The tease on the cover of the Observer Magazine of 12 March 1978, ‘Revealed! That Mormon chastity garment – for a full frontal, see page 30’, is deeply ironic when you see what the young missionary is actually wearing. It’s described as ‘a symbolic article – a white one-piece vest-and-pants shirt reaching down to the knees’. Think the Droogs from A Clockwork Orange meeting Nora Batty. It looks as if it’s at least as much of a hindrance to put on as to take off.
The contrast with the man on the opposite page and some of his 13 wives redefines the phrase ‘broad church’. Our writer, William Scobie, is at Brigham Young University near Salt Lake City, the centre of Mormon studies. ‘From this promised land, ringed by snow-capped peaks, flows a steady stream of revivalists,’ he writes. ‘Clear-eyed young zealots sworn to eschew sexual activity, impure thoughts, alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea (Coca-Cola is a borderline case), they’re off to spread The Word in foreign lands.’ Apparently there were about 20,000 of them on two-year stints.
At the time, Mormonism may have been America’s fastest-growing religion, but in Salt Lake City, where the church’s world HQ is based, ‘Mormons are watching a shift in values in their spiritual capital, and they don’t like it.’ Outsiders attracted by the job opportunities have moved in. ‘Crime is rising… a red-light district has sprung up. X-rated cinemas are picketed by fervent sign-bearers (‘Let virtue garnish thy thoughts!’).’
Moreover, how should they cope with ‘a sudden and lawless revival of polygamy, which was outlawed 87 years ago’ even though founder Brigham Young preached ‘plural marriage’ in the ‘robust pioneer days’ (he had 27 wives and 50 children)? That chastity garment should do quite well in keeping the number of future offspring at more manageable levels.
