Why people think Utah is crazy
April 9th, 2006I’m posting this for Utah residents who wonder why the world thinks Utah and its residents are nutty.
Backstory: The city council in Kanab, Utah passed a “natural family” resolution mandating that a family consisted of a father and mother “as ordained by God”. The resolution also indicated strict gender roles and that the natural family should have a “full quiver of children”. Kanab is a small town and a smallish tourist destination, but the resolution has cost the city.
Arthur Frommer, a prominent travel columnist and guide publisher, called for a boycott of the city:
“If they discriminate against other Americans, then some Americans should not visit them,” Frommer said Thursday from his New York home. “They really ought to wake up and join the modern world. It is nothing else but bigotry to adopt resolutions like that.”
(quote from Deseret News article here)
MSNBC story about boycott here.
The resolution was drafted by the nutburger conservative Sutherland Institute and the Salt Lake Tribune has allowed the President of the Sutherland Institute, Paul Mero, onto the editorial page in today’s Tribune.
When people dis Utah, it is this kind of thinking and posturing they dis. Most people who share Mero’s view don’t realize how they appear to the world. They are blinded by their fundamentalism.
Mero’s failure to realize that his rhetoric and thinking are what is causing the economic downturn, if any, in Kanab. You can see his (and other Kanab residents’ bravado quoted in this Deseret News story. This is how far gone from reality the fundamentalists are. “Some high falutin columnist from New York ain’t gonna tell me or my small town who relies heavily on tourism and film industry dollars what to do.”
Mero mentions that the document doesn’t explicitly name homosexuals and this is true. What he fails to realize is that the document is offensive to straight people who don’t fit the “ordained by God” part. What about straight single parents? What about couples who can’t or don’t wish to have children? What about small families?
That Mero has the audacity to state that ignorance is what fuels the backlash. Ha! A page right out of the GOP playbook. Flip it on your opponents. They are the ignorant ones. Penumbra’s notwithstanding, my personal worldview is informed by a principle called the separation of church and state, Mr. Mero.
Not all in Kanab agree with the resolution. The Salt Lake Tribune has run a ton of stories about how citizens and businesses in Kanab are trying to counter the negative effects of Frommer’s boycott. Here are a few:
Kanab’s ‘natural family’ decree spawns tourism backlash
Kanab businesses open arms to all with new sticker
Tourism officials discuss impact of Kanab’s ‘natural family’ stand
And a couple from the Deseret News:
‘Family resolution’ is defended (puff piece that starts off with a nice line of free ad copy for Mr. Mero)
‘Natural family’ resolution is called ‘exclusionary’
I’m kind of fascinated by the rural/urban play that is happening in that last Deseret News link. Conservative small town near polygamous compounds passes exclusionary ill-informed and mean-spirited law lobbied by group headquartered in city 100 times the size of small town.
Sidebar: A teenager who disagreed with the resolution called out the mayor of Kanab, Kim Lawson, in the Kanab paper, the Southern Utah Sun (couldn’t find content online) and got the Mayor calling the school district superintendent AND the teenager’s Mormon Stake President. Story here (unintentionally ironic link to the very conservative Provo Herald’s website) and another take here. I wanted to avoid the Mormon angle, but since Mero attacks his fellow LDS and the fact that the mayor of Kanab is Mormon, it’s unavoidable. This is an example where there is an extension of a fundamentalist dogma and doctrine. It will, through agents like Mero, try to seep into public policy, where it has no place.
To the fans of Mero and those who might agree with the resolution and want to play the agenda card, the only agenda I have is to not legislate hate. And that’s what is happening. Even in small towns, the government should not dictate what is ordained of God. I believe Mr. Mero’s kind of thinking is what hints at fascism.
This is a prime example of infringement on personal rights and freedoms that fundamentalist thinking, which starts in a religion and then ends up as public policy, has on a society. o
April 9th, 2006 at 5:58 pm
We can thank our president for fueling the fascist fundamentalists. Their “drunk with power” movement wouldn’t be quite the same without him. I liked it a lot more when these folks were just plain outcasts! That separation of church and state thing is soooo 1975.
