Moksha Posted May 5, 2008 Report Share Posted May 5, 2008 No, no....you are confusing Salem, Utah with the capitol of Oregon....Salem Oregon is where the witch trials took place.....geez, take a history lesson! Well, it was an easy mistake to make. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Misshalfway Posted May 5, 2008 Report Share Posted May 5, 2008 Most of the people I meet are friendly. But I do get a little nervous when they find out I am LDS. It seems to change things and I don't like that. No longer as easy just to be people, neighbors and friends. I hate to be dismissed as a person or friend or neighbor just because of religious difference. My non LDS friends, though, are wonderful. I would love to make more of them. I do live in a place where LDS is the predominant religion. I hope we do ok with welcoming nonmembers and making our neighborhoods inclusive and comfortable. My worst experiences have been on my mission or here on the internet. And both circumstances are unfortunate but understandable to me....at least to some degree. I must say that the amount of negativity in religious conversation on this site is disconcerting at times. Sometimes, I just want to say "Let us be." I am hopeful that some dialogue can serve to bridge the divide somewhat. I wish we all left the judging to God, and we got back to the business of being and appreciating each other and just being good neighbors. We can always learn something valuable from people who are different than we are if we can only open our hearts to it. I think there is much we can do if we try to understand....not try to change one another or condemn one another. Practice should, IMO, never be more important than people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maya Posted May 5, 2008 Report Share Posted May 5, 2008 In Scandinavia religion is something you do not talk about. It is VERY private! I dont think you are allowed to pray in public, unless it is a meeting of somekind. I dont think I go and try... It is not allowed to ask what religion you are when you search for job. Most people dont care what you are, but with news like FLDS ranch in Texas the newsmakers make suer everyone know they are mormons... and then they can talk and think juicu thoughts. Well infact I have not got 2-3 jobs since I am a LDS, may even be more, word goes around and I think my beeing a LDS was one of the reasons I was kicked out of a job! People kind of grins when they learn to know I am an LDS or when they come and ask some "toughe questions" like :have you seen angles lately... On the internett... the hatered is more open. It is so much easier to talk ingognito. I been called animal names, other names, my personality as much as it show as on the internett has been dragged trough dirt, my spelling has been made a lot fun of.... not mentioning the things I believe and the things dear to me. I know all "Christians " are not like that, but I have become more carefull when talking with people that are not from LDS Church and I also have learned what to say to defend my religion. I also live in a place with many religions. Just on this little road there are LDS, Lutheran, Hindu; Buddhist, Muslims.... The schools have taken away religion from the plan and added somekind of ethic thing where they are supposed to learn equally much from all religions... LDS is not all religions ...so I suppose they learn equally from Lutheran belief and Muslims and .... uH?? It would be interesting to see what it becomes of that where they find the teachers, the teachers now dont know much of other than lutheran belief. I wonder if theya re supposed to teach catholism, Orthodox, Hindu, Buddhists??? Anyway I think the whole scandinavia will be muslim country in some 10-20 years...since muslims are the only ones with big families today! Ofcourse LDS COULD fight back... but now it looks like the birthrate ahs dropped a lot and so does the membership numbers too... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostnfound Posted May 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted May 7, 2008 Okay everyone..I am glad to hear some of you have had good experiences...sad to hear their are those who misrepresent themselves even as christians..and ashamed they would even call themselves christians and not communicate truth in love rather then hate. Have any of you ever been disowned by family or friends for your faith? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VisionOfLehi Posted May 7, 2008 Report Share Posted May 7, 2008 I currently live in a mostly Catholic town. (The Archdioceses of Iowa is in my town.) "Although sources vary, Catholics make up between 65-85% of city residents" And, we have a LOT of different churches in town. That said, I haven't met many people who outwardly show that they're religious. Often it just doesn't enter the discussion. However, one of my coworkers last year was a Southern Baptist minister, with a new start-up church here in town. We got along pretty well, and discussed religious topics fairly often. Most of them were about how important Christ is and how people should have Him in their lives, and if they just try to be like Him they'd have a lot more going for them. I know there was doctrine we didn't and wouldn't agree on, and he knew it, too, but it was sort of a mutual, never even mentioned, understanding that we wouldn't bother discussing those things. We wanted to get along, not find differences. