Pardon me Sir, Do you have any Grey Poupon?

Last Sunday night, after having been sick all day, and lounging around the house doing nothing, Les and I were desperate to watch a movie. We scrolled through all of the On-Demand stuff that Comcast offers, as we often do, but found nothing of interest. So, then we stumbled across the The Singles Ward 2. Now, unfortunately, Les would rather shovel our driveway or change poopy diapers than watch this movie. He has been very disappointed with many of the "church" movies that have been made. And, frankly, he's sick and tired of seeing the same thing again and again. But, I am a more mild critic and I was actually in the mood to watch something that I pretty well knew would be stupidly laughable. I just wanted to relax with Les and watch something that we could laugh about. Somehow I convinced Les to join me. The movie very much lived up to our expectations.

Over the next few days I kept thinking about a few of the characters in the movie - the way they were written and portrayed. The story has the infamous Kirby, of course, and a girl from his singles ward and they are getting married. However, she is a convert to the church and her parents don't really approve of the union. It was the bride's parents that puzzled me. They were non-Mormon, non-Utahn people who had a lot of money. For some reason the screen-writer chose to stereotype the non-Mormon, non-Utahn rich people as being 1) divorced 2) snobby 3) very naive and disrespectful of Mormon culture 4) perceiving Utah Mormons as hillbillies 5) talking like they were someone's butler 6) money worshippers 7) psychotic. Why do we continue to perpetuate this stereotype of ourselves as well as the stereotype of outsiders looking in at us? (us = Utah Mormons). I understand that these characters were mostly the way they were because the movie was a "comedy"- term used loosely.

I can't ignore the message that it sends when Halestorm pictures and many others continue to give us characters like this. I just don't believe that our non-Utah, non-Mormon friends talk like the Fresh Prince's Butler - even the rich ones. I don't think we need to continue to put a chasm between "us" and "them". I prefer to believe that non-Utah and/or non-Mormon people are...well, pretty much just like me. Nice people trying to do what they believe is good and right. Trying to raise their children or do their job the best they can and trying to make a positive dent in the world.