Contradiction among Essentialism: How Some Mormon Fundamentalists Do Gender
2022; Volume: 9; Linguagem: Inglês
10.5406/21568030.9.1.03
ISSN2156-8030
Autores Tópico(s)American Constitutional Law and Politics
ResumoGender is eternal, at least from the perspective and teachings of most Mormon traditions. Whether mainstream or fundamentalist, Mormonism teaches that gender is a fixed characteristic that predates earthly existence and follows us into the afterlife. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints codified this belief in “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” a 1995 document likely authored by Latter-day Saint lawyers and designed to thwart same-sex marriage advancements in Hawaii and elsewhere.3 Whether received by divine revelation or responding to perceived secular need, this proclamation reiterates key components of Latter-day Saint doctrine related to gender and family. According to this document, “All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.”4 Moreover, it is not just gender that is eternal; the Doctrine and Covenants also promises that families will also persist in eternity (D&C 132:19).Indeed, it is through their roles as parents that faithful believers gain exaltation. The Proclamation further states that, by divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible for providing the necessities of life. Conversely, mothers are primarily responsible for the nurturance of their children.5 Within these families, what are perceived to be traditional sex roles are maintained in what is widely understood to be the patriarchal order of marriage. Yet, these traditional roles were mostly the product of the post–World War II period, when church teachings regarding so-called gender purity exploded in response to the personal and economic autonomy many Latter-day Saint women had enjoyed during the war.6 The idea of traditional gender roles has anchored behavioral expectations within both mainstream and fundamentalist Mormon belief ever since.7That both Latter-day Saints and fundamentalist Mormons hew to what are constructed as traditional notions of gender and family is hardly of note. What raises an eyebrow and invites heated discussion, however, is the argument that within the fundamentalist/polygamous Mormon community of Centennial Park there exists both greater freedom beyond these constraints and greater respect within them. Within this community, gender expectations are both reductive and restrictive, much like gender expectations found within the Latter-day Saint community; however, the polygamous structure of many families simultaneously (and somewhat incongruously) allows for greater movement outside of these same prescribed roles.Centennial Park is located in northern Arizona, just south of the Utah border and two miles from Colorado City, the city most famed for Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In comparison to larger and perhaps more widely known polygamous communities, the Centennial Park community is a relatively recent group created for the purpose of religious freedom and plural living. It was formed in the mid-1980s when Marion Hammon and Alma Timpson were dismissed from the FLDS's Priesthood Council in Colorado City by acting prophet Leroy S. Johnson.8 These dissenters built a meeting house in 1986 and became Centennial Park residents, also known as the Centennial Park Group.While Centennial Park can be categorized as a fundamentalist Mormon community, it challenges popular notions of polygamy, or celestial marriage, as residents prefer to call it.9 According to the group itself, “Children are encouraged to become educated and wait until 18 to marry. As a general rule, men do not solicit marriage, and that decision is left to the women. Women dress in modest, modern attire. The community is led by a council.”10 While the members of the Centennial Park Group do belong to an organized group, they are different from many fundamentalist Mormon groups in that they welcome and interact with outsiders. Susie Timpson, former president of the Centennial Park Action Committee (CPAC), a group devoted to political activism and the decriminalization of polygamy, explains it this way: “We want to be as transparent as we can be. We want people to come to activities, visit the clinic, and attend church if they want to. We have nothing to hide.”11 Given this commitment to transparency, I was invited to attend church meetings, community events, and small gatherings in members’ homes. I was welcomed into the community, first as a scholar and later as a friend.When I first entered the community of Centennial Park in 2010, I was struck by the powerful and visible roles that women held. They challenge popular stereotypes of what it means to be a polygamist, rejecting labels that others have imposed on them. Members of this community say they are engaged in “The Work,” or call themselves “Joseph Smith Mormons.” They even attempt to dispel notions of isolation by waving at strangers. Sanjiv Bhattacharya explains: “The first thing I learned about Centennial Park is that they're big on waving here. They wave from the streets, from their cars, at intersections. And it's not just the kids or people I've met—everyone waves. And smiles. It may well be doctrine at this point . . . [but] there's a purity of purpose to Centennial Park, an air of discipline.”12 Yet while friendly and open to strangers, Centennial Park is extremely disciplined in the way members, especially women, live the gospel and build their families.While trusted men offer guidance, the women make decisions regarding marriage in Centennial Park. In the event that a woman has not been “moved by the Spirit” through