I read an article from the Washington Post today that was linked on Facebook by one of my friends. It was about Mormons. I am, of course, always curious about what kind of attention we're getting. We've been in the news a lot over the last year or so, and it's a cumbersome thing to keep up with our media attention, but I like to try. It's not really a dutiful act. I am just curious. What are people saying about us now?
Well, I think this article was an eerie foreboding of things to come with the ramping up of the presidential race. And I remember a recent NPR interview with Joanna Brookes a week ago Sunday that predicted as much. For the record, I liked the interview. I thought it was very objective and informative. The link to that interview is here.
The Washington Post article, however, wasn't very representative of my experience with the faith or its teachings, which is why I'm not linking to it. It also wasn't flattering in any way -- which is why I didn't like it. It's not so much because the article wasn't true. On the contrary, I'm totally fine with journalists lying about my faith in print. But the general rule about lying is, if you're going to tell a lie, it should be a nice lie. This article was decidedly neither honest nor nice.
It's all probably going to start getting very ugly. And, to be honest, I'm not sure I'm ready for it. I suppose I'll just have to brace myself, as I don't really have an option. Here it comes....
4 comments:
You know I'm with you. I'm not ready for the mormon bashing that will come and all the lies that will be told. Oh boy, the world we live in...
I'm feeling similarly. I have been reading quite a few of the articles that keep being linked on FB or ones that I happen across in NYTimes, the Washington Post, and Huffington Post... and I'm just not sure what my thoughts are on all of this. And I guess I'm just surprised when there are out and out lies or distortions of reality. Should I feel more light-hearted about it all or should I really be starting to formulate my comebacks and responses to such things...
I'm not sure what the proper response is either. My inclination is to not engage. I've never enjoyed confrontation. :)
I have read through a lot of the responses when people post at the bottom of these kinds of articles and while some of the comments are succinct, astute and accurate, the comment section still has an overall effect of being a wasteland of rants for people who have issues.
I think I'll just keep plodding on, trying to take as little of it personally as I can possibly manage. In one of the presidential debates, Mitt Romney astutely said, "I've been called worse". And who knows, maybe someday people will have that "ahah moment" like they are having now with the Hispanic population. That aha moment usually sounds something like this: "Oh, there are a lot of them. Maybe we shouldn't piss them off so much."
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