Here is the theme:
I am a liberal because of my religious beliefs, not in spite of it.
I heard these words from a fellow Democratic Mormon and I instantly fell in love with it. These words perfectly describe how I feel.
However, this is post 1 of....many. I hope people read them, but it's mostly for my own sanity. The way I deal with my thoughts and feelings is by writing. I also love having meaningful conversations so I will post this for others to read and, hopefully, reply.
This post is not specifically about why I am a liberal Mormon, but rather this post is asking a very important questions. I'll get to that a little later.
About Me
First, I want to introduce you to my background. That way you can understand how I gain and filter my information. Remember, this post is anecdotal and based solely on my personal experiences. I do not claim to be totally impartial or statistically correct, I only claim to have formed these opinions over time and with an open mind.
I grew up in the Bay Area (California) and worked in Oakland for a number of years for the SPCA. I also attended theater school in San Francisco and received a Bachelor's Degree in Theater and Performance Studies from UC Berkeley. I like to think of this degree as the "human behavior and analysis" degree, because that's really what it was all about.
On the opposite side of all that, I grew up in an active Mormon family (though it was only my immediate family that were members, my parents being converts) and am still very active. I am a temple recommend holder and have a deep testimony of Jesus Christ. I attended BYU-Idaho for two years before becoming extremely ill (I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease when I was eighteen, during my second semester at BYU-Idaho). I could not continue going to school after trying for four semesters and came home to recuperate and attend the local community college. I met Mike Stark during my second semester at community college and by the time I transferred to UC Berkeley we were married in the Oakland temple.
I tend to think that I have a unique view of the world because of all these diverse experiences. It's probably why I spend a large portion of time on Facebook and why I find it extremely edifying. My feed is filled with some of the most intellectual and compassionate people I've ever met....both from Berkeley and from BYU, from my church friends in California and Idaho, and from my work at the SPCA.
I see liberal and conservative views. Each day I see and read every single article my friends post. No, I'm not exaggerating. If I don't have time to read something in that moment, I save the article and go back each night and read a couple. I spend a lot of time discerning whether an article is worth sharing or should just be for Mike and I to discuss. I've read some extremely enlightening and interesting articles that I felt were a little too biased or snarky to share widely, though they brought up excellent points and were ultimately correct in their assessments and observations. If I didn't repost it, then I knew it wouldn't be received well by those on the other side (whether that be liberal or conservative) because of the strong bias or the slight condescending tone. Or because I simply knew the ones I wanted to read the article would not read it. And sometimes my passion gets the better of me and I end up posting a very snarky article...I'm not proud of that. But I'm human.
But yes. I read every single article my friends post and because of that I've learned SO much about many social and political issues.
There's still a lot I don't understand.
I am having a hard time wording my feelings because I don't want to alienate anyone or over-generalize.
In our church, we are urged often to be the light of the world. I have always interpreted this to mean a few different things.
- To be kind, compassionate, loving, and merciful to all people in my life. Easier said than done, of course, but it's the goal. I have a lot of snark in this little body and it often bursts out of me at inopportune moments...
- To find the positive, the silver-lining, or the lesson in all hardship. (I'll come back to this one)
- To let the light of Christ shine through us and to serve our fellow man.
And this is why I am deeply troubled.
As I stated above, I have many kinds of people in my life. Do you know when I felt the MOST acceptance, compassion, kindness, and love from people? When I attended UC Berkeley. Keep in mind I was the black sheep. I was married and Mormon. These two things were oddities all by themselves, but together they made me SUPER different from everyone else around me. But I had some of the best conversations, made some the best friends, met some of the most amazing people, and never once felt judged. I also made sure I didn't make anyone else around me feel judged and did my best to listen to each conversation. It was here I learned how to have productive and meaningful conversations about hard subjects with people of many different viewpoints. It's when I truly developed my political and social views.
Back to the present and my conundrum...
I have seen and read a lot about politics in the last 18 months. Never before has our country been so polarized in their views. Well, I've never seen it this bad during my 30 year life.
And here is what I have the biggest problem with...
How in the world can any Christian support our current administration?
I have gone back and forth with this question and cannot find an answer that is not rooted in these three factors:
- Fear
- Tradition
- False Positivity
I will address each one separately.
Fear
I have to admit that there is a great deal of fear on both sides right now. Maybe more if you are not a conservative, but that's just based on observation. I've heard that many conservatives were unhappy with the Obama years and I understand somewhat. We're never going to 100% agree with any politician because we're all individuals and we have the luxury of having all sorts of opinions without any real consequence. But I digress...
May people are supporting the current administration due to some kind of underlying fear. Sometimes it's based on immigration policy and the belief that bad things are happening in this country because of illegal immigrants. Please explain this to me. If you feel you have a good grasp on this subject, message me. I have not heard any real explanation as to why people feel we need to put our energy and money into finding and booting out people from our country. I've have easily been able to counter each argument posed to me and I find all of them very, very flawed.
Sometimes that fear is based on the "other" factor. You think this administration will keep us safe from terrorism, from the "other", from people with different beliefs, from people with different sexual identities, from people with different skin color, from people with criminal backgrounds, from people who are "unfairly" living off "the system", from people who want to regulate everything, etc, etc, etc.
Perhaps you fear that those asking for equality are asking for entitlement? Or maybe you misunderstand was equality means to those fighting for it? Maybe you are afraid that if that equality is gained it will negatively effect your life in some way?
