Framing Mormonism courtesy of the Texas polygamists
The Texas Polygamist raid is a PR disaster for the Mormon church.
Last night, Larry King did his best impression of a journalist and interviewed people who have left polygamy - all with the LDS Salt Lake temple in the background. The repetition of LDS/Mormon and polygamist/polygamy is undoing decades of work by mainstream Mormons to present themselves and their faith as well, not a bunch of whackjobs. Even though the press keeps emphasizing FLDS and Fundamentalist Mormons, that’s not what the general public is hearing.  Just as Nixon declaring “I am not a crook” cemented the public perception that he was in fact a crook, this fiasco is solidifying the already widespread perception of Mormons as freaks and of Mormonism as a bizarre, repressive, cult.
Even worse, any good done by the Mittster’s presidential run has effectively been undone. In the balance, I think Mitt’s run was actually more bad than good - he came across as an oily, unctious unprincipled pol, good hair and teeth, no brain or values. Mitt’s public persona is a kind of big missionary - clean scrubbed, goofy grin, toothy smile, and most people treat Mormon missionaries as a joke or a strange distraction.
The Texas Polygamist cult, regarded by Mormons as a cult, is coming across to the general public as a represenation of everything they fear about Mormonism. The Texas cult, far from being seen as an offshoot of Mormonism, is reinforcing the fears and misunderstandings of Mormonism already wide spread in mainstream culture. The fact that last night’s Larry King featured a group of women saying the FLDS regard themselves as “the true Mormons” simply strengthened the frame. It’s no accident taht the RLDS church (I don’t remember if they were Reformed or Reorganized) changed their name to Community of Christ to break the association between themselves and Mormons in the public mind.
So why is this so bad? Well, to understand that you need to understand a little bit about Mormon history. So, the Mormons were (for many reasons both good and bad) regarded as a dangerous cult by their 19th century midwestern neighbors. In the settled communities of the midwest, Mormons found it all but impossible to maintain their strict standards - people could come and go and their communities were under constant threat of attack which made going attractive. So they high-tailed it out of there and made their way to Utah. For a time, this worked. Utah was geographically isolated. With the advent of increasingly effective transportation systems, Utah became less isolated. In addition, the church leadership found themselves hamstrung by the accurate perception of Mormonism as clannish, cultish, closed community. Mormonism by the first decade of the 1900s was much closer to mainstream American life than it is today - Mormonism’s unique identity was being lost.
Then, in the postwar era, two things happened. First a flood of non Mormons began moving into Utah, especially Salt Lake and the surrounding communities. These newcomers weren’t like the non-Mormons of previous times who created insular communities within Utah; these folks were accustomed to being in the mainstream of their communities and they made no bones about expecting the same thing here. Many of Utah’s most active community organizations got their start in this era. There’s no way to say this nicely: these immigrants were well educated, social, sophisticated; their churches and community groups were a vital and attractive option for dissatisfied Mormons.Â
Second, the church leadership decided it was time to win acceptance in the mainstream of American life. Thus began a decades long campaign to create a public face of Mormonism that is attractive to most Americans - industrious, thrifty, good neighbors and, most important, just like everyone else. Some of these changes were inevitable as Mormonism tried to mature - throwing off the zealotry of earlier generations (the same thing happened to the Puritans back in the 1600s). It was in their era that the Mormon leadership began to emphasize the importance of the Word of Wisdom. The Word’s clean living guidelines were all but custom made for the effort of making Mormonism respectable. People who don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t sleep around are attractive people.Â
The FLDS and the parade of weirdness they’ve introduced into the public consciousness is effectively undoing decades of expensive and thoughtful efforts on the part of the Mormon church to remove the stigma attached to Mormonism. The FLDS cult is everything and worse that most people think about Mormonism. And the media coverage is unintentionally reinforcing that frame with each passing day.
