cur  #2 7-JAN-1994 22:17:02.15 NEWMAIL From: IN%"mormon-l@byu.edu" To: IN%"mormon-l@byu.edu" "Multiple recipients of list" CC: Subj: Mormo-Americans Return-path: Received: from ucs2.byu.edu by VAX1.UMKC.EDU (PMDF V4.2-11 #4431) id <01H7F0TV6NGW9LZGDE@VAX1.UMKC.EDU>; Fri, 7 Jan 1994 22:16:53 CST Received: from LOCALHOST by ucs2.byu.edu (AIX 3.2/UCB 5.64/4.03) id AA49396; Fri, 7 Jan 1994 21:02:33 -0700 Date: Fri, 07 Jan 1994 21:02:33 -0700 From: Michael Austin Subject: Mormo-Americans Sender: mormon-l@byu.edu To: Multiple recipients of list Errors-to: allenm@fhs.byu.edu Reply-to: mormon-l@byu.edu Message-id: Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Press RETURN for more... MAIL>  #2 7-JAN-1994 22:17:02.15 NEWMAIL Originator: mormon-l@byu.edu Precedence: bulk X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0b -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Fellow Mormon-L'ers, When I decided to pursue a Ph.D. in contemporary literary criticism at a notoriously liberal university, I was reasonably sure that I would be answering more than a few questions about the Church. When I first came to Santa Barbara 18 months ago and told people I was a Mormon (since I spent 6 years at BYU, the topic inevitably came up), most of them either looked shocked, pretended not to hear, or told me that "they understood," and that it was "alright with them." This year, I decided to try something of a different tack. When people, hearing that I had gone to BYU, asked me if I was a Mormon, I said, "No!" After a short pause, I added, "I'm a Mormo-American." The people who knew me laughed, but the people who didn't only smiled nervously, not really sure if I was joking or if I really did belong to some oppressed (and Press RETURN for more... MAIL>  #2 7-JAN-1994 22:17:02.15 NEWMAIL therefore protected) victim class that their slavish devotion to tolerance and understanding had failed to uncover. Now, what does all of this have to do with my post? I have spent a good deal of time this year developing rhetorical strategies for discussing Mormonism in the context of critical theory. In celebration of my first full week as a Mormon-L subscriber, and in loving appreciation for all of the answers I have gotten to questions that I didn't even know I had, I would like to share what I have learned. I hereby offer the following (and admittedly partial) list of terms that I have found extremely useful in discussing Mormonism with my theoretically enlightened friends and colleagues. I call it "A Brief but Helpful Lexicon for the Politically and Religiously Correct Mormon Victim Status Seeker." ************************************************************************* A Brief But Helpful Lexicon for the Politically and Religiously Correct Mormon Victim Status Seeker ************************************************************************* Press RETURN for more... MAIL>  #2 7-JAN-1994 22:17:02.15 NEWMAIL CREEDISM: The act of discriminating against someone because of their religious beliefs. A creedist, like a racist, a sexist, or a homophobe, attempts to "marginalize the other" (a really catchy critical phrase) by using religious affiliation as grounds for personal value judgements about an individual. SECTUAL HARASSMENT: A particularly offensive form of creedism. Sectual harassment occurs when a member of a particular sect is made to feel singled out, persecuted or uncomfortable by somebody in a position of power (an employer, a teacher, a dissertation advisor). Sectual harassment, I should add, is considered by most universities to be just as illegal as sexual or racial harassment; however, in the current academic setting, the issue comes up far less frequently. MORMO-AMERICAN: A term for a member of the Church. I consider the term superior to either "Mormon" or "Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints"--at least as far as University usage is concerned. The former term generally carries negative connotations, while the latter Press RETURN for more... MAIL>  #2 7-JAN-1994 22:17:02.15 NEWMAIL sounds defensive and almost evangelical. "Mormo-American, however, conveys the slight suspicion that one may actually be a "minority" and therefore subject to all the the special protections that any other "-American" so richly deserves. MORMOPHOBIA: Creedism or Sectual harassment that targets Mormo-Americans can be specifically labled "Mormophobia." Mormophobes are usually either 1) enlightened athiests who think that Mormon's shouldn't be taken seriously because they are fundamentalists, or 2) Fundamentalists who think that Mormon's shouldn't be taken seriously because they aren't fundamentalists. In either case, it should be remembered that Mormophobia, in an academic setting, violates a person's civil rights. A Mormon is just as protected and viable as someone who worships something more theoretically sound, such as a tree, a Celtic goddess, or a Gay Carribean Purple Trutle named Clive. PRIMITIVE MORMONISM: Loosly related, both semantically and intentionally, to Frederic Jameson's "Primitive Communism," one of the central tenants of _The Political Unconscious_. Primitive Mormonism is notable for Press RETURN for more... MAIL>  #2 7-JAN-1994 22:17:02.15 NEWMAIL the fact that it advocated polygamy (read: "subverted the Victorian sexual economy") and the United Order (read: mounted a decisive challenge to the ascendency of high capitalist economic hegemony). Primitive Mormonism, I should add, recently received an enthusiastic endorsement from Yale deconstructionist Harold Bloom, who, as any English major can tell you, is widely regarded as "the Hugh Nibly of the Rest of the World). VICTORIAN SEXUAL ECONOMY: A moral structure that encouraged monogamy, tolerated adultery, oppressed women, ruined the environment, and was boldly challenged by Joseph Smith. RADICAL SEXUAL ECONOMY: The moral structure of primitive Mormonism. Sometimes called "polygamy." HIGH CAPITALIST ECONOMIC HEGEMONY: An economic structure that encouraged ownership, oppressed the proletariat, ruined the environment, and was boldly challenged by Joseph Smith. Along with the Victorian sexual economy, high capitalist economic hegemony was responsible for the persecution of the Primitive Mormons. Press RETURN for more... MAIL>  #2 7-JAN-1994 22:17:02.15 NEWMAIL EARLY AMERICAN COMMUNALISM: A bold group of experiments including Brook Farm, the Shakers, the Family, and, most impressively, the Mormo-Americans, who were widely regarded as the most successful experiment. These experiments were so threatening to capitalism that the forces of oppression drove them from their midst. VICTIMS OF AMERICAN PLUARALISM: Another synonom for "Mormon." Can be abbreviated VOAP, but only in advanced conversations. HAUN'S MILL: THe Mormon equivalent of the Holocaust, the Armitsar Massacre, or the beating of Rodney King. To the true victim status seeker, the Haun's Mill Massacre is the central event in all of Mormon history. You don't really need to know what happened in order to get milage out of it, only that it was really bad and everybody else ought to be ashamed for not stopping it. COLONIZED OTHERS: What Mormons have become. The argument goes like this: in order to secure their basic human rights, Primitive Mormon-Americans Press RETURN for more... MAIL>  #2 7-JAN-1994 22:17:02.15 NEWMAIL had to submit to the sexual and economic hegemony of their colonizers (the US Government). Mormon neo-conservativism and sexual repression, then, is not our fault, but the predictable response of a bold group of people who mounted a challenge to the economic and sexual values of an entire society and, as a result, were beaten into submission. I hope this has been helpful. Please feel free to take it with as many grains of salt as it requires. Also, I would like to know if anybody else has discovered any terms I missed. Mike Austin, Santa Barbara MAIL>