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9. Dealing with Diversity, 1965–2012
- University of Illinois Press
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9 Dealing with Diversity, 1965–2012 Katya joined the Community of Christ as a young adult in a small town in Russia in 2007. Before coming to the United States for the summer, her only experience with Christianity had been with the Russian Orthodox Church or with her small Community of Christ congregation. In July of 2009, she was appointed to the tour staff at the Kirtland Temple for one month as part of an international exchange program among Community of Christ members. Before arriving in the United States that summer, she had never met an LDS person. Katya explained to me, “The most remarkable event was the first time I met Mormons. So, it surprised me, because, I think that [Community of Christ Apostle] Len Young is a missionary in Russia, [and] he had never told me, ‘Katya, would you like to be a member of my church? We have the one true church.’ When I met Mormon people, I heard these things a lot. They always said, ‘Have you read the Book of Mormon? You have to read it!’ They said, ‘You have to join our true church.’ I think this is pushed. I don’t like this.”1 Katya had known Apostle Young years before she even knew he was a missionary. When, in 2007, she finally asked to join his denomination,he was hesitant,making sure that she,her family,and even her friends,knew what she was doing.(In an interview in 2009,she reported that she was almost offended by his hesitancy.) In her guide’s role at Kirtland, as she encountered LDS pilgrims, she came to believe more strongly that she had made the right choice by joining the Community of Christ. She found LDS pilgrims overbearing in pushing their beliefs on her—something that she told me would never be tolerated in Russia.2 Katya’s reaction to her encounter with religious diversity goes to the heart of this study. What happens when people encounter religious diversity at a sacred site? This chapter approaches this question by examining the most 9. Dealing with Diversity 175 frequent performances that happen at the Kirtland Temple: tours and worship services. As a guide who gave tours day after day, Katya went through a process of comparing her church with a religious other, and she constructed a revised religious identity, in part, that was based in alterity—she was definitely not“Mormon.”LDS and Restorationists have a comparable experience as they encounter Community of Christ members and guides at the Kirtland Temple. They construct their identity, in part, through opposition to what they receive from the Community of Christ guides and bolster the barriers that separate the two faiths. With LDS sites and an LDS visitor center just down the road from the temple, visitors to the temple have ample opportunity to compare LDS approaches to a sacred site with the Community of Christ’s interpretation of a sacred place. The quiet competition between the two groups almost demands such comparisons. Since 1965, other factors have entered into LDS and RLDS cross-comparisons at the Kirtland Temple. Whatever their political or social outlook, religious groups in late twentieth-century America positioned themselves as arbiters of social morality related to race, gender, and sexuality. Perhaps unsurprisingly,some temple visitors look at the temple as a place of encounter where social questions can be explored, questioned, and argued. This is not totally without precedent. Before 1965, the social morality discussed at the temple dealt almost exclusively with nineteenth-century Mormon polygamy. By 2012, the issues were still about sexuality, but they had changed. The primary social issues that drew visitors’ attention were the Community of Christ’s position on same-sex relationships and gender roles. Still, the temple serves as a place for cooperation between groups. Individuals share commonalities, not just differences, which allows them to interact at the shrine. This final chapter additionally investigates how and why visitors and staff put aside areas of contestation and cooperated with each other. The Kirtland Temple was and is a platform for reinforcing the identities of various religious groups as well as a place where they can momentarily transcend their differences. Race, Gender, and Sexuality at the Temple Tours at the Kirtland Temple have never been simply about remembering the past; they inevitably address wider social issues, too. Over the course of the past forty years, temple visitors and staff have discussed social issues related to race, gender, and sexuality...