One of my favorite episodes to watch with my kids is an episode of Post Cards From Buster. Back a several years ago, I was flipping through the TV something that I don't do very often as I am really busy and don't care for TV very much. I saw an episode of Postcards from Buster on good ole' PBS.
I was not too familiar with that show, I used to watch Arthur as a kid so I understood the premise of the show rather quickly. Buster travels around the country with his Dad. Buster is represented with a video camera and sends videos to Arthur back home. The people are real people and you see the world through the camera Buster is holding.
I was watching an episode called "We Are Family" I saw a large family from Utah, they began talking about themselves to camera or Buster. Buster was staying with them until his Dad could come back and take him to Dinosaur Park. Buster and the family go sledding and then go home and eat lunch. As one of the kids was explaining their job chart, I noticed a picture on the fridge that was of the Savior (the Del Parson version) which I immediately recognized. I knew at that moment that this was a family the belonged to The Church of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that Buster was staying with. This surprised me.
While eating lunch they had a prayer. Buster asks the kids why they had a prayer and they explained that they are Mormons (which was how they were often referred to before October 2018*), I was surprised how open they were about this. They invited Buster to family night or FHE. He helped them out with chores. Eventually he goes to Dinosaur Park with his dad and on the way there:
Buster asks his dad "Did you know they are Mormons Dad?"
"Yes there are a lot of Mormons in Utah"
"Do all Mormons have big families?" Buster asks
"Not all but a lot of the do" his dad responded
When they get back from Dinosaur park, Buster and his Dad return for family night with the family. They play music and make cookies.
What I find absolutely fascinating about this episode is this is the first time that I know of that and independent media source has treated a Latter-Day Saint family with complete respect, understanding, non-judgment, and was fair with no spin and in a safe fun environment. Most media experiences I have seen dealing with Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from independent sources are aggressive and challenge the beliefs. Although done some time ago I think this was a great thing that happened for the church that has widely gone unnoticed. We tend to talk about the unfair treatment in the media towards the members of the church but this really gave me a warm feeling. I purchased this episode so that I could watch it with my family.
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*Note: Prior to October 2018, Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were refereed to as Mormons, this is no longer an official use the name. As noted in the program, this is a nickname only, the leadership of the Church has asked that this be corrected.