Dear LDS folks,
I am writing to you today because I am frustrated. I am Frustrated and I don't know what to do. I have lived in Utah my whole life. I was never LDS and I often was that guy who just made stupid polygamist and “magic underwear” jokes. Completely rude and I apologize for that. I realized that I just don't understand you. I did research on your history and learning your history might have helped me to find a common bridge and I wanted to share. It begins with me ranting a little bit but I just wanted to include it so that you can hear my positions and how I feel I can find a compromise.
Donald Trump is more popular in this state than Barack Obama. I am just perplexed to how my fellow neighbors that I know to be sweet, gracious, generous, and respectful neighbors could possibly be more keen to Donald Trump, the most... you know what, I am so sick of trying to think of new adjectives to express how vulgar and un-dignifying Donald Trump is every time I go on this rant, but I think you get the point.
Donald Trump is like the 2nd grade school kid I brought home after school because he insisted and then he stayed all evening and dropped the F bomb in front of my mom twice!
Ok, just one last thing to do with Donald Trump and then I'm tapping out. How can my great and gracious neighbors also support a man like Jason Chaffetz. After Donald Trump all but admitted to sexually assaulting women and talking about them like they're trash, Mr. Chaffetz said that he couldn't vote for Trump and look his daughter in the eye. Then he voted for Trump. So this man who claims that he believes families are forever, used his personal relationship with his daughter to exclaim a shunning against a man that was that was so vile, he wouldn't even vote for his own parties interest. And then he votes for him. Why? Because Hillary was that bad, he said.
Was Hillary that bad? Was Obama that bad? Just look at the facts with Obama. Where the country was when he took office, was much worse than when he left it. Did he do everything perfect and why did some areas get worse? Well I think that if we all looked at our personal history we'd like to change some things and improve more of the failures, even LDS history has some foibles that many of you would prefer to not focus on. And thats ok, because mistakes are what improve us as a society and a world. As long as you're learning from them. So, I would say that Obama wasn't perfect but no one could call him a failure.
“But Seriously,” you're thinking, “Hillary was that bad.” No, she was NOT that bad. Hillary, again, was flawed, but she was one of the most qualified humans to ever be president, and she was rejected for a human blow horn (does a subtle reference count?) that spews nothing but negativity and nonsense. A man that Mitt Romney called a “conman.”
A careful examination of the so called “scandals” involving the Clintons are either wacko conspiracies, like the alleged child sex ring at a DC pizza parlor that culminated into a man going into the pizza parlor where children were eating and a loaded rifle and fired 2 shots. Or they are complicated issues that don't have specific conclusions but the details are so gritty that you can't help but feel the one being “investigated” is a criminal. Mr. Chaffetz was more than happy to hold several investigations against Hillary. One of his party leaders even stated that they worked because her “poll numbers” went down. They used character assignations to gain political favor.
If Hillary was elected though, she had many ambitious plans.
-She had a childcare plan that would give maternity AND paternity leave. Not because She is against traditional family values, but because she believes that a husband should be there to bond in the early, intimate stages of life and maybe change a few diapers too!
-She had plan to make State College tuition free for millions of americans and free Community College. Do you or someone you know suffer from chronic student debt? Vote Trump who has no plan to address it and zero empathy of what it ever feels like to have money problems
-She had a comprehensive mental health plan. It was going to help our homeless and reduce so much pain felt by families affected by mental health issues.
-She had an immigration plan. Mormons are very compassionate to immigrants. Probably because of their own history of not feeling welcomed and the robust efforts to evangelize across the world. Now the GOP is in favor of extending DACA to the many undocumented workers that came here as children, but suffer the consequences. All the while, the USA is all they know. They say that the problem is that Obama acted like a dictator doing it as an executive order even though the bill for that law has been written since 2001 and was Sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch! The GOP just couldn't get on board, probably because they didn't want to upset the very people you heard yelling, “BUILD THAT WALL! BUILD THAT WALL!”
I could go on but I think I made the point. Hillary Clinton, just like Obama, would not be perfect but she would not be a failure. But this is why I am so frustrated, I feel hopeless in my beloved state. I want to understand LDS people better. I read up on your history and found it intriguing. I'd like to share what I found.
When Joseph Smith was a youth, he was clearly bright. He also had determination, probably contagious determination that anything could be done. I learned that he was sick and almost had to have his leg amputated but instead there was a novel surgery that saved his leg. No doubt his determined attitude assisted the surgery. He would forever have a limp, but that is what makes Smith so special. He didn't care whether or not he had a limp, just as long as he could keep moving forward. I'm sure that if he had it amputated he would have been hopping around.
He proved his charisma and faith by starting a new religion, or as some might say, carrying forward the one true religion. So it was obvious that he started a movement. This movement was a little strange to the surrounding citizens and often the LDS settlers would be persecuted, so you just moved on. You took your peaceful leave and moved forward. You didn't care about anything other than just having the freedom to practice your religion with peace. Every time you got persecuted, again, you just moved on. After Joseph Smith was murdered in cold blood, your new leader, Brigham Young, carried forward the determined spirit to worship your faith openly and without persecution. So, you went west.
People still thought your beliefs were weird but now you were out of their hair, and you had the wisdom to not keep going too far west. Your people were going to create Zion. Sure there are some kerfuffles here and there, maybe some history that is best left unsaid, but you found your place to finally create your own little paradise.
Then the feds got involved. This time was different. You kept moving on, you respected your citizens and followed Jesus example, you took your leave. So now, you are willing to fight to keep your paradise. Because they were trying to take away what you have trekked through arduous conditions after peacefully moving on from your persecutors, to claim of your own in the brand new country.
