Yes, Moral Relativism, and I'm Lookin' at You, Eric!

Via Instapundit, I came across this short post entitled "Moral Relativism?" from Eric at Classical Values in which he questions, after seeing Larry King's polygamist ranch episode last night, whether Muslims and renegade Mormons receive the same treatment on TV. He writes:

I just had this uneasy feeling that if the same sort of thing had been going on in a polygamous Muslim compound, there might not be the same outcry.

And they might not be describing women as having "escaped from polygamy."

Next thing you know, certain activists will seize upon this case as an argument for the "one man, one woman" ballot initiatives, with the usual unholy alliances.

It's all a little too predictable for comfort.

What's too predictable for comfort is the fact that if it had been a Muslim polygamist ranch, people (mostly liberals) would be coming out of the woodwork to say "what about them Mormons." That it turns out the reverse is true--thank you Eric--is disappointing. That it happens to be coming from what I usually think of as "our side" is downright shameful.

Yes, there's moral relativism going on here, but it's not coming from Larry King. Eric--and the commenters in my earlier post who mentioned it too--should be asking themselves why its necessary to demonstrate some equivalence between renegade Mormon polygamists and Muslim polygamists. Is Eric's argument that we shouldn't be describing women as "escaped from polygamy" or is he merely saying that Muslims get kid glove treatment when it happens?

That's a strange case to make when we've got a renegade Mormon polygamist ranch right in front of us. It's not like CNN had a choice between doing a story on Muslims or one on Mormons. In this case, CNN didn't even have the chance to give Muslim polygamists a tongue-bath before folks swooped in to accuse them of treating the FLDS polygamists too harshly.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 11:54 AM

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