‘Murder Among the Mormons’ gives insight into religious turmoil

Photo courtesy of Vox

Netflix’s new mini-documentary series, “Murder Among the Mormons,” dives deep into the events that had members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) religion, more commonly known as Mormons, questioning their faith and the history that the church was built on.

This series centers around the bombings that happened in Salt Lake City, Utah during the 1980s. Leading up to these tragic events, documents concerning the LDS church were released by historian Mark Hofmann. These documents contradicted the history of the religion and how it came to be, something that is very important to the faith and structure of the church as well as those who believe in it.

Because of the sensitivity and controversy surrounding these documents, many people (including the LDS church itself) were willing to pay a large amount of money to acquire them. These became very high-profile dealings that only a select amount of people were involved in. So, when people involved with the dealings were suddenly bombed and killed, people began to question the legitimacy of these documents and the motives of those selling and buying them. 

Eventually, it was discovered that Mark Hofmann actually forged the documents, among many other historical documents that were sold for large sums of money. When he believed he was close to being discovered, he murdered those who would have compromised his position. He was eventually arrested and sentenced to life in prison.

This documentary gives an inside look at those personally affected by Hofmann’s actions. Friends and fellow church members felt betrayed by Hofmann, claiming that he was a wholesome and good man. However, underneath that mask was someone who was extremely deceptive and performed truly despicable acts. Although he hurt many people and strained the very base of an entire religion, it is undeniable that Hofmann was brilliant. He successfully forged high quality historical documents and deceived millions of people.

The actions of Mark Hofmann and the tensions among the Mormon community during the era of the forged documents and bombings will never be forgotten as it tested many people’s faith and belief in not only a religion, but an incredibly tight-knit community.

Overall, this documentary series does an incredible job at revealing how the false actions of one man had the potential to uproot an entire community and erode the historical basis of such a close-knit religion.