I lived in Mesa, Az for ther better part of 5 years in the early 90's and made friends with a lot of Mormons.They never tried to push their "beliefs" on me and vice versa.

Worked for a Mormon guy for most of that time and I always had my check on time every friday and even invited to his palce for dinner on several occasions.

Their kids for the most part are well behaved, very polite and always helpful.So, the more they have all the better for them.

When the missionaries come around my place I always offer them lunch or a drink or a cool place to sit after a long day out there knocking on doors.

The ones I have met have always been very friendly to me and never a problem.

In the end, G-d is going to judge us on how we treat our fellow man and not what we believe in.

Yea, most are decent.  Although I hear the mormons in different states than Utah are a bit different.

well I stay out of things like this, most of the time, but I have 2 cents worth on this topic. my best friend and 4 of my other friends are Mormon, one just moved to salt lake, I rank them some of the finest people I have ever met, and very pro gun and somebody we want on our side for that fight. very smart and quick on the feet in a argument. so I would say I have know quite a few Mormons in the past 15 years of my life. not once have the ever tried to convert me to there religion. even when I gave them crap on the multiple wife's, and such. they are no worse than anybody else. some mighty fine people but your mileage may vary. Ronald

Mormon's are people, so there's differences between them, just like Baptist, Methodist, Catholics and athiests....

SOCIALLY:
Most are very good citizens & patriots.  They believe in self-reliance, excellence in work, and giving to charity.  Quite often they will be at the top of their class in whatever field they choose.  Few will give you any troubles.  They actually are taught to keep a large amount of food and water stored in case of emergencies - partly to share with non-Mormons.

My experience has also been that they're quite clannish.  Our kids play with their kids, but the adults find reasons to not come over.  They invite us to their church functions, but will never come to ours.  They are expected to show up at all meetings, and will be contacted if they begin missing some.

REGARDING THEIR RELIGION:
They are not a Christian church.  They will point to similar morals, and claim that they follow the Bible. They believe that Good Mormons's will become Gods of other planets, having "spiritual sex" with "spiritual wives" making "spiritual babies" to inhabit the bodies of physical babies (this is how they believe the soul is created).  "Spiritual Polygamy" is still practiced, preparing wives for their future role as spiritual baby machines.

They believe that Jesus was originally just a man who lived a good Mormon life and so became a God, and so he is our brother (since we have the same "father" in heaven).

They believe that ancient Jews sailed to America, eventually becoming the American Indians (despite genetic evidence that they are descendents of inhabitants from NW Asia).

They do not even follow the Book of Mormon! Doctrines & Covenants, other books, and their "living prophet's" teachings has formed their doctrine, not the Bible.  The Book of Mormon contradicts several of their core distinctives and actually supports the orthadox christian perspective on the Person of Christ and other core issues (e.g. it agrees with Catholicism, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, etc.)  They are people of a HEART FELT FAITH, and have come to their conclusions apart from logic or proof. This is not an insult, it is their epistemology for finding eternal truth...

They will ask you to read the Book of Mormon and pray about whether or not you feel like it's true.  If you have not felt it, they will insist that you keep reading until you do feel it.  If you ask questions, they will answer that you just need faith.

That "burnin' in the bosom" (as the older Mormon's use to say) is all the proof they need.  You will never arugue one out of their faith, because they will look back to their "burnin' in the bosom" as all the proof they need.

Whew,
Richardson

No fair using facts. [:D]

Oh, there you've gone and done it now... you actually suggested that we will be judged by how we treat our fellow man. That's going to be a problem for some here. For they believe that even though Christ walked the earth preaching love for fellow man, while walking the walk by SHOWING love for his fellow man -- that it really doesn't even matter how WE act towards our fellow man as long as we say that we believe in him. If that's what Jews actually believe (that how we treat our fellow man actually MATTERS), then I commend you and applaud you and your religion. See... that's what I don't get. I am not Jewish. I don't know a lot about the Jewish faith. But you don't see me asking a question begging for hard feelings like "what's the deal with Jews?" I just don't get why people like to do that...

