Quote:
Originally Posted by il Padrino Ute
Nope, but I'm sure I can understand. I'd say that the difference between our experiences would be that you were still of the same religious affiliation as the vast majority of the studentbody and faculty at BYU. At Marist, there were 11 members of the church when I was there. Most folks there were either Catholic in tradition only (meaning if they went to church it was at Easter and Christmas) or agnostic. There really was no common ground for me with anybody there.
A question for you: were you ever accused of being an anti-semite for your politcial beliefs? (Or in you case were you ever accused of not being worth to hold the priesthood?) I was. Several times, including by faculty.
Marist is one of the most hardcore liberal schools around. I think I can safely say that the only graduates from Marist that are not liberals are myself and Bill O'Reilly. 
I did get a good ecucation there, but if I hadn't been offered a scholarship to play baseball, I never would have set foot on that campus. |
You wouldn't believe the things conservative Mormons have said to me for stating opinions on topics that I thought were fairly mainstream. Yes, I have had my right to hold the priesthood questioned (and have on this board multiple times as well). I have had people ask me how I can hold a temple recommend. I have had people suggest that Democrats cannot live with God after this life (and are deeply offended when I tell them James Faust was a strong Democrat and his family still is- he has toned down political activities for obvious reasons). I attended one of the most liberal schools in the nation for law school. I was a bit of a fish out of water there too, since 90% of Gtown attendees were far more liberal than I was. I also saw people attack those more conservative than I was. I will say, however, that in my experience, people at Gtown tended to be FAR more tolerant than most conservative Mormons. At Gtown, there was a general feeling of "let people hold whatever beliefs they have." In fact, in some ways that was annoying because it led to a high degree of moral equivalence, but it led to much better debate and dialogue than I ever saw at BYU (which led to far more learning than I ever saw at BYU).