I am bugged this morning... and I need support on this one guys. So it is time for me to voice my hurt on something that was said by another, very ignorant, diaryland member.

First off, I don't know how many of you know (If you have been reading my diary for long now you should...)

But I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, more commonly referred to as a Mormon.

Lets clarify some of the stereotypes right now...

1) No, I am not a polygamist(not even sure how to spell it) and neither was my family, or my parents family, or my parents parents families... you get the point. That is another church that used to like to call themselves the Reorganized Mormons... they have recently changed their names which helps clear up a little confusion...

2) Yes we believe in Jesus, our church is based on Christ (hence the name)

3) No it isn't a cult.

4) Yeah, we are allowed to dance and listen to music etc. (I don't know where this one came from... ummmm, I used to GO to dances... AT my church)

There now that we got that out of the way...

I would be happy to answer any more questions from anyone... just drop me an email.

The reason I am bringing this up is because someone left an extrememly ignorant entry in one of my friends guestbook... this is it to be exact:

"it's refreshing to know that mormons are as incredibly stupid as my inbuilt prejudice suggested. thanks.

from ed"

of course there was no URL or email address, the culprit just insulted and left. How cowardly isn't it!

And this really bugs me... so I left a not so nice message back and of course, even though they supposedly think my friend is "incredibly stupid" they still go back to check the diary and leave another insulting message, this time listing their name as "from some random girl being voyeuristic with the strange Mormon religion"- obviously the same person...

How is this kind of thing still tolerated? I mean, we live in the year 2002 PEOPLE! Not 1943...

So someone hates mormons because they don't smoke or drink or have sex before they are married??? (The sex thing was referred to in Mr Ed's/ Ignorant females second message)Ummmmm...there are a lot of people who choose not to do these things and they are NOT Mormon...Does this person think they are stupid too?

Does this person also hate Muslims and Jews and Catholics then? Because the last time I heard, the Catholic church taught that sex before marriage is wrong... Now don't get me wrong, I am not ragging on anyone. There are people of all religions who follow wholeheartedly and some who don't (even MORMONS), What you choose to do with your life is your business and if it makes you happy, then I am happy for you. I am directing this more towards that one individual who feels that because of our beliefs... we are stupid.

You can go back up to that comment and subsitute the word "Mormon" for the word Jew, Muslim, Born Again Christian, Baptist, Catholic, Hindu... go ahead, do it... does it sound more offending? Kind of makes you think...

I don't stereotype anyone as stupid for their beliefs, or for their lack of. On the contrary, I think it has made me much more accepting and loving of people of all different lifestyles. I have friends who are Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and Atheist, you name it. I grew up in an extremely diverse city and religion NEVER, EVER played a part in how I thought of someone or how much I loved them (and I KNOW it never played a role in their intelligence) My religion, although it is a big part of my life, is not ME. I am an individual and I think my friends can attest to the fact that I am not stupid.

It is just sad to me that people still have to endure such ignorance. Yeah, I am not a genius, I make spelling mistakes (as this person liked to point out), that I don't always bother to correct, but I am FAR from stupid...

In fact... if I am not, then out of the two of us (me and the offender) who is???

Sorry couldn't resist that one!

A fellow diarylander (Mal)who shares the same religion came across the same problem this (click) is what she had to say about it, I recommend you read it, she puts it so much better than I ever could and gets a lot less tempered!

Thanks for listening all. And thanks for being my friend even though I am a "stupid" Mormon and proud of it!

Liz

*Later Note: Funny how I found out who it was, after reading Mal's guestbook in which she apologized! Mind you, of course only Mal is excluded from the "stupid" category that the rest of us "Mormons" are stuck in!"

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