My Researched Argument Paper
Wow! I'm so glad that I'm done. Writing in general is a difficult thing for me to do but this paper was especially challenging for me. I chose to argue about religion, that is never a good idea. How can you possibly convince people to believe what you do, well, the truth is you don't and i think we all know this. My purpose was to show that Mormons don't have to be scary or weird if you can be open minded and learn the truth. Also, if you still think they are weird after reading my paper that's okay too but I argue for religious tolerance and acceptance. I hope that this message is clear as I share personal experiences and deep feelings and talk more about my ideas about Mormons. So here it is.....dun dun dun
Oh No....It’s the Mormons!
Elizabeth Hensley
WR 122
The Beginning
This story really started with a knock on my door.Two young men stood bright eyed in front of me and shared a message that would be the start of a brand new life for me. I was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known as The LDS church for short, when I was eighteen years old and on that day I became a Mormon. Little did I know of the amazing things that were ahead of me, along with the hardships that would come because of that important decision.
When I was about thirteen I lived with a friend and her family right across the street from a Mormon church building. Often we would get missionaries who would come by and try and teach us. They would knock and everyone except my friend ‘s dad would quickly run into a bedroom and hide. We would say “ Oh no, it’s the Mormons!!” and as we hid we would talk about how weird Mormons were and how creepy we felt. I think that feeling came from things I had heard which were mostly rumors and lies , but more importantly it just came from not understanding. The unknown is always scary and throughout the years of explaining and defending my faith I know that this is what the prejudice boils down to, a lack of understanding which causes fear.
How This Paper Came To Be
The seed was planted by an exercise that was conducted by my professor in my writing class.We were to choose from a few given topics to free write about for ten minutes. The most important requirement was that we had to feel passionate about the topic and I do. It began as a question of religious tolerance and whether or not there is more or less of it today in the U.S.. But with the molding of my brilliant educator Sandy it turned into the topic of my research paper and something far more personal than I anticipated.
The Question
How does the public image of Mormons affect members of the LDS church?
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| The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Conference Center |
This is a loaded question for me and for many members of the church and a simple thumbs up or thumbs down would not sufficiently explain the complicated feelings and perceptions involved. Although the public image of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is positive , there are still many misconceptions that exist because of misunderstandings and grouping in with other faiths who also call themselves Mormons. This affects members in negative ways. In this paper I am going to outline and dispel what I believe to be the most prominent reasons why people might feel uneasy towards Mormons.
The topic of Mormons, in general, is a controversial issue, but due to the recent presidential election the interest in Mormonism has skyrocketed. Governor Mitt Romney was the republican candidate for President of United States for the election year 2012 and he is a Mormon. This placed a lot of focus and interest on the Mormon church. Although The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has an individual public image, the image as a whole about Mormons seems to get clumped with everything else the public eye watches and reads about so called Mormons. For example, it seems as though Gov. Romney's public image represent all members of the church and each individual member represent Mitt Romney to those who have no associations with Mormons but happen to come in contact with one. For instance, in class I was asked “are you going to vote for Mitt Romney because you’re Mormon?” I was not surprised to hear this question but it still amazed me. I wondered to myself why someone might think that my main reason to vote for him would be because we are of the same faith. The idea that faith would unite people is not a hard one to conjure but when it comes to something as complicated as politics, I would hope to be given a little more credit for my own decisions.The First Presidency of the LDS church released a statement in the Esign (a church issued magazine), addressing it’s members in the recent election season. They specifically focused on the fact that as a whole the church does not endorse any particular candidate and remains non-partisan. The First presidency advised that each of it’s members vote based on their own opinion and prayer ("Political Neutrality" 41).
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| The Brown's |
Another example of this grouping is the Brown family, they are Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) and have a show on TLC. It is easy to see this man with his four wives, and think Mormons still practice polygamy. So it makes sense that at school I’ll get a question like “are you a sister wife?”. I compare it to the Protestant Reformation, they didn't like what the Catholic Church was teaching so they branched off and started doing their own thing. This is similar to what happened with the Mormon church, a group of members didn't like that the LDS church disbanded polygamy in 1890.They wanted to continue practicing so they broke off and started their own church, the FLDS, and that group is now led by Warren Jeff’s. He gained national attention in 2006 when he was arrested and later convicted of sex related crimes with minors in three different states.. The Reformed Latter-Day Saints didn't agree with the prophet Brigham Young who succeeded Joseph Smith ,so they broke off as well and now there are different groups who broke off from them as well. Each of these groups call themselves Mormons, so we all get clumped together as members of a cult, child molesters, and polygamist.
The LDS church has an amazing desire and ability to help others through their resources. There are currently 179 countries in the world that are receiving humanitarian aid from the Mormon church and that’s only since 1985 ("Facts and Statistics"). I believe that the LDS church itself has a positive image because of the helpful hand they extend to people all over the world. Despite this, there is a negative stigma around Mormons and I think that misconceptions help feed the unfavorable image. Calling on my own memories and a phone interview I did with my sister helped me to gain more insight on why others might feel negatively toward Mormons even though they admittedly do not not know much about them.