Is it fair to characterize the FLDS as a cult? Hell yeah. The FLDS group engages in practices that define cults - sexual control of members, financial control of members, isolation from society, exclusivism (claims that the FLDS is the only real church that you must be a member to be “saved” and that leaving the FLDS means you are damned eternally), strict obedience to leaders and enforcement of that obedience, dishonesty about life outside the group and coercion, force and threats to keep members under control and of course the obsessive secrecy of the group.
They called their community YFZ - meaning Yearning For Zion. And those old men marrying those pubescent girls were clearly not yearning for Zion (unless that’s what the kids are calling it these days).Â
The FLDS uses manipulation and coercion to keep members in line. Among the most effective techniques is distortion of and lies about life outside the community. Consider this quote:
The girl had looked to escape before, but she was warned that outside the double-gates blocking entry to the Yearning For Zion Ranch, in a world completely foreign to her, she would be forced to cut her hair and wear makeup, and to have sex with many men — all damning transgressions in a faith where modesty calls for women to wear long underwear year-round under pioneer-style dresses.
In this case, I’m comfortable rejecting the term “new religion” or “new religious movement.” The practices of the FLDS are offensive and damaging to members. The practice of keeping persons isolated from mainsream life through fear is reprehensible. The practice of marrying adolescent girls to adult men three and four times their ages cannot be anything other than abusive and damaging.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:05 am
I think the fear that most Americans would inevitably conflate the LDS Church with its polygamist offshoots is the reason why, until recently, Utah avoided going after polygamist sects (sex). Just keep it out of the headlines and off the cable TV news. That said, I think some of the FLDS activities were so illegal that they could no longer be ignored. Hence the recent prosecutions. In Texas, they were so heavy-handed it looks more like persecution– I wonder if the evidence will be thrown out in court.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:20 am
Richard - I agree with you. But I wonder about the actions Texas has taken - the sheer numbers of people they’ve removed from the community create the impression of such extreme wrongdoing - but I can’t imagine they go to all this work without making sure their bases were covered.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:12 am
Do you think they have their bases covered? They still haven’t found the girl that made the original allegations. A little resistance and we could have watched another Waco.
After 8 years of half cocked nonsense at the highest levels, do you really believe the authorities are clearly within their scope?
In all it is Mormonisms’ Uncle Fester that has come out for a visit. Oh well, makes good press, I expect the bombing of Iran to commence any day now under this cover, or a continued ass kicking of our efforts in Iraq.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
From where I sit in Mesa and hereabouts, which is also Mormon country, I think the two phenomena of the raids on the polygamists and the Mitt Romney candidacy have both been good for mainstream LDS. What Romney accomplished was that he established a pedigree, through his father. Hey, Mormons didn’t come from nowhere. They’ve been around.
Around here, they say the Mormons are the new Jews — mysterious, clannish, tight-fisted, and hopelessly square, but clean-living, disciplined, and worthy of grudging respect. They’re not trying to convert you or marry your daughter. People don’t bother themselves too much about LDS doctrine. Around these parts, unless you’re Mormon you are likely Catholic, so there’s sort of a sense that nobody’s belief system bears too much scrutiny.
The UU’s are often used as a deprogramming station for escaped and exiled Mormons and Catholics, but not just anyone is going to find a home in our church of unrepentant smarty-pantses. We lose them eventually to one of these new nondenominational churches with good music and heaven. The old joke is that UU’s are such bad singers because they’re too busy reading ahead to make sure they agree with the lyrics.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Sam Harris made a good observation in his book “The End of Faith,” that atleast scripturally, fundamentalists always will win the battle for the hearts and minds of those who truly believe. Mormon fundamentalists have the scriptures of Joseph Smith as their theological basis and the fact that the current mainstream Mormon Church more or less follows a watered down version of that basis always creates the potential for discomfort in Mormons. Mormon fundamentalists remind Mormons of the more unsavory aspects of their past, and being a young religion, it still creates a sense of relevant concern, unlike the crusades, inquisitions or witch burning that seem distant and quaint by comparison. Current Mormon prophet Thomas Monson was appointed an apostle by David O. McKay, who was appointed an apostle by Joseph F. Smith, the nephew of the religion’s founder. In such a young religion, it is hard to disavow the past, particularly when that past is still living among us.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Should Polygamy Be Lagalized?…
With the raid in Texas on the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) compound the topic of polygamy is center stage in the news today. The leader of this sect, Warren Jeffs has already been convicted of arranging underage m…..
