Polygamy in Utah Not Remotely Mainstream
News on Yahoo today suggests that polygamy thrives in Utah, but I beg to disagree. Having lived there and observed first hand how most “Mormons” live, I find Yahoo’s article title grossly misleading. http://news.yahoo.com/polygamy-thrives-utah-071640727.html It’s not really William Edwards’ article from Agence France-Presse (AFP), published first on YouTube as a vidnews, that bothers me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZkRow2BQAE&feature=c4-overview It’s Yahoo’s inaccurate title!
Polygamy has not thrived in Utah since the 1890’s when leaders of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints denounced the practice of plural marriage and began excommunicating anyone who continued it. Once in a rare moment today such excommunications still occur, but to most of Utah’s Mormons it’s a non-issue, even a peculiar and embarrassing factoid of history. Splinter minority groups rebelled against that strong 1890 denunciation by Mormon leaders and formed their own versions of churches designed primarily to perpetuate the polygamous lifestyle. Those churches never became mainstream, let alone thrive in Utah or elsewhere.
I suggest that news hounds intent on sniffing out current reports about our world go straight to the AFP site instead of bothering with Yahoo’s exploitative twist on both Reuters and AFP reporting. As a predominant American English speaker, I like http://www.afp.com/en/news/ but most other major languages also appear on that AFP site. And Reuters traditionally offers a great line up, too, at http://www.reuters.com/ so don’t let your news become diluted by less than professional reporting.
Of course, if you just want honest news commentary from the heart of America, I invite your review of my blog at http://HamiltonFinanceServices.com, where your comments, too, are always welcome.
I generally take “with a grain of salt” most of the articles I read online, particularly from Yahoo and MSN. To suggest that polygamy is thriving in Utah today is ludicrous. I would have dismissed the article outright had I read it. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Mormons today stress repeatedly how strongly they oppose polygamy, but somehow a few loud voices such as Yahoo get it wrong with an old, ill-informed stereotype.
It seems to me that news agencies today “make” rather than “report” the news. There are too many commentators “explaining” for us what constitutes the news in their opinion. About a year ago my wife and I dropped our cable television. We opt to read the news online from a variety of sources rather than be fed the nightly dose of what ABC or NBC thinks we need to know. And the main portals (i.e. MSN, Yahoo) are viewed with a healthy amount of skepticism. In other words-just because So-and-So said it or it appears in print, that does not necessarily make it true.
I would think that it’s not a sterotype, so much as a blip of modern life. By that I mean, it’s easier today for people to find things out, and additionally people are less concerned about privacy and more likely to be public about things that were private.
So, for example, let’s say that 100 years ago there were 4 dozen practicing polygamists in Utah, while today there are only 2 dozen. However, 100 years ago, those 4 dozen would have been quite private about their activities, while today, 15 of the current 2 dozen are pretty brazen about it. So, to appearances, it looks like there’s an increase, when in actuality there’s a decrease.
Obviously, I made those numbers up, but the ideal behind the example is true, or so I’d believe. It’s like saying 100 years ago there were no gay people. Sure there were, just no one admitted it openly. So now, it looks like there’s a large increase, when the actual percentage has probably remained constant over time.
Additionally, 100 years ago people wouldn’t have looked for it, while today, it’s ‘a story’.
Getting press now, from traditional news reports or from contemporary vidnews and blogs like this one, seems much easier for anyone willing to grab the spotlight, yes. That fits my experience as part of a blip of modern life. What I disagree with is misrepresenting an easily verifiable pattern, i.e. the mainstream Mormon church (meaning The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) has clarified its strong opposition to polygamy for more than 120 years, yet the single issue still identified as Mormon is polygamy in several dozen polls because of misrepresentation by some in the press. What makes it even worse, in my view, is that the author of the piece republished by Yahoo, William Edwards of AFP, never said anything in his article that might imply polygamy thrives today in Utah, contrary to Yahoo’s twisted title for Edwards’ article.
Ah… but titles grab the readers’ attention so if we can sensationalize the title, perhaps the readers will stop by and stay for a visit. 🙂