- Ethnocentrism (religiocentrism) - It would be wrong to relate the problem with ethnocentrism, since it does not really have anything to do with ethnicity, but it is associated with its relative--religiocentrism, which is defined as "conviction that a person's own religion is more important or superior to other religions." It is important to our religion that we believe that ours is the only true church on the earth, but we often take that a step too far and make it seem that we believe that other churches have no truth or no good in them.
I think this was a problem during the 19th and 20th centuries on a very much larger scale with ethnocentrism and nationalism. In supporting their own countries and become unified, and in believing that their country and ethnicity was the best, they would take it a step further often and believe that other countries and ethnicity were no good. The best example of this was the Jews in Germany. Because a few Germans were angry over a few things concerning the Jews (like blaming them for not giving enough funds for WWI and causing Germany to lose), they took it too far into believing that they were no good and should be eradicated.
How would you relate your topic to the subject of the reformation or perhaps the English and French reactions to calvanism? Those might be good places to explore.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your viewpoint on religiocentrism. I am assuming your call to change is for LDS people to be less religiocentric? If so how do you believe we could go about accomplishing that goal? What is your plan of action?
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