April 9th, 2006 at 6:02 pm
I’m thinking the “Ordained by God” language would seem a tad bit unconstitutional. Granted some politicians views come from their religous beliefs, but they shouldn’t get away with including religous language in official governmanr resolutions.
April 9th, 2006 at 6:43 pm
Nutburger is my new favourite word.
April 9th, 2006 at 6:44 pm
Uh oh, and my gf was looking at us moving to Kanab. Cheap, pretty views, lots of land, and near Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Sounds like they wouldn’t welcome two women and their “full quiver” of pets.
April 9th, 2006 at 7:48 pm
Sigh. Once again, this is so unbelievable, I had to check every link to be sure. I guess I’m going to burn, for only having ONE child, and what’s more, my husband is essentially a stay-at-home dad, while I own my own business and work every day. So, unless I pop out a litter, send him to work, and sell my company, I’m going to hell three-times-over. From the sound of the commenters on dooce, at least I’ll be in good company.
It is insinuated that this is anti-homosexual, but it reeks of sexual discrimination in general. And you’re right, Jon, it legislates hate. So who is going to hell, three-times-over, again?
Reminds me of this story about Tom Monaghan, wishing to start his own Catholic town.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11499702/
And since Heather closed comments on her post, I have to comment here (sorry, Jon) on the Mormon masturbation pamphlet that reads, “It indicates slavery to the flesh, not that mastery of it.”
Dang…I thought the whole POINT of masturbation WAS the mastery of the flesh. And I had it down pretty good.
April 10th, 2006 at 12:04 am
I’m the gf who wanted to move to Kanab. I grew up in Canada and was actually afraid of Mormons (I thought they came and kidnapped little children in their sleep to indoctrinate them), but met lots of nice Mormons when I moved to the US. I then decided I wanted to move to Kanab, and I’ve been thinking about it for a few years. I want nothing to do with religion, and the people I’ve met from Kanab have been really “granola” and “crunchy”, so I thought Kanab would be a safe place. I’m really upset that I was wrong.
As an aside, I’d like to have a Beavis & Butthead moment where I giggle about the fact that the mayor of Kanab’s first name is “Kim”.
April 10th, 2006 at 3:46 am
The NATURAL family????? I’ve never heard anything so unnatural as to enforce views of what makes a family onto those who wish to just lead a happy, NATURAL life like everyone else. I struggle to get my head around this kind of thinking, I really do.
I’ll eat my hat the day my British government come out with something like that…
I really want to visit Utah, but I can see why this kind of thing will put people off. Thankfully there are still people like you and Heather to speak common sense amongst all this madness!
April 10th, 2006 at 3:50 am
Found on Salt Lake Tribune site: “The nonbinding document also promotes young women becoming wives and homemakers and young men growing into husbands and home builders while encouraging a “full quiver of children.”
Oh that just tops it off. I’m speechless. (Of course, being a young woman I really should drop my successful graphic design career and head off home to have me some babies!) ;-p
April 10th, 2006 at 5:13 am
This is so-o-o depressing. You could not be more right on with this post. That kind of thing is exactly why people think Utah is crazy. Thank you so much for posting about this! I’m going to go throw myself in front of a bus now.
April 10th, 2006 at 7:02 am
Holy Buckets!
“Threatening Kanab with a boycott is like threatening the gay community with a new STD - it’s relevant but
not enough to make them change their ways.”
This kind of rhetorical garbage makes my home state of the Bluegrass look like New York City!
April 10th, 2006 at 7:45 am
Kanab?? Who the hell would want to go to Kanab? I live in the Four Corners area and I’ve been to Kanab. At least I think I’ve been there. I sneezed just outside of town.
April 10th, 2006 at 7:50 am
“Threatening Kanab with a boycott is like threatening the gay community with a new STD - it’s relevant but
not enough to make them change their ways.”
Interesting fact. There is only one group of people where cases of HIV/AIDS are on the decline. That is the Gay Community. Gay activists and gay organizations started an AIDS awareness campaign back in the 90’s. Apparently we can change our ways.
