Mormon character on that House TV show,

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Last night, on the TV show House, M.D. (i.e. what if Sherlock Holmes was a medical doctor in the 21st century?), a Mormon character appeared. House had a group of 40 possible new assistants, which he has to cut down to 3. This Mormon character has made the first cut, so he’ll be on the next episode. Not sure if he’ll become a regular or not.

Three interesting things, this character is African-American, went to BYU, and drank Tequila because House convinced him (after a small debate) he had to in order to save a patient. I’m pretty sure if I had been in a similar situation I would have walked off and decided not to take the job. But, for those who saw it, I’m curious what you thought.

54 thoughts on “Mormon character on that House TV show,”

  1. Question from a non-Mormon: The Jews have a rule that states that most of their laws can be broken if necessary to save a life. For example, the various Sabbath laws can be set aside to save someone from a burning house. (Some) Jewish doctors use this rule to work on the Sabbath, since they are saving lives.

    Do the Mormons have a similar policy regarding their laws/commandments/etc? I suppose in general the Mormon rules aren’t nearly as restrictive as the Jewish laws, so it wouldn’t come up (i.e., how often would drinking alcohol save someone’s life?), but I was just curious.

  2. Doug, I can’t say I’ve ever seen a policy on that, but if there were a scenario (although I can’t imagine one) where I could save someone’s life, I’d get as drunk as Noah.

  3. It requires more back story to make sense, it wasn’t just House asking this Mormon to drink for the fun of it.. The patient wanted to become an astronaut, and was afraid being admitted to a hospital and medical records prevent this from happening. So she asked them to keep everything off the books. To do this they were trying to find ways to perform important tests without using the hospitals actual testing center, so they had a non-drinker, a light drinker and a heavy drinker all drinking the same amount of alcohol to try and figure out what affect it would have on this patient without getting her drunk.

    It probably doesn’t make sense unless you watch House regularly.

    So it wasn’t some weird “drink alcohol to magically save this patients life”, there was an actual purpose to it, they needed someone who had never had alcohol before. Which in my opinion did two positive things, brought up that Mormons follow the WOW and that a Mormon doctor cared enough about his patient to make an exception in this case.

    I’m pretty sure God would understand, and he’d probably be forgiven rather quickly after explaining things to his bishop the following Sunday. And I’m happy any time a Mormon is portrayed in a positive light on a national show, usually we’re used as a punchline that involves multiple wifes.

  4. Also, House brought up that this could be considered an OX in the Mire type thing. Which in this fictional setting it probably was.

  5. jjohnsen –

    except that I don’t think it was an ox in the mire thing. It was pretty clear from the show that the patient was wrong in trying to avoid screening. She wasn’t fit to fly in the Shuttle, and her attempts to go outside the system were rather unethical. The Mormon guy did, at one point, say “why should her dreams trump my religion?”

    It wasn’t REALLY to save her life. He drank Tequila so she could get a dream job. Not quite the same thing.

    I still think House is one of the best shows on TV.

  6. So do you agree the Mormon character is a pretty great representation of us (or at least better than most cultural references)? Maybe that’s why I feel defensive about it, I’m still high from seeing a positive LDS character on television.

  7. I loved that episode. The black Mormon will be in many episodes this season, if not all of them (I could tell you who makes the cut, but a google search may reveal that to you if you really want to know). The line that nobody has mentioned yet was when House said, “Religious people don’t use reason, that’s why they’re religious!” The fact that the Mormon is comfortable with his personal beliefs to the point that he is willing to drink for someone else is great in my opinion. The “avoid the appearance of evil” is ridiculous in this case, since if they were taking specific drugs it would be the same as drinking alcohol. This actor’s character is brilliant and I think people will be surprised at how positively he is being portrayed.

    I got on the House forum last night (at fox.com) and 80% of the people were saying how they really liked the black Mormon and want him to stay. 20% were saying, “Mormonism destroys families…is a cult…etc…and it just makes me sad to see a Mormon portrayed on House, please write out this character.” Not many people took those posters were taken too seriously. I was thinking, “Wow! The writers have really found something with this character they can exploit over and over again, as well as cause conflicting emotions in the audience; he will be on this show for a while.” After additional research, I found that that is true!

  9. Thanks, I was just curious if it was addressed anywhere. (Understandable that its not, most religions don’t have written rules to cover every possible contingency the way Judaism does).

    It does seem clear that in this situation no exemption would apply, since it wasn’t a life and death situation. Though being pressured by your prospective boss, one with as fearsome a reputation and demeanor as House, might be viewed as nearly life and death by the poor assistant.

  10. Waters of Mormon has the same thread going. Here is what I said there.

    A) The comment about giving up on principles doesn’t really address the concept of a hierarchy of principles or the concept of Faith’s relationship to principles. (If the prohet told you to drink a beer, would you do it?)

