@laura007 wrote:
I have to tell you, I'm crying as I read this thread.
I am an Evangelical Christian, and my son was raised in the youth group of my church. When he graduated from high school, he went into the military and fell away from his upbringing.
In college, he met some wonderful Mormons (LDS) and converted to the Mormon religion. Needless to say, I nearly had a heart attack. I decided to learn about the religion he converted to. I learned that they have some weird beliefs, but nothing, in my opinion, that would keep him from salvation.
I also saw a huge change in my son. He became calm. He is less quick to judge. He is an amazing father to my grandchildren. I believe he is doing a better job raising his kids then I did with him.
Please, rather than making hurtful remarks, spend some time with missionaries. Learn about their approach to life. If you are firm in your beliefs, you don't need to worry about converting. My son and I have interesting conversations. I practice the Nazarene religion, he is a priest holder in the Mormon church.
ummm...from someone who lives in utah and who must interact with mormons on a daily basis, they are (by-and-large and not all that too much of a generalization) judgemental, intolerant of any kind of alternative lifestyle, misogynistic who regard women as second-class citizens and not worthy of holding any kind of position of authority. again, there are no women involved in any kind of mormon decision making...ever. if you've ever seen the movie "the stepford wives" that sums up what mormon women are faced with and is one of the many reasons why the divorce rate here in utah farrrrr exceeds the avg/norm. throw the sexual angle in (or no sex angle...as mormons must eschew sex until marrige) and you can see how that plays out.
intolerance you ask? how about this one (from the book of mormon, not the spot-on musical but the actual one) that says, "the lds church is the only one true church". this coming from a religion (?) that was formed 160 years ago.
and don't forget...sex ed in utah is non-existent. because sex is only for procreation (seriously), and mormons comprise about 68% of utah's population and they vote only for their own, the philosophy is that sex ed is best taught by parents. how's that working out? teenage pregnancy and stds run rampant here.
and...until bobby kennedy (as atty general of the usa) threatened to remove their tax free status mormons/lds were terribly racist. joseph smith (founder) and brigham young (his disciple) wrote in the book of mormon that "darkies" were evil and not worthy of marrying white women. until 1978 blacks were not allowed to ascend to priesthood (a higher ranking than just a member), which again is when bobby kennedy issued his statement about the lds-ers.
and...mormons must, again must, give 10% of their income to the church. yep, i said must. and that is 10% of the gross income, not net income.
mormonism/lds is often conflated with scientology = both being verrry cultish.
full. stop.