Okay, I know this is a different answer for each specific case of meanness, but I want to explore this. I work in Park City, Utah and most, if not all of my co-workers are not LDS. I was talking to one of my co-workers the other day and the fact came up that I was Mormon.
He told me that he wouldn't make fun of Mormons around me. And he told me that when he was in school the people who were meanest to me were LDS kids. They made fun of him because he was a different religion. I felt awful and I wanted to apologize that someone of our religion would be so rude.
But I realized that I went to school with mostly mormons and they were the ones that were rudest to me too. I just don't understand this hypocrisy. I find it sad that we aren't more inclusive. This guy now has a permanent bad impression of Mormons and probably our religion as well.
For our religion that preaches tolerance, charity, and love why do the followers not practice those most basic of principles?
A negative question, but one that needs to be asked and a situation that needs to be changed.
It might just be a juvenile thing --I mean, aren't all kids mean to one another? Now, if there were only three Mormon kids in his school and they went around bullying people then he could make an assumption about Mormons perhaps. Although, all generalizations are inherently flawed. I think in any place where you're a minority you're probably going to feel picked on and left out at some point.
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