How Do You React When Someone Asks You Your Religion?

[Guest mormonmusic]

Just curious how you react when in conversation, someone asks you which Church you go to, in what circles.

I'll be honest, for me, it depends who I'm talking to.

One one hand, I like to be up front about who and what I am, but on the other hand, I also find people later get judgmental saying "I wouldn't think a Mormon would do that", if I describe something THEY think isn't consistent with their erroneous view of the Church, or their own selt-styled opinion of what THEY think is ethical for a Mormon or not. One family who lived with us judged everything I did from the perspective of a person who thinks all religious people are hypocrites, and it got pretty disturbing after a while.

On the other hand, we don't want to be like Peter and deny the Christ by not admitting we belong to His Church.

Also, where I live, there are strong anti-Mormon elements in certain Churches. Many of the people I interact with in business circles are from these Churches. And I'm concerned the conversation will lead to the kinds of challenges that are never resolved, or that take so much discussion to correct they stop listening. So, there are times I'd rather skirt the issue by saying 'I belong to a Christian church; I'm a Christian" and leave it at that.

When I feel someone is "golden" or sincerely seeking, then I'm wide open about it.

What do you do?

[beefche]

I don't hesitate. If they ask me I almost always say, "I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Most people call us Mormon." I've had all kinds of reactions to that, but overall, people don't recognize the name of the church, but they do recognize Mormon.

[pam]

I used to be somewhat that way. Kind of skirting. In the last year I realize I have found myself getting more and more away from that. I have learned to state right out which Church I belong to..if that causes hard feelings, lack of friendship; I'm at a point in my life that I really don't care.

[Relentless]

For me it is simple. I tell them them I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Then I watch as they get a confused look, like they should know what I am saying. After 30-45 seconds of bewilderment, I offer something like "some people call us Mormons". Then it clicks and they proceed to ask how many wives I have.

Serriously though, most people I talk to are in the Military, and it usually comes up when they want me to go drinking with them. I have gotten ridiculed more for not drinking then for anything else. Fellow Soldiers accuse me of not being a man, and my favorite quote; "I can't trust a man who won't drink with me". To this I usually tell them "Well, you don't need to trust me, but it would behoove you to, as I am your medic"

All in all, it has led to some great conversations, and I can't tell you how many "I used to be Mormon, but now I'm Christian" Soldiers I have met.

[pam]

Relentless..I mean no disrespect..I LOVED your post...but your last line..I wanted to starting singing "Onward Christian Soldiers." Sorry...just another lame attempt at humor.

[Relentless]

Nah, it's funny. i didn't even see it until you pointed it out

[beefche]

I absolutely love being a member of the Church in an environment where there aren't alot of Mormons and most people have no clue about Mormons. I have had to deny that I'm Amish, not married to several men, not married to a man with several wives, not a baby factory, I don't drink coffee and tea but I don't really know why other than a prophet told me to, I can have Mountain Dew, I don't drink alcohol but I can still have fun, and I actually go to Church on Sundays for 3 hours and usually at least 2x during the week for various meetings.

It's grand!

[Elgama]

I am straight but in the UK its easy tends to be more a subject of curiousity and interest thn anything else

[Justice]

What beefche said.

[Relentless]

What beefche said.

You tell them you are not married to more than one man? Weird...

[beefche]

You tell them you are not married to more than one man? Weird...

Oh my word, Relentless. I was going to post the exact same thing! That is scary--you are now channeling the mind of the cow!

(btw, justice, I knew to which post you are referring).

[prisonchaplain]

I just had this kind of conversation the other day...at work. One of the staff asked what church I go to, and what kind of church it is. As she's finishing the question she adds, "You can't speak in tongues, can you?"

I stopped there, and said, "Why yes. Doesn't everyone?" She responds, "You do? Really? You?"

I preceeded to give her a short lesson on the Modernist-Fundamentalist controversies of the last century, and the evangelical break from fundamentalism--and how the Pentecostals were off to the side, but eventually won acceptance from the evangelicals--and then proceeded to become the largest group within evangelicalism.