April 10th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Sorry
Forgot to cut out the “Heston Meets Moses” from my trackback ping.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
AD - I agree there were good outcomes from Mitt’s run but I think it’s being undone by the Texas raid. The Texas raid is keeping the least favorable aspects of Mormonism in the awareness of americans.
The news coverage of the Texas raid is so often connecting recognizable visual images (women in pioneer clothing) and messages (teenage girls raped by 50 year old men in “spiritual marriages”) with Mormonism. By talking about what goes on inside the Fundamentalist temple, then showing images of the Temple in Salt Lake while interviewing former polygamists. The connection made in people’s minds is between the FLDS Temple and LDS Temple.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Earlier today I was at Huffington Post looking at headlines, and there was a picture of the FLDS temple with the caption “Bed found in Mormon temple for sex with underage girls?” It has since been changed…but I think your point is correct, Glendon. In the minds of the average American is that there isn’t much difference, if any at all, between the “fundamentalists” and the rest of the church.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Yeah, I mean they did live in the temple building no? Maybe the bed is for the temple nurses station in case someone faints in revelation. I can see the headline, if compared so, bed found in government building, president sleeping on the job.
This whole story is a diversion. Mormons have always generated irrational emotional backlash from real(stupid) christians, and in this case a mind tainted by religious fundamentalism of any kind will have a terrible time thinking about anything else but the what their gutter filled imaginations can dream up. Where is the proof? We’re waiting.
Meanwhile troops are staying in Iraq, and we’ll see about bombing Iran, and never mind the 4 dollar gas and economic meltdown. The media is doing its job and I imagine that it will worry this bone to the nubbins.
April 10th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
The way to prove the average Mormon isn’t a polygamist is to do the math. Salt Lake would be much bigger then New York if it was true.
April 10th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
With the raid in Texas on the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) compound the topic of polygamy is center stage in the news today. The leader of this sect, Warren Jeffs has already been convicted of arranging underage marriages to older men and the future of his church is now up in the air.
One thing should be very clear that members of this community are not Mormons. They broke away from the church when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints denounced polygamy over 100 years ago. they disagreed with this and formed many different off-shoots. There are tens of thousands of polygamists that live in the west and only some are affiliated with the FLDS church while others belong to varying groups and some are not affiliated with any church.
So is plural marriage inherently wrong in every situation or are there some situations where is it actually makes sense?
I am LDS and have direct polygamist lineages on both my mother and father’s sides. So without polygamy I wouldn’t be here to write this. The way polygamy is practiced today at least among the FLDS is very different than it was practiced in the early days of the Church. In the 1800 and earlier it was very common for young women to marry almost as soon as they were of child bearing age. When the average life-span was in the 30s and 40s this wasn’t so unreasonable, but now that life spans are in the 70s it is not imperative for women to bear children at such a young age. having children back then, and plenty of them, was necessary for survival in the wilderness. When the Mormons first settled Utah there were many more women and children than men, so polygamy was actually a practical solution to this problem. Without a support structure many would have died so plural marriage helped insure their survival. However, once this was no longer a factor and the ratio between men and women equalized it was no longer a means for survival, but the practice was so institutionalized by the church that it endured longer than it probably should have. After relentless pressure from the US government, and after the Church received what we believe to be a revelation from God, in 1890 the LDS church officially ended the practice. Some who opposed this move formed off-shoots including the FLDS.