April 10th, 2006 at 8:35 am
Big Love on HBO is another example of what people think of Utah. I do watch the show, and can’t help but think that Utah is a differant world!! I realize it’s not exactly like the show, and I’ve gone a couple of times (I’m from NJ) and it’s beautiful! But just from little things I hear/read/watch on TV/and read in Heather’s blog (especially the most recent teenagers guide to the second coming) I’m shocked people in the USA still act this way. I guess living in a state like NJ makes you have a false sence of hope about our country being accepting of differant ways of life….guess not.
April 10th, 2006 at 8:39 am
ah. home sweet home.
some members of my family are so proud about it passing. so, so proud. needless to say, we don’t talk politics.
kanab is gorgeous. it’s quirky. it’s odd. there are some really great people that live there. and, i never want to live there again. dude. they made frommer mad! has that ever even happened before?
also, the best friends are buying everything up left and right. if the people aren’t careful, there isn’t going to be much left that they don’t own but no one is talking much about that yet that i can tell.
one of my pet peeves: you canít get the news online from the southern utah news.
April 10th, 2006 at 8:40 am
What on earth is a “full quiver of children?” I read those words and felt my ovaries shut down. Isn’t quiver something you hold arrows in? As in children are seen as weapons with which to assault the world at large? That language, along with the many other objectionable things about this legislation, almost makes me lose all hope.
April 10th, 2006 at 8:50 am
How many children, exactly, are in a “quiver”?
Are you watching Penn & Teller’s Bullsh*t on Showtime? We just watched the episode about the Boy Scouts, and how they benefit from all this public money but are still allowed to discriminate against gays & atheists. (They did a hilarious camping skills competition between three straight guys & three gay guys - and the gay guys won…) The big learning point for me is that their largest funder is the Mormon Church!
April 10th, 2006 at 8:52 am
I lived at the North Rim (Northern Arizona, Southern Utah/prime Fundamentalist country) for a summer, and it was another world out there. I agree totally with this posting. Government should NOT dictate what is ordained by God.
In the MSNBC article, the owner of a restaurant called “The Rockin’ V Cafe” was quoted saying “It’s not a theoretical. This affects my business, and it’s hard to make a living in Kane County”. That cafe was the only thing that drew me to Kanab, because it was one of the best restaurants I’ve ever eaten at. It’s disheartening that this boycott of the town is affecting the tourism and small business owners like the Rockin’ V so negatively, when it’s the politicians and fundamentalist crazies who should be punished. Sounds to me like small business/tourism isn’t the one to fault.
April 10th, 2006 at 8:55 am
The Mero article is a frightening piece of obfuscation. If he had the courage of his convictions he would say what he really means…[which is, i guess] “the rest of you are going directly to hell…ha ha ha.”
And yes, this type of intolerance is why I have never visited Utah despite wanting to see its amazing beauty.
April 10th, 2006 at 9:15 am
I read this, and I kept thinking “thank god this isn’t America”. And then I realized it was.
Where’d we go so wrong?
April 10th, 2006 at 9:51 am
The guest editorial by Mero in the SLT is horrifying. I should really comment later, because the whole thing has me incensed!
I truly believe Utah has some amazing things to offer for quality of life, but the continual small minded attitudes drive me absolutely crazy. Further reaffirming why, at least monthly, I tell my mother I have no interest in moving “home”. The Pacific Northwest has become my home.
Mero also has the vacationing crowd wrong. People travel to the parks in Southern Utah because they are absolutely stunning. The geography of Europe is different and I feel quite certain many tourists of Utah are not looking for “family values” but, rather, a peek at the National Parks. Agh, I’m still completely irritated.
Thank you, Jon, for the enlightening list of links.
April 10th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
So. Many. Thoughts.
I’ve jumped to most of the links and can’t read anymore. I got less than halfway through “Understanding the Natural Family Resolution” and became too queasy to continue. To build a quasi-legal document on a bunch of self-serving “studies” and thinly-veiled religious beliefs is so sickening I just don’t know what to do with myself.
My head almost flew off at the part where he says that children do better when *mom* stays at home. What happens when dads stay home? Do the kids become axe murderers? Eh, it’s not even worth debating with this kind of absurdist rhetoric. Not to mention the twisted beauty of the Sutherland Institute’s law review, which recently included a lament of the diminishing rule of law in today’s society. Hmmm…you mean like the separation of church and state?
