“I believe that in 1978 god changed his mind about black people.”

When looking at the cosmic membrane that gets pressed in one place, to rise in another, it looks like the Mormon Church bankrolling the shitty, hateful Proposition 8 in California is responsible for the revenge of The Book of Mormon musical triumphing on Broadway.

Studying Mormonism was a hobby back in the early 90s, and The Book of Mormon hits on a LOT of the absurdities of Mormon cosmology. Men get their own planets in heaven, the Mormon President speaks to god, Joseph Smith transcribed the contents from golden plates he never allowed anyone to see. But there’s simply too much idiocy – leading to authentic human misery – for even one musical to cover. The song “I Believe” performed on The Tony Awards packs a bunch of ’em in, though. In the plot Elder Price is one of two missionaries assigned to Uganda for his mission and he has to deal with violent warlords and an AIDS-ridden culture in which many people with AIDS feel if they have sex with a virgin their AIDS will go away.

Among the things left out of the musical? Satan and Jesus as brothers. Joseph Smith was a convicted con man before his “revelation”. Bigamy. Constant divine revelations about purely bureaucratic matters – though the musical does have instances of people making up doctrine and revelations right on the spot.

A single line in “I Believe” touches on the generations of doctrinal racism “I believe that in 1978 god changed his mind about black people.” The whole book is horribly written (yes, I read it once) in the style of a mock King James Bible. Did Jesus come to the Americas? Check. Was a lost tribe of Israel running around the Americas? Sure, why not!

All embarrassments to humanity now. What’s additionally unforgiveable is the Mormon Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints Bachman-Turner Overdrive is their bankrolling the forces that passed Prop 8 in California. Is there any issue in our country MORE OBVIOUSLY DOOMED TO HATEFUL OBSCURITY than banning homosexuals from full legal rights, including marriage? The arguments are exactly the same as those who stood against mixed-race marriages. Those bigots ALSO cited holy writ (which is always POORLY writ and never, ever holy) to make their case. “Based on my book of made-up nonsensical rules from a barely literate dolt…”

The Book of Mormon musical on Broadway is the artistic community dragging the silly Mormons into the light for ridicule. Long overdue. Hopefully the light will exercise Mormonism from otherwise considerate, compassionate people who will realize they don’t need generations of compounded flimflammery to be nice people. They are already nice people.