I recently read this essay in the New Yorker about who we actually are as Americans, written in response to the sentiment at the election results and ensuing actions that "we are better than this." (I promise, this will relate to Mormonism.)
The author presents some examples to counter this feeling of American exceptionalism, arguing that "we are not better than this. We are this." I think there are parallels there to having our eyes opened about the dark side of the church. However, the article turns hopeful at the end, and I'm just going to quote the last two paragraphs:
I find it very easy to become very cynical with anything Mormon. However, when I read these closing paragraphs, I was reminded of all the wonderful people I have known through Mormonism. I need to not forget that in my frustrations with the institutional church. I understand that Mormons from Utah aren't the only ones filling needs and effecting good in the world, but the example in this essay was unexpected and definitely struck close to home.I was in Lesbos a year ago, helping Syrian refugees. At Moria, the biggest camp on the island, thousands of refugees were being processed every day. The crisis had been ongoing for more than six months. I’d heard that every big N.G.O. had taken a turn at leading the camp, but each one failed because of mismanagement, backstabbing, interagency bickering, governmental interference, what have you. But, as horrid as the situation was in the camp, I thought that it was being well managed, as well as it could be with so many people in and out. I met this unassuming man, a retired Mormon from Utah, who had been volunteering at the camp since the first boats arrived. He spoke no Arabic or Farsi, had no medical training of any kind, none of the identifiable skills, yet both volunteers and refugees sought him out with every conceivable question about what to do. It seems that he had arrived to offer whatever help he could. He slowly began to fill in wherever he was needed. As the N.G.O.s began to wash their hands of the camp, he was needed more and more. When I was there, he was running the damn place.
We are this. We can be better.