Shrewdly, though, you realized that you could not defeat the USA but you could join it. You made some compromises but you had that determined spirit to keep moving forward, limp or no limp. You built a beautiful state. You had a rich spiritual and religious environment, but you also had an openness to ideas. At one time, Utahns weren't so staunchly aligned with one party. One party that was especially disliked in Utah, was the party that fought against you having statehood, the Republican Party. Utah was really a moderate political state with a very strong Democratic leaning.
So what happened? I have one theory. Utahns created a new society and it was naturally insular since they settled where no other large communities lived. After several generations, the Mormon settlers lost touch with the part of this history that is peaceful and focuses on moving forward. They lost touch with the fact that they were the abnormal infiltrators at one point.Then, when outsiders started settling in this beautiful state, we live in, the Mormons were the ones that looked at them as infiltrators.
Of course, they weren't going to violently persecute them like they had been. They were going to use the power of politics to keep their cultural interests protected. Like many other religious folks, social issues forced them out of the Democratic party. In Utah, a special effort was pushed to have strong feelings towards these social issues. It cemented an era of GOP domination in Utah, and many other states. Although there is a very vocal minority, the GOP will never have to worry about a serious challenge. They'll always win their races by 30 or 40 percentage points. Utahns could be overwhelmingly against a position that their Representative holds but it doesn't matter. The real race, is the Republican primary race.
So this is fwhy I feel hopeless. I am one of many non-Mormons living in Utah. I just want to find a bridge, because the more we stay in our respective bubbles, the larger our divide will be. I admit that I was in a bubble. There are such things as liberal elitist. I just cant help but get the feeling that mormons should be able to empathize with me more. I am different from you, I am a stranger. I don't want to hurt you or get in the way of your religious beliefs. If we have co-respect for each other, that is how we can mend this divide.
I can't help but feel like Mormons gave up the idea that we could have differing political views while still being united in faith? Am I wrong? Wouldn't any Mormon acknowledge that Family, Faith, and God are forever and that politics are just a temporary necessary evil? But again, Jason Chaffetz used his daughter as a fake proclamation of how opposed he is to Donald Trumps character! I don't understand how those 2 things can reconcile.
What seems to have happened is this, Mormons were for a long time looked at with scorn around the country. You may have heard of the clearly false rumors that mormons had tails and horns. Christians especially didn't like them. They refused to accept them, even as fellow Christians. What changed was the socially liberal revolution. Mormons proved that they could be in the Conservative Christian Club when they rejected gay rights, abortion right, and other civil rights. Now Mormons could be taken seriously as main stream. They weren't diametrically afraid of a Mormon leading their party.Even getting a high ranking Mormon leader the nomination to run fro president of a major party.
Now we live in this state that is in practically absolute control of one party via its religion. Our voter turnout is one of the lowest in the country. No one feels like their vote matters, either side of the aisle. I have an ambitious idea, lets go back to when we were an open society that could live by faith but vote their conscience?
I have some proposals that I am making
I want to quit criticizing mormons for “running the State” and “taking all our money.” It would be ridiculous to not accept that a state with a wide majority of one religion would have no affect on the way it is legislated
I want to never again say nasty vulgar insults about mormons, whether it be to their face or nameless on the internet and condemn those that do.
I will not judge you for your “strange” religious practices if you refuse to judge anyone because of their “strange” lifestyle choices. As long you're in no danger and you can carry on your lifestyle, who cares? That is living in a free society
Stop with the stupid liquor laws. Surely you cant say you're not trying to impose your religious beliefs on us drinkers? I understand that you don't want drinking to be normalized in your world and you're probably mostly worried about your kids. Maybe for a change though, this kind of education could be more focused in classroom and moral issues could be stressed more in the home
Stop with the stupid sex-ed. Abstinence only education doesn't work. Key word is education. Of course abstinence is the only sure fire way to keep from getting pregnant, but that form of sex-ed only leaves teens more confused. They still have natural desires, but no idea of how their bodies even work. So sex-ed could be more robust, ensuring that kids know whats going on and how to protect themselves. If they need to avoid sex because of spiritual protection, then that should be focussed on at Church and in the Home, isn't that a fair compromise? One great benefit is that it will lower teenage pregnancies and abortions. No doubt both of those would reduce needs for avoidable abortions, and reduce a strain on welfare benefits.
Lets lead the nation on working to make voting easier. This should be common sense and bi-partisan but it is another victim of the Obama Hate years. Everyone that can, should vote. Lets set the standard in our state that we truly believe all Utahns should take party in their patriotic duty.
Lets lead the nation in a green energy party. We feel the disgusting side affects from pollution. We could lead the nation in promoting green energy. Our state is beautiful and that alone should be the driving factor behind protecting its health.
The Utah VS BYU rivalry will no longer be Mormon VS Non-Mormon. Utah was founded by Brigham Young and most of the students and fans are Mormon. Stop making it a religious battle. HeeHee, had to throw that one in there
In closing, I want to share that I am writing this as an atheist. I share this with the confidence that after considering what Mormons have gone through because of their religious beliefs, they'll understand, that, they don't have to understand the lack of mine. They can have the peace and security to know that our differences in religion don't have to affect our interest in the common good for our state and our fellow Utahns.
I want to run for office one day, I want to become an advocate for causes I believe in, and I want to do it openly about who I am. I may be an atheist, but I don't want to leave my beloved state. It is my paradise and I want to fight to protect it. So please, work with me so that I can sign this with my name instead of, simply, “anonymous.” If I came out as atheist then I would never be welcomed to have a strong place in my paradise. I am forced to either stay in the closet as it were, and never be able to have the ability to be open about my lack of religious beliefs, or I can come out but face possible exile. I just love my state to be forced to move on, limping on one leg.
Anonymous atheist in Utah
