Liberal Mormon

Hey there! My name is Nicole, one of Matt's guest posters and admins for Liberal Mormon. My blog that I consider my baby is The Culture-Loving Pilot Wife. He asked me to make a contributing post to his site...and I really wasn't sure what to say. If my ultra-conservative husband and extended family found out I was even lightly mingling with a democrat, they'd take my temperature and wonder if everything was okay.

I am the wife of a pilot, a mother with a career. I have been working in healthcare for the majority of my career, and have a passion for all receiving adequate medical care regardless of ability to pay. My husband is gone frequently, and I've had to take on a dominant and independent role in my marriage. We have an eight year old daughter who is the light and joy of my life.

I'm a life-long member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I have long-standing pioneer-era generations of LDS faithful on my mom's side, and my dad's parents converted to the church in the 1950's in Oregon. I was born and raised in Portland, and was uprooted to Salt Lake City in 8th grade. I had a horrible time with the culture shock to Utah. I went from being one of the handful of LDS students at my school, and proudly standing up for what I believed on a continual basis. I knew that I was "peculiar," and I was okay with it. I refuted inaccurate facts about my faith that was taught in social studies and religion classes, and I had no problem with everyone knowing that I was LDS.

Then I was thrown into an environment where I was part of a large mass of believers, or came from believing families (My guess is 80% of my 9th grade class) I hated being one in a crowd, where being LDS could mean so many things...such as the priest in my ward that I saw smoking pot, or seminary friend who appeared be stalwart, but was drinking and sleeping with her boyfriend. Not to directly knock on Utah in general, because I consider it one of my homes, but I'd never experienced so much hypocrisy until I moved to Utah. Figure out who you are and stick with it, right? I've also been put off by the extreme amount of Mormon-culture myths that have become belief. I too read all the faith-promoting experience emails that come around,....but when I hear the far-fetched stories preached over the Relief Society lectern, it's a bit too much.

I've always been an idealistic, creative, free-thinking soul. I believe in including and loving all, regardless of the religion, political stance, race, or other criteria for which one could be prejudiced against. I love the Lord and the Gospel with all my heart, and strive to draw nearer to my Savior every day. However, I'll admit there are commandments and policies in the church that have been hard to adhere to. I frequently feel a deficit of faith that often tempts me to rebell, but I pray that the Lord keeps me on the straight and narrow.
All that being said, I consider myself pretty politically centrist, as you'll see on my above political compass. I vote issue by individual issue, and by the merits of the candidates. I grew up conservative, and had voted Republican until 2004. If I had to choose a party, I don't know if I could. Over the W. Bush administration, I was more and more ashamed to consider myself a Republican (even though I have some staunch conservative views) I was not in the state that I was registered to vote on Election Day, did not think ahead to register absentee, and thus I was not forced to choose between candidates....but I think I would have chosen Obama. And when I told my husband, he almost choked on his tall glass of Diet Coke.