    B) The idea that they wouldn’t be able to run tests the normal way without “the superviser” knowing about it is really stupid.

    C) The idea that a person who has never had a drink reacting differently than a person who rarely drinks is stupid. [I’ll add here that as an alchoholic, I know that alchohol effects people differently based on genetics, not on whther they imbibe regularly. stupid stupid stupid.]

    However, I mainly like the idea of a black mormon doctor who is willing to cross lines to uphold higher principles. If they are willing to flesh him out more as a character and not cheapen him by House causing him to apostatize, then I’d say he has great potential.

  11. Doug, the sin is not in taking a drink or alcohol, but being a drinker who doesn’t treat his body well. Only vegetarians can say they keep the word of wisdom.

  12. Doug, though there’s no parallel Mormon delineation or halachic debate, many LDS implicitly recognize and would act on pikuach nephesh. However, since LDS have far fewer intrusive commandments than orthodox Jews, at least, (such as not driving on the Sabbath, etc.), I think the necessary circumstances for that to happen to an LDS would be rare and/or contrived.

  13. jjohnsen –

    I think, overall, it was a positive portrayal. The scene after the Mormon guy drinks, and then House starts reversing all his positions in order to make the guy feel guilty, was well played out.

    I also should cut the Mormon guy some slack, since House was withholding information from him. I as the viewer, was privy to that info, but the character wasn’t. So while *I think* I would walk out in such a situation, I can’t be 100% sure.

  14. I predict that if the character stays, he will eventually be portrayed taking some unethical/questionable action, at which time hoards of LDS members will work themselves into an uproar (including, if not especially, on the bloggernacle) about how they’re being persecuted by negative t.v. portrayals.

  16. I’ve never watched House (the commercials annoy the h*ll out of me), but any LDS character portrayed decently in pop culture is fine with me. I’m sick of the way we’re portrayed by Hollywood in most instances- the polygamist, the extreme zealot, the gay mormon, etc.

  17. I thought it was a wildly positive portrayal of a Mormon. You have to accept the ridiculous premises set up by the show, but under those premises, it showed him as a morally upstanding person but the opposite of a mind-numbed robot. Especially from a non-member standpoint, I think he came across very positively. I agree with Julie in #2 and in the ridiculous world of House, this was the essence of the choice. I don’t think they portrayed him as making the decision to get a job.

  18. I still think one of the most interesting portrayals of Mormons on TV was the Frasier episode where Frasier is looking for a new agent (Beebe is portrayed as Satanic). Frasier ends up getting a Boy scout, naïve do-gooder agent who shows up for tough negotiations in his Scout uniform. Frasier reluctantly fires him because he’s TOO good and honest to be an agent. The contrast between the Satanic but ruthlessly effective Beebe and the saintly but naïve Mormon is classic. The writers should go to BYU biz school to get a more realistic view of Mormon business people, but I love the fact that the exact opposite of the evil, unethical Beebe (“I know your phone number: 666”) is a Latter-day Saint.

  19. It sounds like the writers were a bit more creative than the norm in their portrayal of a religious character. Television usually has little idea how to communicate that a non-cleric is a religious person, and even with the clerics, you would think America is 70% Catholic for how often writers lazily use priests and nuns to represent all religion. Even this Mormon doctor character could be a bit of a cheat since we have a strong “nation of priests” concept, and the Word of Wisdom provides such low-hanging fruit for overtly signally that the character is religious.

  21. Julie (2): “…if there were a scenario (although I can’t imagine one) where I could save someone’s life, I’d get as drunk as Noah.”

    When my mother went into 10-weeks premature labor with me, her doctor–who was also her uncle and stake president–prescribed vodka (and bed rest and other medications). As my father tells it, Mom was a giggling, silly, rag-doll-floppy drunk.

    We all survived. I keep “my” shot glass as a treasured memento.

  22. I really liked the character. I think they’ll make him fairly complex. I especially liked that he was African American. He also isn’t a “stereo-type” of Mormons. That is he’s a complex character with strengths and weaknesses – even from his short appearance.

    I think he’ll be an interesting foil for House’s atheism and cynicism. I’m really curious as to how they develop it. I wonder if there are some Mormons in the writing staff.

  23. Clark –

    I wondered too. At the very least, someone on the writing staff knows some Mormons, as at least some of the things the character said sounded like something a Mormon in that situation would say.

  25. But wait!

    What if that character used Government assistance like WIC and Medicaid while going through medical school?

    I’m pretty sure the Bloggernacle community would decide this was the most vile of all media portrayals of Mormons.

    😉

  26. I really like this character. Now, I don’t like the show “House” and this is the only one I have watched out of curiosity. Not only do I think this is the most realistic Mormon I have seen on TV or Movies, but one of the most respectable religious ones. The whole argument between the two, including the reaction to the “magic underwear” comment, were refreshingly level headed. I hope if they continue with him, if they will continue with how they have written him.

