Law & Order's Take on Mormons...

Last night there wasn't much to watch on TV so I just turned on "Law & Order: SVU" as I did other things in my room. As I was listening to this TV show, I all of a sudden heard this lady crying about someone who had died and she made the comment that the girl who died "was a good mormon from Utah". Well, obviously that peeked my interest and I sat down on the edge of my bed curious to know where they were headed with that story.

I wasn't sure if I should have been offended, but I thought it was so amusing that I couldn't help but laugh. For example, here are some of the lines from the show, as best as I can remember them:

Plot synopsis: A couple hires a mormon girl from Utah as a nanny for their little boy in NY. She ends up murdered and they are talking to the lady who hired her.

"How did you find Jodi?"

"I put an advertisement in the paper"

"In Utah?" (asked sarcastically, kind of like "Why in the world would you advertise in Utah?")

"Everyone knows that Mormons make good nanny's. They come from big families, have good values, don't smoke, don't drink."

The story continues that the only friends of Jodi's this lady knew of were other girls who were both mormon nanny's as well. The two detectives tracked these girls down in a park:

"Did either of you ever see Jodi outside of work?"

"In Relief Society"

"Do you know anything that may have been troubling her?"

1st Friend: "Well, she has a boyfriend on a mission in Peru and she has been really missing him lately"

There was more dialogue thrown in here but I don't remember it because I was too focused on the way the girls were dressed. But I did catch this one last line:

2nd Friend: "That's the reason we're all out here. Once our boyfriend's all come home from their missions we'll go back to Utah"

See why I would think this amusing? First off, I don't think anyone in real life would ever just say "I saw her in Relief Society" when nobody else in the world would even know what it meant. But the best part was the fact that it didn't even phase the detectives. They just acted like "oh, you saw her in Relief Society, great. Next question."

I also thought it interesting at how the girls were portrayed. The two friends were kind of homely, one had acne problems, they were not wearing make-up, and were dressed in long sleeve shirts, sweaters, etc. that looked like they belonged to their older sisters from 10 years ago. And they were dressed this way even though it was a nice sunny day outside. Okay, overall they looked like average girls who weren't out trying to impress anyone. There's nothing wrong with that, but it just seemed that they were trying to make Mormons seem "odd" and maybe not quite as beautiful as other women.

The show really cracked me up. But now I better understand why the world thinks we are freaks.