Mormons and Backdoor Mountain

Okay, so the movie is really called "Brokeback Mountain"...a movie about two gay cowboys. Yee-haw. It's acclaimed, it's provocative, it's controversial, it's touching, and it's poised to win a shit-ton of Academy awards this spring. A movie about two gay cowboys in plaid shirts. This is what American cinema has come to.

I just read that a theater, owned by the same guy who owns the Utah Jazz, pulled the movie and will not show it. If memory serves, this really isn't the first time those hardlining little Pewtah Mormons have fiddled with movies. I'm sure they have refused to show plenty other movies due a conflict of ideals, but the one incident that comes to mind was the Titanic. One theater went so far as to cut the love scene (by far the lamest, tamest love scene I've ever seen in a movie). Thereby saving people from the horror of seeing Leonardo DiCaprio's bare chest, and that "I'll Never Let Go" chick's sweaty hand on the window of a car.

There are two types of Mormons. There's Mormons, and there is UTAH Mormons. Nonmembers usually can't make the distinction, which sort of sucks because when the Utah Mormons behave badly, it reflects poorly on the church as a whole. Then, the other Mormons (who are not Utah Mormons) have to work twice as hard to make up for whatever retarded thing the Utah Mormons did in the first place. I do feel the need to add a disclaimer that not ever Mormon who lives in Utah is a Utah Mormon. There are normal Mormons in Utah...and they have my heartfelt sympathy (that means you, Pengalin!).

But I am not here to discuss Utah Mormons. Instead, I am here to talk about a movie. The previous paragraph was only meant to sort of illustrate that Utah Mormons are very, very zealous.

You see, in my church, free agency is a very important thing. We have our free agency so we can make choices...and with the tools we are given in church (teachings, scriptures, divine intervention of the Holy Spirit), the hope is that we will make the right choice. That way, when we all die and go to our appropriate place, we will have gotten there on our own steam, and not because someone made those choices for us.

Sort of like cheating your way through college. Sure, you get a degree in the end, but you really didn't earn it on your own...and you probably didn't learn a great deal in time you were there.

Which is how I look at things like the "Bareback Mountain Movie Debacle of Salt Lake". I think they should at least offer the movie, give everyone the choice of whether they want to go see it. I don't think I will go see it. Not because the whole gay-thing is an affront to my religious beliefs, but rather a movie about gay cowboys doesn't appeal to me. Cowboy movies in general don't appeal to me at all. BUT...at least I have the free agency to decide whether to go or not.

Just because you offer someone the option of doing something, doesn't necessarily mean they will chose to do it. This, is what free-agency is all about.

My best friend, Kathryn, doesn't go see rated-R movies. That is her choice. There's lots of movies out there, good ones, that she hasn't seen because of that rating. That might be ridiculous to some, but that is the choice that she has made. The important thing is that she made that choice, and no one made it for her.

It's the choices we make that test our inner mettle. If our free agency is stripped from us, how are we really to know what our true potential is?

So, here is to the mental giants of Pewtah...who have not only once again taken away the free agency of your residents, but also generated more free publicity for an overhyped gay cowboy movie.

Cowboy movies suck.