Checking Religion at the Door

   I enjoy listening to talks or sermons by leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There are a couple of reasons why I do this. The first is that these leaders are all very good public speakers. As a long time member of Toastmasters, I enjoy watching and learning from the example of good public speakers. I also like the messages of the talks. You don't need to be LDS to appreciate some of the topics. (although it may help to understand some of the references.)
  One of the talks that I listened to lately was one by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland titled "Israel, Israel God is Calling". In this talk he tells a story about a young friend of his who played college basketball. The school he was playing for didn't really need his particular skill set so the young man didn't play much. The young man decided, with the support of his coaches, to transfer to another school where he could be of more use and perhaps be able to play more. A while later the young man's current team was scheduled to play the team that he had left. During the game fans of the home team heaped abuse on the player and his family who were in the stands watching.
  The young man's current coach was amazed at the reaction of the fans. He couldn't understand why this young man's friends, the people of his home town who also happened to be members of the same faith that the young man practiced, would act this way.
  The day after the game there was some public outcry over the behavior of the crowd at the game. Elder Holland quoted one young man's comments. "We pay good money to see these games. We can act the way we want. We check our religion at the door." It is at this point in the talk where Elder Holland has a bit of an apostolic temper tantrum. (He is a member of the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.) He looked straight at the audience and said in a voice that voice that commands attention, "...You never ‘check your religion at the door.’ Not ever."
  I've been pondering that statement for several days. A lot of the ills of society, in my opinion, are caused because too many of us, maybe most of us, check our religion at the door. I'm guessing that many of you are going to stop reading at this point because what I am saying does not apply to you. You don't believe in religion or you don't go to church. I'm using the word "religion" is a very broad sense. All of us have some kind of code of conduct or standards. You may have learned them from a faith, your parents, school, athletic team or other organization. You may have formulated them yourself. We all have standards. That is what I mean by religion.
  I like to believe that the vast majority of us are, at heart, good people. We believe in opportunity for all. We believe in fairness and justice. We believe in being kind, generous and mannerly. We want everyone to have happy and fulfilling lives.
  I'm not sure why I feel this way when what I see is completely different. I've seen just about every type of bad human behavior possible, everything from verbal violence to emotional violence to physical violence. I've seen bullying in many forms and fashions. Just when I think I've seen the limit of human cruelty, another new example pops up of just how low humans can go.
  Why is this? Well, I believe it is because we are "checking our religion at the door". We are compromising the standards that we have maybe not all the time, but too many times.
  I believe this this the result of overcompetitiveness and the fragmenting of our society. We no longer look at each other as fellow human beings and citizens. We see others as loony liberals, right wing fascists, racist, homophobic, too old, too young, too irresponsible too controlling. We separate into our little groups of soccer moms, singles, tweens, baby boomers, Gen X, Millennials and feminists. We see people as free loaders, greedy, low-class, idols and stars.
  Once we are in our safe little groups it is easier to put an asterisk in your religion. The ones with the asterisk are the people you don't have to be nice to, you don't have to treat them well. Why should you? Look at them. They're rooting for the wrong teams, they're wearing the wrong clothes, they're not taking care of themselves. They belong to a strange group, they don't look like us.
  We also think we also check our religion at the door when we go online. No one will know. I can say what I want. It's a free country. So what if that girl is hurt because I called her a fat pig. She's too sensitive anyway.
  I saw this first hand when C commented on an anti Obama post a year or so ago. His comment was pretty simple. If you don't like the way he governs, perhaps you should pray for him to be a better leader. The vitriol that came from others was astounding. I was amazed that the rage generated from that simple comment. I don't think there was a thing that wasn't insulted. C's post was deleted. C never commented or even looked that that post again.
 I'm pretty sure that none of those comments would have been made in a face to face conversation. Since it was online and relatively anonymous, people felt free to check their religion at the door.
  To me there is a simple way to make society as a whole a little better. Remember your standards and live them. All the time. Not just on Sundays when your pastor and fellow church members are watching. All the time. Not just with your friends and family, with all people. All of them.
  Is this easy? No, it's not. Truly worthwhile things never come easy. If we want a better society, a better country, a better place for our children and grandchildren then we need to start acting like better people. It's hard, but not impossible. We can do this.