You should experience the full range of Mormon content in 2022
In eighth grade Social Studies, we all had to complete an assignment on a settler of the American West written in first person narrative. Naturally, I opted to be a second wife of a Mormon settler. Not Brigham Young but I selected someone high up in the church because for both my spouse’s position and my own I clearly wanted to be near the top but not hold all the responsibility. I was precocious and resourceful and decided to call our local Church of Latter Day Saints to ask if they had any information that could help and they very kindly sent over missionaries who gifted me multiple books and movies. While I was grateful for the high ROI of one phone call, after they returned more than once, my mother did institute a new policy that I had to check before contacting groups known for house calls. Needless to say, I got an A on the assignment and a comment from a bemused teacher that included the line “Well this was unexpected.”
Lest you think this was my most scandalous eighth grade Social Studies assignment, have no fear: in a group interdisciplinary project on Supreme Court cases, I had one strong and one weak group member. We opted to do a puppet show on Plessy v. Ferguson and while Emily (who later clerked for the Supreme Court) wrote a fabulous script and I made over a dozen papier mâché heads, our weak link (name withheld) affixed the heads to the bodies of our puppets poorly and whenever one of them was making a dramatic point, its head flew off. Harlan’s dissent deserved better than we delivered that day, but bless our teacher for determining that the “group work was not evenly completed” and giving the weak link a lower grade.
In later years, I still got peeks into Mormon life in different ways: travel to the Salt Lake City airport and seeing well-groomed youth with nametags, watching “The Book of Mormon,” buying many copies of People magazine issues with updates on Warren Jeffs (admittedly a Fundamentalist which is NOT THE SAME), etc. I absolutely loved Jon Krakauer’s “Under the Banner of Heaven” and was so excited when I learned from a friend that Hulu had turned it into a drama series.
So all of this was really a long intro to say… you should and you MUST watch “Under the Banner of Heaven” starring Andrew Garfield. I can’t even describe how well acted, written and compelling this miniseries is. It’s disturbing and captivating and even though you know what happens (as the first episode shows who’s murdered and the rest of the series explains what happened), you still find yourself rooting and hoping that there’s a twist and somehow Brenda Lafferty turns out to not be dead. I will warn that there’s a scene in the second episode that involves animal cruelty — you don’t see anything but because of how powerful every moment is, it can make you feel a bit queasy.
The book (which is fabulous) takes the time to give much needed context on fundamentalist Mormons and offshoot groups including the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) and various polygamist sects. In addition, Netflix released a four part documentary last week providing all the information you didn’t know you needed. And to be fair, maybe actually don’t need it? “Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey” was one of the more upsetting things I’ve watched and gives a deep dive specifically on Warren Jeffs. It says a lot when you’re 75% through Part 1 and you text someone “I cannot deal with Rulon sleeping with women 70 years younger and being mad when they stepped on his oxygen” and they reply “you’re going to have to deal because it gets worse.”
It does, in fact, get so much worse and by the end, I had a brief moment where I actually said aloud “you know, maybe Rulon wasn’t that bad.” The part of me that always wants to know as much information as possible was shocked to learn how much those People magazine cover stories in the mid-late 2000s missed and the part of me that will have nightmares forever over the recordings of some of Jeffs’ “sessions” with young girls wishes the first part of me didn’t exist. All of this is to say… if you’re more like the first part of me, you SHOULD watch this series and if you’re more like second part, you SHOULD NOT.
There is a reality though that the Mormon church, for all its issues, gets dragged down by these insane fundamentalist sects who are not part of the current LDS. I don’t know enough about modern Mormon life to comment on the current experience — I’ve heard terrible stories from former members who felt that the church was not an accepting place to be and ones from current members who have the opposite experience. I realize “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” and the experiences of Heather Gay & Lisa Barlow are not representative of the full range but I’m not a religious scholar and technically reality shows are primary source material so surely there’s something there. Actually as I type that, I’m thinking reality shows are likely secondary sources because of the perspective of editors involved and that it’s the original footage that would be considered a primary source.
Cue: abrupt and awkward transition away from criminal activity (that of both the FLDS and the Real Housewives).
Definitely a primary source though is the Instagram feed of @turtlecreeklane who fascinates me beyond any and all description. Jen Houghton (real name) is the happiest person in the world and starts every morning saying “happiness begins with gratitude, what are you grateful for today?” and also she has five kids and is an obsessive decorator for the holidays. It’s actually kind of a shame to introduce you to her now because her peak season is really Halloween through Easter. Some examples of past Halloween, Christmas, more Christmas, more Christmas (sorry for this one), Valentine’s Day & Easter decor can be found here. Jen doesn’t eat any refined carbs and makes commission from her all natural teeth whitener (which must work) and asked her followers to help her vote on the best $10M+ Park City second home (don’t worry! They bought the one with DJ booth!) And yet, while you might think she’s totally out of touch and get huge Stepford vibes and think that her taste is so over the top that a Vegas hotel lobby would consider it “too much,” I think she’s actually just that nice and happy.
It’s very hard when you’re a bit of a cynic to understand the concept of someone who is happy this often and it makes you dislike them because the only way it’s possible is if it’s inauthentic but now that I follow Jen and most of her family (including son Steve Jr, his wife Kimmy, daughter Tiffany & youngest daughter, McKenna Kate — husband Steve, sons Tanner & the other one and son-in-law Adam aren’t quite as interesting IMO), I think they might just be that happy and full of love and appreciation for each other. And if not, they’re faking it well for some big Walmart sponcon $$$.
It’s not all happy in modern Mormon influencer land though… Mormon Momtok exploded with drama around a group of Mormon Mom Tiktokkers who were all friends and then one of them announced they were actually “soft swingers” together and now three of the couples are getting divorced? I can’t even summarize it but if you’re looking for unsubstantiated/one-sided gossip about very attractive people with questionable income streams/financial circumstances, someone set up a sub-reddit. Initial and helpful summary is here, Taylor Paul’s TikTok account is a hub for much of it and I appreciated some of this TikTok commentary.
All of this is to say, Mormon and Mormon-adjacent content is having a real moment right now and there may be some on the spectrum from fundamentalist criminal activity/prestige television to modern holiday decorating/TikTok drama that appeals to you.