Chunk Her Down Again Throwed Her Down Seventy Time Seven Whose Wifein the Ressurection
Why We're Afraid of Mormons
BU-trained scholar says uninformed prejudice abounds
By their underwear ye shall know them.
A recent USA Today story highlights how many Americans are "uninformed" about, and "wary" of, Mormonism, put off past such practices equally the wearing of blessed undergarments as the sign of full fellowship in the church. And even though the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints renounced polygamy in the 1890s (with the exception of a militant sliver), some non-Mormons suspect that "fundamentalist groups were somehow hiding in plain sight within the fold of the church," says scholar Cristine Hutchison-Jones (GRS'xi).
In fact, she says, "no one has been more aggressive near prosecuting polygamists in this country in the 20th and 21st century than Mormons." As for that underwear matter, she notes that other religions invest certain garb with sacred significance. Facts aside, Hand Romney'south Mormonism has alarmed some bourgeois Christian voters pondering his run for president.
Hutchison-Jones, a Harvard University ambassador, is not Mormon, but an interest in religious intolerance led her to write her BU doctoral dissertation on "Reviling and Revering the Mormons: Defining American Values, 1890-2008." (Those years marked the official Mormon abandonment of polygamy and Mitt Romney's beginning run for president, respectively.) She began with the supposition that this would be some other American story of a minority's assimilation into, and credence past, the mainstream culture. To her surprise, she learned that Mormonism remains "really problematic for a lot of people. The negative images of Mormons far outlasted my expectations." If voters' self-description can be trusted, things may non be so grim. A Pew Forum poll in July plant 81 pct saying that they were comfy with, or indifferent to, Romney's organized religion.
BU Today spoke with Hutchison-Jones about what prejudice against Mormons says about us and the prospects for Romney's 2d bid for the White House.
BU Today: What do Americans in 2012 retrieve of Mormons, and how much of what they think is authentic?
Hutchison-Jones: I call back a lot of what Americans think they know near Mormonism is incorrect. We retrieve of Sis Wives and Big Dearest [TV shows near polygamous apostate Mormons]. In that location'due south been a strong theme in the last 30 years in popular representations of Mormons of Mormon violence confronting non-Mormons, pioneer violence. At that place was a film in 2007 called September Dawn, well-nigh the Mountain Meadows massacre in 1857 [the slaughter of a wagon train by Mormon militia]. Information technology is very historically inaccurate. I have gotten calls from friends and family who take hold of it on HBO and say, "I learned then much from that movie."
Why do negative images of Mormons linger?
There are a couple of reasons. You had the rise of evangelical Christianity in politics, and for bourgeois Protestant Christians, Mormons are not Christians; Mormons are a cult. So you had an increment in the amount of anti-Mormon propaganda coming out of religious communities.
The other people who are uncomfortable with Mormons are socially and politically liberal Americans. Polls ask, would you vote for a Mormon presidential candidate? People who self-identify as liberal accept a tendency to say no. At that place'due south a tendency to run into Mormons every bit a hegemony, equally if they were en masse in thrall to church building leadership. The Moral Majority reached out to Mormons, and because of that association, liberals tend to see Mormons as off-limits. I had to get over some of that myself. That was the expectation I came into my research with. I headed off to the Mormon History Association national conference, and the group of scholars there are mostly Mormon, and they are not in any kind of political lockstep. At that place'south a wide diversity of opinion.
With the Moral Majority, it seems Mormons were crawling into bed politically with people who had a prejudice against them.
It'due south truthful. In the 1980s, the New York Times didn't know what to do with Orrin Hatch, who rode into the Senate as a conservative Republican Mormon. And so conservative Republicans proposed a school prayer amendment to the Constitution. He said, "Admittedly not. I am part of a minority religion that has been abused, and I am not going to be party to telling anyone how they should or should not pray." Hatch famously went on to work with Ted Kennedy for federally funded children's wellness care. Mormons have a very strong sense of the common good.
The guys who did South Park did Book of Mormon on Broadway.
I would argue, vulgarity aside, that they take ane of the most sympathetic and understanding perspectives on Mormons of contemporary representations. They never talk about polygamy, considering they see it as ancient history, which information technology is.
If at that place is then much misperception, do universities need to offer more course piece of work on Mormonism?
Any organized religion-in-the-United states course that's taught in the section of religion is going to encompass information technology. How well information technology's covered, that'southward another question. Mormonism commonly gets a day. Whether or not y'all tin justify an entire grade, considering they are less than 2 per centum of the U.S. population, might exist a little hard. On the other hand, Jews are an extremely small minority, and every academy worth its salt has some kind of Judaic studies. And Mormonism is growing by leaps and bounds. The last time I saw a syllabus for [Higher of Arts & Sciences organized religion professor] Steve Prothero's undergraduate class on religion in the United states of america, it included Jan Shipps' volume on Mormonism. It isn't just a 1-day passing thing. It'due south reaching a point where information technology probably deserves some discussion in the context of earth religion classes.
What do Americans' views of Mormonism say nigh our ideals and values?
It boils downwards to our sense of ourselves as a nation in which church and land are divide. I would fence that Americans aren't separating all organized religion from all politics. Nosotros're just not comfortable with groups that don't fit into a generally moderate, Protestant mold. I've got a colleague who did his PhD on images of bourgeois Christians as villains in Hollywood cinema. Yous tin can nearly certainly tell in any crime drama that if somebody quotes the Bible, yous're later going to find out that they're a psychopathic killer.
And nosotros're nervous about groups who openly say the church should exist involved in our politics, any that church might be for that group. And Mormons clothing their religion on their sleeve. The average Mormon spends something like 20 hours per week in activities at their local congregation. Information technology'due south really the core and center of their community, and they are absolutely open that their religion informs their social and political values. And Americans don't like that.
Do you think Romney might lose the election because of his religion?
I think if Romney loses, information technology'south going to be for a variety of reasons. And yes, Mormonism may exist problematic for him going forward. Conservative voters might be a picayune less enthusiastic almost getting out the vote because they're nervous that he's a Mormon, and they're the ones he needs. And you may detect independents who find his politics highly-seasoned, simply some of them might be put off past the association with Mormonism and the business concern that Mormons are all conservatives.
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Source: https://www.bu.edu/articles/2012/afraid-of-mormons/
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