| Publicity: | It’s a defining moment in the history of the Mormons in America. Suddenly, a church that used to be thought of as a cult has become a cult hit. Mormonism is everywhere. |
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| It’s in popular culture, in the form of “The Book of Mormon”, a musical by South Park’s creators and the biggest Broadway hit in 50 years, “Big Love", an HBO TV series exploring polygamy, and “Sister Wives”, a reality TV show featuring a polygamous family. |
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| It’s in the news, with two prominent Mormons – Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman – vying for selection as the Republican Presidential candidate for the 2012 race. |
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| And it’s on TV and computer screens across the US as “I’m a Mormon” - a clever advertising campaign that sells Mormons as being ordinary folk just like everyone else. |
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| Unfortunately for Romney and Huntsman, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is also associated in many voters’ minds with some more controversial values, such as polygamy – even though the official church outlawed that practice decades ago. |
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| “We haven’t practiced polygamy for over a century ... and it’s a little frustrating to have these fundamentalist groups resurface.” Jeffrey Holland, Mormon Apostle |
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| The perception problem for Mormonism is that many Americans who still call themselves Mormons do believe in plural marriage, and they live out their faith. They regard themselves as the “true” Mormons, and say that it’s the official church that has sold out. |
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| “I have three separate sexual relationships with my wives, there is absolutely no kinkiness.” Joe Darger, author of “Love Times Three”, partner to Vicki, Alina and Valerie, and father to 23 |
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| For this fascinating look at what Mormonism means today, correspondent Michael Brissenden sets out from Salt Lake City, Utah – the centre of the faith and for the world’s 15 million or so Mormons, the equivalent of Mecca for Muslims, or the Vatican for Roman Catholics. |
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| His journey takes him deep into the desert and the spiritual heartland of self-styled “fundamentalist Mormons”, where he spends time with families who believe in multiple wives and are happy to explain their way of life and their beliefs to Foreign Correspondent. |
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| We also meet those “everyday” Mormons the church is so keen to promote – ordinary mainstream families who eschew polygamy and who say their faith is largely irrelevant to their political beliefs. |
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| With Mitt Romney well positioned in polls for the Republican nomination, his political spinners will be praying that voters, if they think of his faith at all, choose to hum along with the hit songs from “The Book of Mormon” and the harmonies of the Tabernacle Choir, rather than dwell on the more contentious issues of polygamy, gay marriage, and the church ban on full participation by blacks that was only lifted in 1978. |
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| Dargers home movie | Music | 00:00 |
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| BRISSENDEN: It looks like just another happy families video, lots of kids, a dad… and then it gets complicated… a mum… and another mum… and another. | 00:07 |
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| VALERIE DARGERS: “I’m Valerie”. ALINA DARGERS: “I’m Alina”. VICKI DARGERS: “I’m Vicki”. JOE DARGERS: “And I’m Joe and we are the Dargers”. | 00:18 |
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| BRISSENDEN: Meet the Dargers. Disowned by their church and yet they’ve inspired a popular and enduring impression of what it is to be Mormon. | 00:26 |
| Book publicity meeting | JOE DARGERS: [addressing a meeting] “And I think we need to quit having a shame about our past. We exist, we’re here, we’re part of this culture. We’re part of society and we’re not going away. So thank you”. | 00:43 |
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| BRISSENDEN: Tonight, in a well heeled suburb of Salt Lake City, a big crowd has come out to hear a tale of love – times three. | 00:58
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| Dargers home movie | Music | 01:07 |
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| JOE DARGERS: “I have three separate sexual relationships with my wives. | 01:10 |
| Joe addresses book publicity meeting | There is absolutely no kinkiness. When Alina, Vicki and I were first married we heard there were rumours we were having a ménage a trois. I didn’t even know what the phrase meant”. | 01:15 |
| Freeze frame. Joe with wives | BRISSENDEN: Joe Dargers’ first two wives, Vicki and Alina were cousins. Ten years later Vicki’s twin sister Valerie joined the family as wife number three. | 01:28 |
