The following is a transcript of a conversation I had yesterday with LDS writer-producer-director-editor-actor Richard Dutcher. Mr. Dutcher spoke very frankly about his excellent new film God’s Army 2: States of Grace, filmmaking, and the state of Mormon cinema. The transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Some of your recent press has referred to you as the “Father of Mormon Cinema.†How does that title feel on you?

Well, I suppose that would have been true at one time, but the father may be leaving the family soon.

You mean you might be charting a new direction now?

Well, I may not really have much choice.

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Over the last two years, my approach to the Plan of Salvation has evolved quite a bit– in large part due to the thoughts I’ve processed and discussed on LDS blogs. The summary version of my current philosophy goes like this:

Life is not a crucible– it’s a chrysalis. Rather than being simply a test or a proving ground, the purpose of life is to teach us to become Gods.

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Click the title of the post to go to the trailer. Two observations:

1. I laughed. It looks funny. Maybe there are only 60 seconds of funny material in the movie, but that’s something.

2. Somebody back me up here: as the camera pans during the opening prayer, the very first guy you see on the non-uniformed team, very quickly, is the also present on the farm where Napoleon asks “Do the chickens have sharp talons?” Anybody?

(hat tip: A Motley Vision)

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Yes, we’ve been remiss. No BOMBlogging since 1 Nephi, and it’s time to be finishing Alma. Truly sorry, everyone. There are several half-finished posts on the intervening books (you should see the doozy I half-wrote on Jarom, it’s AMAZING!), but I’m ready to just move on to the present.

So, here’s what I’ve learned from reading Alma: Mormon and Alma don’t think we are marionettes on a stage with two competing puppeteers vying for control. (Okay, actually nobody thinks that). What do they think we are? Two huge corporations vying for market share.

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I hope you won’t mind a bit of Friday-induced levity. . .

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As I’ve finally begun to feel accustomed to the ill-fitting costume of adulthood, I’ve noticed a new vulnerability to a kind of pessimism that has never tempted me before. Having spent the first 25 years of my life dreaming and expecting, I have come to the point where the dreams and expectations must be realized or discarded forever. You can guess which of those two outcomes is the more frequent.

I’ve never been a big dreamer. For whatever reason, one of the very most important dreams in my life is a house on a large, flat lot, enclosed somewhere among some mature trees and shrubs.

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The Salt Lake Tribune continues its interesting look into the numbers that define LDS church membership and growth today, with a look at “lost members.” The story reports on a large number of Utahn Saints that have fallen between the cracks, and cannot be located. All told, the list contains around 180,000 people, or roughly the population of Salt Lake City. The story allows Elder Merrill Bateman a chance to explain the statistics, which he does very candidly:

We really don’t give up on people. As long as they have not asked to have their names taken off the rolls of the church, we have a responsibility toward them and believe in time . . . we will be an influence to help them find their way back.

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Elise Soukup works as an Assistant Editor for Newsweek Magazine. She recently authored a cover story on the LDS Church and Joseph Smith for the magazine, titled
Mormon Odyssey. You can buy the issue at newstands everywhere. Elise is an active member of the Church, and lives in Manhattan.

First of all, congratulations on such a visible accomplishment in journalism. How did it feel to find out you’d be writing the Newsweek cover, and have things gotten any busier since then?

Thank you very much. I can say that this has been a particularly crazy week; I’m not usually scheduling my day around radio–and Mormon blog–interviews.

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Did anyone else ever grow up confused about the meaning of “In the name of ______________________, amen?”*. Did you have a tough time figuring that out, like I did? It’s because of bad punctuation.

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In a few recent conversations, there’s been some back and forth over whether a certain behavior is a sin or not.* The minority view, which held that the behavior is a sin, argued that the behavior is harmful and leads to addiction and unhappiness. Those on the opposite side conceded these points, but argued that it’s just unkind and unhelpful to put that label on the behavior, since many engage in it against their will, or with limited agency, or under pressure from society, or are otherwise pitiable.

These arguments sound like non sequiturs to me.

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