Ostracized For Not Being Part of the Predominant Religion of Utah
Nick Parker
Issue date: 4/19/05 Section: Opinion
I don't know if many of you are aware of this, but more than half of Utah is populated by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This presents an uneasy majority for many non-Mormons. Such an unbalanced cultural diversity has proven unhealthy for both sides in many cases. Gentiles feel pressured and in some cases are ostracized for not being part of the predominant religion of the state, while the LDS are unjustly criticized for their beliefs and practices.
I'm not of the LDS faith, but that does not make me a protagonist of Mormon bashing and violent (whether it be physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, etc,). I've felt the cloud of Mormonism over my head for the entire 18 years of my life. I even went through an anti-LDS phase in junior high, where I would push out the Mormons around me because I felt I was reciprocating a prior action from the group. Now that I've grown and matured (not quite fully), I realize that I was wrong in my vindictive vigilante verbiage.
I felt, as many Utahns do, wronged, being the only one in my group of friends and neighborhood that wasn't of this faith. Lashing out on those who were different was not the correct answer to my problems. Over the course of about five years, I grew to realize that they and I were different. Not better, not worse, just different.
Perhaps it would do a lot of you gentiles out there some good to take a few moments out of your day to think about that. Sure, they can be a little invasive once in a while. Sure, some of their customs might be a little odd (I still don't understand the whole caffeine thing). And they might be all over the place, but they're just people like you and me. I might believe that blue looks better than red, while you disagree, but those are beliefs and who's to say in this country of free expression, that you can't believe that?
Persecution, violence, abuse and vandalism have plagued the church ever since its inception, but in Utah, these attacks are generally committed by ignorant, closed-minded people that fear what they don't understand. They feel stepped on and left out. Because of this, they lash out at those who they feel aren't.
I'm not of the LDS faith, but that does not make me a protagonist of Mormon bashing and violent (whether it be physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, etc,). I've felt the cloud of Mormonism over my head for the entire 18 years of my life. I even went through an anti-LDS phase in junior high, where I would push out the Mormons around me because I felt I was reciprocating a prior action from the group. Now that I've grown and matured (not quite fully), I realize that I was wrong in my vindictive vigilante verbiage.
I felt, as many Utahns do, wronged, being the only one in my group of friends and neighborhood that wasn't of this faith. Lashing out on those who were different was not the correct answer to my problems. Over the course of about five years, I grew to realize that they and I were different. Not better, not worse, just different.
Perhaps it would do a lot of you gentiles out there some good to take a few moments out of your day to think about that. Sure, they can be a little invasive once in a while. Sure, some of their customs might be a little odd (I still don't understand the whole caffeine thing). And they might be all over the place, but they're just people like you and me. I might believe that blue looks better than red, while you disagree, but those are beliefs and who's to say in this country of free expression, that you can't believe that?
Persecution, violence, abuse and vandalism have plagued the church ever since its inception, but in Utah, these attacks are generally committed by ignorant, closed-minded people that fear what they don't understand. They feel stepped on and left out. Because of this, they lash out at those who they feel aren't.