    “except that I don’t think it was an ox in the mire thing. It was pretty clear from the show that the patient was wrong in trying to avoid screening.”

    Yes, and no. It was clear from the surface explanation. However, I think the symptoms that she was having, including the serious possibility of liver damage, represented a life or death situtation. Now, considering that Dr. House was NOT going to go “legit,” then the Mormon decided it was better to save a life than argue ethics. That last part of the sentence was conjectural on my part, but could easily be argued.

  27. Ivan –

    It would be OK as long as he got to use vouchers to attend a better school in Utah.

  29. Now I wish I’d seen it — I’ve been avoiding Mormon characters on TV for the longest time. No need to start hating my favorite shows. Thank goodness for USA’s repeats.

  30. I don’t think a Mormon should, in good conscience, be on ANY of these reality shows (except maybe competition shows like So You Think You Can Dance).

    The roles aren’t unionized, and the studio execs seem to have overcompensated and gone a bit bonkers on taking advantage of it. You basically sign away all your rights and any control you had over your life. If the show wants you to hang at a strip joint, you will hang at a strip joint or be sued. If they want a drinking contest, you will drink or be sued. If they want you to backstab a particular other contestant, you will step it up accordingly (yes, the producers of these shows do rig the character interaction based on viewership polls). It’s all in the contract and once you sign one of these things, you no longer own your own life.

    Anyone with even a hint of self-respect and morality should completely avoid these shows.

  31. Seth R. –

    case in point: “You won’t see that in Provo.”

    (if anyone actually gets that reference, I’ll be very surprised. I never actually watched the show, but I did see the rather hilarious online debates that followed it).

  32. I think the question of whether or not the Mormon character should have drank or not is interesting. My husband and I were descussing this the other day – what about members of the church who are CIA or whatever, working undercover? There may be instances where to be undercover they might need to drink or appear to participate with others…or drink with someone to get information out of them. We wondered if there might be occasions where this happens because of someone’s employment or if they have ways of appearing to drink to not “blow their cover” but not really drink alcohol. What do you guys think?
    On another note, I had to roll my eyes at the “magic underwear” comment. How sterotypical and unoriginal of the writers, don’t you think?

  33. I did not like the episode. I was prepared for House to make Mormon jokes, but I don’t appreciate it when they show someone quite easily discarding a very core belief of his religion. I would have liked the character more if he had stuck up for his beliefs. And I was totally offended by the “magic underwear” statement. That sort of thing makes me angry. I was excited to see a Mormon character on House, but if he’s going to be portrayed as spineless and willing to compromise his beliefs, I hope he gets kicked off.

  34. It’s not called “spineless”, Laura, it’s “nuance”. The bloggernacle loves nuance.

  35. The magic underwear comment by House is getting a lot of play.

    I personally did not find it offensive, but only because House is a jerk who insults anyone and everyone all the time. It would have been a shocker if he didn’t bring it up eventually.

  36. I found it a bit unbelievable that he was convinced to drink. It would have been fairly easy to find a nondrinker on the street.

    The “magic underwear” comment was offensive, but House is an equal-opportunity offender. If that becomes more than a one-off comment, I would not be happy. As someone who has faced anti-LDS discrimination and harassment on the job, I am somewhat sensitive to these types of comments.

  37. Well, House’s comment in the last episode where he called the guy “big love” and then said “and I’m not calling you that because you’re Mormon” shows that House just likes to say the most offensive thing possible (while still being allowed on Network TV, of course).

  38. He’s an equal opportunity offender. And the Big Love comment cracked me up.

  39. Last night, I caught the last ten minutes of a bizarre comedy. What drew me in and kept me watching to the end was a death threat signed by “Wilford Woodfuff IV.” When this character showed up, he was a Chinese man with a Southern accent thicker than Foghorn Leghorn’s and Boss Hog’s put together. I wonder how the writers pulled Wilford Woodruff’s name into it.

  40. John –

    I watched Pushing Daisies as well. Very odd. I wonder if it was just random coincidence, or of one of the writers threw it in as an in-joke.

    Great show, though. I loved the backstory of how a Chinese immigrant became a Southern General during the Civil War.

  41. If you’re going to choose to practice a religion with elements that most people think are “weird” then you have to be able to shoulder the comments, whether they’re on TV, at work, etc. And before someone tells me that I should be understanding and tolerant of Mormon’s beliefs….I spent 25 years growing up around Mormons. I met some who were nice…..some were even great friends. But they’re not known for their openness to other religions. Missionaries are actually taught to use language that is common with the religions they’ll encounter on their mission….tell me that’s not fraud. Mitt Romney is down-playing the religion for a reason. It’s weird.

