Religion falsely portrayed

[thinkersp1]

I am disappointed and upset by the portrayal of Mormons on the May 1 episode. The implications of the show was that Mormons are freaks and the serial killer was warped by his religious upbringing. Yes, the guy was warped, but not because he was Mormon. I was appalled at the show for showing the religious garments of the Mormons. To a Mormon, these are sacred and represent covenants made with God. They should not be shown in such a manner as to make fun of religious beliefs. I was saddened with the portrayal of a religion that did not deserve to be portrayed as it was.

[Disasterfreak]

I haven't watched the episode, but I completely agree with you if what you've said is right. You're not the first person to notice this, a similar comment was made on another board: Cold Case Source number 1. I'm really sorry the writers didn't bother doing enough research to get their facts straight. They really should be more careful. Hope this message gets back to them somehow.

[Trublu]

I didnt notice the religious garments, but if they were shown in an inappropriate way, then yes, i think they should have been more careful. But i dont think the point of the episode was to portray Mormons. The storyline would have been the same whether they had Roy was Catholic, Prodestant (sp?) or any other religion. There are fanatics in any and all religion. I dont think they were aiming to say Roy= Mormon so all Mormons=crazy. They werent making fun of religious beliefs, they just happened to be part of the storyline.

[CC Fan]

While I agree that things as sacred as those should be not made fun of, I don't believe that the point of this was to make fun of the undergarments. I believe the point was to be as realistic as possible.

In terms of being warped because of his upbringing, that wasn't the case at all. The boy was born with schizophrenia, however, this disorder manifested itself in the boys religion. Because he believed so strongly in God, he thought the voices he heard was God's voice. This is actually extremely common in patients suffering from schizophrenia. It had nothing to with the way he was raised, as the disorder stems from the brain.

In addition, not once during the episode did I ever feel that the religion was being made fun of. Obviously, the episode was somewhat of a farce, with the flashbacks very Rocky Horror- like style. However, I thought the portrayal of religion was accurate, or at least, as accurate as it could be under the circumstances and variables.

This is all my opinion however, and you have every right to feel the way you do. I hope you will continue watching the show however, as I hope this single episode did not turn you off the brilliance of the show as a whole.

[TVFan]

Let me start off by saying that I am not Mormon, so my opinion may be way off. Anyway, I don't know what the garments are, or how Cold Case portrayed them in "Creatures of the Night," but if it was disrespectful than that wasn't right.

I think the show was trying to be a farce as CC Fan noted. I don't think we were supposed to take much of it very seriously. Having said that, I too thought that the distinction between religion causing Roy to go over the deep end and his mental illness was not very well defined. In fact, I completely missed the fact that he had schizophrenia until CC Fan pointed it out. However, I never thought for a second that Roy's religion led him to kill. I felt that his militant father and his strict enforcement of his rules caused Roy's state. Now I know that this was combined with Roy's mental illness.

I think there are strict members in all different types of religions. As a Catholic, I know that there are members of the Catholic faith who are much more strict to the Catholic doctrines and teachings than others. In fact, this could have easily been a Catholic family that followed everything to the letter, but I still feel that it wasn't the religion that pushed Roy. I think his father used it as an excuse to keep him in line. In other words, I didn't walk away with a negative view of Mormons. JMO