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First I must say that I’m not the greatest Mormon out there. However, I am trying to do better; I seriously am! Now, a few days ago in my Biology class at my Community College, the topic of a new local Mormon temple came up in my lab group of 5 other people. They actually called it a Mormon church and one of them were complaining how she wasn’t allowed to go in their because she’s not a member. I just say there quietly to the conversation. And that very same girl was saying how much she HATES Mormons. Then she asked everyone in the group if they were Mormon, one by one. Then she turned to me and asked me. I paused for a split second and said, no, I’m really not religious. Mostly out of fear of what everyone in the group would say or react because they also said they hate Mormons as well. I felt like a complete coward afterwords! I mean, why can’t I grow some balls and proudly while not ignorantly say that I am a member of the Mormon faith? I seriously felt like Jesus and Heavenly father were doing a face palm up in heaven when they were watching that.
People in my area or town (Southeastern Phoenix area) either love Mormons or hate Mormons. We have a bad name, thanks to the bad apples. Like the filthy rich ones who are rude and judgmental and whatnot. And I feel like the entire prop 8 and prop 102 here in AZ gave a bad name to the Church, even though all those accusations of the church donating billions is a lie.
This is just something that’s been very hard for me, honestly. Now, it’s not like I’d want to go around shouting my religion to everyone; but if someone asks, I want to be able to proudly say who I am and what I believe.
The reason we are quiet in situations like this is because we want to be accepted. I know that I’ve lost out on a job because I said in the interview that I was Mormon & stood up for my beliefs.
I’m glad that I did. My potential boss was an ass. If I got the job, I would of been miserable.
The good news is: it gets better over time. Currently, I could care less what most people think of spiritual beliefs.
Don’t be too hard on yourself.
What she did was very inappropriate. Can you imagine if she had said “I really hate Jews”, and then interrogated everyone to find out whether she had to work with a Jew? If you feel up to it, you could explain this to her. On the other hand, you are under no obligation to waste your energies on people with those kinds of prejudices. I wouldn’t worry about cowardice. To be fair, I think that many Mormons don’t do us any favors when it comes to creating good will.
turinturambar wrote:What she did was very inappropriate. Can you imagine if she had said “I really hate Jews”, and then interrogated everyone to find out whether she had to work with a Jew? If you feel up to it, you could explain this to her. On the other hand, you are under no obligation to waste your energies on people with those kinds of prejudices. I wouldn’t worry about cowardice.
To be fair, I think that many Mormons don’t do us any favors when it comes to creating good will.
I agree, and I think we might have been chastised a bit by Elder Oaks for being like that.
(FWIW, I think the girl probably hates Jews, too.)
Everyone has their own individual surroundings, experiences, personalities, and agendas. Here in the South where I live, it most assuredly is not hard to be openly religious these days. The passage in Romans, the one about not being ashamed of the gospel of Christ (Romans 1:16) rings loud in many ears. This might not be your style, Willbe1993, but I would have responded, “Hell yes I ‘m Mormon and I hate Mormons too.” After a moment I would continue: at least our bad apples; the rich, self-righteous, judgmental, iron-rod up the arse types. (Maybe leave off the last dig). As J. Golden Kimball would say, “to hell with the likes of them.”
This will immediately win friends of your enemies. (Matt 5:25) Then you ask them, with sincerity not defensiveness, what is the worst thing a Mormon has ever done to you? Then you listen and then you apologize. No excuses, no arguing. It will undoubtedly be exaggerated, partially not based in truth. That doesn’t matter. You save that for later.
I agree with you that it is hard for many of the rising generation to stand up for what they believe, but in a way that is not obnoxious. I think I have the first part down pretty good, still working on the second part. I also happen to believe one of the unintended side-effects of the correlation movement is that over time it socially castrates the members of the church. If you look up the definition of castration it can also be applied to females. So it is no wonder to me that you admit that you need to “grow some balls;” it is not completely your fault, the correlators want us all (except a few) to act like steers and heifers. Easier to herd and better meat.
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I am sorry but I think it is completely outrageous to call for fairness by comparing Mormons with Jews. Our histories are not the same, not even close and history does matter to both of us. We had 18 people killed at Haun’s Mill the bloodiest event in our history. As for the handcart companies, courage and fortitude was demonstrated in the face of hundreds of deaths, but we did that to ourselves due to the ineptness of our own leaders. The Jews had 6 million or more murdered in the Holocaust. That is probably greater than the entire active membership of the LDS church today. The Jews have suffered many similar atrocities throughout their long history.
Salt Lake had federal troop tromp through it once, no deaths and little property destroyed. Jerusalem was burned to the ground, plowed up, all residents killed or put into slavery, people reduced to cannibalism of their own children, suicide a rare luxury to escape the vexations. All this and more, and maybe half a dozen times (leave it to real historians to correct the count, probably upwards).We had a decade or two where life and limb was in any danger for more than a few of us. The Hebrews (Abraham being the first Hebrew) gave us a religion upon which is based all three of the modern covenantal clusters of religions of the west. We have given the world the Book of Mormon which, in spite of all the hype from our leaders, has only had a very small amount of influence, and that confined to a few million people. How many great scientists and artists have the Jews given the world in comparison to Mormons?
When you make a comparison like that suggested above, between Mormons and Jews, you sound like you are seriously whining. When we have survived 40 centuries of abuse and suffered as much as the Jews and given the world as much, then maybe we can whine and cry with real tears. Otherwise, this reminds me more of the athletic thugs from the ‘hood in my daughter’s high school crying because a 90 lb girl whacked them with a violin bow. It does hurt. Except when I think about it the home boys never did whine about it, they just winced and laughed.
The truth is that people too often dislike us for good reason. We have not been as nice as we could have been. Our missionary tactics employed systematically over the last few decades predictably result in the reputation we have earned .The only way to correct our reputation is one person at a time, owning our history and changing the future instead of white-washing the past.
In closing, we will all sing together: “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9D03w0MXqQ
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