There is a proclamation that came out on the family. A family is defined as one woman and one man and children. That’s a family. That’s about as clear as you can state it. There’s no sexual deviation in the Mormon Church. No—no leniency. We just think it’s out-of-bounds.

BAPTIST MINISTER: I warn you: You will be mocked! You will be ridiculed for the singularity of your faith! But you let the Bible be your guide. It’s in there. It’s all in there.

STEPHEN MEAD JOHNSON: The Christian pastors, many of the conservative ones, were silent on this. Conservative Christians use the Bible to show the rest of the world, It says here in the Bible. And most Americans believe, and they do, that the Bible is the word of God, and how you gonna fight that?

BAPTIST MINISTER: I am a Biblicist. Which means: The Bible doesn’t need me to be true. The Bible is true whether I believe it or not. The word is either sufficient or it is not.

STEPHEN MEAD JOHNSON: I arrived in Laramie on September fifteenth. I looked around—tumbleweed, cement factory—and said, “What in the hell am I doing in Wyoming?” Three weeks later, I found out what the hell I’m doing in Wyoming.

MOMENT: A SCARF

STEPHEN BELBER: I had breakfast this morning with a university student named Zubaida Ula. She is an Islamic feminist who likes to do things her own way.

ZUBAIDA ULA: I’ve lived in Laramie since I was four. Yeah. My parents are from Bangladesh. Two years ago, because I’m Muslim, I decided to start wearing a scarf. That’s really changed my life in Laramie. Yeah.

Like people say things to me like, “Why do you have to wear that thing on your head?” Like when I go to the grocery store, I’m not looking to give people Islam 101, you know what I mean? So I’ll be like, “Well, it’s part of my religion,” and they’ll be—this is the worst part cuz they’ll be like, “I know it’s part of your religion, but why?” And it’s—how am I supposed to go into the whole doctrine of physical modesty and my own spiritual relationship with the Lord, standing there with my pop and chips? You know what I mean?

STEPHEN BELBER: Yeah.

ZUBAIDA ULA: You know, it’s so unreal to me that, yeah, that a group from New York would be writing a play about Laramie. And then I was picturing like you’re gonna be in a play about my town. You’re gonna be onstage in New York and you’re gonna be acting like you’re us. That’s so weird.

MOMENT: LIFESTYLE 1

BAPTIST MINISTER’S WIFE: Hello?

AMANDA GRONICH: Yes, hello. My name is Amanda Gronich and I am here in Laramie working with a theater company. I went to the reverend’s, your husband’s church on Sunday, and I was extremely interested in talking with the reverend about some of his thoughts about recent events.