beastie wrote:I do believe the tendency to gossip is worse in the LDS community. Heaven knows the leaders fuss about it enough. I think there are a couple of reasons for this. First, gossip is a human tendency with an evolutionary purpose. In our small tribal communities, reciprocal altruism was practiced in order to enhance survival. You share with me when I am down and out, and I'll return the favor one day. This is a strong tendency seen in some animal communities as well. It makes a lot of sense. But part of what makes reciprocal altruism work in terms of survival is the factor of trust - when you do a good deed for someone in need, you TRUST they will return the favor one day. So a person's character and trustworthiness is a legitimate issue. Can you trust that person to share with you when YOU'RE in need? If so, sharing with them when they're in need is a good bet. If not, no, it's not a good bet. Keep what you have to enhance your own survival, don't share, if the person you're sharing with will ignore YOU when you're in need.
I believe this is the origin of the impulse to gossip. We share information about one another because our ancestors shared information about one another in order to determine whether someone was trustworthy enough to deserve reciprocal altruism.
So when you have a universal tendency, it doesn't take much encouragement for that tendency to become inflamed, and there are other elements that inflame it within Mormonism. One has been noted, which is that members are encouraged, to a certain extent, to "watch out" for each other in terms of behavior. The home teaching program was partially created for that reason - not just to be a system of helping each other, but watching each other. In addition, to a large degree, Mormonism really is a work-based system of salvation. Yes, I know that the atonement of Jesus is the "grace" part, the part that ensures physical resurrection for all and is the entry key to exaltation. But it is still work based, because it is one's works that earn a degree of exaltation, versus grace based religions where the act of belief itself ensures salvation. So what people do are really important for their ETERNAL welfare, so intervening to correct behavior is actually a noble act, in terms of eternity.
The third factor is that Mormon communities are extremely close-knit. A large percentage of an LDS person's world revolves around their ward. A lot of time is spent there, for one thing, and for another, LDS really are a "peculiar people" and take pride in that, and that means they don't really fit well in the larger community. (by the way, this is part of the reason exiting the LDS church is so hard, because so much of one's life IS the LDS church) This extraordinary level of time spent together as well as being a close-knit community is going to inevitably increase the amount of gossip.
And yes, these tendencies aren't magically erased just because someone exits the LDS church.
I do understand so many of our evolutionary tendencies for altruism -- it is absolutely necessary for survival. The tricky part, for me, is who do you trust? You have to determine that, so you need to look to past deeds, their ability to share when others are in need. I share too much and gain such intrinsic gratification from it that I often don't care if others likewise will share when I'm in need. I've not been in need too often in my life and just share with no real concern for how I may be in need at a later time. It is difficult, for me, to understand when others turn away when there is someone in need.
I mentioned in another thread that it appears, to me, that much of the intrinsic rewards of giving and good deeds are wrapped in extrinsic rewards in the Church. I think when you always do something with the knowledge that it is less about helping others but really about helping yourself that this can strip away so much of the intrinsic nature of the deeds. This very well play a large part into this mentality as well.
I agree that the focus on works seems extremely stressed in the Church. In other faiths sinners are rather embraced. I don't really see much of that in the LDS Church. I actually see lots of scorn -- which was surprising to witness from Christians. Of course I understand better now that mainstream Christian emphasis is really very, very different from LDS.
Great post, Beastie!