bigsis_je

For all I know, this is probably a very sweet movie. However, in the very first scene, a serious conversation between two brothers, one starts singing to the other. No one was holding a guitar or anything that would give them a natural reason to start singing; but rather, some normal background music starts playing, and suddenly one brother is singing his lines to the other. I turned it off immediately, because I wasn't ready to handle the cringe. Maybe one day I'll go back and try it again.

How dare the Mormon church "call" a single father with an infant away on a mission for 3+ years! This happens about 7 minutes into the film. It had me shouting at the TV in anger. The God I serve - the Christian God, not the Mormon god - does not rip a baby from his only parent and require the parent to travel to another continent for the remainder of his most crucial, attachment-building years, claiming that it's more important for them to hear the gospel than for the father to raise the son God GAVE him! God said to the Israelites in the Bible, in Deuteronomy 24:5, that a newlywed soldier shouldn't even be required to serve for the first year of his marriage. Along the same lines, I don't think God would send a widower father of an infant far away on a mission. Ugh! The Mormon church is selfish in what it asks of its members, and the members go right along with it because they're convinced the church speaks for God.

Against my better judgment, I went ahead and finished the movie. While beautifully filmed, it was still angering to witness all that these people were put through needlessly. Why didn't they have wagons or oxen? Why were they limited to a certain number of pounds? Why didn't they listen to good advice and wait until spring to start their journey? It seems to me they were being spiritually abused, with this lack of care for the harsh realities they would face.

I hated what was stated in the text at the end of the movie: that their percentage of deaths was *not much higher* than those of other Oregon Trail travelers, and claiming that this was the greatest miracle, considering what they went through. What?!!!!! Their conditions were NEEDLESSLY inflicted upon them!

At best, this story has been twisted to become church propaganda. At worst, this was an extremely abusive PR stunt pulled by the church on its believers. Why not sacrifice a few lives now to gain millions more for the next 170+ years? Despicable!