Sunday, April 8, 2012

Quote Unquote

An interesting article on Mormon history is found here, and I encourage you to read it.

From my great-great-great grandfather's history about having a family member arrested, imprisoned, and released for polygamy in the 1800s:
"May 18th 1888 I was arrested at Ogden on the charge of Cohabitation with my wife.  The grand jury at Provo brough in an inditment against me Sept. 22nd and on Oct. 9th I pled Not Guilty but the questions put to the witnesses and the abuse they were put to induced me to change my plea to one of guilty, which I did on the 19th of October, and I received my sentence on the 27th to go to the Utah State Penetentiary for 75 days and pay the cost of the court which was $43.80.  I served out my term in the pen and my experience there was not all unpleasant, for I formed many aquaintences and renewed old friendship with others, for there was about150 of our breathern there, and Brother G.Q. Cannon amongst the rest, and he was so good to me, God bless him.  I shall never forget his many Acts of Kindness both to me and to others, I left the pen. On the 9 January 1889 and my family and Friends was indeed pleased to see me home again.  The Saints of Santaquin Ward, made two feast to welcome me home, and the Sunday School Children and teachers Came to the Depot with Songs to meet me, and even Strangers on the train wept, as they felt the Spirit of welcome given me by the children, more love and respect could not be shown to me than was Manifested by all the people of the town, and in the midst of all the joy and gladness..."


Unfortunately, this type of harassment is not limited to the 1800s.  My brother, who has a PhD in engineering from the #3 school in the US, was at a college for a job interview to be a professor there.  The professors asked all sorts of questions, but most of the time they focused on minutiae of Mormon doctrine.  Apparently, they saw the religion classes at BYU and started asking questions about it, most of which were biting and sarcastic.  Why they were dumb enough to do that (it was only a second-tier school with a mediocre reputation), is beyond me because it is plainly illegal to ask about one's religion in a job interview.


I really don't care about the presidential race and want to hear no more about it, but I hope that Romney's chances aren't hurt by his religion.  The Canadians, our friendly neighbors to the north, are confused by why it's an issue.  So, why is it an issue?

2 comments:

Marci said...

I think those that are only voting for Romney because of his religion are just as ignorant as those who won't vote for Romney because of his religion. I may have mentioned this to a group of women at a playgroup and got my head bit off... BUT when asking them questions about his platform, they had no clue--but they are his biggest fans.

Chad Can Plan said...

Good point. I have to admit, I am tempted to vote for him because he is Mormon even though I agree much more with Barack Obama.
And I can imagine your playgroup could play rougher than the kids!