Why Hollywood’s fascination with LDS sex lives? Church says shows often distort and sensationalize the faith.

They didn’t comment officially on how filmmakers portrayed Latter-day Saints in the controversial FX/Hulu series “Under the Banner of Heaven.” They didn’t weigh in on the frequent false statements about Mormonism on Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.”

And the only response Latter-day Saint spokespeople made about the biting theatrical “Book of Mormon” musical was in essence: You’ve seen the play. Now read the book. (Hint: It’s the faith’s signature scripture.)

So why did the newsroom for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints publish a “commentary” last week decrying distortions of the faith in the “entertainment industry”?

Some portrayals “are fair and accurate,” the four-paragraph column declares, “but others resort to stereotypes or gross misrepresentations that are in poor taste and have real-life consequences for people of faith.”

A number of “recent productions depict lifestyles and practices blatantly inconsistent with the teachings of the church. Others irresponsibly mischaracterize the safety and conduct of our volunteer missionaries,” it says. Such portrayals “often rely on sensationalism and inaccuracies that do not fairly and fully reflect the lives of our church members or the sacred beliefs that they hold dear.”

The commentary makes no mention of any particular work, including Hulu’s soon-to-be-released “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” which focuses on so-called sexual escapades of Mormon MomTok influencers such as Taylor Frankie Paul, and the upcoming horror movie “Heretic,” whose trailer depicts the entrapment of two female missionaries.

So why now? Was the commentary preemptively warning about these projects, or was it the result of accumulated angst over what seems to be a trend in entertainment media?

Latter-day Saints as ‘sexually deviant’?

Outsiders have long seen Latter-day Saints (popularly known as “Mormons”) as “sexually deviant,” says Nathan Oman, a church member and law professor at William & Mary Law School in Virginia, “especially in the 19th century with the church’s practice of polygamy.”

By the middle of the 20th century, though, the Utah-based faith became more like traditional Protestants, Oman says, with its emphasis on premarital chastity and fidelity in marriage.

These days, the law professor says, the fascination is with what others think is “sexual repression,” which some argue is “the cause of sexual deviance.”

To Oman, the bigger problem is that entertainment writers have little or no experience “with religion in general or Mormons in particular.”

He would like to see movies and television series portray religion “as an ordinary part of an ordinary life,” he says, “rather than as being a group of sinister reactionaries or naive and stupid.”

Showing “Mormon wives” who are “swinging” is “weirdly exploitative,” tapping into the audience’s prurient interests, Oman says, like “rubbernecking at a train wreck.”

Double distortions

The Hulu trailer for the upcoming “Secret Lives” show distorts truth “in two ways,” says Jennifer Finlayson-Fife, a Latter-day Saint sex therapist and marriage counselor in Chicago.

Such films confirm beliefs among some Latter-day Saint viewers “that this is what happens when people leave the church,” the therapist says, which is rarely true.

At the same time, they “feed the fantasies” of outsiders who view Latter-day Saints as hypocrites, she says, who do things the church opposes while still being in the fold.

Many Americans “want to believe we are a bunch of crazy repressed people,” Finlayson-Fife says. “That is not truthful or a fair picture on any level.”

Indeed, sex between married Latter-day Saints can be pretty standard, she says, and, well, “often boring.”

It’s “legitimate” for the church to defend itself, Finlayson-Fife adds, and correct misperceptions in shows like Hulu’s.

There are, however, works that illuminate genuinely tough issues in the church, she says, like the Netflix documentary, “Murder Among the Mormons.” It told the story of bomber/forger Mark Hofmann, who killed two people to cover up his document-dealing crimes.

Some films explore issues within the church on history, theology or social practices that deserve attention, Finlayson-Fife says. And that’s a good thing. Church leadership should not condemn works that “shine a light on the darkest part of our faith,” she says, even if it makes some uncomfortable.

Not so fast

Insisting that the women in the “Secret Lives” series “do not represent the many faithful Latter-day Saints,” says David Scott, a communication professor at Utah Valley University who teaches classes on Mormons in the media, “is a lazy argument, given that church members are much more diverse than the ideal Latter-day Saint portrayed in the syrupy programs created by the church.”

That is because the women in the program (at least based on the previews on social media) are “portrayed as Mormons who challenge patriarchy, monogamy, marital fidelity,” Scott says, “and the hyper-modesty trope prevalent in LDS culture.”

The challenge for church leaders and content producers, he says, is “to recognize that attempting to create and control an idealized image of the Latter-day Saint community risks losing members who either cannot or do not wish to aspire to that impossible ideal.”

Still, Australian journalist and editor Greg Sheridan, who spent time recently in Salt Lake City, writes that “in popular culture, Mormons are routinely mocked. The culture fixates on the most exotic elements…[while] the LDS reaction to all this has been relaxed and self-possessed.”

Instead of defending itself, Sheridan, quoting a regional Latter-day Saint leader, states that the church focuses on its “belief in and love of Jesus Christ, and the two great commandments: love God, and love your neighbor.”

In a lively Facebook discussion about the Latter-day Saint value of the newsroom’s commentary, Benjamin Peters, a member who teaches media studies at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma, suggests an alternative: “So you’ve seen reality TV Mormon wives — now meet a real Mormon wife.”

That wouldn’t, he writes, “be a bad start.”