What People Misinterpret About Mormons


RooTheMormon
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  1. We Have No Respect for the LGBT community: We believe that God loves ALL his children no matter what. We only dont agree with LGBTs because God created a man and a women for a reason: to create life! Without this, He could not grow His kingdom. Gays are to be respected, but Heavenly Father wants union between a man and a women, because family is one of the most important things to mormons.
  2. We dont drink alcohol: Ive seen a lot of people look at LDS members odd when they turn down a beer. But why dont we drink? Alcohol is not good for our bodies. It can be addictive and harmful. Our body is a temple, and our Heavenly Father wants us to take care of our bodies, and provide them with nurishing foods. Alcohol can damage our bodies and do bad things to our minds. So if you ever have a mormon turn down a drink, maybe you should consider doing the same. We are not trying to be rude, we just want whats best for our minds and bodies.
  3. We are too restricted: There are a lot of topics, conversations, and words you wouldnt want to use or bring up around a mormon. Some people find us as very restricted people, because we have so many rules. But if you really think about it, we dont have these rules to make life boring or to make us feel like we have no freedom, it is to protect us. Each and everyday as we try to be like Jesus, we must try to have a clean mind and body like Jesus. As we choose not to watch bad movies or listen to bad movies or to swear or to be dirty or vulgar, we are protecting ourselves and others. Think of it this way: we are all on a path leading back to our Heavenly Father. The Holy Ghost is our flashlight to help us see in the dark. The scriptures are the map. And so on. When we have a clean mind, the path is clearer and easier to follow. When we have dirty minds, the path is hard to see, and often rocky and challenging to walk. Whether you are LDS or not, it is always better to have a clean mind!

Everyday I see stereotypes that people set for mormons. I think that in order to judge a mormon by their actions, you should better know why we do what we are doing. If you know why, things generally make a bit more sense. These are only a few of the typical LDS labels. Can you name a few?

I am not saying everyone does this or anything. Just putting my thoughts out there. :)

Heavenly Father loves everyone no matter what, and dont you ever forget that!

Edited by RooTheMormon
I believe I threw some off with the title before. The word 'hate' was meant to be used as an overexaggeration, not to be taken literally. Therefore to prevent confusion from what I was really trying to talk about, I changed it. Sorry if I confused anyone.
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I think you've got some pretty good comments here.  But these really aren't why people hate Mormons.  These tend to be reasons why people respect Mormons.

1) The LGBT thing is one in both camps.  The LGBT groups, of course, hate us because we essentially say that they are sinning.  People don't like being called sinners.  The thing they don't realize is that we're all sinners.  So, why does it bother them that we're including them in that group?  The truth is that they want to be considered "better" than everyone else.  And we just don't say that.  We say we're all equal.

Other Christian faiths will applaud us for at least getting this right.  We've been at the front lines of this fight.

2) The WoW is not a reason why people hate us.  But they do think it is weird.  Again, this is simply because of what they're used to.  Non-LDS people who observe healthy living will not think anything of it.

3) Again other restrictions such as vulgar language, dirty jokes, law of chastity issues, etc. are things that make people think we're weird.  But they also respect us for it.

The primary reason people don't like Mormons is that we're essentially telling everyone in the world that they're "doing things wrong."  People don't like being told that.  The LGBT lobby wants to think that they're fine the way they are.  They don't want to change.  They don't think they CAN change.  It''s so much easier to believe you're fine and dandy when you don't believe you can change.

Other religions don't like us because we tell them that they've got it wrong.  Of course, they're not aware of the fact that they're telling us the same thing.  So, I don't see why the hypocrisy is not apparent to those who hate us on this point.

But our lifestyle has given us great blessings -- both as individuals and as a people.  Let me tell you a few stories.

FIRST:

Many government agencies and government contractors with security clearance requirements have a much higher concentration of Mormons among their ranks simply because of the lifestyle requirements.  Essentially, they want people who are pretty honest and won't have lifestyle choices that make them subject to blackmail and other corruptible levers.  Even though many such people can be found among other faiths, the percentage of Mormons who satisfy these requirements is much higher than that of your average Christian.

SECOND:

Ironically, casinos in Vegas, Reno, and other locations actually seek out Mormons to work there.  They need honest people to handle all the money changing hands and they need people who are vigilant to act as security.  And it also helps if the people they employ don't actually participate in the gambling.  They have found that active Mormons with temple recommends are more likely to fit the bill than any other group.  

THIRD:  This is a longer story, so I'm going to put it in a quote bubble.

Quote

Stillwater, OK Stake of Zion

Oklahoma is not the most LDS friendly state.  Stillwater, OK is not a large city -- even by Oklahoma standards.  But it still has a large enough LDS population to be home to an entire stake.  How did that happen?

An research & design engineering company once had a problem.  The head of the design team had a problem with retention and with basic personnel issues.  

