Experiences with Christians..

[lostnfound]

Since I have moved to a mormon area. I have heard over and over how nice mormons are and that I should feel so great living in a mormon area. This is coming from all faiths that tell me this. LDS has a great reputation.

So, I want to hear from you..what has been your experiences with people proclaiming to be born-again believers in particular? Did your experiences impact your views in such a way that you left their churches and turned lds? Has it hardened you to all believers? What irritates you the most? What is the worst thing they have ever done to you? what is the best thing they ever did?

[Moksha]

What is the worst thing they have ever done to you?

The most horrific thing I ever heard came from that little town down by Spanish Fork, Utah known as Salem. The witch trials there were real doozies.

[Misshalfway]

The most horrific thing I ever heard came from that little town down by Spanish Fork, Utah known as Salem. The witch trials there were real doozies.

LOL!

[lostnfound]

LOL!

That was funny..but seriously don't you guys have expereinces with people outside of lds?

[Misshalfway]

Sure! We don't live in a bubble.

[lostnfound]

Sure! We don't live in a bubble.

lol..i did not think you did..So have they been good/bad what?

[Jenamarie]

For the most part the known Christians I've encountered have been pretty decent people. Some of them have known I'm Mormon, some haven't, and for the most part their behavior towards me hasn't changed once they've learned I was Mormon.

It's been different on the internet though. I guess the annonymity it provides gives some Christians the courage to tell me I'm going to Hell for my beliefs, that I've been hoodwinked into a cult, that my beliefs aren't really what they are (such as that I really worship a devil and have been put under covenant by my church not to admit it )and that they grieved for my children who were likely doomed to a similar fate because of how my husband and I were raising them.

Last year I joined my town's local MOPs group (Moms of Preschoolers) and when I first signed up I didn't realize it was a religious organization. None of the fliers for this chapter mentioned anything about Christ or the Bible, or anything like that. When I learned it met at a local church that was my first clue, but it wasn't until I got the registration paperwork that asked for my religion, and what being Christian meant to me that I realized what that it had anything to do with Christianity. That's when I started getting a bit nervous. I was fully aware by then that many churches officially denounced the LDS church as a false church, and I was nervous about if these women would accept me once they found out I was Mormon, or, if they did accept me, would they use this as an opportunity to witness to me, which is not what I wanted. I wanted to spend time with other moms and talk about mom things.

I'm happy to say that my religion hasn't been an issue, although I believe it's only the Steering team that even knows I'm Mormon. Religion has hardly been mentioned at all, honestly, in any of the meetings, which rather surprised me, so the topic of my faith hasn't had a chance to come up at all, and I've had a chance to really get to know these wonderful women for who they are, and not for what their views of Mormons and Mormonism are. I think it'll make it easier for me to take whatever comes when my faith does become known, since I'll know where these women's hearts are. :) (and I'd be shocked if it was anything negative, since most of the women I've gotten to know have been really really sweet women). I've been blessed by this opportunity to get to know other women of faith. :)

[lostnfound]

For the most part the known Christians I've encountered have been pretty decent people. Some of them have known I'm Mormon, some haven't, and for the most part their behavior towards me hasn't changed once they've learned I was Mormon.

It's been different on the internet though. I guess the annonymity it provides gives some Christians the courage to tell me I'm going to Hell for my beliefs, that I've been hoodwinked into a cult, that my beliefs aren't really what they are (such as that I really worship a devil and have been put under covenant by my church not to admit it )and that they grieved for my children who were likely doomed to a similar fate because of how my husband and I were raising them.

Last year I joined my town's local MOPs group (Moms of Preschoolers) and when I first signed up I didn't realize it was a religious organization. None of the fliers for this chapter mentioned anything about Christ or the Bible, or anything like that. When I learned it met at a local church that was my first clue, but it wasn't until I got the registration paperwork that asked for my religion, and what being Christian meant to me that I realized what that it had anything to do with Christianity. That's when I started getting a bit nervous. I was fully aware by then that many churches officially denounced the LDS church as a false church, and I was nervous about if these women would accept me once they found out I was Mormon, or, if they did accept me, would they use this as an opportunity to witness to me, which is not what I wanted. I wanted to spend time with other moms and talk about mom things.