Edited to add:

ALL that matters to me is are you someone I'd want to hang with, or are you a JERK? I could care less about someone's religion. I feel sad for those that are so hung up on the religion of others that they can't see past it -- Mormon or NON-Mormon. Belief in God should be a UNITING force. Unfortuately, it seems to divide us much more than it does to unite. I believe that The Lord is pretty sad about some of the things we weak humans do to each other. It's surely NOT the example that he set...

[img]members.cox.net/cyrax777/missionarygame.jpg[/img]

Interesting info, and thanks. But, I wouldn't take the "number of converts" from any religion as Gospel. They have a tendency to be optimistic about such counts, if you know what I mean.

And the number of kids born is interesting, but my point was that the kids per family is higher than the generally-stated 2.3 average for the US -- thus making more of them relative to other folk. Do you happen to have that number?

You would agree, wouldn't you, that at least some major branches of the Mormon church have a real emphasis on producing lots of kids? That has been my observation, as well as the observation of others, including Mormons I count as friends.

I asked because I was wondering. I have no idea what they believe or why. Whenever I have heard people talk about mormons, they always describe them as being a little out there. I'm not saying they are, I'm just asking WHY some say so. If you think I'm trying to invite harsh words toward mormons, then thats your problem. And for those who are bitter toward all mormons because of experiences with few, then I feel sorry for them.

Whats the deal with you anyway? [nana]

Edited to add- I read your edit and agree 100%

Ask them about their "Sacred Underwear"

Why don't YOU tell us all about it vc?

What does number of children have to do with anything ?? I don't ever recall any theological teaching which says you had to have lots of kids.
I'll bet the inner city welfare rats have more kids per capita than Mormons, so what religion does that make them ?

LOL, yea, why don't you tell us all about it. [rolleyes]

There is NO church commandment that members have LOTS of kids. Members are to have as many, or as few children as they are able to love, handle, and support. Just more of the BS and misinformation in this thread. I am beginning to think I am over at DU instead of ARFCOM...

Speaking for myself,

I think most Mormons are protective of their spriritual environment, and we can be a bit standoffish.
Some Mormons will try and convert you, or at least tell you about the church.
if you alcohol in the home, we probably won't want our kids over there alone.

Read Genesis, the "dominion" mandate. you know, "Go forth and yada, yada....



Crackhead...[;D]

Check it out.

http://www.challengemin.org/temple.html

How do Mormons explain the fact that there is pretty much no Archeological evidence that the stuff in their book happened?

The same exact way every other organized religion in this world does.
Faith

well, there is pretty good evidence that the
stuff in the bible actually happened

places, people, and events are referred to by secular historians

I was neutral on the subject until Friday when two of those "Missionaries" came on to our property and proceeded to badger my wife in front of my kids.  She asked them to leave 5 times and they would not.  They just kept asking questions like "Do you believe in Christ?"  When my wife got on the cell phone to call the police(and then me) they finally went away.  They came back to try to talk to my 13 year old when he was mowing the lawn.  He asked them to leave and they would not.  He came to get me and I came out with a baseball bat, they left.  I reported them to the local PD and they said they have been getting complaints all day.  If I every catch them on my property again, I am going to beat their sorry LDS ass.

I read somewhere that 89% of the population is related to the OSMONDS.[shock]

Salt Lake is full of great folks who happen to be Mormon- as a gentile (you'll learn that term soon after you move there) some Mormons will shun you- others will spend an inordinate amount of time trying to convert you.

Generally, nice folks. I had some problems with the ones that had never left Mecca (SLC) but no more than other religious folks (try dealing with the Penetcostals sometime).


You will get tired of the heavy handed church sometimes (politics and old boys club). When that happens go out and drink beer.

Also, never just take one Mormon fishing.

He'll drink all your beer...

the mormon sect settled in ohio...chardon, to be exact. their 'temple' still stands at the north end of town.

after being run out of several other places...ohioans ran them off also.

we tolerated everyone from the amish to the moravians to the zoarites (hey! that's "a" thru "z"!)...but we could not abide the mormons.

one of the guys in my squad at an rotc leadership course was a mormon.  while we were sitting out in the sun with our BDU tops off cleaning our rifles, someone noticed little V's and other symbols embroidered on his brown t-shirt and asked about them.

basically, all his answer amounted to was "it's something I do as a profession and reminder of my faith"

Mormans tend to be good people, with conservative/small government values. Sure, their religion has some wierd aspects, and they are clanish.

