Polygamist response to 'Big' mixed
 
By Lee Benson
Deseret Morning News
 
HILDALE, Washington County, AND COLORADO CITY, Ariz. — Amid the sagebrush isolation and the warehouse-sized houses that spawned the inspiration for the new polygamy series on HBO, "Big Love," the buzz is decidedly mixed.

I spent a couple of hours Monday morning in this plural-marriage enclave asking people if they had watched the latest episode of "Big Love" the night before.

In the older, more established parts of Hildale and Colorado City, where the conservative Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) is firmly entrenched and the additions to the houses are bigger than the original houses, I found zero interest in the television series that premiered earlier this month and is the first ever to portray a polygamous relationship.

For that matter, I found zero interest in television, period.

At the Hildale city offices, city clerk Ruth Barlow said not many residents own TVs. "I'd say less than 10 percent," she estimated.

And even if they did, they probably wouldn't tune into a cable TV network attempting to depict life as they know it.

"We've had umpteen hundred reporters down here who are going to tell the story," she said, "and not one of them has got it right."

A little farther up the road, outside the Cooperative Mercantile Corporation, a man getting out of a pickup truck had a similar take. "If life here was like it is in the paper," he said, "people wouldn't live here."

Reporters are not welcomed with open arms in old Hildale.

At the Dezereta gas station and convenience store, the woman working the counter, when asked about "Big Love," said, "I don't know what it is and I don't want to see it."

The man pumping gas outside did not so much as look up when he was asked the question.

I kept trying — at the hardware store, the restaurant, the fresh-baked pizza place, outside the fire station.

The conversations, what few there were, went like this:

"Did you watch that TV show about polygamy?"

"No."

"Do most people watch TV?"

"I don't know."

"Can you get cable here?"

"I don't know."

"Is it against church rules to watch TV?"

"No. You can watch it if you want to."

"Do you have a TV?"

"No."

Even when I offered my unsolicited editorial comment that perhaps a TV show about polygamy might help improve tolerance for the practice, I was met with either stone-cold silence or, in the case of

Ruth Barlow, a skeptical shrug followed by, "We'll see."

Finally, however, persistence paid off when I drove back onto the main highway and pulled into a place with a motel sign on top that is now a mortgage business.

"Anybody here watch that show "Big Love?" I asked after I entered.

And every arm in the room went up.

These were polygamists but of a more liberal bent. Members of an FLDS offshoot church called The Work of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, they don't live in church-owned property and instead of the wrist-to-ankle fashion that prevails in inner Hildale and Colorado City, they were wearing mainstream clothing.

They freely admitted to owning satellite dishes and knowing how to use them.

And they were not a bit surprised at the reaction I'd received "in town."

"I'm sure they've already cursed that show to hell," said Elaine.

But these people hadn't. Not yet. They'd willingly watched the first two episodes and said they might watch all 12 scheduled for the season, although they admitted a bit of apprehension that the sex — this being an HBO production and all — might get even more out of hand than it did in episode two.

"The sex. That's the first thing everyone asks about," said a practicing polygamist named Sue, rolling her eyes.

John, a loan officer, said, "There's a bunch of stuff they don't get right. And they haven't established a strong enough religious basis for why anyone would live this way."

But overall, no one was outraged by the Tom Hanks-produced series.

"I can see where there's some value in it," said Elaine. "People can see how it's not that abnormal. In the end, who knows, maybe it will open some eyes."

With the possible exception of downtown Hildale.

Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.
 
deseretnews.com
Originally published Wednesday, March 22, 2006
 
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