thoughtful prayer to identify her future spouse, she may choose to consult the Council of Brethren for advice.13 Yet the man she chooses must also agree to marriage. Contrary to mainstream American perceptions, “No one is forced to marry anyone they don't want to marry. No one.”14But like Latter-day Saints and other fundamentalist groups, members of the Centennial Park community still understand marriage and family to be the divine purpose of earthly life. Within the Centennial Park community, this ideology is reinforced in the Priesthood Discourses, a collection of talks delivered and published by the Council of the Priesthood. Members are reminded that “the thing that the servants of God have been trying to get this people to do is live according to the teachings they have received. . . . to place themselves in the hands of the Priesthood [for marriage], that they might be placed correctly during their lifetime.”15While the women of Centennial Park are the active agents when deciding to marry, they are still choosing a role in the patriarchal order of marriage, wherein the specter of gender roles and expectations is ever-present. In such an arrangement, the patriarchal order of marriage presents itself as divinely inspired, emerging as the normative way to structure contemporary family life. The adherence to this perceived divine order plays out in multitude ways in Centennial Park, from the sacred commitment to celestial and eternal marriage to the daily detail of appropriate clothing. While attired in modern dress rather than the pioneer garb associated with the FLDS, women in Centennial Park are still expected to always wear dresses. Mark Timpson, a priesthood holder in the community explains, “We believe a wife will never fully submit to her husband if she is wearing pants. If a woman dresses in a feminine manner, she will act in a feminine way and fulfill her eternal feminine purpose.”16Nevertheless, the women of Centennial Park enjoy greater freedom from the constraints of gender role expectations than their monogamous sisters. The observation that polygamy can afford women more opportunity and freedom than is available in monogamous patriarchal marriage is not new. Polygamy, as practiced in the Utah Territory during the nineteenth century, served to both figuratively and literally unite and strengthen a community forged in both isolation and persecution. Moreover, the Mormon practice of plural marriage created a spiritual network that satisfied both community needs and individual desires.17 Specifically, early Mormon women embraced a unique kind of gender fluidity, particularly from the perspective of current contemporary norms. Mormon women in the Utah Territory accepted both the mantle of greater expectation and the presumption they would complete whatever tasks were asked of them. These powerful women “had worked beside men and without them to build homes and communities in four states. . . . Many of them already knew how to circulate petitions, sign affidavits, lobby public officials, and employ the power of the press. More importantly, through their organizations they had learned to work together across household boundaries.”18 To suggest that early Mormonism fundamentally changed and reshaped gender roles and expectations may overstate the influence of these strong women (and the overriding practice of polygamy). However, these adaptive behaviors do illustrate “the fungibility of gender roles when a community faces new challenges.”19 And fundamentalist Mormon communities attempting to practice polygamy in twenty-first-century America certainly face new challenges.While both mainstream and fundamentalist Mormons share this history, it is only within some polygamous communities that this “can do” attitude and effort of early Mormon women is regularly celebrated. Celebrations like Better Days 2020 notwithstanding, the LDS Church is still in the practice of reprimanding and/or excommunicating women who demand change now.20 It is only women's history that is lauded. I was born to faithful, temple-married LDS Church members in 1970. The mainstream Mormon church I was born and raised in did not teach me about early Mormon women, nor did it recognize the historical veracity of Joseph Smith and his many plural wives.21 I was taught about Brigham Young and his numerous wives, but only under the framework of traditional gender expectations. Early pioneer women were celebrated in the mainstream Mormon church for their stoicism and faithfulness in the face of the trying circumstance of polygamy. Polygamy was presented as a bitter pill early Mormon women had to swallow to create the community of Zion in the Utah Territory.It was not until graduate school, in the mid-1990s, that I learned the full scope of early Mormon women and their respective autonomy. While common knowledge to Latter-day Saint historians now, it was explosive to my young mind to learn that Mormon women published their own work, ran the Relief Society without male oversight or interference, gave healing blessings, and attended medical school.22 Yet also during this time, the so-called September Six were excommunicated.23 The message I received was clear: regardless of historical veracity, challenges to current LDS interpretations of history and women's issues would not be tolerated. While I was not taught to celebrate polygamous unions and the strength and power of early Mormon women, those growing up in fundamentalist Mormon communities often were. This is the crucial difference here: women in Centennial Park have been taught to respect and revere their polygamous ancestors while women in the LDS Church have been encouraged to overlook the “necessary