Incidentally, to read the resolution is to get a mental picture of Kanab as a 1970s-era Times Square, filled with junkies, prostitutes, sex shops and graffiti. Does some little town in Southern Utah really NEED this resolution? (I love, by the way, that Arthur Frommer is specifically identified as having spoke “from his New York home” — in other words, DON’T LISTEN TO THIS LIBERAL NYC FREAK!
Paul Melo’s editorial is so gross I don’t even know what to do with myself. He engages in the ad hominem attacks typical of those who have no substance to back up the views that they seek to impose on everyone else. Does he cite any specific studies or evidence to support this “natural family” theory? No, of course not (though if he did, it would no doubt be research performed and/or funded by ultra-conservative groups). He just slings mud and pounds the pulpit and hopes the sound of his own voice will be enough to drown out the cognitive dissonance of his own hypocrisy.
I love how anyplace other than this tiny town in Utah is seen by Melo as a Godless, Lust-Filled World of Sin and Heathens: “[Frommer's] primary audience does not visit Kanab. They go to Europe,” he said. “They go to places that have given up on the family long ago. That’s where they’re comfortable.”
It’s weird, the times I’ve been to Europe, I could have sworn I saw tons and tons of families of all persuasions, going about their lives and loving their children (and even, gasp!, going to church) without a resolution telling them how to go about things.
April 10th, 2006 at 2:38 pm
How many kids in a quiver, anyway? God told me to stop at two.
April 10th, 2006 at 3:10 pm
BRAVO!!!!
I’ve never commented on your site before but I read it fequently and my husband loves it as it panders to his technological geek side.
What you address in the post is one of the reasons I myself have left the LDS church.
In a time where the separation of church and state should be more evolved it has actually become much worse. It is difficult to read about events like this happening on a continent that prides itself on being beyond such personal infringement. “Mr. Mero’s kind of thinking is what hints at fascism” is right on the button and I am sickened by the fact that there are still so many people out there that feel it is okay to inflict their personal beliefs and relgious dogma on others to the point of telling them that if they are not living as a family in the “nuclear”(sorry if that is spelled incorrectly) sense then they have no right to live were they do.
I applaud you for speaking up about this and voicing your opinion so succintly. It’s good to know sometimes in this world of extreme tension and hatred over differing views that someone is willing to lend voice to what so many others feel in a very real way, and yet not make it a public flogging.
Again, BRAVO! And thank you.
April 10th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
BRAVO!!!!
I’ve never commented on your site before but I read it fequently and my husband loves it as it panders to his technological geek side.
What you address in the post is one of the reasons I myself have left the LDS church.
In a time where the separation of church and state should be more evolved it has actually become much worse. It is difficult to read about events like this happening on a continent that prides itself on being beyond such personal infringement. “Mr. Mero’s kind of thinking is what hints at fascism” is right on the button and I am sickened by the fact that there are still so many people out there that feel it is okay to inflict their personal beliefs and relgious dogma on others to the point of telling them that if they are not living as a family in the “nuclear”(sorry if that is spelled incorrectly) sense then they have no right to live were they do.
I applaud you for speaking up about this and voicing your opinion so succintly. It’s good to know sometimes in this world of extreme tension and hatred over differing views that someone is willing to lend voice to what so many others feel in a very real way, and yet not make it a public flogging.
Again, BRAVO! And thank you.
April 10th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
As an aside I don’t really understand the whole self-segregation as a goal for someone who is christian…or quasi-christian even. When the pharisees accused Christ of dining with sinners and tax collectors didn’t he respond that it isn’t the healthy who are in need of doctors but instead the sick? If these people are so very sure of the righteousness of their beliefs I would expect them to want others who differ around so they could share the truth of their own experiences as exalted. It seems to me this exclusion and fautly earthly judgement is exactly the kind of thing not driven by love and understanding. So I guess I’m lost by exactly how the will of God is done in attempting to restrict vigilantly and with an agenda of obvious small-mindedness.
Note: I’m not even Christian, but baffled.