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Non-Mormon Editorial Writer Discusses 'Trash Talk' About Mormons
OGDEN, UTAH -- A guest editorial in the Billings Gazette has
challenged the trash talking that some people do about Mormons.
Barbara Schuster, a writer from Ogden, Utah tells how she constantly
runs into people who want to harangue the Mormon religion.
Once people hear she's from Utah, Schuster says they invariably ask
her if she is a Mormon. "Once I answer, 'No,' they want to talk trash
about the Mormons," she reports. Most of the time, Schuster and her
husband stop the trash talking by smiling and replying, "No, we're
not Mormon. But most of our neighbors are. What nice people!" But
some people won't stop, she says.
Schuster writes about a co-worker who was afraid the Mormons would
shun his family if they moved to Utah and a woman she met on an
airplane who said Mormons were "scary."
The peculiarity of polygamy a hundred and fifty years ago may have
justified some fear and anger from outsiders, while the Mormons'
peculiar customs of forgoing coffee and alcohol and trying to remain
chaste until marriage are now considered strange. But answers are
sorely lacking as to why it's acceptable to talk about Mormons this
way, Schuster concludes.
Source:
Guest Opinion: It can be tough to halt 'trash talk' against Mormons
Billings MT Gazette 5Jan02 ON1
By Barbara Schuster: Utah Writer
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