After I was baptized, my relationships with my family members changed. We are a very dysfunctional group of people who at that time used partying as a way of bonding. The first time I drank alcohol and smoked weed was with my older siblings. It was our way of putting differences aside and having fun. However, after joining the church my family dynamic shifted. I was no longer willing to be the crazy party girl I had been for years, I was different. I know that not drinking and smoking had a big effect on the time that I spent with my family, but it was deeper than that. My family was initially doing the same thing I did before I was introduced to the LDS faith. I had a lot of ideas and misconceptions about who Mormons were and what they believed in. It wasn't until exposing myself to them and learning, that I began to see those misconceptions as prejudice. It is an easy thing to do, we all do this one way or another. We believe what we hear and assume for the most part that those stories or experiences are true and we begin to make assumptions. I know because I did this and it was the same reason my family felt uncomfortable around me.
I have heard this from many friends who are converts to the LDS faith and they say the same things like ‘’ I thought Mormons were a cult and had multiple wives”.They explain that when they actually learned from people who were members they were surprised and eventually joined. Some people even think Mormons don't use electricity. The point is that truth can be easily twisted, misconstrued, and embellished. When this happens then being a Mormon becomes harder and harder to admit to, and more difficult to explain. For about two years I barely had any connection with my family and we had to start overcoming misconceptions and finding something else in common. This proved difficult, but with time as they witnessed my new life, those misconceptions melted away and we were able to begin to rebuild our relationships.
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| My sister Caitlin |
Years later my older sister Caitlin became interested in learning about the LDS church and what i believed. This allowed for understanding and an opportunity to fill the gap between us. As she learned, the misconceptions faded and understanding illuminated our relationship. My sisters were not exceptionally supportive and were even hostile toward me about becoming Mormon. Their attitudes and actions cut a deep wound in my soul and I never imagine that I would get an explanation of why they treated me that way. Nevertheless in the phone interview I did with my sister she tried to account for her behavior towards me. She revealed that the things she thought she knew about Mormons made her scared for me. Caitlin didn't think of Mormons as just another Christian faith because she had only heard negative things her whole life. She thought i was being brainwashed and that the church was trying to control me and she was scared because she didn't understand, it was the unknown that scared her the most (Roeder).
The unknown and lack of understanding are just the tip of the iceberg; there is so much underneath. For my sister it was the foreignness of the church that was the hurdle in her journey towards religious tolerance. For others what seems to raise the most eyebrows is whether or not Mormons are Christians. Yet for some, mostly women, it’s the stain of polygamy in the history of the church and the fallacy that the church encourages oppression of women.
Christians?
The question “Are Mormons Christians?” is a common phrase i hear and something that I've had to explain many times in my life. I'm sure this won't be my last. This is a common misconception and as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ,the proof is in the name. Yet others continue to argue that this is not the case. Cooper P. Abram III a Baptist pastor said in a religious magazine ‘ "Are Mormons Christians?" is simple: "They are not biblical Christians because their beliefs and teaching are contrary to what the Bible teaches and this reveals them to be a "Christian" cult." ‘.He goes on to break down verses of the Bible and elaborate on the many reasons why he feels the LDS faith is a cult. I believe that what he is trying to explain is that Mormons do not fall under the category of what he believes to be Christians as he understand the Bible. Now anyone can get technical and over analytic about what it means to be a Christian but it is their own interpretation. I think that the only way to be able to state as a fact that Mormons or anyone for that matter is not a Christian is to observe a complete absence of God the Eternal Father and Jesus Christ in their beliefs and an absence of belief in the Bible as well. Mormons believe in all these things, I believe in all these things and they are very present in the doctrine of the church and in my life.
Women of the church
Mormon women are brainwashed, miserable and oppressed by our religion. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard this i would be rolling in the dough. Being a Mormon woman in the LDS faith I know that I’m not oppressed but others, many others,would argue against that. In her article written for a religious studies class, student Jessica Longaker rips into the gender roles of women in the church starting with polygamy which was practiced between 1843 to 1890. She continues by explaining that not much has changed since the 1800’s and women continue to be undervalued, bossed around and controlled by males. Longaker continues on about different things, but i want to focus on a specific idea that is woven throughout this paper. The idea that women are boiled down to something to be used, and that they need to stay in the home and have as many children as possible. She argues that women are not seen as equals but are ruled by the men in the church .That would mean that I , as a member, have no say and that my husband gets away with this because I believe he is lead by God to treat me inferior to him.That would mean that my voice is never heard, my dreams are never realized, and I’m only good for one thing. Wow, no wonder Mormons have a negative image. Longaker makes a valid point when she addresses the past practices of the church, but mostly gets the doctrine all twisted.
