Last week, a mother from the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints drove into Colorado City, Arizona, with a police escort to retrieve her children who were living there. This was the result of a long custody battle where it took a Mohave County judge to rule in favor of the mother getting custody of her children, ages 10-14.

The mother, accompanied by FBI and State Law Enforcement, was greeted by a large number (over 600 people) of faithful FLDS who showed up to harass and obstruct the process because they viewed this woman as a sinner for opposing FLDS views. They smeared dog feces on her car, yelled epithets, tried to throw live animals into the van and harassed her through the night. Her home was also vandalized.

When we hear stories like this, it can be unsettling. Fundamentalist thinking can be dangerous. There are thousands of examples of people doing harm in the name of their god.

What exactly is fundamentalism? Some researchers describe it as faith in the extreme, crossing over into delusion.

It is a fixed, false belief, not correctable upon presentation of appropriate evidence, and – very important – not part of a subcultural norm. –Wiviott, Gerald (2007) The psychology of fundamentalism

As a Mormon woman, particularly an LDS Mormon woman, I have grown up thinking there were Mormon Fundamentalists, and then there was us, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The truth is, fundamentalism exists everywhere. In every form of any ideological setting. It can become a demand for a strict adherence to dogmas of any group.

We hold beliefs that unite us to a group. That identity provides security for the person whose sense of self is shaky. Group norms and values are accepted and expressed in order to feel the embrace of the group. While “faith and belief can be the most powerful motivating forces in human life” at the extreme, “Reality is replaced with delusions, perspectives with myopia at a level which attains an almost erotic level of collective hysteria.” -Stephen Morgan, The Psychology of Terror Cults

It shouldn’t surprise us that members of our own church can slip into a fundamentalist mindset. I’d wager that it’s common within our own minds, depending on the dogma. I’ve been guilty of it myself. The things I have done in the name of God haven’t always been godly, but I didn’t see it that way at the time.

When I was 17, and my dear friend Drew was dying from a painful cancer, he asked me to our Senior Ball dance. Drew had to take increased medication just to make it through the evening and we had to make accommodations for his condition. One of the accommodations involved his diet. He was on a vegan diet and that meant he and I couldn’t eat with the rest of our dance group, we had to go to a special restaurant. I was a good Mormon girl and didn’t single date. No exceptions. I was Standing For Truth and Righteousness! Through a series of dramatic events (for 17 year-olds), I made sure Drew went out of his way to accommodate my standards. We ended up having his family members attend our dinner so that I could keep my rule. Drew was upset and couldn’t understand why I couldn’t make this one exception, especially since he had spent many months confiding in me about how painful his situation was. Did I not trust him enough to do this one thing alone with him? We had spent hundreds of hours alone writing poetry, painting, and feeding the ducks at the park, why not now? Drew died angry at me over that event, and I often still think on it with deep regret.

Why did I do this? I was sticking to my (selective) principles, of course. I was a good Mormon girl and to ensure that status, I did some bad things.

I’m not alone. In a recent informal poll, I asked Mormons to share their experiences about times they engaged in fundamentalist thinking. The question received over 500 comments with stories similar to mine above where well-intentioned folks did things “in the name of God” that harmed others.

This week, Jerilyn Pool, a blogger and web designer for this site, was wrongly associated with a group called AnyOpposed.org, a group that organized dissenting votes during General Conference. An internet Truth Warrior (!!!), claiming to act in the name of God, uncovered the “fact” that Jerilyn had once purchased the URL ALLOpposed.com. With little care, Jerilyn’s purchase from over a year ago was conflated with the Conference action. Jerilyn had previously purchased the URL for a friend who was going to create a website opposing an amicus brief. The site never came to fruition. Because of someone’s clumsy sleuthing, Jerilyn has since received threatening messages, folks calling her house, harassing and accusing her, (all on Easter) by members of the LDS church, claiming to defend their faith. Kristy Money of Ordain Women has also been relentlessly attacked, blogged about, and members of her family have been hunted down so that bloggers can “collect dirt” on her. They continue to harass her and (after being made well-aware she is on IVF treatments and she could miscarry from the stress) they have promised to regularly deliver by stalking her. All this because some folks deem Jerilyn and Kristy sinners because their views conflict with the larger group.

The random collection of men (and so far, it has only been men) who are currently harassing my friends are engaging in fundamentalism. Their behavior (in my opinion) stems from the exact same root of thinking that we are seeing in the FLDS retaliation against a mother retrieving her child. (I determine that you are a sinner, so I determine I am going to personally try to stop you.)

Do Jerilyn and Kristy deserve to be insulted, harassed, and threatened because they support Mormon Feminist causes? Did the FLDS mother deserve to have rotten food thrown at her car because she dared to involve authorities in FLDS politics? Did my friend Drew deserve to be judged for single dating because he had cancer?

To insure that we are not threatened by ideas that are not part of the group identity, we project onto those who hold contrary ideas images of sin, evil, and degradation…. We employ the mechanism of splitting to create us-against-them scenarios. We (and, by inclusion, I) are all good and they (the other) are all bad. -Wiviott, Gerald (2007) The psychology of fundamentalism

I guess the important question here is, what does fundamentalism get us? Does it bring us closer to God? Does it make us “more righteous”? I think my small sampling of anecdotes above would argue the contrary.

Ideologies are important–they can center us, move us forward, give us purpose. But if they get in the way of people, then we have a problem. I have often said that taking the Lord’s name in vain, doesn’t mean cursing. God is a big boy, He can handle a cuss word. Taking His name in vain is using it to harm others. It’s important that we reject fundamentalism whenever possible. It’s important to unpack the mindsets we carry.

I reject fundamentalism of all stripes, even within myself. We should all strive to avoid fundamentalist thinking and stop pretending that when we do harm, we are doing so for God. We should especially be careful when pointing the finger at others we perceive as doing the harm and ask, “Lord, is it I?”

***As a side note, I’ve wrestled with whether to post this or not. I don’t want to give the harassers more oxygen. Their mindset deserves pity and compassion, not power. Please do not link to the harassers and all such links will be deleted.