Even when the LDS church practiced polygamy no one was ever forced into it and no wives where ever “re-assigned” when a husband refused to take on another wife or left the church. The FLDS church says they are trying to live the “pure” gospel, but what they are practicing is light years away from what Brigham Young or Joseph Smith taught. They compel young girls to marry old men, get them pregnant quickly and threaten to give their children to more “worthy” parents if they complain or leave the church, which really isn’t a church at all but a sex cult. When they abuse and enslave young women the law should come down on them like a ton of bricks.
I think if adults want to practice polygamy it is really none of our business. It is ridiculous that a man can father several children with multiple women and the law sees nothing wrong with that, but if a man takes the responsibility to marry these women and help raise the children then somehow he is worthy of jail-time. It makes no sense.
April 10th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
[...] background shots of the (mainstream, one-wife-at-a-time) Salt Lake temple. Thus the images will be connected in readers’ and viewers’ minds, which is rather a shame, as the Salt Lake brethren and sistren have been trying to be more normal [...]
April 10th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
I hate to give Ken Bingham any credence, but Richard Dawkins talks about humans as being mostly polyginous, but culturally monogamous. In general, the human species is polygamous, though the western Christian ethic promotes a monogamy as divinely inspired.
Humans have benefitted from monogamy by children receiving the benefits of paternal support of offspring in a species where evolutionary success is more likely the result of paternal support. But as I look in my own case, I descend from various individuals who were not married to my female ancestor. I descend from bastard children of Henry II, Edward III, Henry I and likely many others.
Polygamy was not about religious principle, but about sex and dynasty. A good number of us Utahns descend from those who were part of this dynastic mindset and practice. Ken asks an important question. Should polygamy be legal? The fact that religion is the common mechanism of promoting coercive and dynastic sexual relations, I think all rational humans should look seriously and skeptically at any drive to make polygamy legal.
However, if consenting adults were to decide to engage in a polygamous relationship, should the government intervene? Where fundamentalist Mormons go wrong is in treating underage young ladies as currency in maintaining their social order. If consenting adults wish to share spouses, is it anyone’s business other than these consenting adults? I’m willing to entertain that question.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Well, for me the issue would be a cynicism whether a grown woman who has access to the law’s protections and has a good sense of her options would choose such a thing. I’m sure that it happens, but the logical explanation is going to point to violence, coercion, or brainwashing in most instances. If I’m a police officer and a woman is telling me everything is fine in her plural marriage, I would feel an obligation to ask a few more questions.
Look, if I take my child to the hospital for a broken bone, the staff will pull me aside and ask me discretely whether there is any violence in the house. I might be offended by the question, but I’m basically glad that this is part of their protocols. I think it should be like that for any relationship that is so prone to exploitation.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:51 am
Wow, Ken, for someone who can see right through the “bullshit” propounded by VP Gore re Global Warming (despite enormous scientific evidence that supports his positions), it appears ironic that you are unable to perform the same feat of skill as regards the LDS Church, where the stories are incredulous and not a shred of evidence exists to support them.
Kinda makes me wonder what your children would think years from now if each day of their upbringing it were pounded into their head that Global Warming is true. I’ll bet they would each be firm believers in GW, just as you believe Joey Smith transcribed a bunch of gold plates written in reformed Egyptian with a couple of
beer gogglesseer stones strapped over his eyes!April 11th, 2008 at 6:00 am
Not so fast Nephi, I think Ken still has his facts wrong.
One must assume Ken cannot distinguish belief from fact.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Cliff
I never disputed the fact that Polygamy was a major part of the church in the early days especially during the Brigham Young era. As far as “spiritual wives” remaining celibate obviously is not true because my grandfather was a child of polygamists and his mother was not the first wife of my great grandfather.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Ken, I didn’t suggest you dispute Church history. I merely pointed out that your justification for polygamy was a myth.
I’ll top post about it so we can get you real clear.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:45 am
“Kinda makes me wonder what your children would think years from now if each day of their upbringing it were pounded into their head that Global Warming is true”.
We are getting a pretty clear view of that.
Glad to see Cliff and Neph, that you are all seeing that anthropogenic global warming and mormonism are both religions of faith.
