Ban Mormon Weddings, stop bigotry

I saw this recently on a bumper sticker. As a Mormon, I was at first shocked, then I wanted to be offended, got over it and ended up really offended but not for the reason you might think. I have no problem being called all the names in the book. The fact that someone doesn't like you is not a reason to get offended. However, that bumper sticker showed outright hypocrisy. So whether or not I should be, I was offended.

First, you assume that all Mormon's are bigots. While being a Mormon is really a personal choice and not a genetic characteristic, it is still a minority lifestyle that people choose to lead. Like all groups, you have stereotypes. I don't know that as a people you can call Mormon's bigots in the stereotypical sense. I'm sure there are varying degrees of bigotry within the Mormon church and certainly some leaders in the past have said things that were not very nice. My view of the church is that they have worked hard to rid official church doctrine of bigoted idea and adopt more christlike attitudes of acceptance. Is there work to be done? Yes. Do people in the church still hold bigoted ideas? Yes. But not everyone. I think there is a large population in the church that are not bigoted. And even those that are, often do not have bigoted position that are related to church doctrine.

So what made me so mad at this bumper sticker? It implied that we needed to rid ourselves of a certain population to stop some idea or social characteristic. That in itself is the definition of bigotry. It is as though you said we need to get rid of all the gays. This person espouses the idea that in order to end bigotry, you need to get rid of Mormons through attrition. He or she wants to end bigotry by being a bigot themselves. It would not matter what social group you were talking about, Mormons, Catholics, Gays, Blacks, Asian, etc., if you hold hatred toward any social group you could be called a bigot.

That's why I was mad. Where does a bigot get off stating we should get rid of a certain group of bigots as though one bigot was better or more socially acceptable than another? You can disagree with a person or group all you want, but let's not be a hypocrite when it comes to defending you position with ad hominem attacks.