« New Movie Analyses | Main | Shopping on Sunday revisited... »
A disturbing trend...
...among LDS websites.
There have been official and unofficial LDS-based websites since the onset of the Internet age: you can find all sorts of information about the Church (for and against), news and related articles about Church-related issues, and even the (relatively new) blog community which offers somewhat off-the-cuff analysis of current events and doctrinal issues as well as letting people who live thousands of miles apart get together and talk (and/or argue) about Church topics.
Ignoring those for now, let's talk about another category of Church-oriented websites: the personal and professional 'matchmaker' sites...
The purpose and benefit of the personal matchmaker sites (these include LDS dating/singles sites, and other social gathering places) are obvious: It's valuable to find people who share your beliefs and interests because it makes finding friends easier. It's even more important in the dating/marriage sense, because Latter-Day Saints have always been encouraged to marry within the faith, thus it serves a great purpose by allowing members in different areas a chance to meet and chat with each other.
It's the professional side, though, that I'm a little wary about...
Take the site LDSAgents.com, for example. The site is designed to match up prospective house buyers with LDS real estate agents. Similarly, the site LDSPro.com, run by Meridian Magazine, has directories of LDS people in several dozen different professions. Now, what exactly is the purpose of these sites?
In theory, there are professions where it might be helpful for church members to be assisting other church members. Marriage counselors or psychiatrists, for example; where common knowledge about and respect for religious beliefs might be very helpful in resolving problems.
But, what's the advantage of finding an LDS real estate agent? Or an LDS dentist? Or an LDS architect? The LDSAgents.com website says it wants to help you find an agent who "shares your interests". Is it just for people who want to be able to chat with their lawyer or dentist afterwards about church stuff without worrying about the other person not knowing what they're talking about? Or is the implication that, no matter what the job, having a Latter-Day Saint do it is simply better?
Church doctrine encourages Mormons to be honest and trustworthy in everything they do, of course, but it's fairly naive to think that just because someone is LDS then they automatically have integrity and strong ethics. Some do, some do not--coincidently, the same as non-member professionals. Furthermore, even if you do find an LDS professional who's honest and has high ethics, that's still doesn't mean they're actually better at what they do (in terms of skill and effectiveness) than any non-member professional.
This has the stink of social isolationism--a trait of the early Church, but one that had seemingly faded in recent times. Isolationism is when Church members think to themselves: "I'll make sure all my friends are members, and I'll purposely only go to professionals who are also members for everything I need. That way I'll never have to associate with non-members at all--except for missionary work, of course." What other purpose is there to providing listings of LDS professionals if not for allowing church members to isolate themselves further in a closed circle of other Church members. No one has said, of course, that Church members should only go to other Church members for any needed service, but obviously sites like these wouldn't exist unless they knew there were a large number of Church members out there who wanted to use it this way.
This is a disturbing trend, in my opinion. The Church has made great progress in not being as isolated as it used to be--allowing church members to integrate themselves in secular society and be seen as 'normal'. I would hate to see a backwards trend where Church members stop associating themselves with non-members in every situation they possibly can--which smacks of pride and self-righteousness ("I'm going to hire a Church member instead of you, because they're obviously BETTER"--or alternately--"I'm going to PUNISH you for not being a Church member by not giving you my business...") In occupations where Church membership doesn't provide distinctly identifiable advantages, the person's religion shouldn't matter--only the quality of the job. I really don't think this is a good road to be going down...
June 3, 2004 in Current Affairs | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/798978
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference A disturbing trend...:
Comments
Interesting post. I hadn't heard about the professional referral sites before.
On the micro level, I can understand the motivation. I have sometimes gone out of my way to give business to members of my ward -- not because they were better than people outside the ward, but just because I felt like they could use the money.
That doesn't mean someone outside the ward couldn't have used the money. But I feel more of an obligation toward helping members of my ward than toward others.
On a larger level, it's a bit like "buying American." If everyone in the U.S. insisted on only buying products made in America, it would be economically very inefficient, and would reduce our standard of living.
