potential conflicts of interest: being LDS Nerdfighters

[Alexandra]

I don't want a big scandal or any sort of drama to happen here (drama is the essence of forgetting to be awesome, after all)- I just want to know what you think/feel/etc. about how being an Mormon Nerdfighter can potentially raise problems in the Nerdfighter community. In particular- on the subject of gay marriage. (For those who haven't read Hank's recent post, here it is )
Don't get me wrong- I'm not saying that all Mormons and by extension have the same belief on the subject of gay marriage, but as I'm sure a lot of you know, how we personally, individually believe and why is often assumed whether we say it ourselves or not. And that can get tricky.
So, does this sort of thing concern you as a member of this particular community, or do you shrug it off and move on with your day?

*crosses fingers and hopes this discussion goes well*


PS Sorry I didn't get the link in right.

[For_the_love_of_Neville!!!!]

I just calmly state that my views are different from theirs and hope that they're awesome enough to leave my beliefs alone and accept me despite it. If they do anything else, then they aren't awesome enough to be Nerdfighters anyway.

[Halli]

Very well put! Short and sweet. I agree, nerdfighters are awesome enough to look past their differences. I really do hope it doesn't ever become a big controversy.

[Christine M. J.]

(Sorry if this double posts, but my internet is being weird and I'm not sure if the first time I sent it it went through.)

I communicate with a lot of non-LDS people, ranging from ultra liberal atheists to extreme conservative Protestant Christians to whatever, who make assumptions all the time because I'm Mormon. Most of it comes with ignorance because they don't even take time to listen to what my point of view is. Yes, I'm Mormon, but I'm also an individual who has my own opinion. My political views might not be the same as my religion's majority nor does it have to be. My biggest thought was that, yeah, Hank went a little to far with the tweet and I was taken aback somewhat, but I wasn't really personally offended cause in a lot of ways I'm for gay rights. I was glad to see that he had made an apology and explained himself.

Most of the time I don't tell anyone that I'm LDS and I just let them find out themselves. Usually by the time they figure it out, they already know me well enough not to start flaming me. But when I am flamed for being Mormon I don't even try to defend myself because it'd be pointless and I just go on my way.

[Christine M. J.]

P.S. It's nice to find other Mormon Nerdfighters here because I have come across some posts flaming some prominent LDS people like Stephenie Meyer and most of them didn't even check their facts.

[For_the_love_of_Neville!!!!]

People who flame like that never do. If they *did* check their facts, they wouldn't be flaming.

[Alexandra]

And facts have a bad habit of spoiling fun.

[Christine M. J.]

Yeah, they probably would have never posted a thread bashing Meyer on her views of gays if they had looked up the way tithing money is distributed throughout the church. Just because Meyer pays tithing it does not mean that she was supportive of Prop 8 or that she hates gays. Meyer has never said anything of her stance on it.

[For_the_love_of_Neville!!!!]

I'm not a big fan of Twilight, but they really shouldn't judge Meyer, or any of us solely by our religion.

[Alexandra]

I don't Meyer is cool and awesome by any means (I have gone on more than one English major combined with angry LDS female rant about her, but that's another story), but if the woman has never said anything about her stance on gay marriage, then people certainly shouldn't assume anything.

I think a big problem is that as long as we understand someone, we can accept them- or at least it's easier to accept them. If we're unable or unwilling to understand where someone is coming from, it's easy to label them as Other, and therefore as "stupid" or "wrong" or any other negative word. Not saying that I'm a particularly understanding person (I try, but alas), but is something that gets forgotten by a lot of people, on every side of pretty much every argument.

[Alexandra]

It's probably not very surprising, but I'm a very non-confrontational person, so I avoid any of the sort of problems we've been discussing here, and on top of that, I do not discuss politics. Maybe in a vague way with close friends, but that's it. I'm not joking, I still haven't told anyone who I voted for for President. That's because people have a habit of assuming stuff based on that one thing, and also because I have friends and family who are hardcore liberals and conservatives. And me being how I am, you can't blame me for not telling people who I voted for, even though there's that whole "being involved in politics means being a good citizen" thing.

What this has to do with prop8/the gay marriage debate is that I'm really uninterested in talking about it most of the time, and even then I try to talk about things in a vague manner so no one can really pin me down to one thing- partly because I don't have a super solid stance on things because it's just not something I want to deal with on that level- and partly because I hate it when people take the "you're stupid because you disagree with me!!!11!1!!" route. (Yes, the 1's were intentional.) Add that into the fact that people assume and judge me based on my religion, and it's a problem.
I think as a society we've created a hostile environment when it comes to politics, and as a result, there's probably an increasing number of people who are basically apolitical because they're not interested in stupid fighting that too often occurs on every side and within every side. Which then puts pressure (for lack of a better phrase) on the apolitical types to suck it up and try to change things and let their feelings get hurt or something a few times.

[For_the_love_of_Neville!!!!]

I agree about the hostile enviroment in politics. I used to be ready to debate political things on a moment's notice, but after this last election, I realized that there really isn't any point in it. I got so tired of constantly listening to the bickering. Our country is so ready to argue over the smallest things that there is no way that we can continue like this. As Abraham Lincoln said, "United we stand, divided we fall."

If we can't learn to accept people despite what they believe, then the U.S. is in deep trouble.

[Christine M. J.]

I feel exactly the same way as you. I've had so many people tell me I'm wrong for thinking a certain way about things. I tend to keep my opinion to myself unless I know the other person is going to listen to me with an open mind. And I don't tell anyone who I vote for. Not even my own family.