Challenging days ahead
I’m a Mormon. Most of you know that. I have a profile on Mormon.org. I have been one since 1978. I’m a convert. I served a mission. I was sealed to my wife for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple. I have served in the Church in almost every calling in a ward council except for Primary President of Relief Society President. (Don’t laugh, I know a man who served as a Relief Society President when he was a missionary!) I have been a member of a bishopric or branch presidency for the past 11 years and I’ve been a branch president for the past two years.
I don’t tell you these things to boast. I just want the reader to know that I’m committed. I know what I know from time, experience, service, and study. I can tell you that God is real and that he works in the lives of everyone who will let him have some access. I know that he loves us, his children. I know he cares about us. I have seen him perform miracles in the lives of people. And on top of all of this, I first came to truly know him when he gave me an answer about the truth of the Book of Mormon–but I’ve written about that before.
Sometimes it is tough to be a Mormon. I have lived most of my life on the fringes of the Church. I’ve only visited Utah a couple of times. In a crowd, at work, or anywhere else, it’s usually a correct assumption that I’m the only latter-day saint present. In one way, I kind of like that. It keeps me on my toes. I know that people are watching. It makes me seek to do my best and not get lax about my discipleship. I know people will make judgments about the Church from what they know about me. I do my best to make that a good impression.
It never ceases to amaze me at the people who want to tell me what I believe. They come with all sorts of misinformation they received from a pamphlet their pastor gave them, or something they found on an anti-Mormon web site. They act as if they’re complete experts on the Church and that, after all the experience I listed above, I don’t know what I’m talking about. Go figure.
In defending the Church, I have been personally attacked in the most vicious ways imaginable. I’ve been the subject of defamatory discussion threads and even had lampooning caricatures made of me. I even had one anti-Mormon set up a blog called “Greg West is an Idiot” on Blogger.com. (Blogger took it down after I complained that it was a terms-of-service violation). The crazy thing is that I’m just a very average husband, dad, and grandfather. There is nothing special about me that would make the world take notice of me. I’m not rich or powerful or even famous. But when I stand up for the Church, literally hundreds of people attack me.
I have developed a thick skin. That started early in my Church experience. When I was newly baptized, a neighbor lady who never even so much as said “hello” to me came and told my parents that I was joining a cult. As a missionary, I was physically assaulted a few times–just because I was a Mormon. I have been the target of harassment when I was in the military, because I didn’t follow along and join the “good ol’ boys” club. I just take it in stride.
For the past few years, I’ve been running a social network called S.P.A.M.–The Society for the Prevention of Anti-Mormonism. I started it up when I got frustrated with anti-Mormons attacking the Church when Mitt Romney’s chances for the GOP nomination became a real possibility. This year looks like it might be Romney’s year, so the heat is being cranked up. This week alone, hundreds of articles and blogs have been published over the remarks of one Baptist minister at a political event, where he called the Church a cult and said Romney wasn’t a Christian before introducing Romney’s opponent, Governor Tom Perry of Texas.
Newsweek, Time, Drudge Report, U.S. News, USA Today, The Blaze, WorldNetDaily, Politico, Redstate.com, the Huffington Post, and a hundred other media outlets have been all over this incident. The rhetoric in the comments on these articles just gets worse and worse. The unabashed level of intolerance is due in part to the assumed anonymity of the Internet. People say hostile things they would never say in person–but they speak what is in their hearts. It’s scary to see.
In the 19th century, the governor of Missouri put out an extermination order on latter-day saints. Some of the comments I’ve seen are so vicious, I can easily imagine that–in the absence of civil restraint–these awful bigots would easily return to burning LDS churches, homes of members, even lynchings. Right now,we are blessed to have a relatively calm state of civil order. However, it may not remain that way. A currency collapse, a severe financial crisis, or other breakdown of social order could cause the conditions for these kinds of things to occur once again.
For those of us who live out here among the “Gentiles,” that’s an unsettling notion. Anti-Mormonism has replaced racism and anti-Semitism as the allowed prejudice of our time. As the Romney campaign gets going, especially when the Democrats decide to go after him, it’s going to get bad. I’ve already seen major news sites print some apostate’s twisted representations of our temple ordinances and claim that Mormons are trying to overthrow the government. Imagine how much worse they can make it!
Despite all this, I don’t fear. I rejoice in some measure, because Jesus said to. He said to be glad when we would be persecuted, when people would say false things about us, or call us names or despitefully use us. What does concern me is that some of my good friends or co-workers might actually believe some of the lies and accusations that will be hurled our way. I would hate for my non-member co-workers to think that I was a bizarre cultist or that I had hopes of establishing a theocracy in Accomack County. I would hate for my 12 year-old son to have to face ridicule at school for his religion from fellow students or discrimination from the teachers. No matter. We’ll keep on living the gospel and following the example of Jesus Christ. Hopefully people will believe their eyes and not the crazy stuff others might tell them.
If there are challenging days ahead, it means that people are having to make a decision about Mormons and Mormonism. It’s a day of decision and those decisions have consequences. I just hope that my friends will have confidence in me and trust that I am honest when I tell them that Jesus Christ is the center of all that I have done in my life, ever since I was converted in 1978. I wouldn’t do anything that would place any distance between the Lord and me. I hope that desire shows in the things I do and the way I live. If challenging times to come, I hope that the Lord’s light will shine from me so others can see it.
Greg West