Hey...I'm a chaplain...I can get away with it. She thanked me for the church history lesson. :-)

[pam]

Funny you would make a post about "tongues" after a post that Beefche made.

[Guest Godless]

"I'm an atheist. Yes, I know I'm going to hell. Stalin's saving me a keg down there."

[Dravin]

"I'm an atheist. Yes, I know I'm going to hell. Stalin's saving me a keg down there."

What? That's outrageous! Stalin would have a keg of vodka!

Now Marx on the other hand... :)

[Justice]

I don't hesitate. If they ask me I almost always say, "I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Most people call us Mormon." I've had all kinds of reactions to that, but overall, people don't recognize the name of the church, but they do recognize Mormon.

[Guest Godless]

What? That's outrageous! Stalin would have a keg of vodka!

I have it on good authority that he converted to beer on his deathbed.

[Dravin]

I have it on good authority that he converted to beer on his deathbed.

Wow. Betraying the Russian people to the end.

To actually get on topic:

I tell them. Tend to respond with LDS or Mormon. LDS of course often leads to further questions, then I go with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, aka Mormons response. The thought of losing a friendship over my answer I must admit has never really crossed my mind, if somebody detested my religion enough to break a friendship up over it I'm not sure I would have become friends with them in the first place.

Edited December 24, 2009 by Dravin

[Just_A_Guy]

I have it on good authority that he converted to beer on his deathbed.

If you think Stalin acted in error, I'm Absolutly sure you can purchase an indulgence on his behalf.

[OneEternalSonata]

People ask me this question often. =) Many ask me why I'm so happy all the time, or comment that I have faith before I even utter a word. It always catches me off guard. ^^;;

[john doe]

The only times I have been asked about religion is back in the day when I would pass through Vegas and stop at a casino to pay the customary $20 toll. The blackjack dealers would ask players where they were from, and when I said Utah, someone at the table would always follow up by asking if I was a Mormon.

[Traveler]

Just curious how you react when in conversation, someone asks you which Church you go to, in what circles.

I'll be honest, for me, it depends who I'm talking to.

One one hand, I like to be up front about who and what I am, but on the other hand, I also find people later get judgmental saying "I wouldn't think a Mormon would do that", if I describe something THEY think isn't consistent with their erroneous view of the Church, or their own selt-styled opinion of what THEY think is ethical for a Mormon or not. One family who lived with us judged everything I did from the perspective of a person who thinks all religious people are hypocrites, and it got pretty disturbing after a while.

On the other hand, we don't want to be like Peter and deny the Christ by not admitting we belong to His Church.

Also, where I live, there are strong anti-Mormon elements in certain Churches. Many of the people I interact with in business circles are from these Churches. And I'm concerned the conversation will lead to the kinds of challenges that are never resolved, or that take so much discussion to correct they stop listening. So, there are times I'd rather skirt the issue by saying 'I belong to a Christian church; I'm a Christian" and leave it at that.

When I feel someone is "golden" or sincerely seeking, then I'm wide open about it.

What do you do?

A few years ago I was sitting reading a book (translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls) at the gate in the airport at Burlington Vermont waiting for airplane to take me to Boston that ended up almost 6 hours late. A lady sitting nearby asked what I was reading and we started a casual conversation. She was a very interesting lady that was in Vermont to testify as an expert in physiology in a court case. I found her most interesting. As we were talking she asked me what religion I was. I told her I was LDS but that most know the religion as “Mormon”. She then commented that I did not appear at all to be anything like what she had been told Mormons are.

We started having a conversation about Mormons and little by little most of the people at the gate gathered around and joined in the conversation. For the next 4 hours I fielded every question that anyone ever asks about the Mormons from possibly 30 people that had become very interested. I have often wondered if the plane was delayed by some divine providence. Many thanked me for my responses – there were no negative listeners. This is not to say that I have not had some interesting and antagonistic discussion during my travels. One minister once called out to a crowd that I was a servant of Satan – so when anyone looked I just shrugged my shoulders and smiled.

