honerentheos wrote:It is what it is. I don't think the movie portrays a specific parallel with Mormonism, just that Mormonism is what is familiar of this kind of thing to folks who participate here.
I hadn't heard the mechanization terminology before. I'd have to follow up on that more, it is an interesting idea.
Sure, the AA is a proto-religion, but it's not anywhere as detailed as Mormonism is. Of course, the problem with Mormonism is that as time goes on, its intricacies are lost as main ideas are summarized and mass printed for a broad audience.
One of the more interesting parts of the film in its shout-out to Mormonism was the temple rituals. The AA and other mechanized groups don't have a temple -- although Today's McTemple may not count as much as previous iterations of temples did. I don't know.
While the Hagra are a sex cult Like Mormonism, there is tension with this parallel. From what I remember of the movie, there wasn't a ham-fisted portrayal of Mormon polygamy, with one guy who is the leader fudging community rules to where the end state is getting with all the young girls. Such would have been a direct connection to Joseph Smith and Brigham, but "sex cult" goes well beyond one horny leader surrounded by dupes. And it did so for Mormonism at the very least because polygamy was eventually stamped out.
In the movie, it was the outsider who had sex with a community member while a bunch of women from the community watched. Again, the insect parallel: the male is lured, used for sex, paralyzed, and disposed of. This also may have been a good liberal writer turning the tables on men. But to my (admittedly poor) memory, the movie took pains not to have a Swedish version of Waco. Yes, your point about the danger of folk religion stands, but at the same time, the Hagra weren't the simple reduction of what modernism sees as religion either.
In Mormonism, "procreation" is the highest of all doctrines. It's a unique doctrine that isn't taught anywhere else to my knowledge. The highest truth that you aren't supposed to talk about openly is that Mormons have sex for eternity and create endless worlds. Whether the relationships are polygamous or monogamous doesn't really matter. In this regard, Mormons are different from the Hagra, whose religion seems to be based on sustainability and balance, rather than endless expansion of the hive. The important connection is the utter reverence and sacramentalizing of human sexuality in the context of reproduction to whatever end that may be.
This highest doctrine in Mormonism is not only backed up by the temple rights, but by the Book of Abraham and its mysterious symbols that we all stared at in our quads at youth during sacrament meeting. So this to me was a huge connection, even if the two communities diverge substantially in theology. And I have to point out, the temple is weirdly sexual. I suppose I'm not supposed to talk details, but I'll say this much: I had at an MTC teacher and also a fellow missionary reveal the exact same fear. "I was scared to go to the temple because I thought for sure there was this one part where everybody had to be naked". And everyone laughs it off. They didn't think that because of ant-Mormon literature. We all had similar thoughts, I'm sure.
The one part that does diverge with Mormonism is the role of intoxication. Perhaps that's due to Mormonism's external influences, The Kirtland Temple dedications seems to indicate Mormonism could have evolved in another direction.
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