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Sarah Masters reviews the film

The Mormons

Just two months ago, PBS programs "Frontline" and "American Experience” joined forces for the first time to present a two-part documentary entitled The Mormons.

The compelling film aired on consecutive nights, the first evening devoted to the history of the church that now counts close to 12 million adherents. The second evening focused on the controversies that have always surrounded the Mormon Church.

The film delves deeply into the tumultuous history of Mormonism, from the persecution of a few believers in the 1800's to the growth of a wealthy mainstream church that includes as members politicians such as Mitt Romney, and prominent business leaders and academicians.

The Mormons takes a balanced and well researched approach to Mormon beliefs and the viewer hears in detail from both church elders and skeptics who question the motives of Joseph Smith, the religion’s founder, and the authenticity of the “Book of Mormon.”

Emmy and Peabody award-winning producer and director Helen Whitney spent three years bringing to life the four-hour documentary. In an article in The Deseret Morning News, Whitney described her current work. “It is not exhaustive. It is not comprehensive. It is thematic. I have chosen what I felt to be the defining ideas and themes and events in Mormon history that would help outsiders go inside the church. It's not altogether chronological, but roughly so. I hope that most of the stereotypes, ideally, all of them, will be blown away. Because so many of them are just based on ignorance. Ignorance about Mormon history, ignorance about Mormon theology. Ignorance."

Whitney notes that there are more Mormons outside of the U.S. than in this country and hopes that viewing this religion through so many different angles will encourage viewers from throughout the world to contrast and compare belief systems and to re-examine their own.

Completed: 2007
Running Time: 240 Minutes
Director/Producer: Helen Whitney

If you are interested in purchasing this film, you can do so at www.hartleyfoundation.org. Just click on “Masterworks” on the homepage for more information. The cost of the film series is $24.99 for a DVD.

Sarah Masters is the Managing Director of the Hartley Film Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to cultivation, support, production and distribution of the best documentaries and audio meditations on world religions, spirituality, ethics and well-being.

Book Review

Chaplain Timothy E. Madison, Ph.D., reviews

Let Them Go Free: A Guide to Withdrawing Life Support,
With a Family Prayer Service

In this brief work, Professor Shannon and Father Faso set out to provide some practical guidance and spiritual insight to families facing life support termination decisions. Their words are calm and encouraging. The reader easily can visualize their supportive presence at the hospital bedside, patiently offering these words of wisdom amid the helplessness and upheaval which attend a family’s experience of anticipatory grief. The chapters are organized as answers to questions commonly posed by such families. The responses read like those of an experienced, faithful friend who speaks quietly of hope that transcends all that the monitors, machines, and medicines represent.

As a work intended for distribution to families of patients, however, the Hospital Chaplain will have to be selective. There is nothing in the title that identifies it as a Roman Catholic document, but that is what it is. Persistent Christological references will hinder its usage among other faith groups. The “Family Prayer Service” relies on a series of recitations and responsive readings which will be awkward for even other Christian groups from non-liturgical traditions.

As ethical guidance, the authors make several good practical suggestions to families. Curiously, however, no reference is made to seeking out a hospital ethics consultant or committee for assistance. Also, the family’s comfort level with a course of action is too often presented as ethical justification of that action. My experience in the clinical setting has revealed that frequently these situations compel families to choose courage rather than pursue the course that feels comfortable.

Shannon, Thomas A., and Charles N. Faso, O.F.M. Let Them Go Free: A Guide to Withdrawing Life Support, With a Family Prayer Service, Georgetown University Press: Washington, DC (2007) pp 61.

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