Sydney Coslett
Article Reflection 5 I read the article, “The Polygamists” by Scott Anderson. I thought this article was very interesting. This article focused on the Mormon religion, specifically Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints. This religion is a branch off of Christianity and has some similar beliefs as other Christians but the most interesting thing about Mormons is that the men have multiple wives. They believe in polygamy and the wives call themselves “sister-wives.” At first I thought this religion was very odd. I thought that it almost sounded cult-like instead of it being a religion. The interesting thing about the followers of this religion is that they know people think it is odd. A friendly Mormon woman, Joyce Broadbent, said, “I know it seems weird to outsiders, but from my experience, sister wives usually get along very well. Oh sure, you may be closer to one than another or someone may get on your nerves occasionally, but that’s true in any family. I’ve never felt any rivalry or jealousy at all.” I found this statement very interesting. I first thought it was interesting that she notices that polygamy seems odd to outsiders. Much of the time, I believe that people may be ignorant to their beliefs and think that it is the norm and everyone else is odd or out of the loop. I thought this statement was interesting also because to think that someone has to compete for their husband’s attention with other wives is just a foreign thought to me personally. I have never really heard of polygamy until three years ago. When I first heard of it I thought it was very odd. I always thought that if anyone was to get married, it should be to only one person. But I believe that is me being ignorant to my own beliefs and being judgmental to other religions. But I should realize that other people have different beliefs and that does not make my beliefs better or worse than theirs. I also thought it was interesting when the article discussed that sister wives often take on different jobs in the house. The article discussed that one sister wife would be in charge of all the cleaning, one would be in charge of all the cooking, while another would be in charge of all the sewing. I thought this was interesting because in normal households normally the two spouses would split up responsibilities of the household instead of it getting split up among three or more people. It was also interesting because all of these chores are stereotypical female household chores. It is interesting that the women did not mention that they help their husband with finances or supporting the household with another job, they were all just household chores. This religion is very interesting and foreign to me also so I do not feel educated enough on the subject to make judgements. Although I do feel as though some of these beliefs are odd or different, Mormons may believe that my beliefs are odd also. I believe that it is good to learn more about other cultures because it helps people realize that no one’s beliefs are the “right” beliefs and that everyone is entitled to their own opinion.