Mormon.org profile rejection #4--or, why I am apparently not a Mormon

It had been a while since my several attempts at creating a mormon.org profile resulted in rejection (see here, here, and here). However, after an attendee at last week's Mormonism and the Internet conference at Utah Valley University claimed to be one of the profile monitors (and admitted to being one of the several college-student, return-missionary, part-time employees doing the monitoring), I opened up to the possibility that my previous rejections were merely the result of an isolated over-zealous RM and decided to give it another try.

I recognize that my previous attempts may have been a little too preachy and did somewhat attempted to present my understanding of eternal life as THE Church's "doctrine" of eternal life. So this time I decided to write it in a manner that made it clear that while I while my own beliefs did not entirely conform with the established teachings of the Church, that I nevertheless find meaning application in the Church's teachings on eternal life. Or, in other words, even little heterodox me can find meaning and a place in Mormonism. Thus, I rephrased my profile answer to the question "What do Mormons believe about 'eternal life?'" to:

Unlike most Mormons, I don't necessarily believe in a life after death. However our scriptures teach that eternal life is more than living forever, but is something that can and should be achieved now in the present. Eternal life is to live and love others as God does. Too often I think we are confused in thinking that eternal life is something we must wait for, or that it is something that can only be found in another life after this. Rather, it is by following Christ's example and learning to love as He did that we can find ourselves with eternal life in the present.

Well, it still wasn't good enough, and received the generic response:

Doctrinal Concerns - Part of your submission contains Church doctrine that could be misunderstood or may not be correct. Please update and resubmit so your response can be posted on Mormon.org. Thank you for the efforts you made in responding to this important question.

While I somewhat expected this response, this denial and the practice behind the denial bother me quite a bit. For a while now I've largely felt that the whole "I'm a Mormon!" campaign on mormon.org had become a sham. While the whole premise of the site is to say "Here, look at real Mormons!," by moderating the profiles so that only Mormons who follow a prescribed script are allowed, the realness of the profiles and premise becomes fake. It is akin to a biography that purports to present the "real" story of a person--while consciously omitting anything about the person that does not contribute to the narrative that they want to present. While all of the facts presented in the biography may be true, the omissions make the overall narrative false. In this same way, the whole "I'm a Mormon!" campaign is largely undermined by the moderators who get to pick and chose who gets to represent "real" Mormons.

There is something that bothers me even more though. The Church has been heavily promoting the "I'm a Mormon!" campaign and actively encouraging members to submit their own profiles. However, in having these self-described college-student, return-missionary, part-time employees do the monitoring, they are essentially giving these persons the authority to determine who is and isn't a legitimate (or "real") Mormon--a power that most bishops don't even lay claim to. Thus, while a believing member may be deemed worthy to have a calling and temple recommend by their bishop--or even be a bishop himself--that very member may be denied  the right to publicly proclaim "I'm a Mormon!" by a zealous mormon.org monitor.

This type of monitoring can be very detrimental to members who may struggle with finding a place in the Church. At the conference last week, the mormon.org monitor in attendance justified the practice using the example of someone who might say that he is a gay parent and a Mormon. The obvious problem with this rationale is that there are, in fact, gay Mormon parents. While it may certainly be difficult to be one in the overtly-conservative Mormon culture, there is nothing institutionally or religiously wrong with being gay+parent+Mormon. Because of the culture (and because of the less-charitable statements by some leaders) it is nevertheless a challenge to be gay+Mormon, and those who manage to maintain both identities generally do so with a struggle of feeling belonged or having a place within the faith. So when one of these members who has met up with these challenges and wants to say, "I'm a Mormon!" this over-zealous monitor--despite the ecclesiastical approval of the member--can tell that person: "No, you're not a Mormon!"