The theater was packed, and we were the only kids.

Talking loudly, middle-aged couples crowded into their rows as my brother and I nervously anticipated the next two and a half hours of what we thought would be wildly inappropriate jokes and unbelievably offensive songs. In short, when we first said “yes” to “The Book of Mormon” when it came to Chicago last June, we expected incorrect portrayal and abuse of religion. The hilarious, ridiculous, lively, obscene musical turned out to be much more than that.

There have been Morning Ex’s upon Morning Ex’s surrounding race at Parker. There have been workshops and diversity clubs and heritage meetings. But how many times have you heard announcements about the next club meeting about religion? How many times have you unknowingly stumbled upon an open classroom discussing religion? How many times have you been asked to take part in a religion workshop?

As we are nearing the end of a tumultuous presidential campaign, religion has become extremely important. While Donald Trump talks about banning one religion from the country, “The Book of Mormon” shows how important tolerance of people with different beliefs is–and how different religions can coexist together.

While Trump’s popularity shot up thanks to his targeting an entire religious group instead of individual people, “The Book of Mormon” suggests the importance of an educated public.

Pushing one belief on people–in this case, Mormonism–isn’t the answer. Driving one religion away or taking away the rights of believers or spreading inaccurate and offensive rumors about one religion in particular won’t solve any problem, either. What will?

The few times I have heard a friend or parent talk about students at Parker, I’ve found myself listening to people laughing and joking about Parker’s diversity. How many Muslims do we really have? How many Jews? How many Christians? How many should we? 

Our job as students isn’t to make Parker more diverse. Our job is to be aware of religious differences, to be aware of the words we use regarding conflicting beliefs, to be aware of how religion is represented in the news, to be aware of the words we say and our actions.

Yes, “The Book of Mormon” is offensive, and yes, it is as wildly inappropriate as I thought it would be, but it ended up teaching me more about religion than I would have learned otherwise. Insulting jokes, derogatory remarks, and repulsive scenes aside, “The Book of Mormon” is a musical that everyone, no matter their religion, needs to see.