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Friday, August 1, 2008

Today's the Day

Update (Saturday) - My son-in-law, Fred, surprised me and bought me a copy! I know what I will be doing tonight.

Stephenie Meyer is a very talented writer with quite an imagination. http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/bio.html If you want to read about her writing, click on the post title. I found this paragraph especially interesting,
"Journalists have relished making an issue of Meyer's Mormonism, which is a bit puzzling to her. Stephenie told interviewers: "It seems funny that it's still a story," Meyer says, "because you didn't hear people saying, 'Jon Stewart, Jewish writer,' when his book came out. I guess being a Mormon is just odd enough that people think it's still a real story. Obviously, to me, it seems super normal. It's just my religion."
This is something that has always puzzled me. If a criminal is LDS (Mormon) the media loves to report that. How often in any other part of life do we see people labeled this way? If every author, actor, politician, criminal, etc. that is reported on is identified by their religious affiliation, wouldn't we start to wonder what was up? Yet, like in many other things, people feel that Mormons and Mormonism is free game for any type of bias, stereotype or prejudice. It's a pretty sad state of affairs and even more upsetting when other so-called Christians participate in the rhetoric. If they were truly Christian, as they profess (in fact they believe they DEFINE what Christian is - the actual believer couldn't possibly know what it means individually through their own study of scripture) would they be taunting others for their beliefs? If they truly loved their fellow man, wouldn't they be loving towards Mormons - not hateful (reminiscent of the 1800s east and midwest where persecution of Mormons was legal and encouraged). I also wonder about any religion that would spend time trying to tear down another religion, even from their pulpits. You will not see that happening from LDS leaders who show respect and tell what they believe; not encourage their congregation to boycott a particular group or politician for their religious affiliation. Of course there are bad Mormons, just as there are bad evangelical Christians, Jews, Muslims, Baptists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Seventh-day Adventists, Agnostics, etc. But those are the people, not basic beliefs and we don't need to tell them they're up in the night. They believe what they believe. If we want to teach them another idea or tenet, fine, but we don't need to run them down for who they are. Then they can pray about it and come to their own knowledge of truth. There's no room in the Judeo-Christian world for telling someone else what they believe and labeling them as bad/wrong/"non-Christian". It's kind of like in politics. I say, tell me what is right about you; not what's wrong about your opponent. If you want to convince me your religion is true, tell me what you believe and show me how you live Christ's teachings. Don't tell me I should stay away from the ____ (fill in the blank) religion.

Elder M. Russell Ballard of the LDS Quorum of the Twelve about online etiquette:
"There is no need to argue or contend with others about our beliefs. . . . We simply need to have a conversation with others as friends in the same room would have, always guided by the promptings of the Spirit and constantly remembering the Atonement of Jesus Christ which reminds us how precious are the children of our Father in Heaven."
We know what we believe and we can simply state it without needing to argue and if others feel the need to put us down, hopefully, as with other situations, they will appear the fool in doing so.

4 comments:

  1. It's almost as bad as Harry Potter. People are going crazy over these books. I haven't read any of them yet. I am seriously considering jumping on the band wagon though. The must be good!

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  2. This is one of those things that you hear praises about but then when you actually do it, can't possibly live up to the anticipated expectation of greatness! But, I really enjoyed her books and found them to be a fun escape that crosses generational lines - to me, that's an accomplishment!

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  3. Just for the sake of argument, consider the way Mormons behave the same way from the other side of the fence. When a member of the Church is on a tv show (like Dancing With the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, American Idol, Biggest Loser, Survivor, etc), or even politicians, actors, and athletes, everyone gets really excited that it's actually a Mormon. "Did you know she's LDS?" "He says he spent two years in Venezuela and has 5 siblings. He's totally Mormon. I wonder why he didn't say that he's Mormon. Do you think he's embarrassed?"

    There are issues here on both sides. We support the behavior as much as "the media" (who only do so because it increases viewership/subscribership/etc). I wonder if I can work in another opportunity to use "etc"?


    - Jon

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  4. If religion is an issue, why doesn't the media ask regularly, "what is your religious affiliation?" For some reason there is not across-the-board interest. When was the last time you saw someone say, "_________, a Catholic/Baptist/Evangelical Christian (whatever), did _________" (whether for good or bad, unless it was a Priest abusing children) It just isn't done. In fact if you said, "__________, a Jew..." it would be considered anti-semetic or religious prejudice/bigotry, etc. I don't mind seeing someone tagged as Mormon if it is done in the positive as well as those negatives and if it is accurate - i.e. not FLDS, but I still question why it is a non-issue with other religions.

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