There is actually something I have trouble understanding about Mormonism in general. Mormons believe that they are born chosen by God, so how can they convert people to Mormonism? Jews believe this also, and hence they do not try to convert people. In fact, there is a complex process one must go through in order to become a Jew.
Hmmm, that is interesting. Wonder why?
We were talking about how trying to convert by words isn't as bad as converting by the sword and it's not, but it can be insidious and lead to problems.
Sometimes people can become fanatical but they don't seem so, and thus, begin to lead people from the rear.
It's almost a passive-aggressive thing. If you read my thread in Current Events about "Oklahoma really sucks this week" you will read about a bill put forth by religious fundamentalists that want children who are raised with fundamentalist beliefs to basically answer questions wrong on a school test - if the questions conflict with their beliefs - and still get graded satisfactorily. They will argue that this is only for the devout, yet what they are doing is trying to force the school system to accept their beliefs over everyone elses as grade-worthy in an accredited school. It's not like they're
forcing anyone to do this... but they're trying to make their religion exceptional over everyone else's.
At my job today, a manager walked by, saw a memo I had pinned up and asked to make a copy. This is an internal memo reminding us of who we can - legally - and cannot release information to. The memo is titled "Thou Shalts".
When the manager came back to give me back my copy, he made mention that while training, he actually had an new employee refuse to read the memo because
"It's making fun of the 10 commandments and it's blasphemy!"
As if the King James version of the bible has a copyright on the words 'thou shalt'.
He also made mention of sitting down with a new employee and handing her the training manual for her client and saying "Now I want you to use this as your bible..."
She immediately shook her head, "No sir, uh-uh, no, I can't use that as
my bible, I
have a bible, it's the Word of God..."
These people are not aggressive, not ugly, they are very nice people. But the limitations they put on themselves require that the rest of us make exceptions for them in public spheres when
they are the ones who should be making allowances for the rest of us since they are in the minority.
Leading from behind. It's insidious and dangerous because their actions do appear so innocuous.