I Should Be Used to It

But why do people hate Mormons so much? Not everyone, of course. Most people seem to at least think we're okay people, even if they think what we believe is a little strange. But there are those people out there who just genuinely hate us and say terrible things about us and believe all kinds of crazy things about us that simply are not true.

I've been getting this my whole life. Seriously. In elementary school, which is really about as far back as I can remember, I had a kid trying to convince me that all Mormon churches had statues of Joseph Smith in them and we all prayed to him and worshiped him. I tried to tell him that wasn't true, but he insisted it was -- never mind that I'd been going to an LDS church since birth and he'd never set foot inside one. He obviously knew more about all this than I did.

I know that these hateful people have pretty much zero impact on the church and absolutely zero impact on the truth or the fact that it will continue to roll forward. Brigham Young said that every time someone kicks the church, they kick it upstairs. So nothing to worry about, right?

And I'm not worried. I just feel sad that people feel that way. I feel sad that people who don't even know me hate me. And it's just frustrating and irritating (and very against my nature) to let other people have their say and not say anything in return. But I know it does no good to engage these people, so I just bite my tongue.

Sometimes I get tired of biting my tongue.

Maybe I should stock up on duct tape.