In his review of my new series, “Breaking Bread with Alexander,” Scott D. Pierce suggests an omission of Utah’s faults.
To the contrary, there was a deliberate and specific explication of fanaticism.
I ask Gov. Spencer Cox about deradicalization, the depiction of the church in “Under the Banner of Heaven,” and religious zealotry as an affront to freedom.
One question, verbatim: “When does religious zealotry, extremism, radicalism, fundamentalists, when does that become religious intolerance?” That line of discussion was a must.
We also established the science of rain as well as the failures of social media and one-party rule (forces that may have negatively influenced him since our interview).
Yes, it’s true that the Mormon community at Harvard was among the kindest to me, but I didn’t impart that without critical and inquisitive exchange. The review’s original headline was fair, “Gov. Cox appears on show that makes Utah seem better than it really is,” but the updated one echoes politicians’ and media’s tendency to exaggerate or hyperbolize, often sarcastically and destructively.
At no point did I state there’s utopia or “paradise” in Utah. The new headline will get more clicks but lacks integrity.
Doc style filmmaking doesn’t allow the same type of timeliness as print, and our episode was filmed this past fall. There certainly would have been questions about PornHub, free speech, and backpedaling on trans rights had the interview been conducted more recently.
I don’t think extremists can promote a civil society or are capable of breaking bread (essential to the survival of deliberative democracy), and that’s the impetus that drove me to create the series.
Pierce and others may believe Cox and Utah are extremists. But even if that’s true, neglected in his review is that the episode presents actions and tactics that can help confront fundamentalism.
Alexander Heffner, New York
