Yesturday I Had Two American Mormon Missionaries At My Door....

[mylye2222]

And I happend to discover they live two blocks away from mine, same street.

They were polite et all, but of course I made it clear I wony join their church .... since I am an Atheist.

So after their blabla half listening, I went to search the Internet... and their church is more than weird. Plus it is Romney's.

Crazy world!!!!

[1939]

1. I never minded the Mormon missionaries

They were clean looking kids and were all around polite. Their theology was a bit bizarre to me, but most of the Mormons that I dealt with in life were good people.

The one that bug me are the Jehovah's Witness ones. They weird me out.

[mylye2222]

3. Agree on the fact they are reamly polite and civilized.

[Oktober]

2. I've lived in half a dozen states...

... And they never knock on my door.

Must have a ' not worth your time' aura around my place...

It isn't just Mormonism that's weird... All religion is, by definition, wackadoodle crazy.

[RKP5637]

4. Most religion IMO is weird and cult like. As you say, wackadoodle crazy. Years

ago I was pretty neutral about religion, but today it seems to get crazier and crazier.

[LuvNewcastle]

5. If you want a good laugh,

read about Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism. He claimed to have dug up these golden tablets and copied the words on them and that became the Book of Mormon. Of course, no one else got to see the tablets, they disappeared. There's a talking salamander in the story too, but I don't remember where it fits in. But read a little about Joseph Smith. It's amazing the shit he got away with for so long.

[Agony]

6. As in "Under the Banner of Heaven" Krakauer

i'm not laughing tho, at least while "he" is still getting away with it.

[LuvNewcastle]

9. I didn't look at it like that before,

but you're right, he is still getting away with it. It's amazing to me that they've grown so large when it's a historical fact that the man was a fraud. It hasn't been that long ago, really. They had newspapers then and they wrote about the cult. I guess those people somehow forged a strong bond and were determined to see it through. All their descendants and more didn't have to be so foolish, though.

[n2doc]

13. The 1800's version of Scientology n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. He was driven out of other towns in the East, too.

Which is why he ended up in Utah.
I have read histories of him and the Church. Am totally amazed at big that church has become.

[piratefish08]

11. i read that book some years ago - eye-opening for sure

but is that story really any crazier than talking snakes, virgin births, world wide floods and resurrections?

or does it just sound crazier because it's much more recent?

[LuvNewcastle]

12. I think it is because of how much more recent

it is. We have records about it that we can go back and read and get other points of view about it. Time has shrouded biblical times and earlier times in mystery. We subconsciously or maybe even consciously think that the rules were different back then. We don't have everyman accounts about life back k then, so we tend to make up for what we don't know with a lot of assumptions. All the art through the centuries has had quite an effect as well. But you're right, what's the difference between talking snakes and talking salamanders if the old myth is just a story, too.

[CanonRay]

14. Joseph Smith was just an updated version of Saul of Tarsus

IMHO. Saul never met Jesus, yet claimed to converse with Jesus' spirit. Of course, when no one else was around. Same game, just an earlier version.

[jwirr]

17. One of his main teachings is that Jesus showed up to Native Americans 600 years before He was

in Jerusalem. One of my favorite sayings on the rez was "If that were true we would be telling him about Jesus not the other way around."

[GoneOffShore]

19. Conan-Doyle wrote about them in "A Study In Scarlet"

And he wasn't very sympathetic.

Joseph Smith, the L.Ron Hubbard of the 19th century.

[Violet_Crumble]

7. Did they knock on yr door before midday on a Saturday?

I'm with John Safran about that. It's evil...

[mylye2222]

18. No. They rang my bell at 6pm.

[IdaBriggs]

8. They look for opportunities to serve others as part of their work.

They are good kids. If you have any elderly neighbors in need of help, they will gladly step up.

I particularly like their faith because of its strong focus on family; I once mentioned that spending eternity with some of my relatives sounded like the opposite of heaven/anywhere I would want to be, and was introduced to some of the practical teachings of how to get along with challenging people.

We have been feeding Mormon missionaries for over twenty years - the boys especially appreciate cooking that isn't their own - and it has been a very good experience.

[GreatGazoo]

10. So they haven't given up on France with their 'trade your great wine for magic underpants' bit ?

Another chapter in Mormon / Romney history:

[Gormy Cuss]

16. And Romney's missionary stint was in France. n/t