JCC apparently i give off mad mormon vibes

i know right?

 

okay so pageant was neat but not as interesting anthropologically as id hoped. felt less like a religious gathering and more like a really boring, family-friendly concert but that can be said of a lot of mainline christian, particularly evangelical, gatherings these days i suppose. it was a pretty standard passion play/bio of jesus, and didnt touch at all on the mormon beliefs about jesus' activities in the new world. there were a few peculiarities of emphasis, i would call them, that reminded me i was watching an LDS production (making a big deal to state that jesus ordained his disciples with the priesthood and the ability to give blessings). the pageant consisted of actors on an outdoor stage on the lawn of the mesa temple lip-synching to an audio track. production values (use of lighting and sound, particularly) got pretty impressive towards the end especially, as jesus was being scourged (impressive timing the whippings to the whipcracks in the audio track) and hung from the cross (they had an actual dude standing on a tiny platform and strapped in at the arms).

there were missionaries making the rounds before and after through the crowd and though i was standing, waiting for my friend (a stage crew volunteer) to show up afterwards, they left me alone. i even smiled and nodded and exchanged pleasantries with one of them, who then promptly turned her attention back to the milling crowd of people trying to leave. presumably they saw my apparent faux mormon glow and were like yeah he's covered. there was also a group of four middle-aged evangelical christian men who were standing nearby the event on a streetcorner with an big LED sign for "josephlied.com", which seemed a little rude.

all in all i had a good time and learned and experienced a bit in the process. to head off the inevitable half-jokes, im still pretty certain there's no god and im still quite comfortable with that fact