MATTHEW PICCOLO
Staff Writer
In St. George, Utah, a jury convicted polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs of two counts of being an accomplice to rape on Sept. 25. Jeffs had performed an unlawful marriage between two first cousins, a 14 year-old girl and a 19 year-old man, who were the parties in the rape. The Jeffs case reveals troubling aspects of polygamous communities that should be brought to the public’s attention. But in doing so, the news media should not reiterate common misperceptions about polygamy and Mormons.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Jeffs replaced his father as prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) in 2002 and inherited many of his estimated 75 wives. Jeffs is believed to have about 40 wives and 56 children. Jeffs has been accused of forcing many underage girls to marry older men. His nephew has accused him and two other uncles of repeatedly sodomizing him. Jeffs’ sect is just one polygamist group referred to as “Mormon Fundamentalists.” Confusion and misinformation about these groups have created four major misperceptions about polygamy and Mormons.
The first misperception is that Warren Jeffs and his followers are Mormons. The truth is that Jeffs’ group has no affiliation with the worldwide Mormon Church. The term “Mormon” comes from the Book of Mormon which contains writings translated by Joseph Smith who founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1830. Church opponents used “Mormon” as a derisive term for its members. After Smith’s assassination in 1844, many small sects broke off from the original church, forming their own distinct leadership, doctrine, and practices. The largest group of Mormons continued under the direction of Brigham Young. Warren Jeffs’ sect is the result of a later offshoot that began in 1929. These small groups accept the Book of Mormon and adhere to some Mormon doctrine, but they are not Mormons.
Polygamists usually live in small communities in rural areas. They avoid contact with other people and avoid the police. The term “Mormon” properly applies only to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that continued unbroken after Brigham Young. That 13-million member church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings. Their 53,000 Mormon missionaries go door to door throughout the world. Mormons attend public schools, work in banks, law firms and supermarkets and hold political office.
The second misperception is that most Mormons practice polygamy. The truth is that no Mormons practice polygamy, if they do they are excommunicated. Smith and some Mormon men reluctantly began to marry multiple women around 1840 after Smith received a commandment from God to do so. In 1890, after decades of persecution, threats from the federal government, and a revelation from God, the Church announced it would discontinue the practice. Today, Mormons have only one spouse, those with more than one are excommunicated.
The third misperception is that the Western United States, especially Utah, is full of polygamists. The truth is that in Utah polygamists are not the norm, even though HBO’s TV drama “Big Love” portrays a polygamist family in Salt Lake City. According to the pro-polygamy group Principle Voices, about 37,000 members of polygamous sects reside in the Intermountain West, but less than half practice plural marriage. If all lived in Utah, they would number far below one percent of the state’s population.
The fourth misperception is that polygamy is unique to Mormonism. The truth is that polygamy is very common in many cultures and religions. The Ethnographic Atlas, a study of 1,231 societies from 1960 to 1980, reported that 85 percent of societies studied practiced some form of polygamy to some degree.
In the Bible, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Solomon, and David, among many others, had multiple wives. Martin Luther once made an exception for plural marriage and said that “it does not contradict Scripture.”
In Islam, the Qur’an permits the taking of “two or three or four” wives if the husband treats them equally. Though the Qur’an says “Ye will not be able to deal equally between (your) wives, however much ye wish (to do so),” some Muslims still enter plural marriages. The early Mormons and current polygamist sects are not unprecedented.
The Jeffs case has brought polygamy and Mormonism to national attention. Journalists and popular media should dispel these four popular misperceptions. They owe it to the people they mischaracterize and to the cause of truth.
10-04-2007