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VisionOfLehi Posted May 7, 2008 Report Share Posted May 7, 2008 Okay everyone..I am glad to hear some of you have had good experiences...sad to hear their are those who misrepresent themselves even as christians..and ashamed they would even call themselves christians and not communicate truth in love rather then hate.Have any of you ever been disowned by family or friends for your faith?There is a guy in my Stake, used to be in my Ward, that joined the Church at 16 (I guess before parental consent was needed) and was thus disowned by his folks. They kicked him out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeuroTypical Posted May 7, 2008 Report Share Posted May 7, 2008 Have any of you ever been disowned by family or friends for your faith?I was never disowned by any LDS friends/family when I left the church. Similarly, I was never disowned by anyone when I came back.My dad was very irreligious and critical of LDS, but he let me make my own choices. He swore and cussed a lot whenever he thought about me paying tithing, but actually, he swore and cussed about a lot of stuff all the time anyway. :)I've drifted closer to, and farther away from various friends over the years, and I know that had something to do with choices of faith (theirs and mine), but I don't think any of us saw that as being disowned.LM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WillowTheWhisp Posted May 7, 2008 Report Share Posted May 7, 2008 I've never been disowned by family but one previous friend has feared me since I joined the church. I think she's under the impression that talking to me might result in some sort of contagious brainwashing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Dorsey Posted May 8, 2008 Report Share Posted May 8, 2008 My mother is a devout catholic and before my fathers funeral she asked me to give her a blessing and she allowed me to consecrate (bless) my fathers burial site. Both my parents saw such a wonderful change in me after joining the church they embraced my religion rather than condemning it. On the other hand a wonderful close friend of mine since childhood has ignored me from day one after I joined the church. He's an evangelical.....go figure..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Girl Posted May 8, 2008 Report Share Posted May 8, 2008 My mother is a devout catholic and before my fathers funeral she asked me to give her a blessing and she allowed me to consecrate (bless) my fathers burial site. Both my parents saw such a wonderful change in me after joining the church they embraced my religion rather than condemning it.On the other hand a wonderful close friend of mine since childhood has ignored me from day one after I joined the church.He's an evangelical.....go figure..... My husband is a convert of 6 years... His parents were very understanding when he joined the Church... Although they are not LDS (they are Methodists, who haven't attended Church for 20 plus years, not even for Easter or Christmas) they are wonderful, kind and moral people... They have higher standards then most people I know!! They have listened to the Choir evey Sunday morning for decades, and knew that the LDS are Christians... They had questions, bit no objections...SIlver Girl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr T Posted May 8, 2008 Report Share Posted May 8, 2008 He's an evangelical.....go figure..... That's not too shocking to me Brother D. I know there is a lot that goes into that comment on both sides but it's probably because Christianity is not all inclusive in what it is to be called a Christian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jadams_4040 Posted May 8, 2008 Report Share Posted May 8, 2008 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? I have been "wronged" by all differant religeous beleifs, but much less from l.d.s. the thing that always gets me to not undrstand self proclaimed christians, {because we are christian too} is for the most part, when talking biblical truths and showing these truths to someone not of our faith, and i mean someting that is absolutelly 100 percent unrefuttable in the bible, they always refuse to discuss anymore. it gets very frustrating. although i have felt spirit from many "christians" not of our faith. there is definately a wwaaayyy bigger spirit and definate confirmations of the doctrines of this church that far exceeds any other.:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Listener Posted May 8, 2008 Report Share Posted May 8, 2008 Profession of faith is not a guarantee against prejudice, fear, and hostility to those perceived as outsiders. I sometimes think that my past evangelical experiences of this kind of anti-Mormon fear are a remnant of a time when the fear of hell was far more lively than the joyful knowledge of atonement (see the 17th and 18th century). It is one of the reasons that I see the LDS practice of missions as so enlightened. I can't think of a better way to help people grow in awareness and appreciation of different practices, people, faiths and cultures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WillowTheWhisp Posted May 8, 2008 Report Share Posted May 8, 2008 Had a weird experience once when doing Family History, about 20 years ago. My late husband and I had made an appointment with a CofE vicar to see some old parish records. We were chatting merrily with him when he suddenly stopped and said "Wait a minute. You're not Mormons are you?" To which we replied that we were. Then he started shouting that we were heretics and demanded that we leave his church. He actually picked my husband up by the collar and manhandled him out of the building. No mean feat as he was over 6ft tall and built like a wrestler!In total contrast the CofE priest up the road from us has actually gone out of his way to track down some elusive parish records for us which were in County Hall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Listener Posted May 8, 2008 Report Share Posted May 8, 2008 Willow, even though I wasn't the vicar who threw you out, I feel like apologising anyway. It all reminds me of Northern Ireland on a grand scale. (Sorry to Irish members of good heart!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WillowTheWhisp Posted May 8, 2008 Report Share Posted May 8, 2008 Actually I felt sadder for the young couple who had popped into the church to talk to him about Christening their baby. They were visibly shocked by his outburst. I have often wondered if they were his regular parishioners and if it affected their faith.When people outside of the LDS church do hurtful things it really doesn't bother me as I put that down to them simply misunderstanding us. It's when people within the church do things to hurt each other that it really upsets me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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