  • They had kids coming out of college who spent so much of their time partying and carousing that they didn't really learn much.
  • They had adults who spent their entire weekends drinking and partying so they either didn't show up for work on Mondays or they were pretty much useless the entire day.
  • Many were simply liars.
  • Many just didn't work very hard.
  • Many were insubordinate to their supervisors.
  • Many just weren't that good.
  • The list went on.

He wen to the R&D supervisor to get some advice.  His department seemed to be doing pretty well.  They didn't have such personnel issues.  The R&D guy told him some interesting things.

  • Hire your guys from BYU.
  • R&D (a department responsible for inventing things) is only allowed to hire two people per year.  And they must be from different colleges (attempt to ensure diversity of thought).  Made sure to hire at least one person from BYU every year.
  • These Mormons don't have the drug and alcohol issues that others do.
  • They are very responsible people because a central tenet of their faith is personal responsibility.
  • They're honest and hard working because their religion requires it of them.
  • Most are a couple years older and more mature because they have to go on these missions of theirs.
  • Many of them speak a second language.
  • Most of them are married and thus more stable by the time they graduate.  They've got families they take care of and they take it seriously.
  • If I could, I'd hire all my guys from BYU.

Now, one thing the first manager knew was that the most prolific inventor in the entire company was a Mormon (I'll call him "Steve").  He had no idea that there were more Mormons in the company.  How often do you even see a Mormon in Stillwater anyway?  Many in the company even had an unwritten rule to NOT hire  those "weird" Mormons.  But when they hired him, he had so many inventions and patents to his name and a PhD that they didn't even look at where he got his bachelor's degree.

So, he went to talk to this guy to see if he could inform him about Mormons.  "How can I get these kids to move from their ski resorts in Utah to come to boring Oklahoma?"

Now, Steve, being cunning, but harmless saw this as an opportunity.  Cut the scene to a few months later.

He had sent a recruiter to the engineering college at BYU and offered to bring two bus loads of students to the company in Stillwater.  They hired a great deal of them.  Year after year they continued to do heavy recruiting from BYU.  That was enough to create an entire stake in a Oklahoma town of only 45,000 people today.

As you might suspect, I am a bit on the prideful side about being a Mormon.  But I recognize that it is the Lord's way.  The purpose of the Church can be summed up as "to make bad men good, and good men better."  It is through the enabling power of the Atonement of Christ that we believe we can be better.  It is our way as Mormons to continue to strive to be better every day.

Some admire this.  Some envy this.  Others hate this.

Edited by Guest
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By saying why people 'hate' mormons I was just overstating to imply my point. All of my family is non-lds and I am constantly hearing their coversations about despising mormons for certain things. Especially the LGBT thing. I am not with this post trying to imply that people hate mormons for this reason, rather that people judge us because they dont understand why we do these things. Thanks for your imput @Carborendum

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9 hours ago, prisonchaplain said:

IMHO the irreligious are mostly on a hate-fest now with all non-LGBT-affirming spiritualities. Trinitarians feelings of distrust and unease are mostly doctrinally driven. Then there's that whole 'worker-bee' vibe--making slackers look bad.  ;)

While I agree with you, I think there is a difference between when we have a clear disagreement of doctrines and beliefs vs name-calling.

When my so-called friend called Mormons a "cult" and a "parasite on Christianity" as casually as if he'd said "good morning" it is a bit disturbing.  And he was not being sarcastic.  He joyed in the exact connotations those terms.  It wasn't simply a logical assessment of his impressions of Mormons.

It's just about courtesy.

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@Carborendum Sounds like your so-called friend is just unkind. Sometimes we all fall prey to "being so right we're wrong." We think we've got something over on others and become unrighteous in our certainty. What you described goes beyond doctrinal difference, of course. I hope it's not too common. Yikes!

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8 hours ago, prisonchaplain said:

@Carborendum Sounds like your so-called friend is just unkind. Sometimes we all fall prey to "being so right we're wrong." We think we've got something over on others and become unrighteous in our certainty. What you described goes beyond doctrinal difference, of course. I hope it's not too common. Yikes!

I'm finding that it is less common than my past life experience had shown (such as that guy I grew up with).  Texas was supposed to be a very anti-Mormon state.  But living here, working here, a lot of people know I'm "the Mormon of the office" and most people are still very polite.  We just can't talk religion very much.

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22 hours ago, RooTheMormon said:

By saying why people 'hate' mormons I was just overstating to imply my point. All of my family is non-lds and I am constantly hearing their coversations about despising mormons for certain things. Especially the LGBT thing. I am not with this post trying to imply that people hate mormons for this reason, rather that people judge us because they dont understand why we do these things. Thanks for your imput @Carborendum

My fist post in this thread was to change the tone to a more positive outlook.  I realize that in your situation, you're hearing a lot of the negative things said about the Church.  I was wanting to put some positive feedback into your life to let you know that a lot more people admire us than some would have us think.

Feel good about being a Mormon.  There are many advantages and so much good coming from living the faith.  You are loved more than you are hated.  God wants you here as much as the devil wants you away from here.  You can feel as much peace from staying true than the discord you feel from your family.

Stay true and you will have peace.

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