evil” of polygamy in the early practice of Mormonism.The contemporary women of Centennial Park are carrying the banner of polygamy first upheld by their pioneer ancestors. Moreover, they do so in opposition to a dominant culture that has criminalized their religious choices for over a century. Polygamy became illegal in Utah in 1890, and while it took decades for the mainstream Mormon church to truly end (and punish) this practice among faithful members, members of fundamentalist offshoot communities never stopped. However, they largely practiced polygamy under a shroud of secrecy and with the perpetual fear of criminal prosecution, a double-edged sword that guaranteed both insulation and solidarity. The 1953 raid on the community of Short Creek illustrates this duality best: On July 26, 1953, Arizona police and state officials descended on this border town to arrest the men and rescue the women and children from the perceived horrors of polygamy. In sum, thirty-six men were arrested while eighty-six women and 263 children were forcibly moved to Phoenix.24 What was meant to divide and sow fear among polygamists instead became a lightning rod for group identity. Fundamentalists along the Utah/Arizona border turned inward and recommitted themselves to living the true and restored gospel, albeit away from prying eyes. They had been galvanized by a belief common to both mainstream and fundamentalist Mormons: If you aren't being persecuted, you aren't doing it right.It is in this regard that members of the Centennial Park Group (previously part of Colorado City and/or Short Creek) place themselves in solidarity with their pioneer forebears. For the women of early Mormondom, fighting for their right to enter polygamous unions and structure their families accordingly provided a crucial pathway to political and personal autonomy. Moreover, their husbands supported and encouraged their activism.25 In Centennial Park, women are carrying on this mantle of activism and engagement, most aptly illustrated by the creation and execution of the Centennial Park Action Committee. CPAC was created in 2004 with the primary purpose of dispelling harmful stereotypes surrounding polygamy while openly and vocally advocating for polygamy's decriminalization. CPAC speaks for itself and admonishes its outside audience not to see members of the Centennial Park group as victims of their religion. Rather, CPAC argues that community members are victims of an unjust government that refuses to grant freedom of religion protection guaranteed under the US Constitution to the practice of polygamy. Specifically, CPAC would like to see the Reynolds decision overturned and the practice of polygamy decriminalized. For members of Centennial Park, plural marriage can stand up to scrutiny in the light of day, if only given the chance.26This group, while representing the concerns of the entire community, is comprised almost entirely of women. When I first met and began interacting with this group in 2010, twenty-three of the twenty-four members were Centennial Park women. They represent nearly every segment of the larger population. Within their ranks I met teachers, nurses, businesswomen, and home-mothers.27 They are active across the political landscape of both Utah and Arizona, meeting with legislators, community organizers, interest groups, and the larger public to advocate for both the safety and preservation of their families and communities. They do this work partly to champion their fervently held beliefs and partly to shield the men of their community from harm. After all, in the 1953 raid it was the men who were arrested and imprisoned.Regardless of their motivations, they are at the forefront of social change. They are the ones acting outside of the gender roles prescribed by most conservative religions, including mainstream Mormonism. Certainly there have been conservative women engaged in activism across the conservative spectrum, but the women of Centennial Park are different.28 They are not engaged in activism that limits women's freedoms; rather, they are engaged in activism that allows women greater choice in marriage and family structure. It is also worth noting that with regard to marriage equality, they are often allies of same-sex marriage proponents, a symbiotic relationship not typically seen within conservative circles. Their activism has also yielded tremendous results. Since March 2020 and with the passing of Utah Senate Bill 102, a married person may now take additional spouses without subjecting themselves to felony charges. Additional spouses must be of legal age and entering into marriage voluntarily.29 Without pressure and activism from the women of Centennial Park and their allies, this legislation would not have occurred.Another way the women of Centennial Park find greater movement within their prescribed gender roles is in the field of education. As previously mentioned, both women and men are encouraged to further their education beyond high school. Many enroll in classes at Mohave Community College, located just minutes from their homes. This commitment to education is also reflected in the creation of two schools in the community: Masada Charter School, and the Academy. Masada opened its doors in the fall of 2001 to 150 students and currently serves over five hundred students in kindergarten through ninth grade. For grades ten through twelve, students generally attend the Academy, a private high school. The Masada school building was constructed by members of the community and financed through a Department of Agriculture loan. Currently, Masada is ranked in the top 10 percent of all Arizona schools. And while Masada largely serves a