The next few years weather will be fun. It just dumped in Anchorage and monthly weather temps are 8 degrees below recorded average. Not that that means anything either. Meanwhile, it is freezing in WA. and spring is quite late, last summer was cold, Let’s see Colorado had monsoon all summer, and sea level is maintaining in the face of catastrophe, never mind that it has risen 3600 inches in 13,000 years, when carbon was at 1/2 the concentration we see today. Go figure.
There has never been a point in human history where the majority scientific paradigm hasn’t been wrong when new ideas come into the fore.
It is warming, just not due to what you may believe, and for sure, no matter the blather, no one knows in absolute.
An example, to this day we do not completely understand gravity, electricity, electro-magnetics, and but make all manner of assumptions about them (most Newtonian), which are regularly being revised and compounded, though we use the phenomena in our lives everyday. Yet we are to accept anthropogenic warming THEORY without question? Go figure, and al says that there is “no doubt”. It’s just plain stupid to say things like that, and any intelligent person looks upon the guy as the high priest of his own cockamamie “reality”.
If you join in without review, then you are no different than a handcart mormon.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
I don’t think this is the case at all. Indeed, those who question the theory and try to explore answers to the questions that arise - based upon the scientific evidence and record before them and not on preconcieved “correct” outcomes due to political leanings - generally walk away from the exercise with the realization that there is more to global warming than Gorian manipulations of data or mere aberations in cyclic weather patterns.
April 11th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Confused:
A faithful Mormon needs to explain to me how they do not believe in Polygamy when they DO believe in the Doctorine & Convenants. Section 132 clearly states that plural marriage is the TRUE AND EVER LASTING CONVENANT. That is why there is always an awkwardness amongs Mormons when these raids happen. It points out the reality of the early persecutions of their Church Leaders.
April 11th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Confused
You are misinterpreting Section 132. The New and Everlasting Covenant is
not polygamy. It is being sealed for time and all eternity in the Temple.
Plural marriage is included but not the covenant itself. The revelation
states that to reach exaltation, which is the highest degree of the Celestial
Kingdom, you must be sealed in the Temple, but there is no requirement
that it has to be plural.
Notice it says “a wife” not wives.
This section is widely misinterpreted by polygamist off-shoots to justify their
claim that polygamy must still be practiced.
With polygamy there are times when the lord sanctions it, and times he does not.
However he never sanctions abuse, force, and coercion. Any man that forces a woman
to marry against her will is sealed to damnation not exaltation.
April 11th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Damnation…Exaltation…Get a life.
April 11th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Caveat
The point is to get an eternal life.
April 11th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
And you, Ken, think Al Gore is nuts? You are too funny, dude!!!
April 11th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
You guys are just a bunch of LDS deniers. Its like the people who deny the Earth is round , or deny that we landed on the moon, or deny that global warming is a hoax. DENIERS! DENIERS! DENIERS!
April 11th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Ken:
Ponder what was said above about growing up with something pounded into your head every waking day of your life. Such is a remarkably successful process that makes terrorists out of children, as it is an equally remarkable process that makes mormons out of children. Gotta admit, though, dude, from a non indoctrinated distance, the whole thing looks spooky as heck, as evidenced by the quote you posted from D&C.
BTW, neat little trick how you inserted the subtle double-negative into your comment about the global warming hoax. Is that something you learned at the MTC or priesthood meeting?
April 12th, 2008 at 7:29 am
Some of my best friends are LDS. I can only do this though (intellectually), when I strip the dogma from the congregation. I appreciate the congretation, the good works , love, when it occurs, and the networking, but the ‘hoodoo’, mystical stuff is simply unfoundable. But, that’s faith for you. Some of us follow different spiritual paths. No less creatures of ‘god’. Don’t deny us!
Btw, I thought your exposition and defense of historical aspects of poligamy (above) was cogent and helpful. Thankyou. Were the greater society to read that, they would be less likely to stigmatize the LDS when the are exposed to the FLDS headlines, though there may be no excaping such connection.