If that's the case, I would ask you to look at the facts about each of those things you fear and see that "liberal" policy has actually helped the most in those circumstances- or perhaps your fear is unfounded. Try to understand why you feel this way and try to see if it's rooted in logic or, well, irrationality. I can't go into all of them or this post will be a million times longer than it already is (and it's already a novel). But feel free to comment or message me.
False Positivity
This is the part where I address the "finding the positive, the silver-lining, or the lesson in all hardship" portion of being the light of the world. There is such a thing as BLIND positivity, or false positivity. And that's not what we need to have right now. There's a difference between being positive and being blind. I can be positive AND realistic AND angry AND fight for what's right.
The sentiment I've seen over and over is this: It doesn't matter if you voted for someone else, our president is our president, and we must accept that. That's the mindset right now among conservatives and some moderates. Acceptance. The "roll over" mentality. But why? Because he claims to be a member of the party you prefer or because what's done is done? How does this relate to false positivity?
Well, in the behavior world, there's something called Learned Helplessness and I think the whole country is feeling this right now, but more acutely the Republicans are feeling it and continue to pretend all is well. What is Learned Helplessness?
Learned Helplessness
A condition in which a person suffers from a sense of powerlessness, arising from a traumatic event or persistent failure to succeed. It is thought to be one of the underlying causes of depression.
The Misconception: If you are in a bad situation, you will do whatever you can do to escape it.The Truth: If you feel like you aren’t in control of your destiny, you will give up and accept whatever situation you are in.
I am sick of hearing "give him a chance" or "it'll be okay" or "we've had bad presidents before and the world didn't implode, it'll work out."
This is learned helplessness because we've been abused, kicked, lied to over and over, listened to terrible things, seen horrific things, and accepted it as being okay because we feel as if we have no other choice. He's our president. Let's blindly support him now.
But you know what? It's okay to say no. Millions of people worldwide said no the day after the inauguration. Millions of people are still saying no, loudly and vehemently. We do not need to just roll over and accept whatever the White House chooses to do.
Our nation was built on revolt. It was created because of oppression. Each time we are oppressed, our nation fights back. Our leaders came forward even though they were terrified of being hanged for treason because enough was ENOUGH. These days a revolution is a lot less bloody, but it's far more vocal. The republican party does not have to accept what's happening. You deserve better! We all deserve better! I urge you to familiarize yourself with past presidents and their speeches, actions in office, and policies and then compare them to what's happening now.
Recognize that this is NOT okay. This is not normal and that the patriotic thing to do is to fight back through protest and by electing officials that will stand up for the people- not for money, not for themselves, not for power...but for the people they represent.
Push away that false positivity and wake up. The world need you.
Tradition
The worst of these is tradition because it shows absolutely no independent thought.
It's passive. It's indifferent. It's extremely dangerous. The mindset of "I always vote republican" is inherently dangerous- same if you're a democrat or any other party and only blindly vote for that party. Though I label myself as a liberal (moderate liberal), I have voted Republican before and I will again if the candidate is worth supporting. I hope to find the same rational thinking from everyone regardless of party. If the choice is between two candidates of different parties, I hope we look at both candidates with open minds and vote for the person we believe will be the best civil servant.
I also hope we can all be more than a one-issue voter.
And I hope that we take character into account. It DOES matter and it has everything to do with running a country. I've heard so many people justify our current president's behavior over and over again.
If he was unstable during his campaign (there isn't a better word for his behavior. He's mentally unstable people.) then he will be unstable as president. People seem to think that he will have a large cabinet around him all the time to buffer his irrationality, or that he will be controllable for some reason. Was he controllable during his campaign? Did he say terrible and horrendous things about our fellow human beings? Did he make hate, anger, prejudice, and racism explode at his rallies- an encourage it? What kind of people tend to follow him? Do they seem to have love and compassion in their hearts?
Are you wondering "well, Laurel, do you know if they have love or compassion in their hearts? You don't know them. Don't be so judgemental."
Okay. That's fair. I'm basing these conclusions on things like this:
And yes, I would say (I hope) these are extreme examples. But they are SO EASY to find in large numbers. You can hear this constantly from those that support our current president. Does that trouble you? It should make you very disturbed and scared. Because extreme vetting? What have we become? If our leader has the support of extreme organizations like the KKK and alt-right people then something is terribly, horribly WRONG.
I'm not going to sit here and debate specific policies, I will most likely make a separate post about those things, but this is about one simple thing - general support.
If you were one who said "Give him a chance, let's wait and see what he does."
Well, it's only been eight days. Read these articles:
What Trump Has Done SO FAR
Wednesday Was the Worst Day Yet
Understanding Trump's Executive Orders
To me, these are all terrifying things. Just the pipelines are terrifying to me...but the gag order? The immigration halts? Defunding many, many, many amazing programs that won't do anything to help the national debt? REALLY?
Let's not even mention his constant stream of unpresidential, childish, and threatening tweets.
Please, enlighten me, how can ANY Christian support him?
He was not called by God. He does not have God on his side because he was elected. If you believe that then do you believe that of all world leaders? What about the actual tyrants in history? How could they have rose to power? Wickedness exists and can rise up their own leaders. Use the power of discernment to see this horrible man for who he truly is, not one called of God. We only have one of those people in the world and he's not the US President.
Keep speaking up! I hear you, value your words, and appreciate you fighting for justice and equality! Until all of us are free, none of us are truly free. ~Bird
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