LETTER: LDS Church not to blame
To the editor:
I’m disappointed at the total lack of sensitivity and objectivity in Jon Adams’ April 2 article, “All is not well in Zion.” The article took national problems such as prescription drug abuse, suicide and rape and construed a thinly veiled attack on what Adams perceives as LDS culture, insinuating that these problems are products of conservative, religious Utah. Then who’s responsible for these same problems across the United States? The LDS church? The fact is, Adams took his statistics out of context. There are problems in Utah, just like the other 49 states, but to indicate that these problems have anything to do with religion is a huge misinterpretation of the data. For instance, in a study that was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, nationally, the suicide rate among 20- to 34-year old males was 2.5 to 3 times higher than among active LDS church members of the same age. Political science is not the manipulation of statistics but the objective reporting of those numbers. Statistics that apply to the state of Utah are not statistics of the LDS church. Adams uses rape as an example saying “90 percent of Provo rapes go unreported.” But this fails to mention that this is an estimate applied nationwide, not particular to Provo. By using this example, the writer tried to embarrass not only the school but the religion associated with it. Conservatives are expected to accept liberals, but it feels like this same courtesy is not extended to conservatives. Why make parallels between nationwide problems and the LDS faith? The logic simply does not follow: 1. there is a nationwide problem with prescription drug abuse. 2. Utah also has this problem. 3. Mormons live in Utah. 4. Therefore, prescription drug abuse in Utah is the result of LDS teachings? My purpose is not to deny problems in Utah. It is simply to separate the actions of an individual from the teachings of the LDS church. This is something I would expect a responsible journalist to do. I’m not saying that the writer is a bad journalist per se, I’m simply suggesting he’s about as fair and balanced as Fox News.
Kurt Schwab