Joseph_Hillstrom [he/him]

Mormonism is a very all-or-nothing type religion. If you don’t meet all their standards, you’re ostracized pretty quick. I think leads to a lot of the “cultural” religious types to quit, leaving mostly true believers. Members call the mechanical duty religion types “Jack Mormons”, so they do exist, but I’d say it’s like a 90-10 split.

Good questions! I’ll answer them in order.

1. No. I was terrified of being sent away on a mission, it was one of the main drivers that lead to my leaving the church. I know several men (women generally don’t do missions) who considered or attempted suicide during their mission because they couldn’t stand it any more. I’m grateful that I stood up for myself on this one, the social pressure to do a mission is unreal.

2. I never got mine because the blessings usually happen around the time before you leave on a mission, which is when I was making my exit. I spoke to a lot of people about theirs though, and even as a teenager it smelled like bullshit to me. It’s kind of like astrology for Mormons, some believe it word for word while others think the blessing is open to interpretation.

3. I was 17 when I told my family I wasn’t going on a mission, then 21 when I “officially” left the church. My main motivation was researching the contradictions between what Mormons taught me at church and what teachers taught me at school. Mormons said Native Americans were descended from Jewish people, school said Native Americans crossed the Bering Straight 10,000+ years ago from Asia. One of them had to be wrong, ya know?

4. As an organization, the Mormon church is about as systemically bigoted as it gets. They helped genocide the indigenous people of the US West, they colonized Mexico, they believe non-whites have dark skin because of a curse, they excluded black members from full membership until the 1970s, they still don’t allow gay people to be full members, and they have a $100 billion (!) investment portfolio, so they’re all in on US capitalism. Individually, I think this means you get that typical white American attitude towards race/gender/sexuality - if you point out the way they benefit from systemic white supremacy, they get real mad. There’s definitely a mask that comes off when Mormons aren’t around non-members though.

Install a puppet prophet who will lead the flock back to Jesus’s original socialist teachings :jesus-cleanse:

Gay Mormons break my heart. If they come out they’re usually expelled from home if they live with their family. If they try to stay Mormon then they’re systemically excluded from participating in the organization. The dinosaurs who run the church are super bigoted about it.

I didn’t go to school there but they do allow non Mormons to attend as long as they follow all the fucked up rules. Seems like they get a few Muslim students who are attracted to the conservative, sober atmosphere.

As of when I left it was still open to interpretation. Only the most hardcore Mormons I knew didn’t drink caffeine. Some of my family members drink tea every once in a while. Drinking a cuppa joe still makes Mormons visibly uncomfortable though :maduro-coffee:

Yes. This is a controversial question even for ex Mormons though. In my mind it is for three main reasons:

• Reverence for their leaders as god (Joseph Smith and their current prophets are treated as if they were as holy as Jesus)
• Demands for huge amounts of your money (10% of your gross income, otherwise your access to religious blessings are revoked)
• Difficulty leaving the church (it took me months to officially leave and I was ostracized from my community for it)

My parents gave me “the talk”, but it was pretty brief and they really only told me about male puberty shit. I was pretty clueless about sex growing up because Mormons are huge prudes. They’re like super protestants in that way, and lots of young people get married too fast because it’s the only way they get to be sexual.

The Mormon vs LDS thing is funny. When I was growing up the church made a campaign to get people to call them Mormons, but now they’re back to asking people to call them LDS. It’s stupid and confusing.

The Rocky Mountains extend through Utah. The Wasatch and Uinta ranges are the most prominent, and lots of water comes from their snowmelt. Although that will likely change with climate change. :agony-consuming:

Early Mormons were chased out of the US for being polygamists/pedophiles. They kept fleeing west until they reached the Salt Lake Valley (which was then part of Mexico), which is relatively habitable (even though it’s in the desert) because snowmelt from the nearby mountains provides enough water via irrigation for drinking and agriculture.