A few weeks ago, a woman named Maren Stephenson posted a forthright essay at Salon.com documenting her journey from believing member of the LDS Church to skeptic leaving her faith behind. The Salon piece was titled “But I’m a Good Mormon Wife,” and did a fair job of considering some of the difficulties that arise in the lives of the faithful– coming face to face with difficult facts or doctrines, maturing in a spiritual environment where you came of age. Whether Ms. Stephenson intended it or not, there was a hook in the story that lured the sensationalists across the pond. In the hands of the UK’s Mail Online, Ms. Stephenson’s leaving-the-faith narrative became “From Sacred Underwear to Victoria’s Secret: The Devout Mormon Woman Who Chose Love Over Faith When Her Husband Became and Atheist.” Who knew that you could dress up a story about lost faith as a super-sexy odyssey of love? Clever Brits. (By the way, don’t miss the Mail’s photographic portrayal of “true love” in the Stephensons’ marriage- posed by models).
That headline is riffing on a moment in Ms. Stephenson’s piece where she talks about other “benefits” of leaving the Church: “When I shed my garments for slippery Victoria’s Secret panties, my self-esteem skyrocketed, and our late nights shifted to other things. We were finally adults, taking our firsts together, learning about each other without barriers.” The Mail piece goes out of its way to illustrate by posting a photo of the sacred Mormon garment, which stands in stark contrast to some of the lewder images attached to the celebrity gossip pieces adorning the sidebar.
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