When I think about this misconception, it brings me to ponder about the Suffrage Movement in which women protested for their right to vote. The movement began in the late 1800’s and state by state granted the right, until finally the Nineteenth Amendment was passed in 1920. "It was the Mormons who, as a group, were the greatest champions of the suffrage movement, with women in Utah and Wyoming winning the right to vote long before the women in any other state in the union." (Gordon 423-429).1895 was the year Utah granted the right for women to vote; there is a twenty five year gap between this and the Federal Government's acceptance of women as equals, at least in this manner. I find it interesting that some would argue that women are oppressed by the LDS church when it seems they were able to fight and speak their mind freely in a very public way long before it was acceptable by society to do so. I was 18 when I joined and I have never been disrespected , put down, or ignored by a male member in my congregation. I understand that things happen in the world. There are bad men who are of all different beliefs, Baptist, Catholic, and yes, Mormon who treat women poorly, but that doesn't mean that the individual represents the group as a whole.
Conclusion
The process of forming my topic and writing this paper was challenging in many ways. I felt passionately about defending my faith but i didn't expect to feel exhausted. Working on this topic throughout the term put me in the hot seat multiple occasion in my writing class and the spotlight as a Mormon wide open for all to see was uncomfortable. About halfway through the process, I felt I wanted to change my subject and that it would have been easier to write about something not as personal but my pride wouldn't let me back down. My survival instinct to retreat when faced with danger and obstacles was overcome by my will and desire to be accepted by my peers.
I have explained different misconceptions and focused on what I believe to be the root of why Mormons have a mostly negative image in the world. I have also discussed the truths and hope that this will help others to be more open minded. Religious tolerance is really the purpose of my paper,it is not unreasonable to ask for from others and is a gift that everyone should give freely. This is something that I believe deeply in and the LDS church believes in as well. In the Articles of Faith, which are thirteen statements that were release by the church when Joseph Smith was President, explains what Mormons believe and they still stand today as banners of our beliefs.
The eleventh states, “We claim the privilege of worshiping almighty god according to the dictates of our own conscious and allow all men the same privilege let them, worship how where or what they may.”(Smith) I think that everyone should be allowed this freedom. Isn't that one of the main reasons America is a great nation, that people from all over the world aspire to come here, That we can be free from oppression and have the right to live and worship how we desire and pursue our own happiness.
I want others to understand how important it is to be accepting of those who practice a different faith than them, especially one they might not understand like the LDS faith. I invite them to be open minded, learn and ask questions to those around them. I do not want them to rely on assumptions, ignorance, or bigotry as a way to cope with what they do not understand. I want them to investigate, explore and have tolerance towards people who practice other faiths. I hope that through my paper I have inspired this.
Works Cited
Abrams, Cooper P., 3. "The Bible and the Scriptures of the LDS Church." O Timothy Magazine Oct. 1996: n. pag. Web. Nov.-Dec. 2012. 1. Online magazine article 2. Discusses religious doctrine and argues that Mormons are not christian according to biblical standards.3. i plan to use a specific quote as a counter argument against my claim.
"The Articles of Faith #11." Pearl of Great Price. Trans. Joseph Smith, Jr. Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, n.d. N. pag. Print. 1. Articles of Faith are inside Pearl of Great Price. Each One is a statements of belief issued by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.2. Article of Faith #1: We claim the privilege of worshiping almighty god according to the dictates of our own conscious and allow all men the same privilege let them, worship how where or what they may.3.I will use this to show what the church believes as regard to religion and others beliefs and what they expect as well.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. "Facts and Statistics." Www.mormonnewsroom.org. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 24 Nov. 2012. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. <http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/facts-and-statistics/>. 1.statistics and facts 2.Mormon church issued statistics report of missionaries serving, humanitarian aid and member etc.3. I plan to use it to show the service rendered to the world
Gordon, Philip Sherman. "Not A Mormon." Cultural Studies 19.4 (2005): 423-29. Print. 1. article from cultural studies, an academic journal 2.Gordon is a Jewish professor at Utah Valley college with predominantly Mormon student body. He talks about religious identity and tolerance of faith between himself and his students. He talks about his own anti Mormon feelings as well as his pro Mormons feeling and how mutual respect. 3.i want to use quotes or even paraphrase an idea he explains. i want to use it to show misconceptions and realities of mormons coming from a non mormon perspective. How he dealt with it and his view of respect and tolerance of religion and people.
Longaker, Jessica. "The Role of Women in Mormonism." The Role of Women in Mormonism. Http://www.exmormon.org/mormwomn.htm, 2 Sept. 1996. Web. 22 Nov. 2012. <http://www.exmormon.org/mormwomn.htm>. 1. This is an paper written for a religious studies class.2. talk about roles of women in mormonism and oppression.3. I plan to summarize and explain ideas.
"Political Neutrality." Ensign 10 Oct. 2012: 41. Print. 1. An article and statement released by the church summarizing the non-partisan position of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 2.The do's and don'ts of how members should act and support during an election season.3. I will use this to address the LDS church's role in elections and the misconceptions of Mitt Romney related to the church.
Roeder, Caitlin M. "What Did You Think?" Telephone interview. 25 Nov. 2012. 1. Interview with my sister. 2. I asked her what she thought about mormons before learning about them and after learning about them.3. I plan to use in summary form to prove a point about negative image.
