Corsair wrote: ↑Mon Oct 29, 2018 8:55 am
Some of you know that my wife is on staff with the Mesa Easter Pageant. Not only that, I have actually appeared in the pageant as recently as last April. Let's just say that I may be a "method actor" in the angry mob during the arrest of Jesus after Gethsemene.
LDS pageants have one major flaw that most believing Mormons consistently overlook. Pageants are supposed to be missionary tools, not primarily a cultural celebration or an instance of worship of Jesus Christ. It's amusing how Mormons and their leaders fail to comprehend this. The Mesa Easter Pageant is a mostly straightforward Christian Passion play, but there are still scenes that announce "modern prophets on Earth today just like Peter" as well as "Jesus gave the apostles priesthood authority to perform baptism".
The Mesa Easter Pageant is on hiatus because of extensive rennovation work being done on the Mesa temple. As yet, I have not heard if this pageant will meet the same fate. I was out of town this past weekend and I don't know if my wife has heard about the general pageant cancelling announcement. I fully expect many frantic phone calls all over the Mesa and Gilbert area once this announcement gets processed by thousands of current and former pageant cast members.
However, I actually expect that the Mesa Easter Pageant will be spared. I would welcome firm news about this, but several points are in favor of keeping this pageant. First, the most overt "Mormon" elements had already been removed. A scene featuring the resurrected Saviour visiting the Nephites was removed in the 90s because non-members found it weird and jarring. The Mesa Easter Pageant easily has the largest attraction to the non-LDS community and even has several non-LDS cast members who appreciate the general Christian theme to it.
There is no doubt this has to be an expensive endeavor for the church despite the thousands of volunteer hours spent on it. With the rennovation of the entire temple site, the release plans did include a space for a pageant stage. This could still be yanked back and I can only imagine the weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth should that occur. I suppose I should breach this subject tonight with my wife with the announcement in hand.
I am going to look at a larger picture here. The “priesthood purpose” for the pageant may have been missionary work with nonmembers, but the REAL reason people did them year after year with poor missionary results was because they enjoyed doing it. Members enjoyed attending, parents enjoyed watching their kids in it, the participants enjoyed the challenge. People won’t do squat for missionary work, unless they enjoy it or they happen to be full time missionaries who reluctantly do it because they pretty much have to. But the plays are fun. Sure, not everybody enjoys that kind of thing, but they were fun for those involved, and as a side benefit, they could feel righteous for helping the missionary effort, even where there were zero referrals year after year.
My husband did Savior of the World when our stake put it on. He had an excuse to grow out his beard, he got to sing a solo, he got to meet new people, and just enjoy the getting together for all the practices. I went with him for 90% of the practices, but no way did I want to be onstage. But the practices were fun.
When I was a kid (showing my age) all of the Provo stakes got together to put on the Fourth of July Freedom Festival. Didn’t cost the church anything because BYU made sure it was profitable. But then seeing children dance got less profitable than bringing in Hollywood celebrities, so the program went with what was most profitable.
Roadshows, Freedom Festival, now pageants have all gone the way of the dinosaur. Sure, it has been a 60 year process. I don’t think it is coincident. I don’t really think it is all financial either, of course that is part of it. I think we have had some Stick In The Mud apostles who don’t think fun or socializing are worth while because they don’t ACCOMPLISH anything. So, they have been getting rid of anything that is primarily socialization or fun. They just don’t think it is the church’s job to promote socialization or fun. They have even stated that church does not need to be “entertaining”. And they don’t have a clue about spiritual, so they have been focusing on pure indoctrination. Packer, Oaks, Nelsen, Bednar are all of this opinion. They understand nothing about community, or social needs, or having fun. They are workaholics and don’t think that is as bad of an addiction as alcohol or porn. In fact, they fail to recognize how it is a harmful addiction.