I'll take 'em over big city liberals any day.

You may find the Godmakers about as useful for understanding Mormonism as Bowling for Columbine is for understanding firearms owners.....

Both are rife with bias, and inaccuracies, there are nonbiased accountings of the LDS church, though I am afraid I cannot recall what they are called, I have little interest either way I am afraid [:)]

Not really. They did it with the voyages of the Vikings, as just one example. If they got to another place in any numbers, there ought to be clear evidence.



No, but you can certainly prove that he couldn't have built one big enough to hold two of every animal. Further, you could analyze DNA to see if every animal was, in fact, descended from just two at one particular point in time.



The last I heard, the scholars on that point were just about convinced it never really happened, because there should be some residual evidence and there apparently is none.



IIRC, there are several sources for those other than the Mount Sinai event, and there were even twelve originally. Again, IIRC, the last two had something to do with not mixing sheep and goats or something agricultural like that.



Well, hopefully, a large group of people colonizing a place would leave more evidence than one simple box.



If I recall the latest History Channel offerings correctly, I think they have found that one, or something that a lot of scholars agree probably is that one.



There are various theories on that one, too, ranging from volcanic action to normal tidal variation. But, even more intriguing, Egyptian history is one of the best known and recorded ancient histories in the world, and there is no direct evidence that the Jews were even in Egypt. IIRC again, a fair number of scholars are convinced that it never happened as described in the Bible, simply because there ought to be a hell of a lot more evidence left to support it.



Well, the size and walking distance doesn't sound like conclusive evidence, to be sure, and there are good reasons not to trust people doing archaelogical research to prove a religious point, even when those people profess to be honest. Just think of the implications for the Mormon Church if they happened to stumble on to clear evidence that the Book of Mormon is wrong.

Do you know of any non-Mormon scholars who think the Book of Mormon has any validity? As near as I can recall, I have never heard of any that did.

This is a true story. I didn't write this to degrade the religion, I just wanted to tell my brothers story. At twenty years old my brother made a choice to join the Mormons instead of the Marines. He joined the religion for a mormon woman who had promised to marry him if converted. He converted and she headed off on a mission and he was then left with the Mormon Church. He too went on a mission to South America and when he came back he wasn't my brother anymore. He had changed into a person who was obsessive compulsive about sin. Everything was sin, caffine, alcohol, thoughts, and even certain foods. My family couldn't function with out him giving somebody a lecture on the book of Mormon. He tried to convert the family and nobody wanted to join. As hard as they try you would think they are paid a million virgins in heaven if they convert one soul. Over the years he separated himself from my family and became involved deeper into the church. I know his church dues were more than his bills. He began asking me questions about guns, survival tactics, and he collected a large quanity of water and food and told me that the church had predicted that the end of the world was comming in 2000. He welcomed it. After new years day I could tell he had lost some of his faith in the church that he had dedicated his life to. He decided to marry a mormon woman who's father was a priest. He wasn't in love and he broke off the engaugement and became depressed. The people of the church of mormon shunned him telling him that any male mormon over the age of 30 that is not married is basically against the church and it's beliefs. A week later at the age of 37 he shot himself with my deceased Grampa's Belgium made Browning. The whole incident, my brother, the Browning, made me sick. I would still like to know why Grampa's Browning? My brother was good person, extremely intelligent and had just graduated from College with honors. If you have never been to a Mormon church service you should attend once. The church service and the book of Mormon will speak for themselves. Two words come to my mind during the four hour depressing service, BRAINWASHED & CULT. I'm not saying their bad people. They are lost in a massive, well organized  cult and they think it's all God's plan. When the missionaries come to my house I invite them in and tell them the story hoping it will help lead one of them to Christianity. Experience it yourself, the one thing that separates that religion is the Book of Mormon. They have created their own bible. The deeper you read the stranger it gets. See you in ZION brother, I will miss you dearly.    

wolfman97
Did you ever see the movie Dark Star?
You remind me of the bomb.
"Let there be light"

No, never saw it so I wouldn't know what you are talking about. Do you have an issue with people asking logical questions?

