Amid Pageantry, a Respite From Politics

[cbayer]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/16/nyregion/a-showy-spectacle-draws-the-mormon-faithful.html



By SHARON OTTERMAN
Published: July 15, 2012

PALMYRA, N.Y. — In an auburn wig and skull earrings, Bryn Clark is a banner carrier in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ lavish annual pageant — a 750-actor, special-effects-filled portrayal of the Book of Mormon held for a week here at the religion’s birthplace.

But each night before the pageant begins, she has another role to play, bringing her faith into the crowd.

As the sun sets on the huge open-air amphitheater, she and the other cast members take their personal copies of the Book of Mormon and walk among the 7,000 attendees, greeting the faithful who have traveled here from around the country and beyond and seeking out any non-Mormons, to tell them about their religion and answer any questions they may have.

This is the 75th year that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been staging the Hill Cumorah Pageant, at the very place where, according to the church’s history, Joseph Smith found the golden plates on which were written the Book of Mormon in the 1820s.

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[struggle4progress]

1. Mitt Romney, Mormonism, & Hill Cumorah Pageant (Nightline 2008)