The Polygamist Stereotype is Alive and Well in France - Ugh!

Why does everyone think this when they hear “Mormon" ?

(NOT Mormon. Ex-communicated cult!!!)

(Typical Mormons: Generally not too stylish, but modest. Wholesome. Family-oriented. Loving. Service-minded. Honest. Hard working….That’s what we shoot for anyways.)*

So I’ve been introducing myself in about a dozen classes this week to get a feel for the students I’ll have and their level of English. Yesterday in one of the classes the teacher decided to print out an empty Facebook profile and have the kids ask me all the profile questions – favorite books, hometown… It was a good way to give them some foundation for talking and getting to know me, but there were some kinks. I was a little nervous giving out my birthday (invasion of privacy) combined with my hometown (identity theft) as well as my email (um, these kids are 15. I don’t want them as Facebook friends). But when it came to religious views the trouble really started. I said Mormon and whaddayaknow, the kids had no clue what that was, but the teacher did and tried to chime in for the kids to better understand with “polygamy.” How nice of her. It’s difficult enough explaining to Americans that our practice of polygamy was limited to certain communities and people as well as only having a lifespan of 30 years or so, but to explain in French to kids who can barely understand the words “high school” and “degree” without me writing them on the board, is a bit of a challenge. 10 minutes later the whiteboard looked like this.

I hope that cleared up the misconception. Really the teacher was just trying to be helpful and engage the kids in a topic of interest. But this is just part of the curse to belonging to a very unique and obscure religion. I still wouldn't trade it though.

Oh, but we’re not done!

In my next class the kids were split into 2 camps: Obama supporters and McCain supporters. Each had prepared a profile for their character and reasons why they supported their candidate. The first boy to volunteer (who happened to be reading a book before class with KORN – backwards R - on the cover) profiled himself as a 69 year old (I guess sophomores in France think that’s funny too) illegal worker in Texas who’s Mormon, polygamist, and single. Hehehe :-) There were quite a few things wrong with that profile but I thought I’d focus on the most important.

1) I informed the class that I was in fact Mormon to spare them (and me) the embarrassment of continued snickers against Mormons before I revealed my identity.

2) I informed them that Mormons don’t practice polygamy; you’re excommunicated if you do. That the cult who made big news in the US (and France too I guess) is in fact an FLDS sect that has nothing to do with Mormons.

The students continued on with incredibly insensitive and borderline inappropriate comments about gays, abortion, and illegal immigration which made me fairly uncomfortable, as I’m sure Obama and McCain would’ve felt too if they knew what they were being labeled as. I think I might be more sensitive to these things than the teacher, who was quite excited and smiling at all of the English the kids were using. Granted, she definitely had them motivated. But when I have them in my class, I might try a safer activity!

PS – I probably should’ve told them that they have Mormons here in France too – thousands of them, but there was not enough space on the whiteboard for that one.

PPS – Mormons are NOT polygamists. Pass it on!!

*Thank you to the Rounds family from Pierre, South Dakota for posting this to google images. I have no idea if you're Mormon or not, but I've seen enough to know that you look like it. And I mean that as a compliment :-)