| Freeze frame. Extended Darger family | Otherwise they live an ordinary, if somewhat chaotic life. | 01:39 |
| Darger home movie | The Dargers describe themselves as fundamentalist Mormons, a distinction that leaves the mainstream Mormon Church cold. | 01:46 |
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| Music | 01:53 |
| Photo with caption: |
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| Holland. Super: | JEFFREY R. HOLLAND: “We really have tried very hard to be clear publicly and privately that we haven’t practiced polygamy for over a century. We did. We did in the early days of our church, | 02:04 |
| Wedding parties | but we haven’t since the late 1800s and it’s a little frustrating to have these fundamentalist groups resurface and it’s often around those that these TV shows are made”. | 02:16 |
| Opening sequence and excerpt ‘Big Love’ | Music | 02:30 |
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| BRISSENDEN: But like it or not the hit TV shows like the hit drama ‘Big Love’ inspired by the Dargers’ story shape and entrench perceptions about the faith. | 02:34 |
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| Performance. Super: | Music | 02:52 |
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| BRISSENDEN: Americans can’t get enough of the Mormon plot lines and the Church as entertainment. The musical ‘Book of Mormon’ is the biggest Broadway hit in fifty years. | 02:56 |
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| Music | 03:05 |
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| BRISSENDEN: The ‘Book of Mormon’ musical pokes affectionate fun at the mainstream Mormon lifestyle but on another bigger stage, the players are very keen to be taken very seriously. | 03:33 |
| Romney and Huntsman campaigning | JON HUNTSMAN: “I’m Jon Huntsman”. | 03:46 |
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| MITT ROMNEY: “I’m Mitt Romney. I believe in America and I’m running for President of the United States”. | 03:49 |
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| BRISSENDEN: Republicans Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman are both Mormons and they’ve both demonstrated that it is possible to post political success, the question is how far? | 03:57 |
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| Both have their eye on the biggest prize of all – the White House. ALLAN LICHTMAN: “There are more than a dozen Mormons serving in the Congress of the United States from you know various States of the country. However the presidency is absolutely something special and different. | 04:10 |
| Lichtman. Super: | Americans have this special mystical bond with their president and they demand things of a president, they expect things of a president and they judge a president in ways that are fundamentally different than any other office holder in the United States”. | 04:31 |
| Romney/Huntsman montage. News items |
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| Salt Lake City general views | Music | 05:23 |
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| BRISSENDEN: To understand why Americans are challenged by the idea of being led by a Mormon you need to take a closer look at Salt Lake City. | 05:42 |
| Temple Square | This is the heart of what is now the fastest growing faith in the Western Hemisphere. They first came here as pilgrims escaping religious persecution in 1847. | 05:52 |
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| Now there are nearly two million Mormons in Utah and as many as 15 million around the world and Temple Square in Salt Lake City is as important to them as the Vatican is to Catholics or Mecca is to Muslims. | 06:04 |
| Holland and Brissenden walk in church office building |
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| Portrait of Holland | Jeffrey Holland is one of the Twelve Apostles of the Mormon Church, a member of the inner circle. | 06:33 |
| Exterior. Church building | JEFFREY HOLLAND: “Our position historically and doctrinally is that we are neither Catholic nor Protestant. | 06:41 |
| Holland | That’s another reason we’re kind of unusual. People have a kind of a hard time pegging us. Who are these people, you know? Maybe that adds a little bit to the mystery”. | 06:48 |
| Sunset | Music | 06:58 |
| Fairground/ Salt Lake City. Night | BRISSENDEN: Suspicion and hostility pursued the followers of what’s known more formally as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. When they finally settled here they found a base and found their voice, establishing what was to become an icon of their church. | 07:03 |
| Tabernacle Choir perform | Singing | 07:20 |
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| BRISSENDEN: The Tabernacle Choir has become the most recognisable public face and sound of the Mormons. Famously dubbed “America’s choir” by President Reagan, the choir has won dozens of Grammys, even Emmys, and the regular Sunday performance is now the longest running radio broadcast in the world. | 07:32 |
| Kathy singing | KATHY NEWTON: “I was told one time if everyone sang in a choir there’d be world peace and I really believe that”. | 07:55 |
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| Singing | 08:00 |
