As an Iranian woman growing up in a secular family under the authoritarian regime of the Islamic Republic, I am admittedly anti-religious. At some point in life, probably around 15 or 16, I decided that I do not believe in any of it.
Our social lives were extremely complicated because we didn't have the same values as the Islamic government. At parties- in which our parents mingled, danced and drank banned home-made vodka delivered by an Armenian-Iranian dealer- there was an ever present sense of insecurity. The danger of the religious police raiding the party and making arrests, or at the minimum disturbing us and soliciting bribes, was imminent. We lived in this kind of fear as children and adults. Later, when I was a teenager, the same story was true. This time, there were no parents at the party and we weren't children anymore, so the danger of getting beaten and thrown in jail was more real. Naturally, we attributed this stifling sense of insecurity to Islam; that was the regime's value system.
Our private lives were even more complicated. Islam, similar to other major organized religions, is all about the after life. With the promise of the heaven, comes the guilt and the shame of enjoying the pleasures of life. I vividly remember how filthy I felt every time I masturbated. I would promise myself not to ever do it again because I was scared of burning in hell for thousands of year, hanging from my hair. It was a painful image for a 12 year old child.
And these are only two small examples of how the religion manifested itself in my life. There are many others such as sexual harassment by frustrated angry men, limited career opportunities, insults, countless hours of useless religious education, and...
I mention all of this to highlight to you, dear reader, that I am aware of my anti religious biases and you should be too.
And now, let's talk about Mormons.
The religion was created in the U.S. less than 200 years ago. It is apparently the fastest growing religion in the world and currently there are more Mormons that Jews. I won't bore you with the history and facts, because you can read all of that on Wikipedia. Better yet, you should read "Under the Banter of Heaven" by Jon Krakauer. It is a gripping and fascinating read.
The most fascinating aspect of the religion for me is the practice of polygamy. Like Islam, polygamy is accepted and practiced, but even more interestingly, it is encouraged and considered the fundamental pillar of salvation. How fascinating is that?
- I should say here that polygamy is not practiced by all Mormons, only by fundamentalists, or the Fundamentalist Later Day Saints.
Now, as a liberal woman, I have no incentive to practice any major religion. Religions are created by men for men, and that is nothing new. But to think that a religion created in the modern times, in America, can be so oppressive for womenو is just beyond me. There is rampant evidence of child sexual harassment among fundamentalist Mormons. They systematically marry young girls, as young as 13, to men as old as 80. Women are supposed to be obedient and bear children, some times as many as 12-14. The current prophet is alleged to have had 70 wives and at least 65 children.
Since polygamy is illegal in the US, these men are not lawfully married to more than one wife, usually their first. But the religious leaders, or prophets, wed the couples in their own church ceremonies. And how do the men pay for the wives and the children you ask? They don't. Tax payers do. These women are all on welfare because they are single mothers and none of them have a job. In one of the counties populated by fundamentalist Mormons, 8 dollars is paid in welfare for every 1 dollar paid in taxes.
You ask yourselves, why do these women put up with this bullshit? And I think the answer is because they have no choice. These women are raised in a society with screwed up values. They have never been educated in a modern school system where they can learn useful employable skills, and many of them have been married off as children. By the time they are in their mid-20s they have a few kids and they are completely dependent on the men in the society. Now, how do you suppose one can escape that?
Our social lives were extremely complicated because we didn't have the same values as the Islamic government. At parties- in which our parents mingled, danced and drank banned home-made vodka delivered by an Armenian-Iranian dealer- there was an ever present sense of insecurity. The danger of the religious police raiding the party and making arrests, or at the minimum disturbing us and soliciting bribes, was imminent. We lived in this kind of fear as children and adults. Later, when I was a teenager, the same story was true. This time, there were no parents at the party and we weren't children anymore, so the danger of getting beaten and thrown in jail was more real. Naturally, we attributed this stifling sense of insecurity to Islam; that was the regime's value system.
Our private lives were even more complicated. Islam, similar to other major organized religions, is all about the after life. With the promise of the heaven, comes the guilt and the shame of enjoying the pleasures of life. I vividly remember how filthy I felt every time I masturbated. I would promise myself not to ever do it again because I was scared of burning in hell for thousands of year, hanging from my hair. It was a painful image for a 12 year old child.
And these are only two small examples of how the religion manifested itself in my life. There are many others such as sexual harassment by frustrated angry men, limited career opportunities, insults, countless hours of useless religious education, and...
I mention all of this to highlight to you, dear reader, that I am aware of my anti religious biases and you should be too.
And now, let's talk about Mormons.
The religion was created in the U.S. less than 200 years ago. It is apparently the fastest growing religion in the world and currently there are more Mormons that Jews. I won't bore you with the history and facts, because you can read all of that on Wikipedia. Better yet, you should read "Under the Banter of Heaven" by Jon Krakauer. It is a gripping and fascinating read.
The most fascinating aspect of the religion for me is the practice of polygamy. Like Islam, polygamy is accepted and practiced, but even more interestingly, it is encouraged and considered the fundamental pillar of salvation. How fascinating is that?
- I should say here that polygamy is not practiced by all Mormons, only by fundamentalists, or the Fundamentalist Later Day Saints.
Now, as a liberal woman, I have no incentive to practice any major religion. Religions are created by men for men, and that is nothing new. But to think that a religion created in the modern times, in America, can be so oppressive for womenو is just beyond me. There is rampant evidence of child sexual harassment among fundamentalist Mormons. They systematically marry young girls, as young as 13, to men as old as 80. Women are supposed to be obedient and bear children, some times as many as 12-14. The current prophet is alleged to have had 70 wives and at least 65 children.
