http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/96/pinned-by-history
It's always the crazy ones.
I hate the media some days. As much as I enjoy the church, and enjoy what there is out there about us, I hate how it always shows up being the outlandish ones, or crazies out there, that are sometimes the loudest 'voices' to being Mormon.
The first guy is a noted con man. Everything he did prior to being baptized is bad. His life is in shambles, and then he talks about being baptized and trying to right the wrongs that had happened, and yet he's still swearing, being crazy, and trying to deceive people. As much as he tries to say that he's Mormon and a member of the church, he still manages to get himself thrown into prison and associated with the communism, lying, McCarthyism, and all sorts of chaos.
Just once, I would like the fact that a person is a member of the church come up as a side thought. Just like when you talk about other people of other religions, that you talk about the person first, and their religion second, I would really like that to happen more often. More often than not, the main press that we get is because the crazies are the loudest. The people that are on the fringe, that aren't even full privilaged, active members of the church, always seem to be the loudest. Luckily things have been changing recently, but really, it frustrates me that being a member only gets brought up when people are doing crazy things.
Be a member while doing normal things - it never gets brought up.
Even if you're doing beyond average things - it never gets brought up.
It's not until you're doing something bonkers, and the media wants to just show how crazy that one thing is, that they bring up that you're a member of the church. It's not until a person starts being really outlandish, and saying crazy things like they are the founder of long list of firsts, without any evidence, and sounding like they should be wearing a tin-foil hat, that the media brings up that they are also a Mormon. A person living their life effecting others for the better while raising a family with three kids and a dog in the suburbs - not a single mention of their religion. A person who built their own house in the middle of no where, avoiding society, trying to pay penance for errors they had made earlier in their life - instantly we are told that they're a member because that is just one more step on the crazy train to show how bonkers they are.
I know that I should be focusing on trying to capture the idea of being stuck in a historical moment and being in the middle of it, but I don't know anything about that. I've never been in the middle of some grand historical event, and even if I have (or am) I certainly don't know it right now, so I'm picking out this rant from my life. Because of that lack of real connection to the topic, I'm going to try to push out the next subject (hopefully on topic) as fast as possible.
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