It would appear there's no middle ground when it comes to the straight and narrow path.
Participants in a new PBS documentary on missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints disagree sharply on the outcome of the film and the merits of their missionary experience.
The documentary, which primarily follows three young men from Utah who were called to two-year proselytizing missions in Germany, includes interview snippets with former missionaries who have since left the church. That group paints a much different picture of mission life and questions the motives of those involved.
"Get the Fire! Young Mormon Missionaries Abroad," part of PBS' Independent Lens series, will appear Tuesday at 11 p.m. on KUED.
The film begins with the three subjects -- Jake Erekson of Midvale, Brady Flamm of Salt Lake City and Matt Higbee of Provo -- opening their letters from the LDS Church indicating where they have been assigned to serve. The documentary then tracks the trio's exploits in the church's Provo Missionary Training Center and, subsequently, Germany.
While the project was initially green-lighted by the church and the missionaries, allowing filmmaker Nancy du Plessis additional access to follow the young representatives through many of their activities over 26 months, the end result is not exactly what the participants envisioned.
"It wasn't what any of us had expected, actually," said Erekson. "We knew somewhere right in the middle that this was going to come out skewed, but we had already signed agreements to do it."
The documentary features scenes that many returned LDS missionaries can appreciate -- multiple rejections while going door to door, struggles learning a foreign language, general uninterest in street meetings by passersby and the inevitable dumping by the romantic interest back home.
Interview clips with the former members are interspersed liberally throughout the 56-minute production.
Andy McGuire, of Provo, was one of du Plessis' ex-Mormon subjects. McGuire served from 1981-83 in the Pennsylvania-Philadelphia Mission. While his mission did have some positive aspects, he said the emphasis on numbers and what he viewed as hypocrisy by church leaders ultimately left him disillusioned and led him to disavow his membership.
Cultural expectations are the biggest factor in convincing so many young men to serve missions, he said.
"When I left, it was part of what you did," he said. "It was like a rite of passage and if you didn't do it, you were not accepted into the adult community."
For her part, du Plessis, who is not a member of the LDS Church, said in a phone interview from Munich, Germany, that the most intriguing aspect of the project for her was interviewing McGuire and the other ex-Mormons.
"My guys, I felt, were under tremendous pressure to behave, to be good and not to say anything that would make anybody look bad," du Plessis said of her official missionary subjects. "I can understand that they were really under a lot of pressure, but it's not very interesting when people are always covering something up. ... I think, frankly, the most interesting part of it was talking to people who really talk."
Erekson said trusting du Plessis and the eventual direction of the documentary became an issue for him and the other missionary subjects. They were guarded in their exchanges. Watching a finished version of the documentary, he said, was a bittersweet experience.
"I was a bit disappointed on the objectivity of the whole thing," he said. "For me, it's a great memory of my mission and a lot of the stuff I know the context -- where it's coming from. I was kind of disappointed in the fact that she didn't interview any returned missionaries who had actually kept the faith. And I was disappointed because the views expressed by all the returned missionaries that she interviewed aren't those at all of myself, Brady and Matt, the people that were actually followed."
According to du Plessis, there was an interruption in filming partway through the project when a General Authority for the church blocked her access to a missionary training conference in which he was speaking. The incident led to a break of several months in filming. She eventually resumed the project.
"I was kind of horrified by the way everybody just kind of closed up after that," du Plessis said. "I thought there was more individual freedom."
The church issued a statement about the project Thursday morning.
"The church routinely tries to accommodate requests from journalists from all over the world as best it can," said Coke Newell, media spokesperson for the church. "It is very common for television, newspaper and magazine reporters to spend time with missionaries in various aspects of their lives. We simply try to meet reporters' requests in a way that is not disruptive to the work of the missionaries.
"Of course, the producer or reporter is solely responsible for the content of their programs or stories. The church did not provide any financial assistance nor have any editorial input into Ms. du Plessis' documentary."
While missionary work is designed to build the church's membership ranks, du Plessis said she believes the experience primarily helps form future leaders.
"I think that was definitely validated because these three young men, in each of them I think they're really quite serious representatives, although much more serious than they were before," she said. "Of course, they knew more at the end. They also had a lot of rejections, so they were a lot more convinced that what they were doing was right.
"And they are a lot more skillful. Elder Higbee, he never really wanted to talk. And he says in the end, 'I learned that I could have fun and I learned how to talk to people.' I think this is really very striking in his case the way he changes."
Of the three elders she followed, du Plessis said she anticipated a bit more skepticism from Erekson by his mission's end.
"I thought maybe Elder Erekson, who is a bit of an artist, I thought that maybe at the end there would be some difference, that there would be maybe more questioning -- but there's no questioning from him."
Except, it would seem, on the documentary's outcome. Erekson remains mixed on that.
"I personally love the film because it brings back memories," he said. "I love the parts that have me and Brady and the people that I knew on it. But as far as watching it from an outsider's perspective, which I've also tried to do, I don't think it's well-made. For nostalgia, it's good for me, but as far as content, I don't think it does it any sort of justice."