Mormons deserve respect

“Hey, you guys. Yeah, you. Mormons. Can I talk to y’all for a minute?” My friend’s stance is challenging, defiant. “Yeah, so I was, uh, wondering ... Why the fuck do y’all peddle your beliefs in the street?

“What about religious freedom? Is it true that black people couldn’t be leaders in your church ’til the ’80s? Is it true that you guys believe that when you die, you all get your own fuckin’ star or whatever? What about your special magic underwear? How do you explain this crazy shit? Do you believe in magic or something?”

The two local Mormon missionaries, for an instant, stare and blink in silence, slowly processing the barrage of insulting questions launched in their direction. Their hush, however, is only momentary — they immediately begin to address all of his queries calmly and deliberately.

But the inquirer is adamant. We are coming from Kilroy’s. He has had a beer and several shots and he is flying high. He wants to rile them. He wants to make a Mormon yell. He wants to feel the sharp sting of their anger like a validation of his wit.

The Mormon missionaries, though, stay kind and collected no matter how abusive he gets, while my other friends and I slink away back home. We’re red-faced in shame and annoyed with the man’s hateful behavior.

I didn’t speak up then, but I think I need to now.

Please, guys — don’t antagonize the Mormons.

We are lucky enough to go to a school with a community that is mostly tolerant of a wide variety of faiths and belief systems. There are students here with crucifix necklaces and yarmulkes and hijabs and turbans. Students who go to church every Sunday and students who set up altars in their houses.

We are diverse and complex. Yet for some reason, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — Mormons — are still singled out and considered humorous, ridiculed for their specific brand of belief, which is still rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

Not that they can’t hold their own. With an LDS center located right by the heart of campus, by now members must be used to the pointed questions and occasional insults slung their way. And in instances of direct interrogation like the one described above, the missionaries seem to uphold a “turn-the-other-cheek” philosophy.

I know it can be a hassle to have to dismiss a missionary when you’re late to class and they happen to sidle up with a smile and a pamphlet about Jesus in America. I also get that immediate sinking feeling when I hear a knock at my door and see a pair of men in crisp black slacks and white button downs through the peephole, knowing that I’ll have to explain to him that I was confirmed in a different faith.

But that doesn’t excuse some of the flat-out rude behavior I see on campus that Mormon missionaries receive simply for trying to live up to what they believe is asked of them by their religion.

Next time you are approached by a missionary on campus, talk to them. Ask questions, engage in respectful discourse. You might actually learn something.

mcaranna@indiana.edu