However, if it is only done occasionally, the harm is minimal, and the sense of allegiance to the community it brings may be valuable.
So, while I wouldn't want to see the practice of only using goods and services from LDS providers become commonplace, I think that practiced on a small level it's not really a problem.
Posted by: Eric James Stone | Jun 3, 2004 2:17:16 PM
These LDS-professional-referral sites make me uneasy too. I think that people should keep their business and religion practices *somewhat* separate. Choosing to pay an LDS friend who is a professional for a service is one thing. Actively seeking to only do business with people from the LDS community is another thing entirely [though it just occurred to me that this kind of business practice wouldn't hurt the Church's tithing coffers].
I just think people should seek the most qualified professional or best price for such transactions and not be concerned with whether the person they are doing business with is LDS.
One little factor that I've noticed influences my parents (at least with buying groceries and gas) is whether or not a particular store is open on Sundays. My parents like to give their support to stores that don't require people to work on the Sabbath. But that's a slightly different issue.
Posted by: danithew | Jun 3, 2004 4:27:55 PM
While I'm against this sort of insularity for the most part, I do have some (somewhat contradictory) thoughts about the whole thing.
When I know that there is a member of the ward or stake who needs employment, I'm (carefully) open to helping out. This would mostly be the case in terms of temp work like mowing. I'm not exclusory in this though, since I do the same thing for neighborhood kids. I've benefitted from this kind of thing in the past, so I can see it being helpful.
I dislike entering into long-term (or potentially) long-term business relationships with members of my ward. There are just too many chances for something to go wrong and that puts all kinds of weird stresses into relationships. Witness the Elders Quorum President who runs a company employing members of the ward -- when the business shrivels, feelings can be hurt and it becomes difficult for some members to sustain him.
There are certainly times that I would prefer to work with an LDS service provider though. My wife and I considered adoption for a while, and talking with an LDS social worker was much easier than a non-LDS social worker. I would also imagine that it would be easier to deal with an LDS travel agent to plan a trip to Palmyra/Kirtland/Nauvoo/Independence and the surrounding areas, I think they'd share insights and recommendations that you wouldn't get from a non-member.
Posted by: Pat Eyler | Jun 4, 2004 11:33:12 AM
I would go along with LDS social workers and LDS travel agents (if and only if you're going on a Church history trip) as other examples of professions where common beliefs would provide tangible benefits.
Pat mentioned something that's also related to this issue...
When you include religion into the mix when deciding on a professional to use (either on a local ward level, or a broader level), that opens the door for 'bad experiences' to influence you on a religious level, which might not be justified. A person who goes to someone SPECIFICALLY because he's LDS, and then receives unsatisfactory or unethical service will be more likely to associate the religion with the bad experience possibly clouding his/her impression of other Church members in the future, whereas someone who didn't know or care about the person's religion beforehand probably won't associate the two together...
You can see some examples of the religious and professional spheres intersecting when perhaps they shouldn't in the movie Brigham City (you can read my essay on the movie in the Movie Analysis section...)
Daniel (danithew) brings up a related issue that, for space purposes, I didn't write about in the original post. Instead of writing about it in a comment, I think I'll put it in it's own post...right...now.
Posted by: The Baron | Jun 4, 2004 12:50:42 PM
"If everyone in the U.S. insisted on only buying products made in America, it would be economically very inefficient, and would reduce our standard of living."
I would think it would be the opposite. If all the American companies that produce their goods overseas were forced to produce their goods locally, wouldn't that increase the standard of living since it would cost more to produce the products, and hence cost more to purchase them?
I'm not an economist, so maybe I'm off base here.
Posted by: Kim Siever | Jun 7, 2004 8:41:40 AM
try reading Brigham Young. he encouraged the Saints to patronize each other. however, the worst betrayals & rip-offs often come from abused trust _given_ inside a family or other (religious) group. if i have a choice between two quality products; i.e. Jet Blue & Air Tran...and one has a mormon affiliation, and the other not...I let that make the decision for me. I support Saints; but not mediocrity.
Posted by: lyle | Jun 8, 2004 7:13:36 AM
