Sadly some non members feel like we ostracize them. This is against our teachings if this happens. Our teachings teach people to fellowship and help all. I think it happens because nearly everyone you live around knows each other and sees each other at least weekly. Of course you act differently to those you know verses don’t know. I think that is what non members see and it’s not intentional.
That's probably the truth. It's also the truth that a co-worker's high school senior, a starter as a sophomore and junior, was benched by the new mormon coach in favor of a "promising" freshman who happened to be mormon. There's the official line, and there's the real world. I would NEVER have raised my kids in a predominantly mormon community. They would have been ostracized, if not by intent, by reality.
Like other people, there's good and bad LDS members. And like any other group of people, they can get very clannish, even mob like.
Funny story. First time I came into the town of Grace, ID, my FIL and I went to town for lunch, sat down in the little local restaurant, and when the (young) waitress came to bring the menu, we ordered a cup of coffee. Without missing a beat, she said "the smoking section is on the other side". For many behind the Zion curtain, the world is black and white. Either you're LDS, and OK, or you're assumed to be a coffee guzzling, smoking, boozing womanizer that kicks the dog, tortures the cat and hates kids, his mother, and apple pie........
People aren't wired to see shades of gray. Either you're with us, or you're against us. Friend or stranger. Black or white. Republican or Democrat. When one group gets to be dominant, that tendency tends to have ugly repercussions for the minority.
