Draw the circle,
Draw the circle wide.
Let this be our song,
No one stands alone,
We’ll stand side by side.
Draw the circle,
Draw the circle wide.
Draw the circle wide,
Draw it wider still.
–Christian Hymn
As the Republican Primary race heats up, Mormons are once again faced with the reality that despite believing our salvation comes only through Jesus Christ, the circle has been drawn by the Christian community without us in it.
Living in the South, I deal with this issue every time I sign my children up for anything from preschool to basketball and have to look to see if the sponsoring church requires a Statement of Faith to be signed, and if so, whether I can in good conscience sign it. It turns out that for the Christian community, you have to do more than just believe in Jesus to be a Christian. There are issues with the Godhead and the infallibility/finality of the Bible that Mormons just don’t match up on.
It is hard to be outside their circle, especially when we see such common ground. Yet, clearly we are. As Slate reports today, “national polls taken in recent months show how far anti-black prejudice has subsided compared to anti-Mormon prejudice. In a Gallup survey, 5 percent of adults said they wouldn’t vote for their party’s presidential nominee if he were black….But 22 percent said they wouldn’t vote for a Mormon.” In a Poll Position survey, the number is 32%. Slate also reports that while other biases (against women, blacks, Jews, Catholics, etc) tend to be tapering down to the single digits, the anti-Mormon sentiment remains constant. And the number of Democrats with this bias is higher than Republicans.
Ouch. It hurts to think we can do so much good as a church, yet be looked upon so badly. It’s painful to know we have so much in common — not just a belief in Jesus Christ, but in being good parents, raising moral children and offering service to our communities, yet the circle is still drawn too narrow. Slate concludes with an admonition for my liberal friends:
“The lesson in these numbers is that we should focus our scrutiny not where we all agree, but where we don’t. What happened to that rock at Perry’s hunting camp-once proudly displayed, then painted over, and now universally condemned-tells a timeless story about bigotry: You’ll know it when you see it, but you won’t see it till you know that’s what it is.”
As a Mormon, I hope we follow.
You see “Draw the Circle Wide” was a hymn I sang at an intown Methodist church just before the Pride parade on Sunday. I stood forming a circle and holding hands with my gay brothers and sisters, those who share my family values and my belief in Christ, yet have been excluded from my Mormon circle. I celebrated those who wish to use the term “married” to describe their love, but find despite the common ground, the circle has been drawn too narrow to let them.
As a Mormon, I hope we can see past our own blindspots to bigotry. Want to know what else we share besides loving our families and wanting to be happy? Guess which group Slate notes polled even worse than Mormons . . . we share that too. Looks like we all have some circle widening to do.
Mel, I love this so much it hurts. Thank you for this inspiration today. Such a good reminder to us all. As we’re drawing our circles, who are we including and who are we excluding?
Amen! So, so well said.
Thanks for this wonderful helpful article. This is the correct way to react to prejudice to ensure that we are not guilty ourselves.
This is great thanks for posting it :) god bless you and your family…
My first reaction, and I believe most Mormon’s first reaction, is to question what it is that non-Mormons don’t understand about Mormons that is causing this. I realize though that this is putting the responsibility on the non-Mormons, if “they” just understood “us” then everything would be okay. That seems to be the approach of the recent campaign by the church. I question though if the responsibility isn’t squarely in the lap of Mormons for always fostering an attitude of being different, only being friends with other Mormons, taking pride in being a “peculiar” people, we even emphasized the differences in our doctrine. We made our bed and now we have to sleep in it, we can’t turn back the tides so quickly just because there is a presidential candidate.