There’s something that’s been bugging me. I’ve been hesitant to blog about it because I want to think I don’t care. But I do.
So, I’ve written before about whether or not I’m an ‘active’ Mormon. Over time I’m certainly becoming less insistent on calling myself active. I don’t think of myself or label myself in that way anymore, really. Am I active in Mormon studies, in thinking about Mormon issues? Yes. Am I active in the LDS church? No.
But what really bugs me are these people in the bloggernacle (the Mormon blogosphere) who, whenever I write something, make these comments about how I’m not Mormon anymore. That’s just not true. My name is still on the church rolls, and I still have a Home and a Visiting Teacher.
I don’t know why it bothers me that they do this. I guess it’s because I’m all about getting to define myself the way that I want to. It’s like this discussion I had with some Friends on Sunday–one is a Hindu Quaker. She was asking me why I can’t be both Mormon and Quaker. I was trying to explain to her how hard that is–that there are all kinds of ways that Mormon-ness is ‘policed.’ Yet the more I thought about it, I realized that if these same people in the Bloggernacle were, say, assigned to home teach an ‘inactive’ or less active Mormon, I doubt they would show up on their doorstep and say, “Hey, you’re not Mormon anymore” or any such thing. So why is it that people will say this to me online? And why do total strangers care so much about my church membership anyways? How is it that they can know how ‘Mormon’ I am without even asking me personally (or w/o speaking to my bishop)?
The Church counts its membership in terms of how many people are listed in the records. I’m still there. I’m still being counted. And that’s important to me.
And I’m also on the roster of my Quaker Meeting. And that’s important to me, too.