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| BRISSENDEN: Kathy Newton can trace her family’s involvement in the choir back five generations. KATHY NEWTON: “It is so cleansing to your soul | 08:06 |
| Kathy. Super: | and so touching to other people to hear that. It speaks to the heart where the spoken word doesn’t”. | 08:16 |
| Sam singing in choir | BRISSENDEN: Her son Sam is a criminal lawyer, but what spare time the father of six has, is spent upholding the family tradition. SAM NEWTON: [Mormon] “To me it feels like it’s a | 08:24 |
| Sam. Super: | strengthening experience, a vibrant experience. There’s something moving and powerful happening there”. | 08:37 |
| Choir sings | BRISSENDEN: The Newtons are just two of the three hundred and sixty voices in what is a pitch perfect expression of spiritual harmony. And when the chorus breaks, it’s home to the suburbs. | 08:42 |
| Newton home. Prayer and supper |
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| SAM NEWTON: “It’s certainly important to us to share our message, share our faith, share what we believe and I think music is maybe one of the best ways to do that”. | 09:15 |
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| BRISSENDEN: Devout Mormons like the Newtons don’t drink, smoke or swear, and here in this house, like so many mainstream Mormon marriages, two’s company… three or more is out of line. SAM NEWTON: “Polygamy is part of the Church’s past. | 09:30 |
| Sam | I don’t know any polygamists so it feels very disconnected to a modern Mormon. It’s not a part of the Church any more and that’s what makes it difficult maybe for a modern Mormon to relate”. | 09:45 |
| Weddings at church | Music | 10:00 |
| Brissenden to camera outside church | BRISSENDEN: The Mormon Church is America’s own home grown brand of Christian faith. They’re clean cut, wholesome, righteous, God-fearing Americans. So why is there such uncertainty, even suspicion about them? The fact is the modern Church is still plagued by its past and the central doctrine of polygamy, practiced and preached by the founding fathers. | 10:11 |
| Super: Michael Brissenden | A hundred and eighty years on, it’s an issue that still divides the faithful and it’s one that fascinates and repulses the wider public. | 10:32 |
| Utah desert views | Music | 10:40 |
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| BRISSENDEN: It’s illegal now and frowned on by the central Church hierarchy but polygamy survives. There are nearly 40,000 people who claim to be part of a polygamous family in Utah. Many of them prefer to stay out of the spotlight. I’m heading south from Salt Lake City. The drive takes me through a stark desert landscape to the border with Arizona. | 10:50 |
| Hilldale | This is Hilldale, home to a strict fundamentalist Mormon sect where polygamy is not only embraced but considered a religious duty. Our camera is an unwelcome intrusion. | 111:17 |
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| HILLDALE MAN: “Please take your camera off on the other side of the street. | 11:35 |
| Hilldale man | This is the property line right there at the sidewalk. BRISSENDEN: “Is it? Okay”. HILLDALE MAN: “We’d like to have you that side there. Or we can call the police and have them come and talk to you”. | 11:39 |
| Adults with small children crossing road | Music | 11:47 |
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| BRISSENDEN: This is a closed community and a troubled one. | 11:51 |
| Still. Warren Jeffs | Warren Jeffs the so-called prophet of this group is serving a life sentence for crimes, including the sexual assault of children. | 11:57 |
| Hilldale | Polygamy is a fundamentalist practice but Jeffs actively encouraged and conducted under-age marriages – a practice abhorrent to most other fundamentalist Mormons. | 12:07 |
| Compound | ANNE WILDE: “People seem to clump us all together. | 12:21 |
| Anne. Super: | Oh he’s associated somewhat with the Mormon Church they’re not really clear how and so that means anybody associated with the Mormon Church in any way, whether they’re in or out and they believe or practice polygamy, they’re all like Warren Jeffs and that’s so untrue”. | 12:25 |
| Anne at desk | BRISSENDEN: Anne Wilde now lives alone but until her husband died, she was part of a plural marriage. She’s since become an activist and advocate for the many other polygamous families that live and worship in Utah and the surrounding states. | 12:42 |
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| ANNE WILDE: “It will never go away as far as fundamentalist Mormon polygamy goes, | 12:57 |
| Anne | because it is such a strongly held religious belief. Something we’re not going to give up, even if all kinds of laws are made against us, it will just bring us closer together as a people and isolate us further”. | 13:02 |
| Eagle/ Centennial Park | Music | 13:15 |
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| BRISSENDEN: On any road trip the scenery can change subtly. A little further down the road into Arizona another closeted fundamentalist community presents a very different image. | 13:21 |
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| This is Centennial Park, clean, prosperous and unlike the community in Hilldale, it’s dressed and set in the 21st century. | 13:34 |
