Why We Should Be Proud to Be Called a Peculiar People

Keywords

religious identity, individuality, social acceptance

Abstract

In our quest to follow God, to be His "peculiar people," we may encounter the jeers and sneers of the crowd. We may experience momentary embarrassment at not being “cool” or “acceptable.”

I vividly remember one day in first grade. The teacher was teaching us new vocabulary. One of the new words was “odd.” I already knew the meaning of “different” and “unique,” and I found it exciting to learn that I could now add another similar word to the list—“odd.”

In those days, the bathrooms were attached to the classroom. I excused myself during the vocabulary lesson to use the bathroom. With the word “odd” still on my mind, I closed the bathroom door and started singing a “unique” song that I invented on the spot. The words went like this: “I can act odd” following closely, as I recall, the five note sequence of sounds from the classic movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Original Publication Citation

Why We Should Be Proud to Be Called Peculiar People, LDS Living, March 21, 2017.

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2017

Publisher

LDS Living

Language

English

College

Marriott School of Business

Department

Marketing

University Standing at Time of Publication

Associate Professor

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