religious community, it is not a religious school. As Polly Dockstader, Masada principal (and plural wife), states, “Our students can just focus on learning; they don't need to hide their backgrounds and/or their families.”30 In an environment wherein most families have taught their children not to discuss family structure with outsiders for fear of retribution, being able to learn in a safe space free of both judgement and duplicity has been both comforting and freeing.In addition to the activism, political engagement, and educational involvement in their community, the women of Centennial Park are also fiercely committed to their homes and their families. They find neither shame nor discomfort in their divine roles as wives and mothers. It is the outside world, according to Jennifer Lara Fagen and Stuart A. Wright, that “conflates domesticity with oppression,” ignores women's experiences and “situated knowledge,” and denies women's agency while positing “their roles as invisible or inferior.”31 While the LDS Church also places value on the divine feminine (and all that that entails), it lacks the larger community support and collaboration found within Centennial Park. For all the effort the mainstream Mormon church puts into its aphorism of “being in the world, not of the world,” it still reflects (and shares) a larger secular attitude: the “patriarchal devaluation of domesticity.”32 This has been the price of assimilation. Compared to Centennial Park, mainstream Mormon women still largely go it alone; they are islands of domesticity surrounded by a secular and patriarchal culture that devalues what is perceived to be women's work. Relief Society may offer a sense of community, but for the many Latter-day Saint women who work outside of the home, active participation can be difficult. Lip service may honor Mormon women with a flower on Mother's Day, but daily respect falls short. Yet within the open but insular community of Centennial Park, women, and the roles they are expected to fulfill, enjoy unbridled support from the entire community.The suggestion that women benefit from plural marriage is echoed throughout Centennial Park. Joanne Timpson Yarrish, the community's practicing midwife and healthcare provider, bluntly states that “monogamy makes slaves of women.”33 Having spent several years getting to know the women in Centennial Park, I can see the point. As these women look at my own personal Facebook page and see the many activities my children are engaged in, the volunteer hours I put into their schools, the holiday meals and decorations I prepare, and my position as a full-time, tenured professor, they say things like, “Wow, Jennifer! You could really use a sister wife.”34 I'd be lying if I said I didn't see the appeal.When pressed to further explain her position, Yarrish makes a strong case for polygamy as collaboration wherein women do not shoulder the burden of gender expectations alone; they rely on a close-knit group of women who share the same familial goals to find fulfillment within their family structures. This lesson is communicated in myriad ways: one example is the Nightingales, a volunteer group that Yarrish has spearheaded, which provides assistance in newborn and postpartum care for women in the community. Nightingale volunteers—mostly young, unmarried women over the age of eighteen (as well as the occasional “empty nester”)—must complete educational training, be certified in basic care, and pass a clinical exam under the watchful eye of the midwife. The program makes needed help available to the community, but it also helps instruct the young women growing up in Centennial Park and gives them an experience rather like a mission in the LDS Church. The Nightingales also serve as powerful reminders that in the plural community of Centennial Park, it truly does take a village. This is a commitment reflected in daily action, not merely something proclaimed from the pulpit on Sundays. The stability such a worldview creates for both family and community cannot be overstated as within this structure, women actively seek each other's help with household management and childcare. They do not manage responsibilities alone. Centennial Park flourishes directly because of this communal commitment.That Latter-day Saint and fundamental Mormonism, alike, reinforce “the normative ideas of what women [and men] are expected to do, and be, and think” is unsurprising.35 More than a mere historical footnote, however, is how differently they transmit this lesson. Within the LDS Church, women are structurally denied the ability to pursue full personhood. Dominated by mainstream Mormonism, Utah emerges, as one activist puts it, as “the worst state in the U.S. for women . . . it has the largest wage gap, the fewest women on boards of directors, the fewest women in politics, the lowest college graduation rate, and in almost every measurable category, women have fared worse in a place where 93 percent of the legislature is Mormon.”36 Conversely, “Mormon fundamentalist women in plural marriages may experience a sense of gender consciousness within their traditional domestic roles, as well as their roles as ‘cowives,’ that is unmatched in the secular world.”37 They are uniquely positioned as the keepers of culture, a culture that survives in collaboration, not competition, with their sister wives. As a result, women in Centennial Park act as agents of change, far more so than their mainstream Mormon sisters. For these women, polygamy creates greater freedom for both personal and political development, even within restrictive gender essentialism. We would do well not to forget that.
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