The other day I was listening to a Mormon Matters podcast on different labels surrounding Mormonism, and Blair Hodges said that he didn’t care for the label “TBM” because it is generally used as a pejorative by more liberal Mormons, used to suggest that somebody is close-minded, naive or deluded.
I thought, “Oh shit, do I do that?”
The answer is that of course I do. Or I have, but I don’t want to do that anymore. I really, truly do not look at true blue Mormons as somehow less intelligent. My dad, the most intelligent person I know, is a TBM. My mom, a compassionate, open-minded woman if ever there was one, is a TBM. My wickedly funny sisters are TBMs.
And I don’t think of myself as somehow more clever or possessing better critical thinking skills because I happened to “figure it out.” I’m keenly aware of the fact that I only found my way out of Mormonism because of a certain set of circumstances, and if they’d been different, I’d likely still be an active Mormon.
Let’s face it: Mormon beliefs aren’t any weirder than any other religion. They really aren’t. Even though I personally can’t fathom believing those things again, there was a time when those beliefs made sense to me, when they seemed logical and obvious and I couldn’t figure out why the rest of the world didn’t see what I saw. I wasn’t any less intelligent then for believing those things– perhaps less informed, but not less intelligent.
So what does TBM mean? How do I use it now? For me, it’s just shorthand for a Mormon who truly believes that the LDS church is “true.” It’s not a term I would apply to a more liberal Mormon, or one who doesn’t take things literally. To me, a TBM is a Mormon who is more or less happy with the correlated church and isn’t plagued by questions and doubts.
That doesn’t make them stupid. The church works for a lot of people. How often do you question or analyze something that works for you? I really like fresh pineapple. I don’t sit around questioning why I like fresh pineapple, or whether or not the things I’ve been told about fresh pineapple are literally true. I just eat it.
Sorry Blair. I’m going to keep on using “TBM.” Frankly, it’s just too useful of a term to give up, but I promise not to use it as an insult.
