Utah

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Utah

Topics

• Crime and violence—
  Critics charge that Utah was a hotbed of violence, murder, and lawlessness, and that this can be attributed to LDS doctrine and practices. (Link)
  • Castration in the 1800's—I have read about a group of men (LDS) that went around castrating immoral men (who were also LDS) with the express permission of local church leaders. These events supposedly happened during the Brigham Young's administration. It is claimed that Brigham was aware of and approved of this and may have given the order. What can you tell me about this? I read that missionaries who selected plural wives from female converts before allowing church leaders to select from them first were castrated. (Link)
  • Crimes critics allege to have been "worthy of death" in the 1800's—Critics expand to idea of blood atonement to include a long list of crimes that were alleged to be "worthy of death." (Link)
  • Aaron Dewitt letter—A letter from Aaron Dewitt is used by critics to highlight Utah's supposed "culture of violence" (Link)

Statistical claims and charges

• Pornography use in Utah—
  Why does Utah lead the United States in subscriptions to online adult entertainment? Utah has significant restrictions on the display and sales of hard core pornographic materials. The Utah Statutes [1] have the effect of making it much more difficult to get easy access to adult material. This forces those who might otherwise buy magazines or other adult materials to use the web to get access to that information. In Utah, access to most adult entertainment requires the use of the Internet. Therefore, the number of Internet users of pornography would be higher than states with different laws if all other factors were the same. (Link)
• Bankruptcy rate in Utah—
  Is it true that Utah has the highest personal bankruptcy rate in the United States? If so, what does this say about Latter-day Saint attitudes toward wealth and materialism? (Link)
• Suicide rate among Latter-day Saints in Utah—
  Critics charge that the suicide rate in Utah is higher than the national average, and that this demonstrates that being a Latter-day Saint is psychologically unhealthy. (Link)
• Use of antidepressants in Utah—
  Critics charge that the rate of antidepressant use is much higher among Mormons than the general population. They claim this is evidence that participation in the LDS Church is inordinately stressful due to pressure for Mormons to appear "perfect." (Link)
• LDS population in Utah—
  Critics of the Church and misinformed members of the mainstream media sometimes claim that the number of Latter-day Saints in Utah has fallen. This belief led the producers of the anti-Mormon video Search for the Truth to claim that "within Utah, we are doing a fairly good job of combating Mormonism" and therefore "the Mormon Church is vulnerable" to anti-Mormon criticisms. But such authors are simply incorrect, according to figures from the U.S. Census and the LDS Church Almanac. (Link)