No issues here bro. I just tired and your post made me think about that movie.

Exactly!

Some of you are curios about the LDS Church.  Id advise you to request a copy of the Book of Mormon from here [url]www.lds.org[/url] and read it.  Then ask yourself "is this what my purpose is missing?"

The rest of you better leave the bashing to just verbal remarks...made outside the Great State of Utah...and you better read up on Orrin Porter Rockwell and the Danites...I'm not kidding either.

My best friend is a Mormon.  While he can cuss like a sailor, he would never touch a drop of tea, coffee or alcohol or look at a naked woman (no he's not gay).  A really good guy though.  I went out to Provo, Utah with him last summer to check things out.  I was thinking of maybe moving out there.  While I decided not to move there, it wasn't because of anything negative I experienced while there.  It was strictly a financial thing.  While there, his family (HUGE freakin' family) treated me like one of them.  None of them ever tried to convert me.  A few did ask if I was LDS, but made no big deal out of the fact I'm not.  All the folks I talked to were pro-gun and extremely patriotic.  Plus, if the SHTF, the would survive.  They all have at least a years worth of food saved up and help each other.

While I may not be able to fully understand all aspects of their religion, I think as a whole, they are good Americans.

[img]photos.ar15.com/ImageGallery/IG_LoadImage.asp?iImageUnq=476[/img]
[url=www.nra.org][b][red]NRA[/red][/url] [url=www.nra.org][blue]Life Member[/blue][/url]
[url=www.gunowners.org][b][red]GOA[/red] [/url] [url=www.gunowners.org][blue]Life Member[/blue][/url]
[url=www.saf.org][red]SAF[/red][/url] [url=www.saf.org][blue]Supporter[/blue][/url]
[url=sas-aim.org][red]SAS[/red][/url] [url=sas-aim.org][blue]Supporter[/blue][/b][/url]

He's probaly a Mormon. They usually become very defensive about their religion. I think the majority of them question their own beliefs. The Devil can take many forms, even false profiets and religions.

I saw on the history chanel that when they first moved to Utah they were scared of everybody so the attacked a passing wagon train of settlers, & when they surrenderd, they accepted the surrender, & then murdered almost everyone in the wagon train, & then they blamed it on the Indians, but no fell foe it, & it was something ordered by yheir 2nd in command at the time.[:D]
Watch yer back man! With neighbors like that who needs enama's.

I guess being from the back woods of Ky you wouldn't know how to spell Prophet huh...I think I hear your daddy calling from the trailer...he wants to play truck driver.

Where in Ky are you at...my old partner from Utah is a Fed there now and maybe he could come over and bring you a Book of Mormon.

I did, because I was curious. I found the Book of Mormon to be pretty boring and wound up wondering how anyone could believe it. Without going into checking of any of the details, the whole thing seemed pretty unlikely, at best.

That's ok you will have another chance beyond the veil.

I'm a bit confused as to why so many of you are wondering what Mormonism is.  I don't really care what Mormons believe the same way I don't care why Muslim terrorists hate Americans.

In Las Vegas (where I live), this topic somehow has a way of constantly popping up. I think Mormons truly believe that their numbers are much greater than they really are.  Most people in the United States (especially the east coast) have not even heard of Mormons.

Like I said, I never really cared to inquire about Mormonism but I am willing to share my experiences when its teachings have been inflicted upon me. To the Mormons reading this, please understand that these are my perspectives as an outsider of your group. Perhaps you can fill in some of the blanks.

I have seen Mormons build they're "temples" next door to almost every public school. I understand the reason for this is that Mormon children attend services every morning.

I have noticed that the cross is not by any means a prominent symbol in Mormonism as it is in any of the other Christian sects. It does not appear outwardly on the temples as it ALWAYS does on Cathedrals and it is not the main symbol of Mormon adornments such as jewelry.