Only once have I been threatened for my life for being a Mormon and by the providence of G-d, I lived through it.

The Traveler

Edited December 24, 2009 by Traveler

[Taldarin]

I grew up in metro detroit where we had to drive about an hour to church, so I was obviously the only mormon I knew for basically my entire life(in terms of school/jobs). Elementary school, middle school, high school, I was often the only mormon or one of two or three mormons.

I told everyone I was mormon. It was a pretty religious area, so there was obviously a lot of anti-mormon sentiments. But everyone knew me as "the mormon kid" and many people didn't even know my name, because my nickname was simply "mormon". Like "hey mormon are you going to practice after school?". They just knew me like that.

And I think it was a good thing. Everyone knew I didn't swear, didn't look at porn, didn't do anything everyone else did. It got to the point where people would offer me money to say a single curse word(which i never submitted to... my integrity is worth a little more than that), and kids that were grounded were not allowed to leave the house EXCEPT if they were going to hang out with "that mormon kid" because they knew their kid wouldn't do anything bad or get himself into trouble. Thankfully, for being on the basketball and soccer teams, I had that whole jock status, so I wasn't thought of as a loser. Yes, they made fun of me all the time. But it didn't matter.

Now, none of my friends that I had brought to church converted. However, because I was so openly mormon, at least almost everyone in my high school actually knows what it means to be mormon, knows the answers to the typical questions, and will probably think about it later in life when they've got kids to raise and they don't want them getting into things they shouldn't.

I've never been in the situation where it could cost me job opportunities, so I don't know how openly mormon I'd be, but I figure if I at least let it be known who I am so I can be that light of the world, the Lord well bless me for it...

[Carl62]

If people are going to judge or even criticize you for being Mormon, then they never would have been a friend of yours to begin with. I judge a person by how they treat me and not by what religion they are. I can give you a recent example of this: Over the weekend before Christmas when the northeast got the big snow of 15" to 20", I was stuck up in the mountains for the whole weekend and couldn't get back to my house which was an hour away. When the roads finally started to clear off by Sunday afternoon and I could head on out, as I was driving home, I was dreading the thought of having to shovel my driveway and sidewalks which is quite a bit to do. As I was getting near to my house, I looked in amazement as I saw that my entire driveway, sidewalks and all around my mailbox was completely 100% shoveled! I couldn't believe it! I wasn't completely sure who did it but I had my suspicions. As I looked at my next door neighbors mailbox area, the angle of how he snowblowed around his mailbox was identical to mine. I knew it was him.:) He has done this a couple of other times for me in the past as well as for the other neighbor next to him, but not to this extent. This man and his wife have been two of the nicest, kindest people I've ever known in my entire life and they could tell me that they worship the Flying Spaghetti Monster and it wouldn't change my opinion of them whatsoever. Even if they were atheist, IMHO, their actions showed me that they are more Christ-like then alot of Christians that I know. If people are going to judge you by how you worship as opposed to how you treat them, they they aren't worth even 2 cents in my book. Be PROUD to tell them that you're Mormon and if they reject you for it, then I can assure you it's going to be their loss and not yours. Why would a person need to compromise their ideals in order to make friends? If they are truly your friends, then they'll except you for all that you are, the good as well as the bad. If you can't express to them how you worship your God and how you treat your fellow man, then do yourself the favor and lose them, fast.

Edited December 25, 2009 by Carl62

[spamlds]

I live in a rural area in the Southeastern United States. We are few in number here. When someone asks me what church I attend, I'm always pleased to tell them I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I let them know that means I'm a Mormon.

Since the ones who ask usually have known me for a while, they are usually pleasantly surprised. They've heard so much negative stuff about us, but they'v never known a Mormon. Once they see we're not crazed fanatics, that we don't have horns, etc. they're usually quite open to learn more.

Never be afraid to pleasantly stand up for the Church. Anyone who starts up haranguing you with anti-Mormon stuff just makes themselves look bad.