I'm happy to say that my religion hasn't been an issue, although I believe it's only the Steering team that even knows I'm Mormon. Religion has hardly been mentioned at all, honestly, in any of the meetings, which rather surprised me, so the topic of my faith hasn't had a chance to come up at all, and I've had a chance to really get to know these wonderful women for who they are, and not for what their views of Mormons and Mormonism are. I think it'll make it easier for me to take whatever comes when my faith does become known, since I'll know where these women's hearts are. :) (and I'd be shocked if it was anything negative, since most of the women I've gotten to know have been really really sweet women). I've been blessed by this opportunity to get to know other women of faith. :)

That is awesome jenamarie. I am in mops too. I love it! I am glad you are being blessed by it. Many faiths particpate in Mops..

[Jenamarie]

And I make it sound like the MOPs group is the first time I've made friends outside of the LDS church, and it isn't. I've always had friends of other faiths, this was just the first time where I joined them in any sort of church function. We have an opening and closing prayer at MOPs, and had a pastor come in and speak to us about strengthening our marriages, and it's been interesting to see these things presented from a slightly different angle. The more casual prayers has deffinately taken some getting used to. I'm used to using "thee's and thou's" when speaking to my Father in Heaven, and some of the MOPs women have made light-hearted, laughable comments in their prayers, which was deffinately not something I was used to. At first it felt a bit irreverent to me, but again, as I've gotten to know these women, I've seen their hearts, and know that it's just their way of communicating with the Lord, and that they mean no disrespect to Him.

[lostnfound]

I thought for sure there would be more people that had not so good experiences. I am reading threads on kids getting disowned etc..this actually makes me happy that christians in general or non-lds do not have a bad reputation.

[Jenamarie]

I think you hear more about them because they stand out. :)

[NeuroTypical]

* We go to a homeschool co-op run by a Nazarene church. My wife's best friend attends that church, and our kids play together all the time.

* My ward and the community church across the street do a combined musical Cantata once every year - it's always a great experience.

* I've become friends with the lady who teaches the "Are Mormons Christians" class at our local mega church. She refuses to get into any serious kind of debate with me, but we are always exchanging pleasant and supportive emails. She sent a nice note when President Hinckley died, stuff like that.

These are the big 3. I've known, worked with, been friends with, and interacted with all sorts of wonderful evangelicals, baptists, episcopaleans, and other kinds of Christians.

LM

[MaidservantX]

I live in a small town in northeastern Arizona. It was a town that was settled by Mormon settlers at the direction of Brigham Young -- a "Mormon" town, although in the last few decades many more different kinds of people are moving here for a variety of reasons, and I like the changes. But I bring this up to say that, yes, a lot of my daily experience is "Mormon" so-called.

My best friend is not LDS. She has been talked to by the missionaries, read a bit of the Book of Mormon, and her attitude is basically, "No way!" When she and I talk, we don't talk a lot about faith directly, as in theological beliefs. But we are both single moms, widows. So we support each other in our challenges and understand one another perfectly. She is a great example to me, and I am in awe of all that she has overcome in life to become this sweet, strong woman. I don't know that she is active in any particular church, but she does have a belief in Jesus and the Bible, basically, at least. Like I said, we don't explain in detail our beliefs to each other. We are too busy talking about men and kids!!!

Something that happened to me a long time ago: I was in a gas station, at night, my husband was getting the gas and paying, and I got our small children out of the car to carefully walk around a bit, as we were on a long drive. I was wearing a dress, as my husband and I had been at the temple that day. A young man came up to me. He was very nervous and humble, and he gave the most sincere testimony to me of Jesus Christ and that Jesus had changed his life (etc.) and handed me a flyer with an invitation to attend a church. I was touched, of course, and thanked him. It caused me to ponder on how I was or wasn't witnessing with the kind of humility and courage it took him to say what he did to me. I felt like I could share a Book of Mormon with my neighbor the very next day, based on the example of that young man.

I have no (lasting) negative feelings or judgments about individuals who adhere to any faith (even beyond evangelical Christians). I believe everyone is doing their best with what they have learned in life and have come to believe. I am quite sad about the misunderstanding and falsehoods that exist about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that persons, including evangelical Christians, seem to buy into, and that seem to engender a passion that I do not see as Christlike. But . . . as I said . . . I know I have my problems too, so I try not to judge and try to meet people and get to know them on an individual basis and learn their story, learn from them, and hopefully by knowing me they will be influenced for good, and the works of the Father and of Christ will be revealed by my works.

