Meet the Mormons

[MiloSimpson]

Is anyone watching this? I'm a little bit to be honest. I've realised that I know v little about the religion.

There would be nothing dreadful about phoning home, except that it is against the rules. Some do call home even though they aren't supposed to. These are young adults who if were allowed to phone/text whenever they liked would probably spend all their time doing so. Especially to boyfriends/girlfriends These years are dedicated to God. They really learn to rely on Him. They become self sufficient adults.

Zebra, we believe that there is life after death and we wish all the opportunity to be baptized. This website explains in detail: mormon.org. Click on FAQ and you will see.

You can also go to Recovery from Mormonism and Mormonthink for another view point.

Some people a couple of doors down are Mormons and my evil children tried to get their son to drink coke when he came round to play!!!

He shouldn't have mentioned he can't drink coke.

But if there is nothing dreadful about phoning home, why on earth IS it against the rules?

I don't accept that you need to concentrate on something 100% of the time, without distraction, in order to do a good job at it - which is why I assume it would be 'bad' if a young Mormon person was phoning friends and family. Ds1 has just finished his second year of a Law degree - which involved a HUGE amount of study and dedication - and he has done just fine despite having the usual teenage attachment to his phone and to petrol-head websites on the internet!

Thanks for the link Lydiejo

There are lots of mentions of how the dead can choose to accept the baptism, that they still have their agency. No mention of how many accept/decline. May I guess, is it roughly 100%/0%?

It is also unclear on what happens to the unbaptised, post death... They are in 'the spirit world' it says. All of them? Is there a correlation to the heaven, hell, purgatory, (limbo) concept in catholicism ?

I thought that the Swiss boy guarding mentoring the newbie boy, was a bit creepy and sinister.
Also the old guy constantly sat outside the door. Heavy or what?

Oh - and despite the phone and internet use, he has managed to become a self-sufficient adult - most teenagers leaving home for work/university do, IMO. They don't need to be isolated in the way that Mormon missionaries appear to be isolated, in order to become independent, self reliant people, who are successful,in their chosen field.

They only dropped the polygamy business when the US federal government made it known that bigamy precluded Utah's acceptance into the union as a state.

It's why you still get those brainwashed, inbred freaks in the Four Corners still hanging onto it.

Google Brigham Young, too.

I also can't understand why it's deemed unhelpful for missionaries to have any contact with family and friends. It seems culty as in using isolation from society in order to foster reliance and dependance on the church. I'm sure if Josh had phoned his parents they'd have encouraged him to carry on with his missionary work and he'd have felt stronger and more sustained after speaking to them.

I also don't understand why some religions feel it's their job to convert others to their faith. It seems almost arrogance to say "our way is THE way". Approaching a Sikh in a turban (ie clearly a practicising Sikh) or a Muslim woman wearing a hijab (clearly a practicing Muslim) seems insulting to me. Like saying our way of believing in god and living our lives is superior to yours.

I'm an atheist but born into an orthodox Jewish family and I find it really presumptious and intrustive when Jehovah's Witnesses and other people knock on my door to give me a message from Christ.

I did a bit of googling, Zebra, and apparently there are three levels of heaven and 'outer darkness', and you have to be baptised to get into heaven - and you have to have kept all the rules and lived the perfect life as a Mormon, to get into the upper levels.

Btw, re the freaks in the Four Corners: the guy is only married to the 'first wife' due to bigamy laws. The rest are just concubines who use their single status to claim welfare benefits and get out of paying more tax.

"...I also don't understand why some religions feel it's their job to convert others to their faith. It seems almost arrogance to say "our way is THE way". Approaching a Sikh in a turban (ie clearly a practicising Sikh) or a Muslim woman wearing a hijab (clearly a practicing Muslim) seems insulting to me. Like saying our way of believing in god and living our lives is superior to yours...." - I think that is what they believe, MonterayJack - based on my swift read-through today.

Well a mormon mission is obviously different then law school isn't it You can disagree all you want but that is how it works. There are over 80,000 missionaries out all over the world. I'm sure it really seems strange to someone not of our faith haha.

Any organisation that strives to put such a huge barrier between one follower and the rest of their family is, in my opinion very suspect. My understanding of a cult is something that separates a follower from friends and family, which is exactly what we saw on the documentary.

Blimey, Mormons baptising Holocaust victims was such an issue that a pact had to be agreed in 2010.

Which was broken, with Anne Frank being baptised in 2012 (particularly wrong as only ancestors meant to be baptised appara - and of course she has no descendants) and Simon Wiesenthal's parents also, amongst other prominent Jews.

Why is a mission different to Law school? Both require dedication, commitment, hard work.

Interesting, SDTG.
Just a guess, but does proxy baptising the dead get you 'merit points' to get through the levels?

What was with the huge bowls on those cow statues? That freaked me out.

Those are where they do the full-immersion baptisms, I think - why that design, I really don't know.

The 12 oxen relates to Mormon interpretation of SOlomon's temple, appara.

But the cow bowl is just for the dead (or the people proxy-ing for them).
The alive don't get the Full Cow.

And children can be proxies for the dead people who are being baptised - that seems a bit creepy to me.

I watched this on 4OD today.

I think the Mormon church actually did itself more harm than good by having the guy always hanging around just outside the door and by choosing the over-committed Swiss guy as the jailer mentor.

If they had allowed Joshua to speak freely without someone monitoring his every word (because lets not kid ourselves he was there for any other reason) and had chosen as mentor an English as a first language mentor (who didn't creepily put his arm round Joshua and answer for him) they could have presented a much more positive image.

They ended up portraying themselves as a cult, which I think was the thing they were trying to show they weren't.

However, the next time they come knocking on my door, I think I'll have a list of odd jobs ready for them.

The 12 oxen stand for the 12 tribes of Israel I think. I have don't baptisms for my female ancestors. My son has done baptisms for the males Mormons believe that families are eternal and that they must be sealed together for time and eternity. In order to be sealed, you must be baptised, confirmed, initiated and endowed. Each of these ordinances are carried out separately for each person. I have received each of these ordinances and also carried them out for my dead ancestors. It can take about 4 hours to complete these ordinances for each person.

Missionaries give up all their worldly comforts to serve the God and others. The commit themselves completely. I would love some of you to talk to a returned missionary or if they had shown Josh at the end of his mission. I love the missionaries and have them over to my home for dinner most weeks. The members look after them and build up strong friendships with them.

Well to be honest I replied based on what she wrote. What she wrote was exactly as I replied. If she was misunderstood perhaps she should have written in a away as to explain her poin t of view more accurately.

Baptism by proxy for people who are already dead?!! Do you get permission from living relatives to do this or do you know it's something they would have wanted?

If someone did that for one my my family members I would be livid.

And it is wrong to get children to do it.