There’s quite the firestorm happening out in the western portion of our country this week. Following the distribution of nearly 500,000 DVDs on Sunday by several hundred volunteers across the US, and abroad, the reaction has been swift and (at least to me) surprising.

TV stations and newspapers across Utah and around Phoenix, AZ are covering this story in the “top stories” sections. The headlines usually include “Anti-Mormon DVD” or some other hot-button phrase. The quotes are all basically saying, “This DVD is wrong, we’re right, end of story.” One website actually has publicly labeled the DVD “Mormon-bashing”, saying, “Hate directed at any of us is hate directed at all of us. From whomever that hate comes, and to whomever it’s directed, ADL takes it very seriously and will continue to speak out against it.”

The “spin” is hilarious. Anti-Mormon is the most popular phrase, but most reports paint the producers of this DVD as vehemently against the LDS church and Mormons in general.

I know the folks who made the video. They love God, and love people, and have the best motives to help people get free of a religion that is based on stuff they have found to be “unreliable” at best. (As well as being a very works-based, performance-based religion… which is never fun.) But I was not sure about that whole door-to-door distribution thing as we put the site together, and … perhaps I was right.

Can you ever accomplish anything good by “forcing” (even gently) something on someone else? Especially if it involves saying, “You’re wrong, and I’m right.” I know that’s not the intention of the people who made the DVD, but it’s just that whole thing of “Harsh words stir up anger, but a gentle answer turns away wrath.” The anger has definitely been stirred up. I think it’s certainly misplaced… there is definitely merit to what I have seen on the DVD (at least worth checking into) but this way of distributing the DVD has certainly “stirred up the hornet’s nest”.

Fight, fight, fight. That’s all we do when religion is involved. Whether it’s the big stuff like, “Who do you say that I am?” or just silly little stuff like arguing over semantics of a word in a certain Bible verse – or even sillier, arguing over music style or some other totally irrelevant thing. It is so sad to see how much religion polarizes people (though that word is inaccurate as it suggests only two possible opinions. Perhaps fragments would be a better choice. Whatever the word, the effect is undesireable.) The only folks that I see Jesus being angered by in the various accounts of his life are those who would put so many religious restrictions on others. But Jesus himself even loved them, too.

Mostly, I think we’re “supposed” to get along. We are all children of the same Father, created to live every day to the fullest (which means living it step-by-step-in-step with Him.) A lot of us don’t. Sin has trapped us. We’re kept from knowing the Truth. Not some certain list of “right thinking”… but Jesus said that HE is the Truth. He is the way. That’s not a club by which to bludgeon the non-Christian infidel. That’s an invitation. God became man, just because he loves us. Jesus spent so much more time NOT “doing ministry” than he did in the public eye, healing and teaching. He said the greatest commandment is to love God, and love other people. That’s it.

We get so caught up in the details… and we just end up fighting.

I hope this DVD does help some folks to break free of the bondage of religion. I know (as you can see from the links below) that it will cause division. That’s very sad, but expected. But as one who would love for there to be peace at least from people who have a strong desire to know the God who made them… I do hope that some good comes from this project. A lot of people have poured a lot of life into it. (And I can tell you that it is most certainly not simply “Mormon-bashing” or “hate[ful]” in any way.

It’s just… religion vs. religion… will always cause fights.

So, for kicks (just cause it’s kinda crazy that a website that I worked on is in the news in Utah and elsewhere…) here are a few links related to this DVD…

Jesus Christ / Joseph Smith DVD – Official Site
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Press Release
A site created to specifically address the “Search for the Truth” DVD
Google News Results for “Joseph Smith DVD”