Discrimination against mormons?

Question

i have to write a report for english on people discriminating against moromons
however, it seems like the moromons are more discriminatory themselves then they're discriminated against
thoughts, stories?

Answer 1

Is your paper about modern-day discrimination or the more severe 19th-early 20th century persecution?

The 19th century discrimination/persecution was indeed severe. Thousands of homes were burned, LDS were driven from cities, property was seized by anti-LDS militia. Many hundreds of people died of exposure between forced migrations between New York, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, and ultimately Utah because of their beliefs.
Ironically, "Mormon" was itself a discriminatory and slanderous nickname for Latter-Day Saints that was used in 19th century anti-LDS propaganda.
This is a decent link for that:
http://www.lightplanet.com/mormons/response/general/persecution.html

In the 20th century, discrimination inside and outside of the southwest is very real. An LDS friend of mine was denied access to Ozark Christian College because they "do not accept cultists"

For 20th century treatment, it's best to read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Mormonism

It's true that some Utah LDS today have "holier than thou" attitudes, but I doubt that it raises to the level of complete social and economic shunning, murder, rape, arson, and disincorporation.

Answer 2

Go to www.LDS.Org and do a search on the history of the church. You should really start at the beginning. A very common misconception is that the LDS church was founded in Salt Lake- it was really started in upstate New York- persecution is what led the early Saints to Salt lake City.

The Mormons are the only religious group in the history of America who has had a government issued extermination order against them. That order was issued by Governor Lilburn Boggs of Missouri. That order was only officially removed from the books in Missouri in the last 15 years, though it has not been enforced for a very long time.

The Mormons lived in Palmyra, New York, Kirtland, Ohio- Independence, Far West and Hauns Mill, Missouri, and then Nauvoo, Illinois before finally settling the Salt Lake valley.

The Hauns Mill Massacre will be of particular interest for your report.

www.deseretbook.com and www.SeagullBook.com will be resources for books about LDS history.

Please be careful in doing your research that you get the correct info. There is a lot of misinformation published about the Mormons. www.LDS.org is probably a great resource for you.

The official church name is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (hence LDS).

Edit**
I think if you will do the proper research, you will find that the Mormon story is a very vital and dark part of American history, that most people don't even know about. When I was in high school- there were two paragraphs about the Mormons in my history book and the information was only partially accurate.

Answer 3

I think Isold hit something important; you've probably been given this assigment because of our current events (Romney running for president). Look up some articles on him, and look up the famous Al Sharpton quote on him from a few months ago. Look up the new movie about the mountain medows massacre, and how Hollywood is portraying it, and read the history offered here: http://www.lds.org/portal/site/LDSOrg/menuitem.b12f9d18fae655bb69095bd3e44916a0/?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=1c234dc029133110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&locale=0

If you start comparing and contrasting these articles with an unbiased open mind, you'll start to see clearly where biases are shining through. I'm sure you'll find some great modern quotes to place in your paper.

Hope you get a good grade

Answer 4

Research into the history of the Mormon Church will reveal that they were persecuted, were burned out of their homes, and driven from the state of Missouri and had to go to Illinois as a refuge. In fact, the Governor of Missouri, Liburn Boggs, actually signed an "extermination order" authorizing the Missouri militia of the 1840's to kill Mormons. That was the most blatant disregard for "freedom of religion" ever seen in America history.

Answer 5

Don't confuse the picture anti-Mormons paint with reality. While most churches have a past history of discrimination (Catholics discriminated against Jews and Muslims in the middle ages, southern Protestants discriminated against African Americans in the 18th and 19th centuries, some Muslims have discriminated against "infidels" in recent years, etc), modern Mormonism is very much opposed to discrimination. Ironically, many who discriminate against us (professional anti-Mormons) hypocritically accuse us of being discriminators!

The modern Mormon Church is not a racist church. I'm Mormon, and my wife is black. We were married in a Mormon temple, where the officiator told us that God approved of our marriage. My wife is treated well at church, as are the other African American members of our congregation. I've had a black bishop in several different Mormon congregations of which I've been a member.

Many anti-Mormons, however, intentionally misrepresent Mormon teachings in an attempt to discredit Mormonism. I've written about this type of discrimination on my site at http://www.allaboutmormons.com/brief_critique_anti-mormon_propaganda.php . Pay careful attention to the video at http://www.allaboutmormons.com/ENG_Video62.php .

To learn more about racial diversity in the Mormon church, visit http://www.allaboutmormons.com/racial_diversity_mormon_church.php .

Answer 6

Haven't seen Mormons discriminate personally, though. Although the two Mormon guys that showed up at the apartment where I live at were very nice. And God were they cute! Always had a thing for those Mormon dudes.

Answer 7

i personally am ok being discriminated against because of my religion. I don't mind the person doing it because i think it's only due to a lack of understanding on their part. I've never seen anyone giving a legitimate reason to persecute mormons. I believe we mormons shouldn't think that we diserve anything for being persecuted so long ago. we aren't the only ones that have been beaten or killed for their beliefs. We are just grateful for those that endured it.

Answer 8

There is not supposed to be a religious test to run for election in this country. The only religion that is openly challenged in the media as a bar to office is the Mormon church. It is bigotry to oppose someone on gender or race, but not this.

Answer 9

Ive never seen a Mormon discriminate against them self

Answer 10

Is this what you are talking about, I hated the "hello game." if a person (myself) was not in the "in" crowd, then saying hello to a fellow ward member was like, maybe once in a blue moon a pior group would acknowledge me. So I began to not say hello and then they called me stuck-up. Before I became popular in high school with other mormons in other wards, I was ignored by the girls in my ward, but stared at in church, the unpopular friends I had, cheated on games. The guys in my ward called me names like "dog face" and I had fleas and "fang face". In mutual, we made goals and one of the popular girls goals was to be nice to the popular girls, me, and once i realized this, I was crushed, because being nice to me, would end when her goal was over. I had a crush on one of the guys, and unfortunely it took me a while to realize that this guy would only say hello to me and walk me home when his ego needed a lift. I was popular with the adults in my ward, but they stood by and let these my cruel pior group just be mean to me. Its obe of the reasons I left the church.