Ponder the Path of Sanctification Mormons Born Again
Why We're Agape of Mormons
BU-trained scholar says uninformed prejudice abounds
By their underwear ye shall know them.
A recent U.s.a. Today story highlights how many Americans are "uninformed" near, and "wary" of, Mormonism, put off by such practices every bit the wearing of blessed undergarments equally 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 inside the fold of the church," says scholar Cristine Hutchison-Jones (GRS'eleven).
In fact, she says, "no one has been more aggressive about prosecuting polygamists in this country in the 20th and 21st century than Mormons." Every bit for that underwear thing, she notes that other religions invest certain garb with sacred significance. Facts aside, Paw Romney's Mormonism has alarmed some conservative Christian voters pondering his run for president.
Hutchison-Jones, a Harvard Academy ambassador, is non Mormon, simply 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 Paw Romney's first run for president, respectively.) She began with the assumption that this would be another American story of a minority's assimilation into, and credence by, 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 tin can be trusted, things may non be so grim. A Pew Forum poll in July institute 81 percent proverb that they were comfy with, or indifferent to, Romney'due south faith.
BU Today spoke with Hutchison-Jones nigh what prejudice against Mormons says nigh us and the prospects for Romney'south second bid for the White House.
BU Today: What do Americans in 2012 call up of Mormons, and how much of what they think is authentic?
Hutchison-Jones: I retrieve a lot of what Americans remember they know about Mormonism is wrong. We remember of Sister Wives and Big Dearest [Telly shows almost polygamous apostate Mormons]. There's been a potent theme in the terminal xxx years in popular representations of Mormons of Mormon violence against not-Mormons, pioneer violence. There was a picture show in 2007 chosen September Dawn, about the Mountain Meadows massacre in 1857 [the slaughter of a wagon train past Mormon militia]. It is very historically inaccurate. I have gotten calls from friends and family who take hold of information technology on HBO and say, "I learned so much from that flick."
Why exercise negative images of Mormons linger?
There are a couple of reasons. You had the rise of evangelical Christianity in politics, and for conservative Protestant Christians, Mormons are not Christians; Mormons are a cult. And then 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 enquire, would you vote for a Mormon presidential candidate? People who cocky-identify as liberal have a tendency to say no. There's a tendency to meet Mormons as a hegemony, as if they were en masse in thrall to church building leadership. The Moral Bulk 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 Clan national conference, and the group of scholars there are past and large Mormon, and they are non in whatsoever kind of political lockstep. There's a broad diversity of stance.
With the Moral Majority, it seems Mormons were crawling into bed politically with people who had a prejudice against them.
It's true. In the 1980s, the New York Times didn't know what to exercise with Orrin Hatch, who rode into the Senate as a conservative Republican Mormon. Then conservative Republicans proposed a school prayer amendment to the Constitution. He said, "Absolutely non. I am function of a minority religion that has been driveling, and I am not going to be party to telling anyone how they should or should not pray." Hatch famously went on to piece of 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 Volume of Mormon on Broadway.
I would argue, vulgarity aside, that they have one of the about sympathetic and understanding perspectives on Mormons of gimmicky representations. They never talk nearly polygamy, considering they see it as ancient history, which it is.
If there is so much misperception, do universities need to offer more than course work on Mormonism?
Whatsoever religion-in-the-United States course that'southward taught in the department of religion is going to encompass information technology. How well information technology's covered, that'south some other question. Mormonism ordinarily gets a mean solar day. Whether or not you tin justify an entire course, because they are less than ii percentage of the U.S. population, might be a niggling hard. On the other paw, Jews are an extremely pocket-size minority, and every university worth its common salt has some kind of Judaic studies. And Mormonism is growing by leaps and bounds. The concluding time I saw a syllabus for [College of Arts & Sciences religion professor] Steve Prothero's undergraduate form on religion in the United States, it included January Shipps' book on Mormonism. It isn't merely a ane-mean solar day passing matter. It's reaching a signal where it probably deserves some discussion in the context of globe religion classes.
What do Americans' views of Mormonism say about our ideals and values?
It boils downwardly to our sense of ourselves as a nation in which church and state are separate. I would contend that Americans aren't separating all religion from all politics. Nosotros're only 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 conservative Christians as villains in Hollywood cinema. Yous tin most certainly tell in any criminal offense drama that if somebody quotes the Bible, you're later going to find out that they're a psychopathic killer.
And we're nervous about groups who openly say the church should be involved in our politics, whatever that church might be for that group. And Mormons wear their religion on their sleeve. The average Mormon spends something like 20 hours per week in activities at their local congregation. It's really the core and eye of their customs, and they are absolutely open that their organized religion informs their social and political values. And Americans don't like that.
Practice you retrieve Romney might lose the election considering of his religion?
I remember if Romney loses, it's going to be for a variety of reasons. And yes, Mormonism may be problematic for him going forward. Conservative voters might be a piddling less enthusiastic nearly getting out the vote considering they're nervous that he's a Mormon, and they're the ones he needs. And you lot may notice independents who detect his politics appealing, but some of them might be put off by the association with Mormonism and the concern that Mormons are all conservatives.
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Source: https://www.bu.edu/articles/2012/afraid-of-mormons/
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