| Michael carrying girl | Home from work as a teacher at the local school, the routine for Michael Cawley appears to be like any other father and husband, | 13:47 |
| Freeze frame. Extended Cawley family | But, well, you get the picture. | 13:55 |
| Michael introduces family | MICHAEL CAWLEY: “So this is Rose, wife number one. And this is Connie, second wife. The third wife Theresa isn’t here with us at the moment. We have Eileen. This is Rose’s youngest daughter. Lydia right here, Simeon on the end. Down here is Rhianna. This is Monica, Sarah, Eric, Eleanor… | 14:01 |
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| BRISSENDEN: An extensive family can stretch the memory. MICHAEL CAWLEY: “… Veronica and Esther and Ethan are asleep in the house. Rosemarie my oldest, seventeen years old is in a study group with her friends”. MOTHER: “You mean Edgar, Poppa?” ETHAN: “Poppa, you said Ethan.” MICHAEL CAWLEY: “Ethan you’re here. Is Eddie the one in the house?” ETHAN: “Yeah”. MICHAEL CAWLEY: “And Edgar in the house”. (laughing) | 14:26 |
| Michael inside. Younger children having dinner |
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| BRISSENDEN: The Centennial Park group broke emphatically from the disgraced Hilldale fundamentalists nearly thirty years ago but polygamy remains a constant. | 15:03 |
| Rose cooking | ROSE CAWLEY: “Well I am the home mother so I tend the children at home while the rest of the adults go work and I cook. I prepare the meals and serve. That pretty much keeps me busy”. | 15:13 |
| Rose serves food | BRISSENDEN: Rose and her two sister wives have a total of fifteen children. They all share this small house with Michael. Meal times are almost as complicated as the relationships. MICHAEL CAWLEY: “For anyone that’s married to one woman | 15:32 |
| Michael with wives. Super: | if you’re going to keep that marriage and you’re going to do the work that it takes to have that, imagine doing that twice honourably or three times, two times or three times. It’s just more work”. | 15:47 |
| Cawley home | BRISSENDEN: The doctrines of the original Mormon Prophet, Joseph Smith, underpin both the mainstream church and the fundamentalists but the two disagree completely on the question of polygamy. | 16:03 |
| Kids on trampoline | Music | 16:15 |
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| BRISSENDEN: The Church says the Cawleys and other polygamists we’ve met on our journey are not strictly Mormons. The Cawleys believe the Church caved on a basic tenet of belief. | 16:20 |
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| ROSE CAWLEY: “We believe they just didn’t have a strong enough faith to know that heavenly father would open up the way and bless them. | 16:32 |
| Rose, Michael and Connie. Super: | And they gave into those pressures and the pressure was get rid of plural marriage out of your religious beliefs”. | 16:42 |
| Cawleys at sunset | MICHAEL CAWLEY: “They need to examine what the Mormon faith and its roots are, because I think that they have separated from many of those ideals and those truths”. | 16:51 |
| Super: |
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| BRISSENDEN: As the disparate elements of the faith argue about the rulebook, the Church itself has embarked on a challenging Mormon production of its own. It’s not ‘Big Love’ or a musical like the ‘Book of Mormon’ but it is a massive break with tradition. | 17:16 |
| Holland | JEFFREY HOLLAND: “I suppose it plays into the Mormon moment idea a little bit but it wasn’t intentional. It wasn’t designed that way”. | 17:37 |
| Mormon advertising campaign depicting Joy surfing | BRISSENDEN: The “I am a Mormon” advertising campaign is designed to show Mormons as ordinary people who are in touch with the modern world. | 17:50 |
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| KENDALL WILLCOX: “A girl that’s a surfer who has a tattoo and wears some spaghetti strap clothing? Unheard of, I’m not kidding, unheard of three years ago. | 18:04 |
| Kendall | I know, to the rest of the world it’s like duh, give me a break, but inside the institution it’s huge”. | 18:15 |
| Mormon advertising campaign depicting Joy |
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| Kendall making documentary | BRISSENDEN: But there’s one aspect of modernity that the Church just can’t bring itself to endorse – the acceptance of Mormons who openly identify as gay. | 18:28 |
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| Kendall Willcox is breaking new ground. He’s been part of the Church media unit for many years but he’s the first person ever to come out openly about his sexuality and keep his job. | 18:51 |
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| KENDALL WILLCOX: [making documentary] “For everybody it’s unwanted. Like that’s the given. | 19:06 |
| Super: Kendall Willcox | I’m really not sure I want to keep addressing my sexuality as unwanted. I’ve done it for twenty five years, it’s still here”. | 19:08 |
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| BRISSENDEN: Kendall’s making a documentary about his personal journey. He’s hoping he can change attitudes but he recognises this is still a very touchy subject for the Church. KENDALL WILLCOX: “Initially the film is generally | 19:17 |
