What the "Mormon Moment" Actually Accomplished

For Mormons, the recent spasm of media attention to church founder Joseph Smith's polygamy was the stuff of century-old nightmares - painful evidence that, even after 100 years of performing conservative American-ness so cheerfully that it can appear paradoxically creepy , Mormons are still perceived as strange and secretive. News outlets seemed downright eager to put "Mormon" and "polygamy" together in headlines, and many publications repeated the not-entirely-accurate assertion that Smith's multiple marriages - possibly as many as 40, one to a girl of 14, and some to women married to other men - were being acknowledged by Mormon leaders " for the first time ."

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