A Brief Rumination on Religion and Attitudes
So the LDS church released a video this week about their temple garments, ie the "magic underwear" that popular culture has a weird fixation about. I've seen a fair few links to it in social media but haven't watched it because I have this peculiar secondhand embarrassment about it, because, you know, a church is literally showing its underwear to get people to STFU, but people are still obsessed about it.
See, I'm a nice neopagan girl, and my best friend is Mormon. So of course we periodically have discussions about faith and such, plus events and the like (eg, Todd got up at 4:30am once to greet the dawn with me at a Summer Solstice a few years ago; I went to his son's baptism two years ago). I grew up in the South, where the--the only word for it is "fear" I suppose--the fears of Mormons are laughable, but it was something that was invisible to me until I was friends with one and got to witness some of the ridiculousness first hand. Like, I've observed people say things about Todd out of his earshot, and I've had friends and family of mine anxiously inquire whether he was "one of the good ones" or to be careful lest I get "seduced" into the Church and various other lolworthy comments. And on the flipside, I've also heard a fair bit of speculation about sexual practices and suchlike that have basically ended with me going "Oh my God, don't you get that Todd and Jen are my FRIENDS and asking me what I think they do in private is REALLY FREAKING INAPPROPRIATE?!"
And just--on the one hand I understand sexual speculation because "exotic culture," on the other hand, it's kind of creepy and gross? And, I mean, being a nice pagan girl means that sometimes we do rituals skyclad (in the nude) and there's no cultural obsession about that, and so I feel annoyed that I get a free pass/privilege that my friends are denied.
Anyways, that's me being annoyed by tacky people, so.
See, I'm a nice neopagan girl, and my best friend is Mormon. So of course we periodically have discussions about faith and such, plus events and the like (eg, Todd got up at 4:30am once to greet the dawn with me at a Summer Solstice a few years ago; I went to his son's baptism two years ago). I grew up in the South, where the--the only word for it is "fear" I suppose--the fears of Mormons are laughable, but it was something that was invisible to me until I was friends with one and got to witness some of the ridiculousness first hand. Like, I've observed people say things about Todd out of his earshot, and I've had friends and family of mine anxiously inquire whether he was "one of the good ones" or to be careful lest I get "seduced" into the Church and various other lolworthy comments. And on the flipside, I've also heard a fair bit of speculation about sexual practices and suchlike that have basically ended with me going "Oh my God, don't you get that Todd and Jen are my FRIENDS and asking me what I think they do in private is REALLY FREAKING INAPPROPRIATE?!"
And just--on the one hand I understand sexual speculation because "exotic culture," on the other hand, it's kind of creepy and gross? And, I mean, being a nice pagan girl means that sometimes we do rituals skyclad (in the nude) and there's no cultural obsession about that, and so I feel annoyed that I get a free pass/privilege that my friends are denied.
Anyways, that's me being annoyed by tacky people, so.