Here's a long thread about D*zNat for my Latter-day Saint friends. Short for "Deseret Nation," the hashtag is used by a small vocal group of church members who wish to defend their faith. Many of them fear that our religion is being polluted by members they deem too "liberal."

As Christians we believe that "defending the faith" is a scriptural imperative. In 1 Peter 3 the disciple tells believers to "be ready always to give an answer (apologia, apologetics) to every man that asks you a reason for the hope that is in you," with this important caveat:

Peter says we are to offer such reasons for our hope— defenses of our faith—with "meekness and fear." Other translations use terms like gentleness, respect, courtesy, reverence, and humility. Peter also warns us that some will "falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ."

When I first encountered DN my impulse was to defend my faith, to defend fellow Latter-day Saints, to jump in the fray without any meekness or fear. My inner snarky troll feasted on the chance, taking up Peter's charge without attending to Peter's warnings about our attitudes.

Many—but not all—DezNat folks use anonymous accounts. Psychologists have studied how anonymity can have toxic effects on human behavior, bringing out aggression that we wouldn't employ in real face-to-face interactions. http://www-usr.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/disinhibit.html

Here's the surprising thing I realized: I think the online disinhibition effect works both ways. Even though I'm not anonymous on Twitter, when I'm dealing with anonymous accounts it's way easier to dehumanize them and feel disinhibited in how I treat them. The gloves come off.

So things escalated to the point where I actually and truly received a death threat, as well as multiple call/tweet/email-in campaigns to my employer from DN folks trying to get me punished or fired. Then I finally woke up to my awful situation: I felt hatred for these people.

I didn't even know them in real life, they certainly never knew me, and never even wanted to, but said terrible things about me. Fighting with them amplified a darkness in my mind. My goal—to protect Latter-day Saints from bullying—was being hindered by my own bullying.

According to LDS scripture, my experiences with DN were not of God: "He that is ordained of me and sent to preach the word of truth by the Comforter, in the Spirit of truth, does he preach it by the Spirit of truth or some other way? And if by some other way it is not of God."

"...He that preaches and he that receives understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together. That which does not edify is not of God and is darkness..."

"...That which is of God is light; and he that receives light, and continues in God, receives more light; and that light grows brighter and brighter until the perfect day." (From D&C 50) https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/50?lang=eng

DN aggressors and me belong to the same faith but we draw on radically different scriptures to guide words & deeds. Where they might point to Jesus turning over tables in the temple (John 2), I'd point to Jesus healing Malchus's ear after Peter violently chopped it off (John 18).

They who live by the sword—even of one's mouth—will perish by it (Matthew 26). Elder @HollandJeffreyR's remarkable address "Tongue of Angels" is a touchstone here:

"The voice that bears profound testimony, utters fervent prayer, and sings the hymns of Zion can be the same voice that berates and criticizes, embarrasses and demeans, inflicts pain and destroys the spirit of oneself and of others in the process." https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2007/04/the-tongue-of-angels?lang=eng

Holland called this scripture a chilling indictment for a Latter-day Saint: “The tongue...is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith we bless God and curse men which are made in God's image. Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. These things ought not be.”

Another touchstone for me comes from Sister Reyna Isabel Aburto's moving conference address: “Let us follow the Savior’s path and increase our compassion, diminish our tendency to judge, and stop being the inspectors of the spirituality of others.” https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2019/10/31aburto?lang=eng

So I remind myself that behind those accounts there are real people who are more than their cultivated Twitter personas. In no uncertain terms I condemn tactics which try to increase faith by inflicting spiritual wounds on others. But they are more than their worst behavior.

The problem is, I can't engage with them on a truly personal level. They don't treat me like a child of God, and I can't treat them like one either—my temptation is to respond in kind, engage with aggression. It feeds darkness in me.

Arguing furthers troll's purposes. They thrive on attention. I was relieved to find a way to remove them from my feed. Activating this Twitter option collectively filtered them out. I didn't create or manage the block list, but I'm thankful for it. https://twitter.com/BlockDNat/status/1283685983314046981?s=20

Rather than wholesale blocking, it might also work for you to do individual and selective blocking of accounts who directly engage with you, or who call in others to harass you using hashtags. I had enough accounts swarming me that the collective block made the most sense for me.

Sometimes I still see other friends engaging w/ them, but my recommendation is always to fight against & resist the aggressive impulse in yourself. Deny them the attention that keeps them trapped in their own cycles of harassment, rather than speaking in "the spirit of truth."

As a result of cleaning my feed, I've experienced something like what's described in D&C 50 where God admonishes us to chase the darkness from among us. Not chasing the darkness in DN, but the darkness in me that wants to fight them, so the light can shine out brighter.
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