I am a bigot. Supposedly. So what?
I wrote a post a few weeks ago decrying the anti-Mormon comments on another diary. I tried to state my views as respectfully as I could on the subject. The subject of course is the highly emotionally charged Proposition 8 in California. I am a Mormon and my personal views on the issue are fairly conflicted. As I stated my views, I was deluged with about 450 comments, most of them strongly negative toward me. I ended up deleting the post, highly disappointed at how often I was called a bigot.
My diary today is simply a reminder that we ought to be careful about throwing politically charged words around at whoever disagrees with us. This is what Republicans have been doing for decades. They are masters of it. Just look at Sarah Palin these days. Look at how easy it is for her to go around throwing the socialist, communist label without even knowing what they really mean. Now, I don't say that those who call me a bigot for my views don't understand the definition or even the political meanings of the word, but those who have done this, and those who are still using it are forgetting that if you get to a point where you simply name call people, you are showing that you cannot handle the debate and lower yourself to name calling. Put simply, so what if I am a bigot? Does it really matter? Is it really going to change my opinion if you throw that label at me? It ends up being children playing castle in the backyard, putting up walls to protect against a wad of mud thrown at him. It changes nothing, but divides further.
Now, the Merriam Webster Online Dictionary defines bigot as such:
a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices ; especially : one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance
the Free Dictionary has a shorter definition with less loaded words:
One who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.
In either case, it is a very charged word, and a very strong label to throw at someone. In that previous post of mine which I deleted (but apparently didn't fully remove from Daily Kos), the word bigot appears 57 times. Once in my title, once as a tag, and then 55 times in comments. What is the point? Let's take the very first comment.
Congrats, you're a bigot.
That was in response to the one comment that everyone got hung up on in my piece:
I personally don't like someone who has homosexual tendencies claiming that he or she is somehow normal.
The point is, so what if I believe that. How does calling me a bigot change my view or stance? It doesn't. What it does do is disappoint me in the community that I may feel a part of in regards to other aspects of the Democratic leaning ideologies. I don't believe homosexuality is normal. Whether I believe that or not does not change the fact that I could still vote for homosexuals to have a right to marriage.
I go back to the main point I was trying to make in my previous diary. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has a set of standards and beliefs, as well as most of its members. It matters not if they truly are bigots or not. Throwing a bigotry label at Mormons only pushes Mormons who might otherwise tend toward liberal philosophies away from you. Now many of you would say, "Halleluiah!" But just remember an important lesson from the implosion of the Republican party. Why have they imploded? Because they pushed people away who were not "pure" enough when the Republican party was at its peak, or even on the way up. Who can be a Republican these days? Apparently not Christopher Buckley. Apparently not Andrew Sullivan. These guys are thrown under the bus because they don't agree with the pack.
This gay marriage issue is a wedge issue meant specifically to divide people and groups. If people keep throwing the bigot label around, Republicans would have succeeded. Don't let them win. Don't push people away because they disagree with you on an issue. It's not healthy. We see that with the destruction of the Republican party right before our eyes. The Democratic party is on the rise right now. Let's learn the right lesson from the collapse of the Republican party. Let people disagree in a healthy and respectful manner.