I mean, wearing missionary outfits to a basketball game and then chanting “you’re still Mormon!” at the BYU fans. Really, really funny. Those guys definitely should be in the Conan/Leno sweepstakes.
But on a less sarcastic note, it is worth noting that my alma mater Stanford was forced to apologize when our “marching” band made fun of Notre Dame in ways that had anti-Catholic overtones. Err, make that forced to apologize more than once. In 1991, the band had a drum major dressed up like a nun, which enraged Catholics. And then of course in 2004, the band linked Mormons with polygamy when Stanford played BYU.
Anyway, I think we should agree that making fun of somebody’s religion should be off-limits. This doesn’t just apply to Mormons but to Catholic, Baptists, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, etc.
“Therefore I am content with weaknesses, with insults, with troubles, with persecutions and difficulties for the sake of Christ, for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” — 2 Corinthians 12:10 (NET)
I consider it a badge of honor to be ridiculed by idiots who know little of religion, and even less of our religion.
I read the linked-article, and I agree with its author that it wasn’t the costumes that was offensive. We put forth the missionary dress code as a _good thing_, so why get offended if non-LDS want to dress up as Mormon missionaries? After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Can someone fill me in on why “You’re still Mormon” would be considered offensive? I don’t get it. Even as a retort to BYU fans chanting “BYU Cougars!”, my response is: “So?”
The only thing I read in the article that was offensive on the part of the SDSU fans was the hand gestures.
Mike, you are of course right. But I still would like to encourage civility.
Book, I think their point was that being Mormon is so bad that even pointing it out is enough of an insult to make us cringe and crawl in our shells. As I said, hilarious.
Behavior such as what you described should be off limits, but chalk it up to immaturity and an alcohol fueled attempt at comedy. I like Bookslingers response “So?!!!” (not your post, just in response to the morons).
My kids get teased a bit about being Mormon from some of their friends. They just act nonchalant about it, similar to Bookslingers response, and the teasing soon goes away.
One time a woman in my ward came to the ward Halloween party dressed as a pregnant nun. I was super offended, and I’m not even Catholic! I couldn’t believe how tasteless it was!
Ginger, I agree, incredibly tasteless.
As a Mormon who attended the BYU-Stanford game a few years ago and saw the band perform in person, I have to say: It.Was.Hilarious. And it fit right along with the political climate at the time. Sometimes we just have to get over ourselves and admit that we look ridiculous sometimes and that we do goofy things other times. Why get offended about historical facts – or, even worse, stereotypes based on historical facts?
CaliforniaMormon, I get your point of view. I try to have a good sense of humor, and the truth is, I DO think some of the Band’s antics have been funny. But religion is just too personal — I think people really need to be careful about that because it’s a slippery slope from “making fun” to persecution. How would you feel if the Band made jokes about Jews or Muslims? Probably not so hot.
While I agree it is inappropriate for me to make fun of other religions, I think we can be too sensitive sometimes. I am reminded of the first time I went to General Conference with my roommate from Idaho. She couldn’t get over the protesters and spent most of the time angry that anyone could insult her religion. Having grown up in California I was more than used to being mocked for my religion, and spent most of the time being awed by the sheer amount of people and beauty and spiritual outpouring that is general conference. Most of the time I think the best thing to do is to shrug it off, because getting angry just makes you miserable and often eggs on whoever is doing the mocking.
I think the wearing suits and ties is funny, I guess I don’t get the joke. Even after reading Geoff’s comment, I still don’t understand how anyone would be offended by “You’re still Mormon”?
I think Brad Rock ran out of ideas for his column. Really, two pages on this?
We Mormons suffer from a persecution complex. While chanting “You’re still Mormon” comes close to the off-limits line, the missionary costumes are downright hilarious. We should lighten up a bit.
It’s especially painful to me (not saying it’s happening here) when super-sensitive Mormons get upset when Jesse Jackson (or another public African-American figure), makes charges that something or some statement was “racist.”
Move back east. Nobody cares.
These posts always end up the same, with a lot of commenters saying, “ah, lighten up, we Mormons are too sensitive, where’s your sense of humor, etc.” You’re certainly entitled to your opinions, but again I’m pretty sure people would be shocked if the behavior was directed at Jews or Muslims. We Mormons are so afraid of being offensive that we bend over backwards to allow people to make fun of us.
Okay Geoff. You are right we all are missing the point of your post; which is if it was anybody else, objections would have been made by us and others not of our faith. Westerners suffer collective guilt over the Holocaust and so Jews are off limits; and lets face it, we are all kinda scared of some Muslims, so they are off limits too. It is ok to made fun of Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses. We need to be like the Catholics and just shrug and shoulders and just say “so?”
I will be starting up the Bloggernacle chapter of the Mormon Anti-Defamation League. My first target is Mike Huckabee.
Geoff, having grown up around Jews, I think Jews have more of a sense of humor than you give credit for. Maybe the ADL and B’nai B’rith are a bit overly sensitive, but the averge Jew is rather self-deprecating in their humor. And even Irish tell jokes like “whiskey is God’s way of keeping the Irish from ruling the world.”
Although I do agree with your point in that it’s fair and logical to ask if the humor would be acceptable if you substituted another religion as the object of the mockery.
You need to watch “Baptists at our Barbecue” for some good religious humor.
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Is linking Mormons with polygamy or polygamy jokes in general really offensive given that it is no longer a practice of our religion?
I would have just screamed back, “Why are you all dressed like accountants???”
DW
Let’s stop taking offense at everything. Let’s just shrug our shoulders instead and go on with our lives. Their actions and attitudes speak for themselves. Rational, adjusted people will see that on their own without Mormons raising the cry of “hey, that’s offensive!” I for one am tired of hearing people say “that’s offensive”, whether it’s Mormons saying it too often at every little thing or someone else saying it. We should all take Elder Bednar’s counsel to heart in which he advised that it is our own choice to take offense at something. I hope that we can be self-confident enough in our faith and identity that the sneers and insults of such hooligans are literally irrelevant and, although annoying, no cause at all for Mormons to acknowledge or give response.
Good one David. John F, I find your comment offensive. 🙂
Geoff B,
I’m glad you made the Catholic comparison because I think it is apt. (Many people jump to the Jewish comparison but because of that ethnicity/religion mix Judaism is a bit of a different case).
There was a lot of discussion about this subject over at the BYU sports message boards. One good point that was made is that there is nothing sacred about the missionary get-up. It is basically 60’s business dress. On top of that, there is nothing particularly awful about saying “You’re still Mormons”. Obnoxious sure, but not much else.
So with those two specific instances I think we are best served to let non-Mormons get offended on our behalf with borderline cases like this. We don’t do the church any favors when we come off as thin skinned and huffy as a people.
Not to say we should never cry foul of course. Other cases are more worthy of objecting like when football fans in Tucson started chanting “F… the Mormons”. That is so clearly over the line no one in their right mind would think we were being huffy to object to that sort of crass religious bigotry.
This girl (Selena) is NOT a movie star…her last film Beezus and something-or-other barely made its production costs back.Her singing sucks, at least when she tries to sing live. She would do well to stick to Disney kiddie tv shows and milk that as long as she can.