A fatwa against "Big Love"

Nothing need be said or written to or about HBO and "Big Love". HBO knows what it's doing. HBO is in the business of peddling pornography (especially of the soft kind) and it has no sensibilities about avoiding obscenities.

If HBO cannot be persuaded to respect the sacredness of the sex act, how might we expect it to honor religious convictions or covenants? 

The truth is, this controversy exposes an interesting paradox: Does the average Mormon recoil in disgust and revulsion at depictions of sex acts on television? I don't think so. (I remember feeling violated and uneasy about seeing any such things as a child.) But I'll wager the "average" American -- and even Mormon -- gets at least a little titillated watching simulated sex on TV...even if it is after the kids go to bed.

As a people, by and large, we are intrigued, captivated and even entertained by sexual depictions. The millions of us still watching such things prove it! 

Perhaps we've lost our sense of decency. By too-frequent exposure to sin, we've become desensitized to the violation of that which is truly sacred.

Are we now more enraged by the desecration of our holy temple ceremony (which is mostly symbolic) than we are by desecrations of that which is truly sacred (our bodies, spirits, etc)?

I think Jesus would have had a comment or two about that.

I wonder if we're starting to sound like the Muslim who is so inflamed by the pictorial portrayal of his prophet that he is willing to kill over it. (Where is the virtue? Where is the sense of proportion?) Such outrage is the substitution of symbolism for spirituality, the elevation of religiosity over true morality.

HBO has been peddling soft-porn for years! Are we only now going to stop watching it? "Oh, you can show all the sex and murder you want -- and I'll still subscribe. But reveal the temple ceremony...that's beyond the pale! I'm canceling my subscription!"

Clearly, the public exposition of the temple ceremony is an obscenity and violation of sacred rites and covenants. It is religious pornography. 

But the truth is...the average Mormon who watches television now probably sees hundreds of equivalent violations (in the form of portrayed sexual acts and mayhem) each year. And yet, are we equally riled up? Do we feel equivalently violated by such depictions? I don't think so.

If we do, then why haven't we turned off our TVs? Why are we still watching?

HBO knows the numbers. They know who their market is. (And, unfortunately, it includes a lot of Mormons.)

Enough said.

UPDATE: Here's what you should have seen, instead of the HBO special.