# 58 Mormons Respond Well to Criticism

I was listening to Hugh Hewitt on the radio the other day, and he was talking about the big story of the recent terror attacks in Paris.

Have you heard that news?  On January 7th, 2015, three radical Muslims went into the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical newspaper, and started shooting people.  Twelve people ended up dead.  Why did they pick Hebdo as a target?  Because Hebdo had run items in its publications that were offensive to Muslims.  They made fun of the founder of Islam, Muhammed.

Hugh Hewitt had Mark Steyn on as a guest, and they had some interesting things to say about how two different cultures, radical Muslims and Mormons, react to criticism.  I've put some of that transcript here, and I put my favorite part in bold:

Mark Steyn: It’s one thing to say oh, we should be sensitive about this, and we should be sensitive about that. But when lunatics are actually killing people over a drawing, you’ve got to be on the side of the people who do the drawings...

Hugh Hewitt: Yeah, unequivocally, 100%, not you know, I wish they hadn’t insulted the Prophet, but unequivocally, 100% on their side.

Mark Steyn: Yes, absolutely. And I say that, you know, and the thing about, Islam is a very peculiar religion. It’s an insecure religion in that sense. And Bill Donohue is fortunate in that he represents, or purports to represent a religion [Catholicism] that is actually more secure, and can shrug off insulting provocations. And one of the disturbing things about this is the way so many people who matter, starting with the President and the senior figures of this administration, are willing to put freedom of speech up for trade. The professions of regret at what happened yesterday from the administration are in contrast, for example, to their criticism of Charlie Hebdo three years ago. They didn’t think, they agreed with Donohue that Charlie Hebdo shouldn’t have done those cartoons. Yet funnily enough, Hillary Clinton is sitting in the Book of Mormon, the big hit Broadway musical, laughing her head off and giving a standing ovation to the most obscene provocations against Mormonism. What’s the difference? 

Hugh Hewitt: Let me ask you as well, on Sunday last…

Mark Steyn: Yeah, the only difference is that Mitt Romney isn’t going to kick your door down and open up an AK-47 on you. 

Hugh Hewitt: Yeah, the Mormons will bring you a strudel. The Mormons will simply drop off some baked goods and smile at you. That’s the difference.

Here's another article about how nice Mormons are in response to criticism.

You should stay LDS because, collectively and individually, Mormons respond well to criticism. 

And Mormons get criticized a lot.  Anybody who has served a mission knows what frequent rejection is like.  Over and over, when the missionaries knock on their door, people say, “No thanks,” or,  “I’m not interested,” or "Get the beep off of my beepin' porch before I get my beepin' dogs to beepin' bite you, you good for nothing beepity-beeps!" My personal favorite rejection was, “If ya’ll are out soul-winning, you can keep moving along. I’ve already been won.”

And how do missionaries respond to this rejection?  They just smile and wave and say, “OK, see you later.”  And then they move on to the next house.

The Mormon Church as a whole does the same thing.  When the Church gets mocked on Broadway in the Book of Mormon musical, the Church responded with this classy one-sentence press release: 

"The production may attempt to entertain audiences for an evening, but The Book of Mormon as a volume of scripture will change people's lives forever by bringing them closer to Christ."

When I hear about the way in which the Mormon church behaves in the public square, I'm proud.  We are a mature, healthy, Christ-centered religion, and we get along well with everyone around us.  We're a good group to be a part of, and it's my pleasure to remain a part of this group.  I hope you'll stick around, too.