This is such a huge topic...one that I have been interested in for several years and one in which I continually learn more about...
I have always wanted to share my experiences and my "aha's" with other open-minded and "fellow explorers" and I decided that I just needed to start writing them down as they occurred or bubble up.
As the LDS church continues to grow and fill the earth, we are faced with the reality that the world is a bigger place than the intermountain west and that in order to truly be Christlike, we must BECOME so much more than we are. I am constantly reminded that the "woman at the well" is who the Lord sought out. Who are our modern day "women at the well"? Are they the Republican, middle-class, rule-following, "traditional", American culturized families? Or do they come in a package that we prefer to ignore or diminish?
Recently I attended a seminar on the history of Racism in Missouri. This was the second such seminar I had attended in downtown St. Louis at a Disciples of Christ church which was housed in an area of the metropolis where needs are high and resources limited. Both sessions were incredibly eye-opening and heart-expanding. I was surrounded by good, good people of other faiths and walks of life who were interested in knowing more about why racism persists and the roots from which it sprang.
While the content was very interesting, the most interesting part of the day was watching how people reacted when they discovered I was "mormon". As I reflected on the day during my ride home, I thought....what if mormons were pink or blue or yellow or had some distinctive feature? I realized that a big part of our "acceptance" in maintstream American society is that we blend well. We tend to be conservative, law-abiding, well-educated, working families. I wonder what my life or the lives of my fellow brothers and sisters would be like if our "mormonism" wasn't hidden as well as it is. In my experience, people get to know at least a little bit about me before they find out that I am "mormon". Even though they are intrigued, and usually have a lot of questions, by that time they have ascertained that I am a fairly moral, decent person.
Do people of color or disability or gender or income level have that same grace period? I think not. I have been guilty of seeing a person's blackness or disability or whatever before I see the real them. This is something I continue to work on and continue to refine.
What do you think?
3 comments:
Contemporary Mormonism definitely seems to value the 'package' over the cultural and theological diversity that the church added to 19th century America. If it was 'diversity' that got the Mormons in trouble to begin with, that may go some way to explaining why it seems they decided to run headlong in the opposite direction toward the 'package' you mention ... "the Republican, middle-class, rule-following, 'traditional' American" culture ...
Not that anyone is prescribing a return to 19th century Mormonism as a way to reclaim the original diversity the Mormons brought to the scene. For the believers and the organization, I suppose it's no doubt more rewarding to ponder how to tweak contemporary Mormonism in order to extend its appeal beyond the intermountain west, rather than grapple with historical Mormonism. Although, as information about historical Mormonism becomes more readily available, and as the profile of the church continues to rise, I would expect certain limitations on continued expansion would begin to kick in.
For example, depending on how many primary races he survives, I just can't see a lot of upside for Mormons in
... this candidacy:
http://www.slate.com/id/2155902/
Romney's Religion: A Mormon president? No Way.
One may object that all religious beliefs are irrational—what's the difference between Smith's "seer stone" and the virgin birth or the parting of the Red Sea? But Mormonism is different because it is based on such a transparent and recent fraud. It's Scientology plus 125 years. Perhaps Christianity and Judaism are merely more venerable and poetic versions of the same. But a few eons makes a big difference. The world's greater religions have had time to splinter, moderate, and turn their myths into metaphor. The Church of Latter-day Saints is expanding rapidly and liberalizing in various ways, but it remains fundamentally an orthodox creed with no visible reform wing.
I wasn't aware that the Mormon leadership had come out with a public announcement in support of the FMA ... guess I missed that one, but It kind of shocked me to find that out today ... in light of their own history, would've thought that the Mormons would be the last ones to support writing a narrow definition of marriage into the Constitution ...
In any case, from Jeff Nielsen, the BYU prof who subsequently got fired for writing this op-ed in the SL Trib:
BYU Instructor Speaks Out for Marriage Equality
Between finding out about this and still thinking about Romney's flip-flops on this, I just feel disappointed all over again that a community that claims to understand something about how it feels to be persecuted can be so callous ...
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