G.K. Chesterton’s excellent Father Brown series is a collection of short stories that are superficially mystery tales, but often contain fairly deep social and religious commentary. For example, I think one of the early Father Brown tales – “The Invisible Man” – is one of the most profound short stories in English literature.
In the tale “The Vampire of the Village” the mystery hinges on the demeanor of a priest, and while I won’t give away the ending, I am going to quote from Father Brown’s explanation of how he realized the truth behind a murder:
It is true, and it is not at all unnatural, that England does not know much about the Church of Rome. But England does not know much about the Church of England. Not even as much as I do. You would be astonished at how little the average public grasps about the Anglican controversies; lots of them don’t really know what is meant by a High Churchman or a Low Churchman, even on the particular points of practice, let alone the two theories of history and philosophy behind them. You can see the ignorance in any newspaper; in any merely popular novel or play.
Now the first thing that struck me was that this venerable cleric had got the whole thing incredibly mixed up. No Anglican parson could be so wrong about every Anglican problem. He was supposed to be an old Tory High Churchman; and then he was boasting of being a Puritan. A man like that might personally be rather Puritanical; but he would never call it being a Puritan. He professed a horror of the stage; he didn’t know that High Churchman generally don’t have that special horror, though Low Churchman do. He talked like a Puritan about the Sabbath; and then he had a crucifix in his room. He evidently had no notion of what a very pious parson ought to be, except that he ought to be very solemn and venerable and frown upon the pleasures of the world.
All this time there was a subconscious notion running in my head; something I couldn’t fix in my memory; and then it came to me suddenly. This was a Stage Parson.
I think that, using this definition, most of the time Mormons in the media are “stage Mormons.” While Chesterton was referring more to Melodrama than serious theatre, this applies even to serious theatre today. For example, the Mormon in Angels in America are stage Mormons – generic, stereotyped people who are unlike any real Mormons. They serve a plot function, but that’s about it. The Mormons in Angels in America are about as nuanced as the occasional Mormon who pops up on a sitcom – but at least in any given sitcom, we expect most every character to be a stereotyped “stage” person.
The Mormon character on House gets some points for having the Mormon be an African-American single dad, but at the same time, it was clear the creators had nothing more than a “stage” notion of a Mormon in mind, as the character’s one prayer (and reaction to a cross) were atypical of Mormons, but could be typical of someone who only has a vague notion of Mormons as “really, really, religious.”
The news media seems to have no other template, as well. Rather than attempting to cover Mormons as they are, most news reports approach Mormons with their preconceived notions of Mormons as “slightly (or very) weird, somewhat patriotic, religious types with ties to polygamy.” Just like the fake priest in the Father Brown tale “He evidently had no notion of what a very pious parson ought to be, except that he ought to be very solemn and venerable and frown upon the pleasures of the world” – the news media, as a whole (there are exceptions), “evidently has no notion of what a Mormon ought to be, except that he/she ought to have the exact same beliefs as every other Mormon, wear funny underwear, and otherwise be very peculiar.”
Any thoughts, examples of coverage that indulges in or goes beyond the “stage Mormon” level, or ideas on how to deal with this problem?