Single Story

The idea for this assignment came to me from last class with Professor Curti told us to consider a time when someone else single storied us personally. I had a hard time thinking of a time when I had been single storied other than on my mission, so I decided for this assignment to do some research on how a group I belong to is being single storied in the media. White Christian Americans. This group is bigger than just the LDS community that we belong to here on our campus at BYU and in Utah. All Christians, all over the country are being criticized for their lack of support of the LGBT community and especially now that the supreme court ruled that outlawing same sex marriage is unconstitutional.

The media paints the picture that Christians are not going to budge on the LGBT issue. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/06/26/mormon-church-says-ruling-alter-stance-gay-marriage/29380131/  This article is fair at explaining that they are not changing their stance, but are respectful towards the culture. The sense I get that the single story is what is being understood is in the comments section of this and every other article I read that was not in Deseret News. People see the Mormons, and the Christians as hateful and ignorant towards the LGBT community, when in reality they are trying to do their best to be understanding . This blog, http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/06/30/christian-leaders-mobilize-for-civil-disobedience-following-same-sex-marriage-ruling/ , took it even further, claiming that Christians are preparing to act in civil disobedience against the United States government. This paints the picture that Christians are not only against the LGBT community, but they are also against the Government of the United States of America.

But more important than the extreme way that Christians are being framed on blogs and other sites is the wide belief that Christians, and conservatives (they are grouped together in the media) are resistant to change. That is the main theme that I have noticed. Driving down the mountain this morning I was listening to The Herd by Collin Cowherd. He was discussing the women’s world cup. He noted that the United States is widely beginning to accept soccer, but there are those who still think it won’t catch on here. Cowherd began to say that those who don’t like soccer are the conservatives. He literally pulled out a statistic that said that the states that don’t like soccer are Idaho, Montana, and the southern states, while the progressive California, Colorado, and New York are much more into soccer. He used this statistic to throw darts at the bigger issue of how the media says that Christians and Conservatives are resistant to change, and he even talked about their resistance to Gay marriage. This is just adding to the single story that White Christians are not willing to accept any change. They are old and outdated. This is how I feel when I hear and read these stories, and it is far from the truth.

 

Personally, I love soccer. I love America. I am not hateful towards the LGBT community like those in the comment sections that I read think I am. I will not seek to be civilly disobedient against my country. What I do belong to, is a generation of confused Christians who want to do their best to follow Christ, keep his commandments (which clearly condemn homosexuality), and at the same time show understanding and caring towards everyone. Objectively, Christians do not want to discriminate or condemn others. They believe in loving all of Gods children, including the Gay ones. They only want to stay true to their faith, which teaches to love one another. The struggle is to love the sinner and condemn the sin. That is not understood by the media or many Christians either. This confusion is what puts out this single story of White Conservative Christians.