| Kendall interview | just a reflection of my own genuine personal exploration of understanding what is.... what does it mean to be Mormon today, what does it mean to be homosexual today and how do those two worlds mix or not mix”. | 19:30 |
| Making documentary/Kendall fishing | BRISSENDEN: So how does an openly gay man exist in a Church vehemently at odds with his sexuality? Well, when we met him he was heading to a weekend retreat for sessions of Church sponsored counselling to try to remove his homosexual urges. | 19:42 |
| Camp Roger | KENDALL WILLCOX: “This camp is definitely designed for people who… they way they call it, ‘have unwanted same sex attraction’. That is, before you come in, that’s the expectation that’s where they’re going to meet and work with you on that level. I will be working with | 20:00 |
| Kendall interview | completely untrained and unprofessional guides and life coaches, all with the intent and conceit of helping me find ways to become heterosexual and to diminish, if not completely remove, any same sex attraction or homosexual attraction”. | 20:18 |
| Making documentary | JEFFREY R. HOLLAND: “With same sex issues, | 20:40 |
| Holland. Super: | that’s not just a practice. For us that gets to be biblical. That is scriptural. That is something on which the Lord has spoken. We do have the history of Sodom and Gomorrah”. | 40:43 |
| Men on street | BRISSENDEN: Historically the Mormon Church has been slow to embrace social change. It remains fiercely opposed to same sex marriage, but most contentiously it wasn’t until 1978 that African Americans were allowed to fully participate in the Church. | 20:56 |
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| JEFFREY R. HOLLAND: “I really honestly don’t know why it took so long”. | 21:19 |
| Holland | BRISSENDEN: “And do you think that still concerns some people, it still sullies the brand in some way:?” | 21:23 |
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| JEFFREY R. HOLLAND: “Well it probably is but over time that seems to dissipate. It’s the same kind of question like polygamy. Probably the only answer there is time and continued articulation and conversation and explanation”. | 21:26 |
| Night sky | ALLAN LICHTMAN: “Many Christians view Mormonism not as just another branch of Christianity like the Presbyterians or the Methodists, | 21:41 |
| Lichtman. Super: | they view it as a heresy. They see many of the Mormon beliefs and practices as contrary to what they regard as mainstream Christianity”. | 21:49 |
| Romney campaign | Music | 22:00 |
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| BRISSENDEN: Perhaps the biggest test of the Church’s acceptability and mainstream appeal will come into focus here, on the road to the 2012 Presidential elections. Will a Mormon lead the Republicans’ hopes of keeping Barack Obama to a single term? | 22:05 |
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| The leading Republican aspirant Mitt Romney pitches himself as the very model of a modern Mormon. It’s a long way from his polygamist great-grandfather. But even some who share his religious heritage, aren’t convinced the time is right for a Mormon president. | 22:28 |
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| MICHAEL CAWLEY: “I don’t think that America’s ready for a Mormon president. | 22:49 |
| Cawley and wives | I don’t think that America was in 1844 when Joseph Smith was attempting to run for president and ended up being martyred. I think that the political views in the country wouldn’t accept the Mormon president if he was somehow to make it into the presidency”. | 22:56 |
| Newton family gathered around piano | Singing | 23:23 |
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| BRISSENDEN: Polls confirm there are still some serious intractable misconceptions about the Church. More than 80% responding to one, for instance, said they weren’t sure where the Church stands on the polygamy issue. | 23:29 |
| Newton family photo | But pious mainstream Mormon families like the Newtons say for them at least there are more important factors that will sway their votes. | 23:43 |
| Newton family gathered around piano | KATHY NEWTON: “You know, I’m not going to just blindly say any Mormon will do. I still have not made up my mind who I’m going to vote for. | 23:54 |
| Kathy | I have to evaluate who they are before I’ll commit to voting for someone”. | 24:03 |
| Sam | SAM NEWTON: “Just because someone’s a Mormon doesn’t necessarily make them a good president. | 24:08 |
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| It’s a tough job to tackle and someone’s religion is probably a very, very small part of what that job entails I would think”. | 24:13 |
| Mormon Tabernacle Choir | Singing | 24:23 |
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| BRISSENDEN: Americans have long applauded the beautiful voices of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Now they’re also embracing the church’s move into popular culture but the suspicions and misconceptions about Mormons remain, and translating that success all the way to the White House may yet be too great a leap of faith, despite what’s being called America’s Mormon Moment. | 24:31 |
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| Music | 25:57 |
| Credits: | Reporter: Michael Brissenden Camera: |