Mormonism & Arrogance

I haven’t seen a lot of arrogance stemming from those particular aspects of our religion. Yes, I’ve seen arrogance stemming from wealth, but I think that’s due to the wealth itself rather than any perceived righteousness on the part of the wealthy person.

I have seen arrogance stem from the fact that “I’m a returned missionary, married in the temple, and have held a lot of important church callings an hold a current temple recommend, and all my sons served missions and my daughters are all married in the temple”. But not a lot of that in the middle class Wards I’ve belonged to — in some of the wealthy wards,yes.

Most of the time, it seems to stem from the jobs the people hold, and their resulting wealth. Also, among some there may well be a gaping hole in their self-esteem so they go broadcasting their wealth to everyone. Others simply lack awareness of the fact that sharing successes with others out of a desire to simply share one’s life can make other people believe the person is arrogant. My daughter learned that principle this week. She shared some success with someone who also had strivings in the same direction as her success. This led to the perception my daughter thought she was better than this other person. My daughter was upset about it, and asked me “how do you share your fine moments and successes with others without being labelled as arrogant?”. I thought that was an intelligent question from an 11 year-old. My response — you share those successes only with your close family, your journal, and maybe a really good friend. (Big maybe on the last one if that friend isn’t successful in the area of your success, and wants to be).

Another source of arrogance I’ve seen stems from a willingness to accept stereotypes as indicator of worth. For example, one person I know greedily assimilates stereotypes and categorizations and seeks them out when trying to make a decison about something. He was planning to go back to school and greedily assimilated everything I had to say about various schools and their reputations. He also has shown tendencies to categorize people regarding their wealth and status, by making comments such as “you want to live in [subdivision x]” — as if all these external trappings define a person’s worth.

I sense that alot of the arrogance surrounds the concept of “chosen people”. The same issues you brought up are relevant to Jews. As an ethnic group, Jews tend to overachieve and skew per capita statistical categories. So, there must be something to the firmly held belief of being “chosen”.

“Religions are a form of one-upmanship, because they depend upon separating the ‘saved’ from the ‘damned,’ the true believers from the heretics, the in-group from the out-group. … religions harden into institutions that must command loyalty, be defended and kept “pure,’ and – because all belief is fervent hope, and thus a cover-up for doubt and uncertainty – religions must make converts. The more people who agree with us, the less nagging insecurity about our position.” – Alan Watts – ‘The Book’

I’m not saying I agree with all of this, but it’s an interesting thought.

However, our ultimate theology posits that all will be saved and resurrected and receive a degree of glory. Even Sons of Perdition are resurrected and, in that way, are more advanced than Lucifer – the deceiving spirit. Thus, in Mormonism, nobody really gets “punished” for being born – made worse in the end than if they hadn’t been born. Finally, the specific reward isn’t tied to clear, objective rules – since God, the Father, who alone sees the heart, is the ultimate Judge and Assigner – and each person is represented in counsel, if you will, by God, the Son, who argues for mercy to whatever extent possible.

The distinction within Mormonism is between the level of the blessed state, if you will – unlike pretty much every other Christian construct and most theological constructs.

It still fits the separation paradigm, but it’s a much more benign fit than elsewhere.

Does anyone but me identify with Laman and Lemuel?

something i think you left out: living in The Promised Land. maybe this ties into being “Gods chosen people”? but with US members of the LDS church you end with American Exceptionalism, all tied together with Only the Righteous Can Inhabit The Promised Land, the Land that is Choice Above All Others. Just my personal experience talking, but I have come across plenty of USA members who seem to think they are superior to non USA members (let alone non USA, non-members) just by virtue of being born in America. Or at least, North America, for some reason i don’t think they count anyone born in South or Central America as still being in the Promised Land, even though thats where most of them would speculate Nephi landed.

I once had a “discussion” with a TBM sister about a church policy that i think should be changed. I insisted it was bad policy and could be changed easily since it wasn’t doctrine. i told her that in the UK, Mexico and other countries this policy doesn’t exist, so there’s no reason it should exist here. She insisted that in America we’re held to a higher standard, that we’re supposed to be a “light on the hill” or something. that somehow being LDS in the US should mean something different than being LDS anywhere else in the world. i was baffled, and had no idea what to say to her. but it was quite arrogant, and i don’t think she’s alone in thinking this way.