I have seen most Mormons wear rings with the letters "CTR".  My understanding is that this means "Choose The Right". The right to what, I don't know. These rings are the only surefire way of confirming a person is a mormon based on their physical appearance.

I mentioned earlier that Mormonism has been inflicted on me. By this I mean that I have experienced odd occurences fairly regularly because of my appearance. You see, I am of Irish descent with all the pale characteristics that come with it. I also dress professionally and have a clean-cut hair style. Based on this, I have been asked by complete strangers in a tone no greater than a whisper, "Are you LDS?" These strangers were Mormons themselves.  

When I was first asked this, I was perplexed as to why people following a certain religion would go to such cloak and dagger methods of identifying like-minded persons. Practices like this seem more like a club than a religion to me.  Perhaps I am confused but I have often times wondered what these complete strangers would say to me if I would just once answer "yes" to the LDS question.

Unlike other members on the board here, I have been actively recruited by some of the Mormons I have encountered. Invites to Mormon functions and encouragment to join usually comes from Mormon girls (who are not unattractive by the way).

These are just some of the things that I have personally observed that have left me bewildered to Mormon practices. But, I say to each his own...just don't come knocking on my door asking me to change my belief structure as easily as I would buy a vacuum cleaner from a door-to-door salesman.    

 I live in Mesa, Az. a very Mormonish community and have only one problem with Mormons:

     They Need To Smoke and Drink More !!!!!!!

Other than that, dandy people.

well living in idaho i see many mormons every day.  some bug me, some dont

but in all and all :whogivesafuck:  they can preach what ever they want for all i care. as long as its not infilicted apon me

There have been several posts encouraging you to read the Book of Mormon.  I would advise that you first become familiar with the Bible and then use that as the measure to evaluate subsequent teachings.  That is, of course, if one believes that there is such a thing as objective, absolute Truth and is sincerely seeking it.

For those who say that the references exposing the hidden things of Mormonism, are you just saying, "We're being persecuted!", or can you factually refute these writings?  Over the years my Christian faith has been criticized and attacked by skeptics.  Using sound reasoning and Scripture (BTW, if we agree the Bible is true we can use that for discussion) I've been able to stand and give a solid defense.  God doesn't demand blind faith.  He never says, "Shut up and believe."  Rather, in Isaiah He says, "Come, let us reason together..."

Reasoning...

The members of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, commonly referred to as 'Mormons', are some of the most ethical and law-abiding folks I know.

They eschew welfare, preferring to take care of their own members, rather than demanding some form of government assistance.

They are extremely patriotic, although there is not much encouragement for their young men and women to go into the armed forces.

They are great neighbors, whose lawns are usually kept pretty well maintained.

Their religious beliefs are another matter, altogether, and I can understand why some religious authorities sometimes classify LDS as a cult, in the most general sense of that word.

There are two glaring errors in the LDS religion.

The first is that it was necessary that a 2nd holy book be written.

The Old Testament was imperfect, the New Testament perfected it.

What book is there that 'perfects' the New Testament, and why would it not have been revealed for almost 2,000 years after the start of Christianity?

The Holy Bible, that we all know, consisting of an Old and New Testament, is sufficient as the Word of God.

Anything after that, is, well, unncecessary, to say the least. Blasphemous, to say more.

The second error is more obvious.

In Matthew Chapter 16, verse 18, [b]Jesus[/b] stated that: [red][b]'upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.'[/b][/red]

His Church is to be immortal, undying, eternal.

That is the very most basic Christian belief.

In the Book of Mormon, it is told that after the Death and Resurrection of [b]Jesus[/b], that He came to the New World and established it there, as well as in the Old World.

Yet, when Christopher Columbus, and the other earliest European explorers came to the New World - they found no Christian churches, no evidence of Christian culture, nothing of a Christian memory among the natives.

It appears that IF [b]Jesus[/b] founded His Church in the New World, well, the gates of Hell did indeed prevail against it.

And that would make [b]Jesus[/b]....what?

Eric The(PerishTheThought!)Hun[>]:)]