South Park Mormons - Examination

"I knew a so-called intellectual who said the Church was trapped by its history. My response was that without that history we have nothing."
- Mormon Church President Gordon B. Hinckley, "The Marvelous Foundation of Our Faith," October 2002 General Conference Address

A famous episode of South Park called All About The Mormons focused on the story of Joseph Smith and the origins of the Book of Mormon. Many people who are not familiar with the Mormon Church were baffled at the story as depicted by South Park, wondering how accurate it tells the Mormon story. Most Mormons hear a far different story of Mormon origins in church than depicted in Park South Park episode #712 All About The Mormons.

A closer examination of the South Park Mormon episode shows that truth is stranger than fiction.

Let's examine the South Park depiction of Mormons and Mormon History and see how it compared to the real thing, as recorded by official Mormon Church records and eye-witnesses testimony.

Part 1: First Vision
Does South Park's rendition of the First Vision come close to the truth?

Part 2: Angel Moroni
South Park pokes fun and pokes holes in Joseph Smith's story of Moroni's appearance.

Part 3: Finding the Plates of Gold
What Joseph Smith said he found isn't exactly what South Park shows, but it's close.

Part 4: Translating the Book of Mormon
South Park depicts the actual Book of Mormon "translation" process more accurately than the modern church does (for obvious reasons).

Part 5: The Lost 116 Pages
It's a funny story and it's pretty close to the way things really happened.