Reply #38: Not being able to see past your own pain in order to see the pain of others

[customerserviceguy]

is not limited to Mormons. I submit to you the case of African-Americans in California who voted along with the Mormons for inequality in marriage.

Any group that becomes isolated from others tends to develop a siege mentality. The persecutions that the Mormons suffered on the American frontier when it was still east of the Mississippi drove them so far away from the rest of America, that they developed a very powerful us/them mentality.

The Salt Lake City metropolitan area is still many hours driving time from the nearest other metro areas, and because about 70% of the population is nominally of one faith tradition (you cannot find any such parallel in any other part of American society) there is a further isolation from ideas of tolerance. Many young men and some of the young women in that metropolitan area become missionaries to other parts of America, where Mormons are a very small minority of the population, often a despised one. They feel relief when the mission is over, and they can come back to a predominantly LDS society. That further emphasizes the us vs. them mentality.