A bunch of us were in Bammer's garage when we learned that an upcoming "Big Love" episode would feature elements of the LDS temple ceremony. His only wife came out and read it to us from the newspaper.

She showed us the photo the newspaper had published of an actress dressed in Mormon temple clothing. After a withering look at the only Tribune employee present, she went back inside.

Because everyone in the garage was "go-to-church" Mormon, the reaction was interesting. It ranged from a simmering annoyance to nuclear outrage. How could television presume to display something Mormons consider so sacred that even a lot of Mormons aren't allowed see it?

Me, I thought, "Wow, now I know exactly how Catholics felt when the movie 'Disco Demons IV' showed a priest performing a jive exorcism on a possessed mirror ball."

OK, I didn't really think that until just now. At the time I was too busy actually wondering what had taken Hollywood so long. It's not like what happens in the temple is a secret. You can find it on the Internet.

I'm not bothered by "Big Love's" perceived insensitivity. Probably because I don't need HBO's respect or validation for what I consider sacred. Furthermore, I totally get the interest.

Mormons are, frankly, a big draw right now thanks to fundamentalist polygamy, Proposition 8, liquor laws and "Big Love." So it's only natural that people are going to be curious.

Also, this is America in the Information Age. Telling people something is sacred/secret only makes them more curious. Insist that it's none of their business and they'll find a way to prove it is.

Still, it raises the question about how far other people can poke around in what you consider sacred before you have a right to get mad. Even more to the point is how much they should care when you do.

Should the media refrain from exploring anything that might offend a religious group? We kicked the crap out of the FLDS and everyone (except the FLDS) seemed to think it was fascinating. Hollywood has featured American Indian rituals and even displayed their mummified dead. Meanwhile, Jews don't have a secret left.

What can Hollywood legitimately portray regarding Mormon ritual? I wouldn't ask Mormons. Just about everything is "sacred" to us if it isn't portrayed in a utterly positive light. When Richard Dutcher's film "Brigham City" showed the sacrament being passed in an LDS ward, he got lots of angry responses from Mormons.

It seems a bit hypocritical to behave like this and then presume you're an unbiased anthropologist when examining the inner workings of other faiths the media routinely pry into.

What viewers of these programs might regard as quaint, silly, delusional or even potentially dangerous is considered by those groups to be utterly sacred.

Afterward we feel enlightened and perhaps even a bit superior to such silly behavior. Meanwhile, they feel violated.

Maybe that's what bothers Mormons the most: That the rest of the world will peek inside the temple and see us exactly the way we see them.

Robert Kirby can be reached at rkirby@sltrib.com.