Saddening News

I came across this article (AP article printed in Utah's Deseret News) that made me kind of sad, and opened the door for a bit of reflection:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700257923,00.html

It's a short story, but to save the click the upshot is that the front doors of the Mormon temple in Minnesota were burned by an arsonist. Fortunately, the building itself was not seriously damaged, but the sacred nature of the building makes it horrifying to imagine what would have happened had it burned down.

(photo from http://www.lds.org/temples/main/photo/0,11505,2020-1-105-0,00.html)

It made me think of a sad memory. For those of you who aren't Mormon, during high school I attended class every school day from 6:00-6:45 at my church. It's a program called Seminary where we spend one year each on the books of scripture the Mormon church considers canon (Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants). Outside of Utah and Idaho, it's held at the church building in one of the classrooms, and we usually would roll out of bed, throw on something presentable, cover our bedhead with some form of hat, maybe brush our teeth, and attend this class where dedicated teachers tried desperately (with more success than they probably appreciated) to teach us the gospel of Christ and the scriptures. On Fridays we'd have donuts or something similar. Good times.

One morning, we arrived to find our little classroom in shambles. The carpet was incinerated, there was smoke and soot stains on all of the walls, the room's lone window was broken, and in almost the direct center of the room was a small crater with the telltale broken glass of a liquor bottle around it that had been converted into a Molotov cocktail.

It was obviously quite a solemn experience to see the room in such a state. As I look back on it in light of the news in Minnesota, a few things strike me. I'm fairly certain that although the requisite Police report was filed in conjunction with the insurance claim, there was no report to any media. I don't imagine that it got much attention publicly, and the very private way in which we merely took our books from the closet of the damaged room into another room in the building without even an afterthought is apropos of how the Church handles theses situations generally--understated, low-key, very little response at all. I'm actually curious as to how the AP even caught wind of the story of the temple in Minnesota.

Part of what disturbed me a bit, and you'll forgive yet another rant, is that although the fire was characterized as arson, the police don't suspect that it was a hate crime. I wonder what it was characterized as, then. I hope I'm not being over-sensitive, but I can't help but think that the reason it's not being called a hate crime is because it is perfectly acceptable to treat the Mormon faith publicly in a way that it would completely unacceptable to treat most other religions.

The mainstream media commonly misrepresents the Mormon faith, commonly taking as authoritative the opinions and declarations of non-members, former members, or pure rumor as representative of the Church. If the media were to approach any other cultural, social, or ethnic group similarly I'm sure there would be at least some feedback if not outrage.

On some level, I appreciate that the Church takes the posture that it does. I'm not sure I want my Church to have a special interest group or a lobbying firm or a foundation dedicated to making a stink every time there is a misunderstanding or an error based on stereotype or what have you. But at the same time, you have to admit that there's a bit of injustice in that.

When it's all said and done, I don't think we quirky Mormons have that much to complain about. The Mormon faith has probably never been seen in a better light than it is right now. Mormons typically do well in business, don't face barriers to entry in the work force, have a good support system in place, and by no means suffer a lot of the indignities and prejudice that other cultural, social, or ethnic minorities face. We do face a lot of bigotry from within mainstream Christianity, but apart from being blown off or having our faith discounted out of hand by those whom we can easily write off as those who "know not what they do," we have it pretty lucky.

But still, it hurts to have one of your most sacred structures, a symbol of your faith and worship of God, be desecrated. I don't care what the police don't investigate. That temple is located in the middle of a middle class residential neighborhood. Whoever tried to set it on fire did it knowing what the structure stands for and for whom. And that's just sad.