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▣ Hill Cumorah Pageant

posted by Richard Rife on July 15th, 2010 at 10:13 PM

Janet and I spent the week of July 12^th in upstate New York attending the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Our son, Michael, is in the cast of the pageant. He is Sam, the older brother of Nephi in the vision scene. He also throws rocks at Samuel the Lamanite and dies during the destruction scene at the death of the Savior in the Old World. Miraculously, he is alive again and in the blessed group the Savior visits when he appears in the New World.

We are with our daughter, Laura, and her three cute children, Connor, Abby, and Andrew. And now our daughter, Jenny, has joined us too. We spent July 10 and 11 in Westchester County, New York, with Alan, Laura, Connor, Abby, and Andrew. On Saturday night we went into the city and had pizza at Lombardi’s, a great spot.

 

It has been a great vacation. We’ve loved being with Laura and kids. And, we’ve loved watching Michael participate in the pageant. He does not really have a dramatic bent, so he wasn’t really looking forward to the whole pageant thing, but he seems to have enjoyed it very much.

 

The pageant itself is an action-packed 70-minute production on an amazing stage on the Hill Cumorah. It is Christ-centered and Christ-focused. It tells in brief review the story of the Book of Mormon and ends with the story of Joseph Smith, through whom the Book of Mormon was revealed to the world and through whom the gospel was restored.

 

Just outside the entrance to the pageant are a rag-tag band of anti-Mormons, some with megaphones, others with printed material. The ones with megaphones shout the most rude and mocking comments, accusing Joseph Smith of being a liar and the attendees of being idiots bound for hell. One man told me I was going to hell, and I told him I wasn’t too worried about it. I thought of what Joseph Smith said when someone said he and his people were going to hell. He said something like if that’s true, we’ll turn out the devil and make a heaven of it.

 

Another heckler yelled at me “liar, liar,” and I asked if my pants happened to be on fire (no response). The whole thing made me mad, but Janet helped me at least attempt to comply with the sign that asked pageant attendees not to engage with the dissidents. I wouldn’t have argued with them anyway, because of my longstanding policy of not engaging in a battle of wits with an unarmed man.

 

One of the main messages, I inferred, was that we were all evil and mistaken and that Jesus was going to damn us to hell and grind us to powder. Actually, I’m not the least educated person in the world, and I’ve read the Bible more times than most people in the world. The Jesus they speak of is a stranger to me. I can’t imagine Jesus sending a bunch of unkempt, scruffy-looking, poorly educated loud-mouths shouting angry words to convince people that they are wrong. I don’t recall any beatitude beginning with “Blessed are the hecklers.” These are the most un-Christian bunch of so-called Christians I’ve ever seen. I don’t get their motivation and I don’t get what they think the result will be. Do they think that when we hear the rude jeers we’ll think “hey, I’ll bet those hecklers are correct; I’d better renounce my religion so I can be happy like they are?” If they think that, they’re dumber than they look (not an easy proposition). They enjoy hurling vague Biblical references, but I have a Book of Mormon reference for them: “Fools mock, but they shall mourn.”

 

Inside the pageant, I joined with the shiny, happy, smiling people, the Latter-day Saints. Outside, were the angry, mocking people, shouting slurs. Inside, were the people with the bright countenances. Outside, were the dark people, without the hint of the image of God in their countenances.

 

It makes me wonder why this rag-tag band of so-called Christians finds joy in mocking the good people. I guess it’s because they don’t have anything else positive to do. They don’t have their own pageant. They don’t have their own congregation, at least one of any size or import. Where are their chapels and temples dotting the earth? Where is their humanitarian services effort that is approaching $1.5 billion in cash and commodities given to non-LDS people in the past 25 years? That’s a big number for a fairly small number of people. Where is their welfare program and fast offering funds that bless the lives of their members?

 

While in Rochester, Janet and I visited the Strong Memorial Hospital. Little Jude Barlow, nine-month old son of Janet’s cousin, Shay, and his wife, Tirzah, has been in ICU there for nine weeks now. Medical personnel can’t figure out what’s wrong with him, but he can’t breathe without the ventilator. Imagine how hard this challenge is for his parents and loved ones. Fortunately, Shay’s employer, the Corning company, is very understanding. Shay, Tirzah, and their other two children are staying in the nearby Ronald McDonald House. Their home is in Corning, New York, 100 or so miles away.

 

Shay told us that his other children were being cared for, from time to time, by the local Relief Society president, a woman they did not know prior to Jude’s hospitalization. In the nine weeks they have been here, their stake president from Corning, New York, a busy executive, has made the four hour-round trip three times to visit them. The local stake president here in Rochester, a man they did not know prior to Jude’s hospitalization, has visited them. The Area Seventy in Rochester, a man they did not previously know, has been to the hospital to visit and comfort them.

 

Perhaps the angry “antis” heckling the Mormon pageant visitors might better use their time visiting the sick of their faith or giving needed aid to the suffering of the world, but I doubt they have the temperament or resources for that sort of thing.

 

What a great religion we have! What a great Church we have! I’m so grateful, so honored to be one of the happy, smiling people at the Hill Cumorah pageant and not one of the angry, taunting people outside the gates.

 

Comments

Karrissa says:

Thanks for that Rich! It is so true!

July 18th, 2010 at 11:20 PM

Janet says:

Well-written! I'm happy to be one of the happy people!

July 18th, 2010 at 8:31 PM

Cenia Parsons says:

What a nice vacation. I am only sorry that we (meaning I) didn't have the health to attend as well. I am glad you got to see Jude and I did enjoy your comments regarding the hecklers.

July 17th, 2010 at 10:31 PM

Richard Parsons says:

I'm glad you have been able to enjoy a vacation in the birthplace of the Church. Sorry you had to experience the bad with the good.

July 16th, 2010 at 8:01 AM

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