[Archive]

Posted By: James Feagin

On a personal note, as a practicing and believing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) I have always relished in a strange way that it seems that both the Left and Right in this country reject us. It has always kept me on my toes and has helped me establish a positive dialogue with friends (none of which are LDS). The way I see it, if you are going to label yourself anything, have a good personal reason for doing so. For instance, with my Obama friends (who I voted for by the way) I state the tenants of our faith and the virtues of Christianity. Not the brand that the "Christian Coalition" espouses, but of it as an intellectual and liberating movement. To my conservative friends, I state adamently that we need to sometimes think outside of the box. Not for the sake of appeasal, but because we are genuinely interested in the spiritual and social welfare of people. It could be argued that anti-Mormon bigotry helped contribute to the demise of the Republican party. To which I reply, godspeed and hopefully you'll be more inclusive in the future. By the way, voting was wonderful!



James (the average every day Mormon who goes to church with Harvard scientists who believe).