Ostracized For Not Being Part of the Predominant Religion of Utah

I don't know if many of you are aware of this, but more than half of Utah is populated by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This presents an uneasy majority for many non-Mormons. Such an unbalanced cultural diversity has proven unhealthy for both sides in many cases. Gentiles feel pressured and in some cases are ostracized for not being part of the predominant religion of the state, while the LDS are unjustly criticized for their beliefs and practices.

I'm not of the LDS faith, but that does not make me a protagonist of Mormon bashing and violent (whether it be physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, etc,). I've felt the cloud of Mormonism over my head for the entire 18 years of my life. I even went through an anti-LDS phase in junior high, where I would push out the Mormons around me because I felt I was reciprocating a prior action from the group. Now that I've grown and matured (not quite fully), I realize that I was wrong in my vindictive vigilante verbiage.

I felt, as many Utahns do, wronged, being the only one in my group of friends and neighborhood that wasn't of this faith. Lashing out on those who were different was not the correct answer to my problems. Over the course of about five years, I grew to realize that they and I were different. Not better, not worse, just different.

Perhaps it would do a lot of you gentiles out there some good to take a few moments out of your day to think about that. Sure, they can be a little invasive once in a while. Sure, some of their customs might be a little odd (I still don't understand the whole caffeine thing). And they might be all over the place, but they're just people like you and me. I might believe that blue looks better than red, while you disagree, but those are beliefs and who's to say in this country of free expression, that you can't believe that?

Persecution, violence, abuse and vandalism have plagued the church ever since its inception, but in Utah, these attacks are generally committed by ignorant, closed-minded people that fear what they don't understand. They feel stepped on and left out. Because of this, they lash out at those who they feel aren't.

If you see the church as a leviathan group that flows through everything in the area and hope to stop it, don't even put a second thought to it. That's domestic terrorism at its core. How could you call yourself a proud American if you try to impede the progress of a religion? That's terrorism in almost the same respect that sending a bomb to the state capital would be.

Trust me, LDS members have similar thoughts of exclusion. Since the state is practically half and half, many of that religion feel like they're the ones being ostracized. Originally it may've been the other way around, but we've created a barrier against LDS influence in our everyday lives. You may not think so, but a good number of us, at one time, acted contrarily toward the Mormons at one time or another in our lives just to be seen as different and to create an individual identity for ourselves. This is fine, but why make such a big deal about the difference in our cultures when we can celebrate our similarities and respect dissimilarity as a cohesive unit of human beings?

I have an apology to make. To all of the people that I may've excluded or hurt and to the church in general: I'm sorry for any hurt I've caused. I acted out of the passions I felt in the moment. I hope to become a valued peer who can respectfully agree to disagree from now on.

Let's stop the factioning in Utah. At the risk of sounding hippie-like or unreasonable, I'd like to extend this suggestion your way Utah: Whether you're Mormon or not, try to love the others despite their differences. Break down those barriers of disgust, distrust and disregard. You know how the other side feels better than you might think.