Getting Settled in Tuscaloosa and Football

Mike wore an Auburn tie to church our first Sunday. When people fussed over him and the TIE, I reassured them, "He's only teasing you." And the bishop's wife told us (in jest) that they don't think it's funny, and someone in Sunday school offered to trade ties with him immediately (he was serious). At least they (meaning the more established members) will know who we are... that's better than our Utah wards. I think it's because of all the attention we got from the "Auburn tie", which was actually just a navy and green club style tie, that I can tell that I will LOVE our ward in Tuscaloosa.

People here have insisted that the rivalry between U of A and Auburn is much more competitive, fierce, and "nothing we've ever seen in Utah". I don't know...It seems like the U of U/BYU rivalry gets downright dirty as it plays out in the Salt Lake Tribune comment boards. It becomes a culture clash between religions, and not in the way football is a "religion" in Alabama. I didn't realize the local Utah angst that some people have with the church until I moved from Provo to Salt Lake. The only anti-Mormon's I've been in contact with before living in Salt Lake were lied to, downright ignorant, and sometimes brainwashed. Some of the Anti-Mormon people I met or heard talking about the Church on a bus, restaurant, etc, seemed to know the finer points of the gospel, and did not mention the word "cult" once.

I suppose it can be frustrating to have the Church mingle with your local politics. It would bother me even though it's my church. But it didn't bother me because (1) I didn't feel like I really truly lived in Utah, and (2) I am usually apathetic with politics. I was just visiting. But the big local churches always influence politics when people are generally religious (Like in Alabama). It bother's me even more when it's not my church, and it seems to be denying someone justice or fairness. Remember in the movie "The Blindside" when Sandra Bullock threatens the gangster guy by saying she's in a prayer group with the DA? It happens. The supreme court case over prayer at the football game (Santa Fe Independent School Dist. v. Doe, 530 U.S. 290 (2000)) happened because a Mormon kid was being harassed by his Baptist teachers in a small town in Texas. They ended up suing and appealing up to the supreme court because everyone in power at the school district and in the local government went to the same church. They couldn't get the teachers reprimanded because everyone was going to the same church. So they sued. The preacher's daughter gave the prayer at every football game, and that's the only part the supreme court wanted to rule on. They dropped the harassment, and focused on the prayer. I learned about this case in my high school government class when my government teacher put me on the spot and told me that the kid was Mormon in front of everyone in my class.

Anyway, when you add to the mix a sometimes controversial religion backing one side in an already religiously/politically charged small city, it makes for a unusually fierce football rivalry--that often has nothing to do with football. I challenge Alabama to prove that my football rivalry is less than their football rivalry. That being said, I knew several girls, myself included at BYU from out of state that didn't even know that the U of U was our rival and that their colors were red. Why can't I iron "BYU" onto my red sweatshirt????