Why do good people allow bad things to happen? Like aligning yourself with a church that causes so much harm, is so bigoted, carries such an ugly legacy. Are they looking the other way or just not allowing themselves to see the ills?

Why do some apparently nice Mormons give the church a pass on all the ugliness? Is it lack of integrity? Selfishness? Shallowness? Apathy? Or just the deep need to cling to the unusual idea that they are God's special ones--their version of the panacea we desperately need to navigate life?

Every morning I drive down a windy canyon and the morning sky never disappoints with a new plot every day. Lifts my spirits--my kind of panacea.

Then one day right there on the best curve with the best view is a row of the ugliest, most intrusive screaming yellow and black caution signs. They angered me. Only a blind person wouldn't realize there is a curve and drop off there especially after miles of the same. "What government idiot . . . .' I am thinking. I couldn't see past them. They spoiled the view, the respite from the world that I craved. Fly in the ointment. Cockroach in the salad.

BUT. I got used to them. I barely notice them anymore. My eye just goes to the sky again. There were patches of creamy custard with peachy edges coming through a lavender gray this morning.

Generally, they either don't think those things are "bad" (often because they simply never considered whether they were or not), they don't know about the "bad" things, or they don't consider them "bad" enough to toss what they think is "good" in the rest of the mess.

I recall a story written by a German Nazi party member (but civilian) after WWII. He was all for making Germany strong again (after the humiliating defeats of WWI). He was all for a strong economy, jobs, national pride -- the "good" things the Nazis offered/promised. He was so caught up in the "good" things they promised, he dismissed as "fake news" what he heard about the concentration camps. He almost never saw the regime mistreat Jews and others where he lived. He didn't realize all of the nasty methods they used to achieve the "good" things until it all started to fall apart. Only then, when he realized what he'd ignored, dismissed, or not believed turned out to all be true, did he feel ashamed of his party affiliation.

If Germany had "won," or even negotiated a peace before around 1943, he might never have know what had really happened. And he would have had his "good" while ignoring all the bad.

Mormonism hasn't fallen apart yet (not completely anyway). Until it does, many in it are like the guy above. They enjoy what they think they get from it that's "good," while ignoring or not believing all the "bad."

I like your analogy, btw :)

Thanks for "getting" what I wanted to express and for the further elaboration

The Mormon colored glasses some wear are the heart of the matter and causes the lingering dissonance with myself and my TBM-to-the-max family. I have this feeing that even if the Mormon church falls apart, they will still be the ones who only see the pretty sky beyond that. It shouldn't bother me after this many decades, I guess, but it does.

Many folks are born into the church.

After years of indoctrination as children, many things seem normal or acceptable.