This is part 7 of a series. It begins here.
It has been over 6 months since I have last updated my continuing story with the Mormons, so I think it’s about time to add a few more notes.
The past two weeks have been filled with Mormons, the center spotlight of the most popular series on my blog. Since Jayna and Shane have moved to Salt Lake City, they have experienced the heart of Mormon culture firsthand. As it is Christmas break, a time when families come together (out of affection or obligation), the parents, brother, and I made a road trip to the City of the Big Salty Lake.
Since Jayna and Shane had already been living there for a few months, they had encountered some of the strange peculiarities of the Mormon way of life. They had been welcomed, they had been fed. Since they are good citizens, they use the public library, a source that has provided them with the book, Mormon America: The Power and the Promise. Apparently a fascinating read, this book details the history and customs of the religion through an unbiased yet thoroughly inspected view. Dad found the book and didn’t put it down until it was finished.
While I have yet to read the book (my pleasure reading this break is focused on my usual dystopian genre), I was rather amazed to be immersed in the Mormon culture for a week. I first noticed something was different when I heard someone genuinely use the expression “Jeez Louise” in place of a more taboo expletive. Welcome to the world of Mormons.
Aside from being an extremely clean city, the streets and city blocks are ridiculously wide and are numbered up to the tens of thousands, all in relation to the Temple. The people are very friendly and take very good care of their appearance, although they do seem to like natural insulation, I guess to combat the cold winter months. We just bundled up and became bitter:
This is my general way of combating the cold.
As part of our being tourists, we had to take a Temple tour. As soon as we got to Temple Square, it started snowing, so they told us we could wait in the Visitor’s Center and they would come get us in 15 minutes. Punctuality wasn’t their thing, as about 25 minutes later, we were summoned outside, only to meet a mess of confusion, switching tour guides, and be ushered back inside the Visitor’s Center.
I should note, when we mentioned we would like a tour, the lady in the booth had to confirm that we would like one in English. I thought this was strange, but at least she was being nice by making sure the Asians didn’t need another language.
Amazingly, the white, English-speaking tour guides transfered us to the foreign Asian and Oceanic ones. This upset me quite a bit, not necessarily out of racism, but because I feel much less comfortable asking detailed questions to someone who probably won’t understand what I’m saying, much less be able to interpret and provide a reasonable answer. That, and the fact that my increasingly hard-of-hearing parents were going to have a difficult time understanding them. Their lack of punctuality and last-minute change of tour guide set the Mormons back two strikes in my book.
Since anyone willing to attend a tour of the Temple must be interested in Mormonism to some extent, the large portion of the tour consisted of an explanation of the religion with a mild intent to convert. Having had enough experience with the religion to write the entirety of this series, I was bored by their simplified version of the history and theology. With enough Mormon America in us, I think the rest were too. Also, it might have been due to their waining confidence in the language, but it seemed like the two tour guides merely echoed each other instead of adding on.
After the lecturing, we ventured out into the snowstorm, over to the tabernacle. Discourses on the construction and acoustics were moderately enthralling, but the warmth was even more appealing. Actually, I was a little sad the choir didn’t give me a personal performance, but I suppose that was out of the question.
More venturing in the snow led us to the other Visitor’s Center. We were ushered upstairs to stare at a giant, white, ethnically and geographically inaccurate Jesus. More lectures on prophets and translations of the Book of Mormon gave me difficulty keeping my mouth shut, but we politely persevered to the end.
In all, the tour was very clean and well organized, as is every other aspect of the Mormon religion (except, perhaps, their history). I didn’t feel like any particular questions of mine were answered, but new ones were definitely raised. Of course, we were asked to fill out cards with contact information, so I’m eager to see if they will start calling me again. It’s been too long since I’ve heard from them.
The rest of our trip was much less Mormon-filled, the majority satisfied by any sort of human interaction. While their theology is somewhat questionable, I cannot stress the quality of human life the religion produces. Salt Lake City is no doubt a giant city, but it maintains the friendliness, safety, and cleanliness that surpasses nearly every other city I have visited. In all my adventures with the Mormons, I have been amazed at the strange things they believe, but I have always been in awe at the happiness and goodness of those who believe them.
Continue reading here.
I appreciate your objective views of the Mormon religion. I’ve been on both sides of it in my life so I understand both being a Mormon and being outside the Mormon faith. Perhaps some of what I will write on my blog can help you realize as you state “the happiness and goodness” that comes from those of us in the Mormon faith. Feel free to ask me any questions.
I’m sorry. I forgot to leave my blog’s site. It is: ama49.wordpress.com.
Feel free to visit and read about why I believe in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Clean city, big wide streets okay. If you do further research can you tell me if one can convert to Mormonism and if one does convert do we get to have great smiles, white teeth? You said you were of Aisian ethninticity (did I spell that correctly, no spell check here) are there any Aisians in the heiarchy of the church? It seems to be a pretty vanilla looling cult. Did you get to travel and get to the poly communities? That is a strange feeling if you get to visit.
I’ve met enough childhood-raised mormons to believe they do have a tendency toward friendliness and cleanliness. But their home lives can be just as disfunctional and chaotic as anyone else’s. They’ll do their best to hide it. Creepily submerged beneath a placid surface. This is socially enforced on every level. I’m not sure I’d want to gain friendliness from that sort of manic control.
Good story. Thanks.
The Mormons are known for having a huge emphasis on both families and missions. Thus, their religion is far from being entirely white. Granted, it is an American religion, starting here in the early 19th century, so there were particular ideals of that day (exclusion of African Americans, for one). As it became highly unfashionable to be racist, the prophet had a revelation that they could now be accepted in the church, thus fueling a greater population.
Every upstanding member of the church serves a mission in some other region of the world, many placed in extremely foreign parts. As a result, there is a huge ethnic diversity in the church, but Salt Lake City still remains where it always has been, so most of the Mormons there are white.
And as far as the friendliness is concerned, this is again part of their doctrine. Their emphasis on families extends beyond the large number of children they are known for. They believe you can find your ancestors and seal them as well. The weekly Family Home Evenings force a wholesome bond between members of the family. Combined with the fact that they don’t swear and don’t drink basically anything with flavor (caffeine, hot drinks, alcohol), they are a generally happy and trustworthy people. Everybody has problems, but I’m impressed at how pleasant they are as a whole. This happiness is probably the number one reason why people are drawn to it.
Even though in modern times because of public pressure its’ been toned down, I think you should do an article on race and mormonism. They taught up until somewhat recently that black people were a direct descendent of Cain, and that they would not be allowed higher ranking church positions.
While it’s true they no longer teach this, it’s been said they haven’t said what they previously did teach was wrong, just removed those parts because of public pressure.
In my meager dealings with the Mormon faith I experienced a high level of niceness like you describe. However it feels very put-on, and over the top to me. Granted that could be me being very cynical, but I just vibe. The whole “If it seems to good to be true” vibe.
It would be hard for me to put any faith into a belief that has changed and morphed over and over to fit into societies norms throughout the years.
Interesting series you have there J-Dawg.