This will be brief, but I must speak out. Twice in the last year the supporters of teams in the PAC- 12 have given over to chanting the bigoted obscenity “F _ _ _ the Mormons” during football games against BYU. The history of persecution of the Latter-day Saints goes clear back to the beginnings of the Church in the early Nineteenth Century. We have had two centuries to decide how to respond–mostly non-response, or taking it like a joke as with the play “The Book of Mormon.” These days we are often praised for our restraint. But the few articles I’ve read about these incidents, most of which call for an apology and even stricter measures, have all missed hitting directly a couple of important points to which I wish to call attention.
First, lets call a spade a spade. This is religious bigotry pure and simple. The academy prides itself upon leading the way through instruction and example of inclusion, diversity, and tolerance–except apparently for the Latter-day Saints. We seem to be one of the few groups in the U.S. against whom it is acceptable to publicly express religious prejudice and bigotry. It is not racism because we are not a race; it is not sexism either, though for certain reasons it may involve a near relative,(1) but it is religious prejudice and bigotry pure and simple. Freedom of expression sure, even blatantly offensive free expression for sure–all protected by our Constitution. I’m not calling for restrictions on such free expression–I am asking that we be clear about the nature of that expression. It is not reasoned debate or difference of opinion only. It is one of the most virulent types of free expression–castigating a minority group for its religious beliefs. It is expressed by the religiously prejudiced and bigoted in chants at a public sports event–where it nearly takes on a mob mentality.
Second, again lets call a spade a spade. This is a clear double standard in the academy and in our larger society. Imagine the outcry if this was shouted at the Catholics of Notre Dame, the Methodists of SMU, or Baylor Baptists. Doubtless it would be branded in the strongest terms as anti-Semitic if it was aimed at “the Jews,” of Yeshiva University in New York. (Do they even have a football team? Probably not.) It is difficult to imagine the outcry that would result if a PAC-12 crowd chanted this epithet at blacks, or gays, lesbians, bisexuals, queers, and transvestites. Such talk would not only be soundly and repeatedly condemned, but very likely there would be calls for resignations and sanctions, maybe even reparations, and surely reformations of all types. Certainly such religious prejudice and bigotry should also be roundly condemned when aimed at the Latter-day Saints. I denounce this double standard and the religious bigotry it condones.
A significant segment of American society, including some of its colleges and universities, quietly harbor deep prejudice, bigotry and double standards toward The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is a minority that is often considered a societal pariah in private speech and discussions. So it shouldn’t surprise us when it sometimes surfaces publicly in the classrooms and at sports events. If tolerated and not resisted, it will only grow and eventually turn really ugly. It always does.
Let’s think together again, soon.
Notes:
1. An approach in this direction was made by Elder Russell M. Nelson as quoted by Neil L. Andersen: "President Russell M. Nelson has said: “There are those who label us [as] bigots, but the bigots are those who don’t allow us to feel as we feel but want us to allow them to feel as they feel. Our stand ultimately boils down to the law of chastity. The Ten Commandments are still valid. They’ve never been revoked. … It is not our prerogative to change laws that God has decreed” (in Dew, Insights from a Prophet’s Life, 212)
Neil L. Andersen, “The Eye of Faith,” Ensign (May 2019): 37, n. 17.
