Tonight Hugo and I drove to another city to have dinner with a colleague and her partner. The partner comes from a Mormon background—three or four generations in the Church, prominent in their region, etc. It seems, from what I gathered of her chronology from the conversation, that she's been out of the closet for close to a decade. Yet it was also evident that even after so much time has passed, she still feels deeply betrayed and angry and outraged at an elemental level—and is hungry to talk about it.
There's nothing unusual about this response. It's a common response—and entirely understandable from psychological and sociological perspectives—for people who break with the kinds of demanding, charismatic movements that the public often dub "cults" and that scholars more politely call "new religious movements" (NRMs). It is strange to me, though, that the LDS Church, which has mainstreamed itself in so many significant ways, is still so much like an NRM in other ways that disaffection becomes such an emotionally raw experience for people. It's a sign of something unhealthy about the institution.
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3 comments:
I found your blog via google after a night of more frustrating battles on my own blog with people who are SO CLOSED MINDED. After much discouragement in dealing with fellow Mormons on my blog who are so negatively against any liberal thought yet they want all their rights left intact, I went looking for some online. I’m so glad there are others who share my views. I just went through a huge battle of sorts on my own blog, trying to make points that we should all be less judgemental and far more charitable.
Anyway, thanks, I look forward to reading your blog. =)
Hi, Gabrielle--
Many thanks for leaving a comment! I popped over to your blog, read your manifesto and its aftermath. Many years ago, I encountered something Hugh Nibley had written criticizing Mormons who opposed civil rights legislation in the name of free agency. I referenced Nibley's remarks during a panel I was on once alongside a small-government Mormon conservative who invoked the principle of free agency to oppose government programs to aid the poor. (His view was that we should trust volunteerism instead.) Playing off Nibley's remark, I responded that when you live in a democratic society where the populace chooses those who make public policy, I hardly see how public programs to combat poverty can be tarred as trampling free agency.
And now you've encountered the same rhetoric in relation to health care reform. Evil isn't very original, is it?
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