Since polygamy is illegal in the US, these men are not lawfully married to more than one wife, usually their first. But the religious leaders, or prophets, wed the couples in their own church ceremonies. And how do the men pay for the wives and the children you ask? They don't. Tax payers do. These women are all on welfare because they are single mothers and none of them have a job. In one of the counties populated by fundamentalist Mormons, 8 dollars is paid in welfare for every 1 dollar paid in taxes.
You ask yourselves, why do these women put up with this bullshit? And I think the answer is because they have no choice. These women are raised in a society with screwed up values. They have never been educated in a modern school system where they can learn useful employable skills, and many of them have been married off as children. By the time they are in their mid-20s they have a few kids and they are completely dependent on the men in the society. Now, how do you suppose one can escape that?
Hi just notes, when you first announced in your last post that you will write something about Hormons, I thought that you are going to surprise the readers of your blog with the confession that you have been baptized by the church of latter day saints. I'm really happy you did not, and you remain a rational, atheist writer.
ReplyDeleteI only know mormons from their huge genealogy records which they keep in Utah and which serves to baptize dead person. So in theory, they could retrospectively baptize and declare as mormon believer everybody who is already dead, and he/she can not do anything against it any more, be it Karl Marx or Graucho Marx, Charle le Magne or Charly Chaplin.
For studying human genetics, however, these very detailed genealogy records with large pedegrees with many children to one men were very useful.
There is one thing I don't understand, and this is how one man can have so many "wifes", if the population nowaday has a ballance number of men and woman. Does this mean, that many men have no right to marry at all (in order to compensate for the few polygamic men?).
I guess the whole promotion of polygamy goes back to the very early days of colonialization of North-America by the Anglo-Saxons, when many of their men lost their lifes in battles with the native Americans, causing a deficit of potential husbands. I think the ethics of the native Americans precluded killing of woman and children, killing was only permitted in a battle man against man.
Maybe John Smith promoted polygamism for his followers as a method to prevent the small community of whites to become extinct despite a loss of men ?
But like with most other religions, they are also very reluctant to change what they once prayed.
best regards
Michael
If you read the book, you find some of those answers. I have asked myself about the gender ratio too, and there is apparently a notion of Lost Boys
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_boys_(Mormon_fundamentalism)
I think polygamy was created by J.S because he wanted to have more women, and his wife was super opposed to it. But the dude received "revelations" from the god that he should take more wives. sketchy stuff.
This explains it very well indeed. In fact it sounds worse than what I was assuming. They obviously have introduced an entire system of organized promiscuity for the few bosses, on the expense that many young man have to leave this "garden of eden". Really scary what religious leaders are ready to do, only to keep their weired ideology a-life.
ReplyDeletegreetings, Michael
PS: sorry, in my first comment (2nd line) there is a typo (I swear). It should read "Mormons", of course not "Hormons". Probably one of the Freudian slips.
ReplyDeleteregards, Michael
haha, no worries Michael. Thanks for your comments. It is indeed very strange. there is a documentary on the subject that isn't bad called Sons of Perdition". check it out if you have time.
ReplyDeleteHi me, the entire documentary is not release yet here in Germany. But I had a look at the trailer on youtube, and the few scenes therein already reminded me of other sects which use religious indoctrination, manipulation and fear mongering (in particular of a devine punishment, similar as what you described in post-79 Iran).
ReplyDeleteWhat worries me a lot, that even in liberal and open societies (like the US) religious indoctrination still finds so much fertile ground. I think it is a natural desire of everyone to find some faith, which can guide us through the daily ups and downs, and help us not to fall in despair. But the "manager" of the different kind of religions, the bishops, pops, TV-priests, mullahs, gurus and so on, they all understoud this desire, and they offer the "right" product to satisfy this desire. Marx one coined the phrase that religion is opium for the people. But for some of the most extreme types of religion, I think they are much worse than opium. At least they were responsible for much more killing and suffering. But after all, they still can present themself as the one and only savior. Excellent marketing strategy (at least as long as people don't look what is behind, like they did with the documentary you shared).
best greetings
Michael
Yeah I agree with you. I acknowledge that I am an atheist and have strong feelings about faiths. My view is probably slightly skewed towards the bad that comes out of the religions. O think there is probably a lot of good too, like charities, education, community building, etc. But it is so hard to shake the stupidity of the extremes.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that bothered me a lot about Mormons is the abuse of children and women. As a society we should be responsible to protect the children.
Hi me, it seems that the more a religion attempts to interfere with normal human emotions and desires, the more likely it is that behind its closed walls a sophisticated system of sexual abuse develops. The catholic church became notorius for permitting pedophil priests to abuse children under the protective roof of catholic schools, dorms, holiday camps and so on. And the Vatican did everything to hide this over decades, and prevent any public investigation on these cases. It all became obvious about 4 years ago, and in Germany about 15% of former catholics turn away from the churches. I was happy to participate in some protest actions to blame the pope and the catholic establishments for these crimes, We did a so-called "Jolly Procession" (http://persian-cat.de/?p=2351).
ReplyDeleteAs a good remedy against religious stupidity, we were recently watching the movie "The Physician" (after Noah Gordons novel), with Ben Kingsley playing Ibn Sina. A really good and entertaining story. Don't know if it is already released in the US ?
best regards
Michael