HBO on Tuesday defended its plans to depict a sacred Mormon temple ceremony in an upcoming episode of Big Love.
The drama about a Utah polygamous family will show an endowment ceremony in the episode airing on Sunday. HBO said it did not intend to be disrespectful of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and apologized.
“Obviously, it was not our intention to do anything disrespectful to the church, but to those who may be offended, we offer our sincere apology,” the cable television channel said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
But the ceremony is an important part of the Big Love story line, HBO said.
In the scene, actress Jeanne Tripplehorn’s character, Barb, goes through the endowment ceremony as she faces losing her membership in the Mormon church.
On Monday, Mormon church leaders criticized HBO for its decision to include the ceremony and said airing the material shows the insensitivity of the network’s writers, producers and executives.
“Certainly, church members are offended when their most sacred practices are misrepresented or presented without context or understanding,” the church statement said.
Only church members in good standing can enter temples to perform or witness sacred ceremonies. The ceremonies are centered on religious teachings and re-enactments of Bible stories to help Mormons prepare an eternal place for themselves — and others by proxy — in heaven.
Members take a vow not to discuss the rituals outside temple walls, although details of the ceremonies are widely available on the Internet.
The dramatization of the ceremony was vetted for accuracy by an adviser familiar with temple ceremonies who was on set during filming, series creators and executive producers Mark Olsen and Will Scheffer said.
News of the episode has sparked an online campaign by individual Latter-day Saints, who are calling for a boycott of Big Love and the cancellation of subscriptions to HBO, AOL and other Time Warner Inc-owned entities.
The church itself has not called for a boycott and said in its statement that doing so would just fuel controversy and interest in the program.
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