonism are different religions and that is when members of a family are reading both the Holy Bible and the Book of Mormon and the narrator mentions the fact that Mormons derive their faith from “various texts,” but doesn’t actually mention them. It also uses the example of normal life, family life, and personal struggles of these individuals in order to appeal to a broad audience. This is movie is more of a propaganda or advertisement, rather than evangelistic in nature. Its sole purpose seems to be selling a false product.

Mormonism is absolutely and undoubtedly a cult, a heretical organization that tries to pass itself off as Christian in one way or another. Believers must be aware of the heresies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in order to refute and denounce it and reject this movie. Some of the heresies of Mormonism include:

1. They don’t uphold the exclusive authority of the Scriptures but also use the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants as equally authoritative;

2. They believe human beings can become gods;

3. They don’t believe in the Holy Trinity, even though the Book of Mormon itself quotes the formula of the Trinity from the Gospel of Matthew, 20:18-20;

4. They believe that in the beginning all people existed as spirits or “intelligences”;

5. They believe in eternal marriage, eternal progressive, plural marriage, among other things.

Although the dominant worldview of MEET THE MORMONS is Mormonism, the movie’s aesthetic quality is fair. The fair artistic quality of the movie only comes from the fact that it contains pretty good cinematography. There are great camera shots of beautiful and breathtaking natural landscapes. There are also great camera angles that capture in regular and slow motion certain activities that characters do. For example, there is one character who is running on the beach during sunset and the camera is capturing this from above. The good cinematography is evidence that the Church of Latter-day Saints provided a sufficient amount of money in order to make the movie presentable.

All that said, the aesthetic quality does not reach higher than mediocrity because of the misrepresentation of the Mormon faith and because the use really cheesy music to attempt to evoke emotion in the audience. First of all, people desire truth in art, so, when art fails to provide authenticity, it should be rejected. If MEET THE MORMONS would have presented Mormonism wholly, it would have gained credibility and higher aesthetic worth, and would have seemed less like a propaganda piece or an advertisement. Second of all, the music that is used to help the audience powerfully connect with the characters is terrible. The filmmakers should have been more carefully selective on what music to use and not play the music every single time they got the chance.

Overall, MEET THE MORMONS is a deceitful religious documentary that contains Mormon paganism as its dominant worldview, with positive references to Jesus Christ, the Gospel, redemption, and family values, but used only for the purpose of masking the true cult identity of the Church of Latter-day Saints. Therefore, Christian adults, children, and families are advised to avoid MEET THE MORMONS and to study their Bibles instead.