  42. Topover — O.k. it’s not fraud. It’s language found in the New Testament, of which the LDS faith is fully supportive so far as it is translated correctly. Deal with it and move on…

    On the topic of this thread, kudos to House for being the first t.v. show to start airing an LDS character during this political season. My hope is that they have an LDS writer on staff who knows his stuff. It would be demeaning to House if this guy is a pushover. After all, athiest rhetoric can easily be countered, it would be good to give to House as good as he dishes out. That’s what this show is built on.

  43. topover –

    you’re wrong, and it isn’t fraud. And a lot of racists say “some of my best friends are black.” Compare that to what you just said. And having been in the Missionary Training Center, I can categorically state I was never trained “to use language that is common with the religions they’ll encounter on their mission.” Anyone who claims otherwise is lying. But you appear to be either a bigot or a drive-by troll.

    As for House last night – kudos to the Mormon character for punching House. It was about time someone did.

  44. I’m used to watch House because of the interesting medical puzzles that he and his team solved. Finally, though, I got fed up with it because of Dr. House’s abusive nature. I decided I didn’t need to use my discretionary time looking for abusive situations–they come up all the time anyway. So, I didn’t see the episode in quesiton.

    That said, on BeliefNet, an article about the House episode quoted the Mormon character as saying: ‘“LDS doesn’t try to dictate every detail of our lives,” he says. “When a situation isn’t clear we’re encouraged to make our own decisions.” Plus, he says, House made a good argument.’ Did the Mormon character really say that? If so, he doesn’t talk like any Mormon I know, and he doesn’t act like any active Mormon I know. We would say something like “Our Church Leaders say so-and-so…” Also, despite what others have commented to the contrary, I’m not sure any situation warrants compromising my principles.

    Now, I know none of us as Church members are perfect, but if the character is supposed to be a practicing Mormon, he needs a lot more practice!

  45. Last night proved they don’t have an LDS writer on staff. The lDS character started to either pray or give the patient a blessing and it sounded nothing like the typical Mormon prayer or wording in a blessing.

    I did enjoy the punch, and finding out that the character is a single dad who puts his child before his occupation just made him better. He really is one of the most positive Mormon characters I’ve seen on television. I’m hoping that all this focus on him means he’ll be around a while.

  46. I watched the episode the other night that dipicted the Mormom as a “bunching bag” for House. Paligamy, racial comments, etc… and when a derogatory comment about Joseph Smith was flung at him, he punch House in the mouth.
    Those comments hurt me, as a Mormon. They were very nasty and I have to say I have never heard another Religion bashed like that before on a TV show. I know that this is coming out for political reasons. With Mitt Romney running for president. For you other Mormans reading this, I was at the NY Manhatan Temple open house a few years ago. There was a protester out front standing on a van screeming awful things about us. The poeple planing the event estimated a certain amount would come through, as a result of this person with nothing better to do than be nasty, caused that number to increase greatly. So God will use Satan to his own advantage; remember “The Fall”?

  48. Collee, this has nothing to do with Romney. House is an equal opportunity offender. Are his sexist jokes somehow against the Clinton campaign? How about making fun of the elderly, is that a dig at John McCain.

    I don’t think this is the show for you.

  49. The character was dropped from the show this week as part of House’s weeding out practice. The show tried to make you believe he’d slept with someone to win the contest, but in the end he hadn’t. So at least he made it through the series still appearing to be a pretty good representation of a moral person.

  50. Law & Order: SVU featured some “Mormnon” characters last night. They were a couple of nannies from Utah. They weren’t portrayed unfavorably, per se, but it gets a little old when producers think they need to make their characters fit several stereotypes in order to be convincing as a certain type of character.

    Within about 20 seconds they covered all their bases:

    Homely, on the verge of polygamist-looking white girls? Check.

    Obligatory “Oh my Heck”? Check.

    Reference to boyfriend on a mission? Check.

    Mention of Relief Society? Check.

    “Ignorant” behavior and comments due to an over-sheltered Utah life? Check.

    There was one line I liked though. When pinhead cop guy and his partner (whatsherface, who everybody thinks is really hot but she really isn’t) are interviewing the nannies’ boss, she says “Everybody knows Mormons make the best nannies- They don’t drink, don’t smoke, and they speak English.”

    Very true.

  52. @jjohnsen [Visitor]
    the thing is.. why didnt any one of the other doctors do it? if it was just 18 and House, maybe I can understand that. we know House isnt against drinking to save patients, as he does with the man on death row who drank paint thinner to kill himself. House just wanted to manipulate him, push him to the edge, like he always does. I would have refused, job or no job.

  53. I agree with JJhonsen.
    Mormons always are used as the punt of a joke. I think the way this character was portrayed was fine. Im not sure I would have drunken the alcohol, but given the situation, it makes sense.

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