While I am personally troubled by the FLDS / Texas headlines, I do not think that sect, the ‘real’ Mormons, or any of us here are being damaged anywhere as much as by the blood splattered reality we present to the Iraqi and Afghani (and soon the Iranian) victims of our malicious attempts to power our money machine.
Who would Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, or the most recent Profit kill / bomb?
April 12th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Alberto O……., Yo, Johnny come lately, get into the science of how a volume of ice that lay upon the landmasses to the extent that they lowered sea level to 300 FEET lower than they are today(3600 inches). Then explain how that volume of ice melted in a period of a rather incredible 13,000 years, 130 centuries.
Do the math, the average sea level rise, the gross indicator of warming in the last 13k years is 27.8 inches every 100 years. Sea level rise the last century?
4 inches. So what manner of warming are we really talking about? Explain this or get ye into yer chapel and pray thee to thy carbon creator.
Hint: During this incredible melt off, in which Continental ice lay upon the land in places 10,000 FEET thick, what was the concentration of carbon in the atmosphere?
How true believer did this volume of ice “spontaneously” MELT??
ANYONE???!!!
April 12th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Nephi, Jim, answer the above question using the acumen at your disposal. Study the recent geologic record, make your conclusions.
You would have to admit that the data for human induced carbon based warming is really only at maximum, 125 years old. So in the Spirit of knowledge and science, would it not make sense to reconstruct the climate history in the last 20,000 years?
A time when warming is the extreme. Where giant continental glaciers up and vanish and pour their fresh melt water into the sea and the Earths’ inland basins, where they then proceed to dry up…. , as for whatever melted the glaciers 13k yrs ago, you know will dry out your average puny lake, man chipping in or not.
Those of you now living in SLC are living in the depths of an ice flow turned inland basin lake as the tremendous ice melt and subsequent monsoon change of climate in the Great Basin filled the dry closed valleys of Utah and Nevada. Yes all full they were of water and not that long ago in Earth terms, human terms either, 200 centuries ago.
The path ahead is long, the challenges obvious, the key to humanity is not to adapt the climate to us, other than housing, it is to adapt the creature…to the vagaries of the Earth, they changing, in an unchanging way…that means, always. In all ways should man adapt to it.
We will need great power at risk to provide for our numbers, we need to supplement in every way we can energy that can be passively collected, the “green” energy sector. Be sure that if we fall short we must yet have the means as we streamline and conserve the ability to generate masses of power to use for whatever, powering water purification day and night, powering infrastructure, roads, bridges, the hospitals and public structures that serve us universally here. We cannot move forward in my view without access to the means to energy.
To that reality china builds coal burners, and Utah sets the trend, this power is already committed and has been for years now. Only by providing other sources and mitigating with green energy can we be as free from the toxic corruption that we face as a coal/hydrocarbon burning consumptive population.
Nuclear has to be revisited. It is being done, as solar will not provide to concentrated variably controllable energy, nuclear power with it zero carbon output, and extremely powerful wattage output has to part of the upcoming provision of new power allotments. What else? We are already behind, the solar and wind only keeps us in place. For the reality of mass MW, in a small piece of land, it is coal, hydro, oil, gas, or nuclear.
Idea: why couldn’t nuclear power plants in the desert be cooled by large solar chimneys, providing incredible convection as the nuke is cooled by them, and in turn powering turbines built into their interiors? I.e the convective air cools enclosed circulating coolant via the “chimney” . Some solar chimneys are planned for 28oo ft. heights. With a fluid based backup coolant system of course. All diapered of course.
Study France for a while, look at their nuclear power production record. See what the excess of power in a nation can do, we live it, but via carbon combustion. What else will provide no carbon power. If you believe in man induced carbon based global warming, then what shall we do? Solar and wind cannot replace our current hydrocarbon powered lifestyle, cannot provide mobile fuels for personal transportation.
Something has to give, and soon.