Minority voice: 'We're your neighbors, not conversion projects'

By Cody Littlewood

October 20, 2008 | "Please at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster, my TV, and our steel-belted radios and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone!" Howard Beele cries on the movie Network.

This is the same cry echoed by the minority in Utah. "Just let us worship the way we please! Just let us have a decent beer. Just leave me alone and I won't bother you," screams the population that does not participate in the ritualistic behavior that the Latter-day Saints participate in. "We don't care what you do, but please stop letting it affect the way that WE live OUR lives," they beg.

The challenges of Utah go far past the bitter cold winters. They lie far more within the community and the laws. Emerge yourself head first into Utah and you will come up gasping for a breath of fresh air. The majority of Utahns are Utah born citizens. The lack of any concept of global problems, outside opinions, or other cultures drives a constant misinterpretation of the minority's habits. They are seen as evil, not different. The people are seen as misguided and need saving, not different.

The amount of ignorance is appalling, and it drives discriminatory laws, policies, and behaviors towards the minority. Movies that are controversial are banned from movie theaters and books are kept out of public libraries. The alcohol and drug laws here come with bigger penalties than assault, theft, and sexual offenses. Smaller communities shun families that are not Mormon, kids at school are left out of activities, and parents teach their adolescents that they should only date other teenagers with the same religion as them.

It's not the doctrine of the religion that we mind. Any religion is free to worship in any manner it chooses as protected by the constitution. The Bill of Rights is applauded, but freedom from religion is just as important as freedom of religion to citizens of the U.S.

Religion should never dominate a culture to the point that it creates the kind of problems that it does in Utah. 70 percent of the population in this state is LDS. Higher percentages lie within smaller communities, so surely the majority of readers will contest that there are problems, but the majority rarely sees the other side. The gentiles have been pushed into a corner by a large section of the society.

When a new family moves into a community they are usually greeted, but if they are not LDS a community outreach program is instated by local leaders of the LDS church to save their souls. They are invited to church activities, dinners, and sporting events. The missionaries are sent to their door. There are no normal barbeques or football games; the routine is usually a conversion effort. The gentile family is not accepted for who they are, they are constantly pressured to become like their neighbors. Whether the locals realize it or not, this is not a comfortable or a nationwide practice.

Normally religion makes no difference in people as long as they are contributing members of the community and cause no trouble. Whether you are Catholic, atheist, or Muslim in a Baptist community you are invited to a neighborly barbeque, not with the intention of conversion. Normal topics of politics, sports, or weather are spoken of because no matter what religion the newcomer might be they certainly don't want to be converted to yours. They are happy with their lives, and if they are not they will go on a personal search for what will make them happy. They are not a project for conversion.

The LDS church also has a massive influence on the government and law making, which governs by morals rather than constitutionality. The people try to govern based on their religion rather than justice as well. Support for laws that try to remove alcohol from restaurants stems from the fact that parents do not want their children to see or be exposed to alcohol for fear that they might want to try it.

Well folks, constantly shielding your children from the world will only lead to a greater misunderstanding. There is a reason why such a high rate of binge drinking occurs in Utah. Utah adolescents do not understand alcohol, tobacco, and sex because instead of being taught about these issues and how they are meant to be used, the only direction given is only abstinence.

As history has proven when an uneducated person is finally exposed or tries these items they do not understand the effects of the substance, so obviously uneducated decisions are made. Teen pregnancy is obscenely high in Utah because instead of educating the children they are told, "Don't have any sex, whatsoever, until you are married." Is it any wonder that the adolescents of Utah are having higher rates of unsafe sex and in return higher rates of pregnancy? It affects people who do not believe in the same religion as well, because unfair laws are based on the majority's religious beliefs and punishes the gentiles who visit or live here.

The minority wishes not for the majority to change their beliefs, but rather to not impose the beliefs on those who choose to worship differently. Invite your neighbor over for a football game without preaching. Relax the laws so they agree with common sense instead of religious beliefs.

A non-Mormon is not a project, you do not have "dibsies" on this person's soul, it is not your personal duty to "save" them, and the person will be a good friend even if he does not convert. The missionaries do not need to be sent to your new non-Mormon neighbors' door. If someone is so emerged in this community, they will come to a church house if they are interested in joining the religion, and someone else having a beer at dinner will not make your children want to drink. Please, we beg of you, continue to eat your fry sauce, have your milk and cookies party, and drink your 72 oz. cola, just let others live free from oppression, leave the "wicked" to their own forms of worship, educate yourselves, and open your minds to difference.

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MS