With The Book of Mormon musical debuting to mostly rave reviews, Maureen Dowd declared on Sunday that this “is the Mormon moment.”
(Hey, Maureen, thanks for noticing!)
In her column, Dowd observes that at its core, The Book of Mormon musical is a message “not against Mormonism but literalism.”
Indeed, the literalism of contemporary Mormon belief is the tender spot The Book of Mormon musical strikes. The majority of active and observant Mormons maintain a degree of literal belief in their religion’s teachings that most non-LDS people would find astonishing. To understand the predominance of literalism in contemporary Mormonism, imagine that believing that Moses literally parted the Red Sea was required for participation in institutional Jewish life.
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