The Book of Mormon

I apologize for not posting as regularly this week. I've been spending time with the family and trolloping around NYC which hasn't given me much time to research / write / etc...

I really wanted to see The Book of Mormon while I was in the city, but it was impossible to get tickets, especially last minute.

Now, if you haven't heard of The Book of Mormon it is a musical running on Broadway that was written by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone (Parker and Stone are the creators of South Park). The show was the top winner at this years Tony Awards, taking home 7 awards, including best musical.

I find the show extremely appealing since most of the hard hitting humor seems to come from actual Mormon beliefs. Such as the song "I Believe"

I believe that God has a plan for all of us.
I believe that plan involves me getting my own planet.
And I believe; that the current President of The Church, Thomas Modson, speaks directly to God.
I am A Mormon,
And, dang it! a Mormon just believes!

and

I believe that God lives on a planet called Kolob.
I believe that Jesus has his own planet as well.
And I believe that the Garden of Eden was in Jackson County, Missouri.
If you believe, the Lord will reveal it.
And you'll know it's all true. You'll just feel it.
You'll be a Mormon
And, by gosh!
A Mormon just believes!
Oh, I believe.

The Mormons believe some crazy things!!! Here are the my top 5 on the crazy list

5. After Jesus was resurrected, he visited the people of the Americas.

4. Baptism for the Dead - Mormons believe that because God is our Heavenly Father, he would not condemn those who never had the opportunity to be baptized or understand the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, He prepared a way by which these people could receive the necessary ordinance of baptism to return to live with Him again. A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often a descendant of the person, is baptized on behalf of the individual in a Mormon temple. In other words, the baptism if performed by proxy with a living person standing in for the deceased individual.

3. There are multiple heavens. There are actually three according to the Mormon doctrine. One for those that do just ok, one for those that do better than average, and one for those that are really, really good.

2. Modern Revelation. The Mormons believe that the elected prophet of the time gets visits from god and gives him directions. The Mormons have a convention 2 times per year and the prophet tells them what God said.

1. Multiple worlds with multiple Gods. They believe that God created many planets with many people and each planet has its own God. They go further to say that if you are good and special you can also become a God of your own planet.

I have no idea how people can invest their entire lives into this belief system. It just seems insane to me; an awfully hard pill to swallow. However, there are more than 13 million Mormons world-wide.

13 Million!!!

In fact, John Huntsman is running for President of the USA and is of the Mormon faith. Maybe he will get his own planet some day :)

If anyone has seen The Book of Mormon, I would love to hear your opinion. I've listened to a lot of the songs and some were quit shocking!