Hi everyone,
I hope this post finds everyone well! I'm not Mormon (I'm actually Jewish) but I'm very curious about the Mormon community. I never met a Mormon person until I was 24 and really enjoyed learning about their life and beliefs. I'm also a researcher that studies the relationship between members of different religions (don't worry, I'm a statistician who works with raw numerical data, I don't gather data from Internet forums and use it for my projects!). I have a lot of respect for the self discipline and restraint that Mormons practice - abstaining from alcohol and tobacco are very impressive!
I'm very interested in the similarities between Judaism and Mormonism. Many of the people that I know who are Mormon have names very similar to Jews and many of the religious beliefs that are followed by Mormons, including undergarments, fasting and an extreme importance of abstinence are also very similar. Is there any reason for the similarity of the religious beliefs?
I'm not a religious Jew at all but I'll try to answer any questions honestly if you have any you want to ask.... Also, since the last thing I want to do is offend anyone, do the members on this site prefer to be called "Mormons" or "LDS" or something else?
I look forward to being part of your forum!