[skalenfehl]

I come from a predominantly Catholic area (West Texas) and a vast majority of my friends and even some gals I dated were Catholic. I was definitely an outsider in my youth. Over the years I've interacted with people of all faiths and have found most to be very friendly and likable. There have only been few instances where other Christians have derided me because of my faith/religion but I hold no ill will towards any of them. We're all God's children.

[MorningStar]

I've had good and bad experiences. My best experiences are with my friends from high school - one is born again Christian, another is Lutheran, and another is Korean Baptist (formerly Catholic). We get along great, although once in a while my born again friend will come to me with a question that is beyond ridiculous because someone at her church told her it was true.

I've met lots of nice Christian people and I've met some who are Christian in word only. That really frustrates me. This guy in highschool bashed my beliefs one day and the following week was harrassing my sister because she refused to let him cheat off of her during a German test. While I was eating lunch in the choir room, he sat behind me and said in this very hateful tone, "Mormons aren't Christians." I ignored him. He said, "Did you hear me? I said Mormons aren't Christian!" I gave him an earful and that's when he pulled out this literature his church gave him - very incorrect literature. I have a pretty negative opinion of churches that print pamphlets against other denominations or hold classes teaching what other churches believe. I dated a guy who was born again and his friends kept telling him to break up with me because I'm Mormon and when I went to his service, he had the nerve to tell me not to tell anyone I am Mormon because they would kick him out of the band (which was part of the ministry). I told him that was the chance he took in bringing me there - If anyone asked, I would tell them. Another friend of his was a complete womanizer and told my boyfriend in front of me, "Don't worry. She'll see the light soon." It was very rude and I didn't see why I should follow him as he wasn't an example of a good Christian. Years later, I found out Ed Decker gave that church their class curriculum. If I had known that, I never would've set foot in there. During my 3rd visit, I saw the posters for the those classes as we were leaving and it took all my restraint not to tear them off the walls. It had classes against our church, Catholics, and Jehovah's Witnesses. I didn't say a word the whole way home - about 30 minutes or so. I was just shaking I was so upset that any church would do that. My boyfriend finally got brave enough to talk to me and I said, "IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT A MORMON BELIEVES, ASK A MORMON! IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT A JEHOVAH'S WITNESS BELIEVES, ASK A JEHOVAH'S WITNESS! IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT A CATHOLIC BELIEVES, ASK A CATHOLIC!" He agreed that what his church was doing wasn't the greatest idea.

There were also a lot of Christians at my school who told me I was going to Hell. One girl yelled it at me and my friend across the courtyard adding, "I'm only telling you this because I love you ...." They had prayer group during lunch and they wouldn't invite any Mormons.

So it's a mix. There are lots of different types of Christians out there.

[Guest jwild]

hi

I am from Southern California and have grown up in a strong LDS community while interacting with people of different faiths on a daily basis. Our Stake Center is right next door to a Baptist church and across the street from the community college. When I was in jr. high my folks enrolled me in private school at the Baptist Church next door (mostly because I kept getting into trouble in public school). I had a good experience and made many friends. There were other LDS kids there as well. They definitely were not hostile. I know there were a few occasions were they tried to witness to me but I didn't mind. At the time I was not interested in my own religion let alone theirs. But even so they did it in a respectful way. I eventually went back to public school and In high school I got involved in the local punk rock scene. Needles to say I rebelled quite a bit but I kept in contact with my friends I made at the Baptist private school. One friend in particular was of great help when I finally came to my senses and decided to give religion another try. I attended the Rock with him for a while and had a good experience there as well. Ultimately though I would reconnect with the LDS church because of doctrinal differences about the afterlife. Most notably eternal marriage. We still remain friends to this day though.

On my mission we did encounter some hostility but that was from a group that had a large amount of Anti-Mormon literature. I don't know what denomination they were, we didn't get that far, but they were visibly upset at the sight of us. We tracked into them and they brought out several binders of anti Mormon literature and seemed to delight in reading the most offensive stuff they could find. We tried to bear our testimonies and they started screaming at us and insulting us even more. The Samoan Elder that I was with started to lose his cool and started to yell back. At that point I had to push my companion back and just walk away. It was like breaking up a fist fight without the fist. (Although I was pretty worried about what the Samoan Elder might have done.)

Other than that most of my experience were good. Even when we talked to pastors of other churches. I never had another experience like that until I moved to Utah after my mission.

