It says a great deal about a nation when its most telling artistic achievements are cartoons, Guy Somerset says, yet this is precisely the situation in modern American culture.
For instance, South Park‘s All About Mormons pillories the Latter Day Saints — until the final seconds of the episode, when the little Mormon boy takes Stan aside and tells him this:
Maybe us Mormons do believe in crazy stories that make absolutely no sense, and maybe Joseph Smith did make it all up. But I have a great life and a great family, and I have the Book of Mormon to thank for that. The truth is, I don’t care if Joseph Smith made it all up, because what the Church teaches now is loving your family, being nice and helping people. And even though people in this town might think that’s stupid, I still choose to believe in it. All I ever did was try to be your friend, Stan, but you’re so high and mighty you couldn’t look past my religion and just be my friend back. You’ve got a lot of growing up to do, buddy. Suck my balls.
I heard an NPR piece about the Mormon musical Stone and Parker are doing. They talked to Stone and Parker, who said they keep kicking Mormons around, and the Mormons always respond so graciously and decently, that they just end up liking Mormons more and more.
I don’t recall them comparing that to the Muslim reaction. If they did (quite likely), obviously NPR would cut that part.
Awesome.