I took a walk tonight through the streets of Provo. All of my roommates are gone for the holiday which is a nice thing because it prompts me to get out of the stale air of my apartment and into the night. As I was walking I noticed some thoughtful anarchist literature lovingly attached to some of the alleyways of this town. It is somehow reassuring to know that there are such people here in this Mormon mecca. However, I can't help but feel the animosity that these individuals have for the Mormon church as a whole. In some ways, that worries me.
People get so fed up with the Mormon church as a whole because they have a bad encounter with a careless member of the sect. That isn't fair. Many people instantly become very guilty of the intolerance and profiling that they accuse these Mormons of.
It seems to me as if we are much too busy worrying about the labels that we give to each other and ourselves. Those who put up those posters call themselves anarchists. They call Mormons bigots and Republicans and homophobes. What is it all about
really? I feel as if we get so caught up in our labels that we push any common ground so far out of our view that with it goes any desire or possibility to cultivate understanding and get along. People are so eager to find their little niche with a sign on the outside that proudly displays what they consider themselves to be. They poke their heads out to find those in similar niches around them so that they can get together and murmur and complain and caress each other's peace of mind. To what end?
Anarchists are so hellbent on change that they have accepted violence as a means to the end. They believe that there is no way to reach these individuals so the only solution is a tactfully placed molotov cocktail, machete in hand standing atop a mountain of costly adorned corpses. Even if they do not mean it literally, they mean it symbolically. It has stopped being a matter of conversion and education and it has become a matter of subversion and mutilation.
As a people, we will be much happier if we seek to understand the common ground that we walk on and then agree to disagree on the other things. At risk of being labeled a hippie, I will say that we need to cultivate more peace and love through service to Mankind and less dissonance and disunity through labeling. You may be a Mormon but you are a human being first. You may be an anarchist but you are a human being first. Even as a devout Mormon, I find that in some instances I have more in common with any given anarchist than I do with any given Mormon bishop. Does that make me any less of a faithful disciple of Christ or member of my faith? No. It means that I am a human being and love certain qualities about both the Mormon and the anarchist because it is a matter of humanity.
I have my standards. I follow certain laws, not because I am blindly shackled to them by fear of breaking tradition. It was a long time ago that my beliefs stopped being a matter of tradition and became a matter of conversion. I really believe these things. I follow the Prophet. I study the Word. And even amongst this, I find such refreshing truth in these anarchist publications. These people live so free and beautifully, with lives unburdened by the cares of over stimulus and medications and bank accounts and processed foods. They seek simplicity in life -- the same simplicity that Thoreau taught -- the same simplicity that a modern day Mormon Apostle echoed just last October.
Let's be less desirous to find safety in labels. Let's scare ourselves by throwing our labels to the wind and seeking Truth wherever it may be found. Let's love individuals. Let's stop finding each other burdensome or annoying or less-than or greater-than and start finding each other interesting at least and fascinating at best. Our lives will be enriched. We will make friends and learn Truth that we would have otherwise gone our whole lives without discovering.