After the initial shock of Utah Mormon culture (which could be a whole thread in of itself). I was surprised at the tension i found between LDS people and people who were not of the LDS faith. I lived in SLC for a couple of years and felt uncomfortable around non LDS for the first time in my life. It was not a big issue but there definitely was an underline rift there. I assume that since the church is so prevalent there that people who are not LDS just get sick of hearing about it.

Then I attended General Conference for the first time and was shocked that there were protesters there yelling all kinds of things. There were a bunch of them right next to the side walk yelling that we were going to hell. There was one big guy that was screaming and challenging elders to debate him. He threw a Book Of Mormon on the ground and stomped on it and yelled at us some more. The police were there keeping them from coming onto the sidewalk where we were. I could see that several of the elderly women were scared. I didn't see it but apparently there were some that had the sacred garments and were throwing them on the ground, whipping there rears with them and all sorts of other things. Some LDS guy lost his cool and punched the guy. There was a scuffle and according to the News the LDS guy was arrested. Even though they were all waving protest signs with bible scriptures I have to say there actions were very unchristian. But then so was the LDS guy who threw the punch.

All in all I would have to say that most Christians are good caring people and I try not to let the actions of some taint my view of Christians in general.

[lovebug]

Can't say I really have experience with other Christians, at least that I know of. The ones I have encountered have seemed sincerely concerned for my welfare. Well, at least in California. I grew up in Pleasant Grove, Ut and though some 80-90% were members and though not all were active, there was no real problem that I could say, aside from peer pressure.

Though, when I went to college and lived in SCL, I was actually afraid of other Christians. So many seemed so angry that those of us who were Mormon, were Mormons. I've been to General Conference and until I reached the Conference center grounds, I was afraid of who I'd run into and what hateful things they'd be screaming and getting into peoples face about. It was really scary and they always seemed to be at least one, you had to avoid around downtown SLC.

I did have one or two friends in my Jr. and Sr. High School years and they were as nice as anybody else. Other than that I'm sure I've had encounters with other Christians, I just don't know who they were. Mostly, nice people being nice.

[MsMagnolia]

I live in an area where there are lots of people of different faiths. I have many friends of differeing religions. Last Christmas, some of our relief society sisters were asked to present a program with music and poetry about our belief in Christ. Where would we be performing this wonderful program? At a local Baptist church. It was amazing to get together with women of faith and have us all realize that we are very much alike when it comes to belief in our Savior. Of course I have had people ask me crazy questions and ridicule me. .. those memories fall away in the face of the awesome ones.

[jjrogers]

Actually most of my experiences with evangelical christians have been bad. I have been informed multiple times that I am going to hell. My first experience was at the age of six when I was informed that I wasn't allowed to play with another child because I was "mormon" and going to hell and her preacher (the mother's) told her all about what we "believed" (most of it false) and how evil we were. At 12 I was informed that at church we dance naked down the aisles and horns come out of our head. I have been told I couldn't send my kids to certain schools or join certain groups because I was "mormon" and therefore not Christian. I find it interesting that evangelicals think they actually get to decide who is christian and who isn't. I thought that judgement was up to Christ. I get sick of the anti-mormon literature that they continue to pass around some of them knowing that it is absolutely false. But ultimately, that is between them and God. I am accountable for my actions and they are accountable for theirs. I simply am polite and don't bother to argue with them.

[Moksha]

Many of my friends are non-mormon. They include Catholics, Lutherans, Unclassifiable Christians and Atheists and undoubtedly would include a greater variety, if I had more friends.

[tiancum]

Good and bad...

I know it's going to turn out with them getting angry when they come in telling me what i believe and calling me names.

I am a really good debater in person. So I usually win....and they calm down.

[NeuroTypical]

Oh - I almost forgot one:

The nicest lady on the face of planet earth, is a little old Catholic lady named Mary. She worked (and still works) at a candy store in SLC. I got my first job there emptying trash cans. She was very nice to me, and everyone else around. She's just one of those people that seem to radiate friendliness and goodness.

LM

[Brother Dorsey]

The most horrific thing I ever heard came from that little town down by Spanish Fork, Utah known as Salem. The witch trials there were real doozies.

No, no....you are confusing Salen, Utah with the capitol of Oregon....Salem Oregon is where the witch trials took place.....geez, take a history lesson!

[Hemidakota]

That was funny..but seriously don't you guys have expereinces with people outside of lds?

California...3 percent LDS faith.

[tiancum]

Isn't Salem where they make SALEMI ...SALAMI...???

Wow, i think i got dumber creating that humor.