The God Makers, Part 1

All of my life, as far back as I can remember, I always heard about the evil anti-Mormon film, The God Makers.  I always thought it would be full of blatant lies, so I never even bothered to watch it, even as an ex-Mormon.  Well, today, I figured I might as well watch it and write a review.  As an ex-Mormon myself who blogs against the church, I still make every attempt to be as accurate and truthful as possible. I fully expected this video to talk about how Mormons sacrifice babies in the temple, Mormons having horns, etc..  I thought I was going to have to write a long list of all the mis-truths told about Mormons in this video, but I found it to be 99.9% accurate. And the inaccurate items are so minor that I don't even feel that they are worth mentioning.

The film features many ex-Mormons sharing their experiences in the church.  They also interview several believing Mormons.  Other than a few minor details, the film was very accurate about what Mormons believe.  I saw this film not as an anti-Mormon film but simply a documentary.   A good portion of the video is spent explaining Mormon doctrine and beliefs, and having those claims verified by testimonials from actual Mormons.

It talked about several of the issues within Mormonism that the church attempts to cover up.  These items, of course, are what all the Mormons are unhappy about, the supposed lies made up by bitter ex-Mormons.  It talks about the several version of the first vision of Joseph Smith.  It talks about the church's doctrine of the black skin curse.  It talks about the problems with the Book of Abraham.  It talked about Joseph Smith's heavy involvement with the occult.

Seeing as how this is an older film, many of the items shown in the reinactment of part of the temple ceremony are no longer in the ceremony today.  This may add to the Mormons' disapproval of this film, claiming that items shown are not what Mormons do in the temple.  It is true that they NO LONGER do those things, but they certainly used to until they were changed in 1990.  Items such as the death penalties, pay lay ale, and the five points of fellowship. 

The one disappointing thing about this film for me was how they ended it. It took on a whole "come to Jesus" plea. It is disappointing to me that people are smart enough to get out of one lie and head straight into another. Cut out the pro-Christian crap at the end, and otherwise it is a very well put together and accurate depiction of the church. This was supposed to be a video about Mormons, not about coming to Jesus. I am very disappointed with the ending.

Watch the entire video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vVcaViVCGk

There is a second God Makers film.  I will watch that soon and share my three cents.