Masking Prejudice

As human beings we have mastered the art of masking our prejudices by demonizing those we cannot abide. Muslims are terrorists, Blacks are loud, Whites think they are better than me, and the list goes on.

I did not, however, expect to find such blatant prejudice on a blog roll on the New York Times. Timothy Egan posted a blog on April 23, entitled Faith of Our Fathers. He used his ill-researched knowledge to attack the entire Mormon community around the world. Here are some of his comments:

"...But religion can also be used as an excuse for awful behavior – from the torture of the Roman Catholic Inquisition, to beheadings by Jihadist killers, to the sexual manipulation of children by early Mormons and their latter-day sects... [Their] faith was founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith Jr., an itinerant treasure-seeker from upstate New York who used a set of magic glasses to translate a lost scripture from God...It would have been just another Christian faith had not Smith let his libido lead him into trouble. Before he died at the hands of a mob, he married at least 33 women and girls; the youngest was 14, and was told she had to become Smith’s bedmate or risk eternal damnation. Smith was fortunate to find a religious cover for his desire. His polygamy “revelation” was put into The Doctrine and Covenants, one of three sacred texts of Mormonism. It’s still there – the word of God. And that’s why, to the people in the compound at Eldorado, the real heretics are in Salt Lake City.
As his biographer, Fawn Brodie, wrote, Joseph Smith “could not rest until he had redefined the nature of sin and erected a stupendous theological edifice to support his new theories on marriage... His successor, Brigham Young, married 57 women – a harem that attracted curious libertines like Sir Richard Burton to study the American social experiment...
Fast forward to this century, when the polygamist group makes the same argument at their West Texas compound and at their earlier one in Colorado City, on the Utah-Arizona border. I was at that Colorado City compound, twice in the last four years. It spooked me: the gnarly old men and their child brides, the creepy guards in their pickup trucks, the sing-songy women tending to a dozen children in houses the size of a Motel 6. They were ripping off the state, living on welfare and food stamps, even as they defied civil authorities. In Colorado City, I spent time with DeLoy Bateman, a high school science teacher, who told of losing his daughter after church authorities ordered her to leave her husband and marry her father-in-law – a man twice her age..."

I am obviously not a Mormon, nor do I believe in children being forced into sexual encounters, but I do believe that this article is divisive, and it is the kind of propaganda that causes the rise of more violence and intolerance in the name of religion. Here is a comment on the blog that expresses my feelings the best.

"What baton are you holding, Mr. Egan? The bodies of 6,000 Mormons scattered
across the Western plains are a testament of the legacy of the baton YOU hold.
What role did the 19th century press play in hyping up persecution, exaggerating
and exploiting the sensational to make a buck and stir up hatreds and violence?
Is there a study you are aware of that suggests Mormons married underage
girls in the 19th century at a rate greater than the general population around
them, or are you just taking a sophisticated potshot from the media cheapseats,
and counting on the righteous indignation and general prejudices of your readers
to carry your point?I think I already know the answer to that question."
Posted by clay a

Another comment I appreciated was:

"All this generalization, as if all 437 children have been abused, if any.
Nothing is proven- what happened to American’s ability to think critically,
instead of having a mob mentality lead by the feeding frenzy of mass media and
bloggers. Where is the blogger who will stand up for due process and innocence
until proven guilty? Did the love of our constitution go by the wayside with the
Patriots Act? Abuse does not occur in any higher percentage in any particular
church or in any particular community. it is everywhere. And do not forget that
the marriageable age in Texas was only recently raised to 16 years from 14
years, so before you go riding your merry
bandwagons to the lynching, maybe
you should wait for due process, if it occurs…."
— Posted by Quaker girl