Larry Wilmore:
He acknowledges that when viewed by an objective outsider, every religion probably looks strange.
To his credit, he spent two and a half weeks in Salt Lake City. I wish others who want to understand us would spend that much time, or more, immersed in our organization and culture.
The 18 months to two years that full time missionaries spend in other locations and cultures has a phenomenal effect on their understanding. I wish news organizations would examine this a bit more in depth. Missionaries come back not only loving the people they served amongst but understanding them as well.
I lost my taste for playing the tourist when I lived in Hawaii. Yes, I lived there, for an entire semester going to school. I developed a healthy, yes healthy, dislike for tourists just like every other student on campus. They disgusted us. Tourists' Hawaii experience was so superficial and artificial. In order to understand Hawaii, you have to live there.
Tourists don't see Hawaii. They see other tourists. . .
Wilmore acknowledges that in order to understand Mormons he really needs to spend more time with them, but he says:
I once had a discussion with a film studies colleague where I worked. He complained that my expertise, and his own, suffered from the same problem. No one really understands movies or politics but they talk about them anyway.
Few understand Mormons, but they talk about them anyway. It's just doubly irritating when it's journalists.
I'll reserve any more criticism until I'm able to actually view NBC's offering from Thursday night (August 23) on Mormon in America.
And I don’t want to slam somebody else’s religion. I mean as a Catholic, we’re basically cannibals: We eat Jesus every Sunday, you know? So who am I to say your religion is creepy?Wilmore is surprisingly gracious in his interview, "Larry Wilmore on Race, Politics, and Mormonism" by Daniel Haglund in Slate magazine.
He acknowledges that when viewed by an objective outsider, every religion probably looks strange.
To his credit, he spent two and a half weeks in Salt Lake City. I wish others who want to understand us would spend that much time, or more, immersed in our organization and culture.
The 18 months to two years that full time missionaries spend in other locations and cultures has a phenomenal effect on their understanding. I wish news organizations would examine this a bit more in depth. Missionaries come back not only loving the people they served amongst but understanding them as well.
I lost my taste for playing the tourist when I lived in Hawaii. Yes, I lived there, for an entire semester going to school. I developed a healthy, yes healthy, dislike for tourists just like every other student on campus. They disgusted us. Tourists' Hawaii experience was so superficial and artificial. In order to understand Hawaii, you have to live there.
Tourists don't see Hawaii. They see other tourists. . .
Wilmore acknowledges that in order to understand Mormons he really needs to spend more time with them, but he says:
I started to learn more things about it, but you’d have to spend more time within the church to really get a sense of where it’s at and where it’s going.What a novel concept. In order to understand something you really have to be willing to put in the time.
I once had a discussion with a film studies colleague where I worked. He complained that my expertise, and his own, suffered from the same problem. No one really understands movies or politics but they talk about them anyway.
Few understand Mormons, but they talk about them anyway. It's just doubly irritating when it's journalists.
I'll reserve any more criticism until I'm able to actually view NBC's offering from Thursday night (August 23) on Mormon in America.
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