COLUMN: Different but the same
In the past 19 years I have lived in San Ramon, Calif.; McKinney, Texas; Bedford, Texas; West Des Moines, Iowa; Aurora, Ill., St. George and finally, Logan.
With all of this moving around, I have been able to notice that the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been very different from city to city.
Although all of the members obviously belong to the same church, they each have a different viewpoint on the way they will follow and adhere to the standards. The Church of Jesus Christ has set forth. Some are stricter with their application of these standards, and some are extremely liberal in the way they handle the application of these standards. As for myself, my family has tended to lean a little to the liberal side while still maintaining our conservative lifestyle, which basically means that caffeine is my good friend and I also watch some R-rated movies (shame on me).
Without a doubt, Utah is the most conservative place I have ever lived in. From the second I came here, I had people saying things like “Oh my heck,” and “Caffeine is the devil,” to which I normally reply, “I don’t call your friends the devil so don’t call mine the devil.” Actually, the people of Utah aren’t that much different than those of California or Texas from what I have seen. (I know all of you who have lived in those places longer than me might argue that, but I honestly don’t care.)
All of the people in those areas tend to value the standards of The Church of Jesus Christ more than not. The differences among them tend to be subtle and few. For the most part, the differences are usually caffeine and movies. Texas and California are more lenient if you haven’t already figured that out.
For the most part, Aurora has been great at following the guidelines set forth by The Church of Jesus Christ, but also has not done such a hot job at combining that with keeping the youth entertained. All right, so maybe we aren’t supposed to entertain the youth, but at least they could turn off the lights at the dances and possibly play some music made after the ’80s and early ’90s. And do we really need someone walking around with The Book of Mormon checking the distance between dancing couples (because so many are getting jiggy instead of being wallflowers).
West Des Moines, Iowa, now there is an exciting town. Too bad The Church of Jesus Christ there is overrun by people who seem to be too liberal to even believe their own religion is true. Everything I experienced there seemed to be contradictory to what The Church of Jesus Christ stands for. People just criticized the way things are supposed to be done.
One father even criticized the scouting program and said it was inappropriate for The Church of Jesus Christ to be forcing this upon the young men. Yeah, I can see how a voluntary program designed to bring out the best in a young man can be a bad thing, especially if he earns the rank of Eagle. That could be detrimental to his future.
Now that I think about it, even New York City was more conservative than West Des Moines.
The one thing which remained constant, no matter where I lived, was the standards to which The Church of Jesus Christ held itself. The people within The Church of Jesus Christ are all different, so if you are investigating, do not be put off by the people.
Each person has different feelings on the way they choose to follow those standards and they should stay true to who they are even if it means they watch rated-R movies (heaven forbid).
Robert McKenzie is a freshman majoring in Journalism and Theater.
Comments can be sent to
Robthebruce@msn.com