To watch this episode on YouTube, click HERE.
Video Transcript:
Hulu just dropped their latest installment of Latter-day Saint-themed content: A new docuseries called Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke. In this video, I’m going to catch you up on the Franke family story, but as this is a Latter-day Saint channel, I especially want to talk about what the Church has to do with this story — how Hulu portrays the Church — what they get wrong and a little bit right.
So, to catch you up on the drama: This is Ruby and Kevin Franke. They have 6 kids. In 2015, Ruby started a YouTube channel where she would vlog about daily life in the Franke family. Her channel became extremely popular. But, as you might imagine, it started causing some problems at home. Ruby turned to the then-mental-health-counselor Jodi Hildebrandt for help. Jodi and Ruby become close friends. One day, Jodi claimed to be possessed by demons. To help, Kevin and Ruby invited Jodi to come live with them in their home in Springville, Utah. Things got really weird. Ruby ended up cutting Kevin and her two oldest children off completely. Fast forward a year — it comes to light that there’s been some terrible child abuse going on with some of the remaining kids. Ruby and Jodi are arrested, and they’ve been sentenced to up to 30 years in prison.
It’s ultimately a cautionary tale about social media, and who you let into your family.
Now: What does any of this have to do with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? The way I see it, as a Latter-day Saint, not a whole lot. I personally felt like most of the content about the Church felt a little forced — I think that Hulu is just very aware that Latter-day Saints are a popular topic right now, and wanted to hitch their wagon to that trend. It felt like the Church was mostly used as a hook to get people to watch, while the meat of the series was really just about Ruby’s descent into madness, for lack of a better term.
The heaviest references to the Church that I noticed were just towards the beginning of episode one. Take a look at this clip. (about 5:10, where the guy says there’s a culture of perfectionism, and that only exists because of the LDS church. Include the part where he says that we’re taught in our faith that we need to be perfect in order to enter the celestial kingdom).
So, I’m just going to skip the rhetoric and get right to the data: A recent study found that Latter-day Saints struggle with perfectionism just as much as people from other religions do. Interestingly, that same study found that atheists, agnostics, and former Latter-day Saints tend to struggle with toxic perfectionism at significantly higher rates than people affiliated with a religion.
The admonition to be perfect is not just something that shows up in the Latter-day Saint faith. We’re taught by Christ in the Bible, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” But perfect in this verse doesn’t necessarily refer to looking or acting a certain way; it refers to being complete or whole. This is something that Elder Holland taught in 2017 in general conference in his talk addressing toxic perfectionism, “Be Ye Therefore Perfect, Eventually.” (Show clip: “Our only hope for true perfection is in receiving it as a gift from heaven—we can’t “earn” it.”).
This same commentator in the show goes on to say the following: “We’re taught to always be doing missionary work, to show how perfect our lives are.”
I want to make something very clear: The Church doesn’t have 70-thousand missionaries around the world just to show people how perfect their lives are. I didn’t walk the barren dirt roads of Chihuahua, Mexico, for two years to show people how perfect my life was. The stated missionary purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ. That purpose applies to full-time missionaries just as it does to normal member-missionaries just living their lives. Members are taught to be an example to others and to share the gospel through the way they live their lives, but this comment from the docuseries just misses the mark, in my opinion.
Episode two begins with a shot of the angel Moroni — another nice hook to get people watching. Then we get back to this guy — he really doesn’t play a prominent role in the docuseries, but for whatever reason, he’s the one saying most of the controversial stuff about the Church. Anyway, he says this about Jodi (6:21 EP. 2 about exploiting Mormon anxiety):
It sounds to me like there’s some truth to this. It seems like she found the pain points of her audience and then exploited them. The Church’s handbook actually warns members about stuff like this. You can pause and read that if you’re curious. We’ve got to be very, very careful who we listen to.
In episode two, Covid-19 hits, and there’s a general “end of the world” theme going on. Again, this isn’t just a Latter-day Saint thing. All Christians believe that Christ is going to come again, but that before that happens, the world is going to be in bad shape. But I lived through covid just as I’m sure you did, and I don’t recall any church leaders telling members not to buy green bananas if ya know what I mean.
Hulu includes a clip of John Hilton talking briefly about the second coming, kind of making him out to be some kind of doomsday extremist. He’s not. We’ve done an interview with him on this very channel and he’s one of the most down-to-earth guys you’ll ever meet. He did not give Hulu permission to use that clip, so it is what it is, but he’s a cool guy.
EPISODE 3: (watch EP 3, 34:51 “In the LDS religion there’s a belief that no unclean thing can enter the kingdom of God. … creating pain is what gets you to God.”) — I think Ruby is a great example of how someone can take a true principle — like repentance and change — and blend it with inexcusable evil. The Book of Mormon absolutely teaches that you have to be spiritually clean in order to live with God. And again, I don’t think that idea is something exclusive to our faith. But the Book of Mormon also tells us how we become clean — it’s through Jesus Christ. Harming others is just an absolute perversion of the principle of repentance.
The next clip we’re going to watch is the final clip from the series. I think Hulu is doing some sneaky things here. Take a look. (48:32 “This is also a story of deception, of control, and ultimately it’s a story of faith — if you put your faith in the wrong hands, you can lose everything.”)
I think Kevin was probably referring to putting his faith in the hands of Jodi Hildebrandt, and maybe his wife Ruby as well. But by showing the angel Moroni right at that moment, it makes it seem like he’s talking about the Church itself. And Kevin, if you’re watching this, correct me if I’m wrong. So Hulu does try to bring it full circle and make it seem like the Church is at least partially to blame for the path Ruby and Jodi chose to go down. To be completely honest, I wish they had been listening to church leaders more carefully.
Ruby and Jodi were arrested in 2023. In 2022, President Russell M Nelson stood in general conference and said the following: “Let me be perfectly clear: any kind of abuse of women, children, or anyone is an abomination to the Lord. He grieves, and I grieve whenever anyone is harmed. He mourns, and we all mourn for each person who has fallen victim to abuse of any kind. Those who perpetrate these hideous acts are not only accountable to the laws of man but will also face the wrath of Almighty God.”
Now, this Hulu docuseries really comes just at the heels of another Latter-day Saint-themed series called American Primeval, from Netflix. If you’re interested in what that show got very wrong about the LDS faith I suggest you go watch this video, and have a great day!