The Associated Press today published a fashion piece about the Texas polygamist compound where underage girls have been seized by federal authorities.
Readers are told that the women keep their hair long because “they believe they will use it to wash Christ’s feet during the Second Coming,” at which point the news agency sees fit to offer the following:
Celebrity stylist Ted Gibson thinks it gives off a “homely” impression: “It says, ‘I don’t really care very much. I really don’t have time to worry about the way I look, because I have 20 children.”
Anyone who wonders whether newspapers treat religious subjects more or less antagonistically than other matters should ask themselves whether they ever expect to see a religious proponent of modesty in dress asked for a quote interpreting what Oscar night attire “says” about its wearers.
