Big Love is an HBO series about a polygamous family living in Salt Lake City.
"Its sacred, its something done in the temple, it shouldn't be exposed," said Nicole Young, a concerned Mormon.
She's talking about temple rituals which will be shown on the HBO series Big Love on March 15, 2009. Although they aren't Mormon; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not practice polygamy, they are still re-enacting LDS ceremonies. For instance, this Sunday's episode will show a temple marriage with temple garments Mormons find sacred, and most of their own members have yet to take their own endowments out.
"It kind of upsets me a little bit, cause that stuff us Mormons hold sacred, for them to publicize it on tv and stuff like that - I think its disrespectful," explained Mike Andies.
This months TV Guide even shows a picture of Temple Garments.
"I think that there's a lot wrong with that, I don't agree with the magazine, and I definitely don't agree with what they are going to put on TV," said Seth Madden.
"Very personal, its not like those lingerie ads that you see, its not supposed to be like that, its something very personal, very sacred," stated Alise Makemson.
"If you want to see it, join the church or something," laughed Dave Robinson.
The controversial buzz developed on the web, with Facebook groups trying to spread awareness. It's caused so much uproar over night... the church made this statement:
"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an institution does not call for boycotts. Such a step would simply generate the kind of controversy that the media loves and in the end would increase audiences for the series.... according to TV Guide, it now seems the show's writers are to depict what they understand to be sacred temple ceremonies."
"Certainly Church members are offended when their most sacred practices are misrepresented or presented without context or understanding."
The website, TV guide mag sales which has been showing pictures of the temple garments displayed on big love went offline possibly due to website hits crashing it.
Sources:
Interviews with concerned LDS church members.
http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/commentary/the-publicity-dilemma
http://tvguidemagsales.com/WeeklyIssues/TVG030909.pdf --- This website is still down but is the online TV guide copy that showed the garments.