That sounds way more enticing than it should! 
OneCentStamp, what is the LDS procedure for excommunicating (do they even call it that) someone? Latter Days had it’s main character called before some kind of tribunal? What are the grounds for excommunication? Are familymembers allowed to have contact with heretics?
There are three “levels” of disciplinary action available to the Church. The least severe, formal probation, basically consists of you and your bishop (no higher authorities need be directly involved) sitting down and coming up with a specific plan for you to repent of some moderately serious sin. I was on this once for having oral sex with my girlfriend. The next most serious, disfellowshipment, means you’re basically in “time-out.” You can’t participate in any Church meetings or activities (you can show up, but you can’t pray/teach/give lay sermons/hold positions), but at the end of the disfellowshipment period, you’re back, good as new. This is the common punishment for, say, having premarital sex.
Excommunication is rare. It’s saved for those who begin openly speaking or writing against the Church (Fawn Brodie comes to mind), those who commit adultery after receiving the temple endowment, and people who commit murder or other really serious crimes. In most cases, it’s possible to come back to the Church, but you have to get re-baptized and everything.
How do they find out about things like that? Is there some sort of confession process in the Mormon church (thinking back to my days as a Catholic, where routine confession was, well, routine).
Were you more or less active in the religion than average? Do the Mormons have any sort of standard operating procedure for people who just sort of drop out of the religion (do they send missionaries, or elders to your home to find out why you left, and try to get you back?)
How old must you be to become a full member of the church?
What??? You have to wear your bra over your secret undies??? How on earth does that work? I have enough trouble getting a bra to fit properly without anything under it!
Dangermom, I’m all about pettipants - would it blasphemous for me to wear Mormon undies if they’re so much cheaper?
Oh, and under the heading of “impertinent wisecracks,” are you hot, OCS? Cuz a lot of the Mormon guys I know are hot. Just saying’…
Even in my most anti-LDS phase, I never bought into tales of an official Danite order enforcing “blood atonement”, BUT in cases of a capital offense, would a bishop counsel a repentant prisoner to accept capital punishment to make blood atonement?
Well, not that I want to describe my underwear habits in detail on the Internet–thanks, guys–here goes. It is not actually required any more to wear a bra over the top; that’s up to personal preference these days. However, I do, and I prefer it that way, because my cami top is soft and comfy cotton, and bras have always bothered my skin. I now find anything but a cotton sports bra to be unbearably prickly if it’s next to my skin (as, say, at the gym when I work out). It has side benefits which I’m not willing to discuss, but my husband likes them pretty well.
No, you can’t buy garment bottoms unless you’re a recommend-holding Mormon, and it would indeed be inappropriate for you to wear them (sort of like wearing a Jewish prayer shawl when you’re not Jewish and not praying). In fact, they’ve tightened up the buying process in the last couple of years, because they were getting a lot of people trying to buy them to wave in public at you’re-going-to-hell protests, auctioning them off on eBay for thousands of dollars, and other such boring antics. Your recommend is required for all purchases these days.
MamaZappa, excommunications generally follow a confession or blatant showing-off of whatever problem it is. Or, in cases like child abuse or other awful things, it comes out through some sort of accusation or arrest. (One guy I knew once skipped town to avoid his impending arrest and the whole thing got on the news. He was ex’d at some point during his trial, I think; the person has to sit down with some Church officials and talk it all out.) Mormons don’t confess everything, only pretty major sins, so it’s only somewhat similar to Catholics.
FriarTed, I have never in my life heard any Mormon say the words “blood atonement” except when discussing anti-LDS literature. Someone who committed a serious crime would be expected to take the legal consequences, but I’m not sure how many murderers are also faithful Mormons who want to take a bishop’s advice. American Mormons generally accept the death penalty, but quite a few do not, and the numbers vary according to country–a Swedish Mormon is probably like other Swedes in that regard, for example.
Right - I figured something like the excommunication was the result of something major coming to light. I was just wondering about the lower-level stuff that OCS referred to - e.g. oral sex with girlfriend resulting in a bishop conference. Unless they got caught, I couldn’t imagine how that got discovered, if there wasn’t some sort of “confession” process.
OneCentStamp (and Dangermom and anyone else who wants to chime in): What are some of the worst / weirdest / funniest misconceptions you’ve heard about your church?
Years ago, I had a colleague inform me - in all seriousness - that the reason Mormons were strongly encouraged to have large families was because of their long-range plan to overthrow the US government. :rolleyes: This was in a part of North Carolina where Mormons weren’t especially common (even in my college town) but still I was rather startled to hear that particular pronouncement.
Hah, where to start? Well, we have horns, as you probably know. We’re not allowed to dance or eat chocolate. Temple weddings involve naked cavorting and sex on the altar. People have committed suicide by jumping off the top of the Salt Lake Temple into the Salt Lake (50 miles away, quite a feat!). Oh, and of course we’re Satan worshippers.
We’re having an open house for the new temple in Sacramento just now (anyone in the Sac area, this is your chance! Go see what it’s like inside! Yummy cookies, too!), and I discovered to my bemusement that the old rumor is, in this case, true–they really will rip up the carpets afterwards and replace them. Not because of any religious significance, but because after a solid month of a couple thousand visitors per day, the carpets will be worn out. The stone floors will remain as is.
I dunno, I’ll have to think some more. Not to mention that I’m supposed to be parenting right about now.
Not that I’m fixated on your underwear, Dangermom, but you’ve got me curious now - when wearing pantyhose (a tool of the devil as far as I’m concerned), do you have to wear your garment underneath? Or do Mormon women not wear pantyhose (enough to get me to convert right there!)? And I assume (but could be wrong) that you’re allowed to go swimming - are there abbreviated versions for under swimsuits or do you not have to wear it?
Oh, well, I just pull tights on over the top, which would be the comfiest method. The bottoms are skin-tight, so it’s not like I’ve got wads of fabric in there. Most LDS women I know don’t bother with it unless they have a reason to wear them. There’s no thigh-chafing problem.
You don’t wear them for working out, swimming, sports, and so on.
The other wacky rumor about us is that we don’t actually know what we believe. Secretly, we have all these other beliefs (such as Satan-worship), but we’re either lying or we don’t know about them. So don’t believe anything I tell you about LDS beliefs, 'cause I’m lying or clueless anyway.
Do Mormons have any special modesty rules when in the company of the same sex? Eg would Mormons be forbidden from using a communal shower in a lockerroom without their garments on? And are married couples allowed to use any sort of birth control?
Do you think there’s a “mormon look”?
To wit, Ken Jennings
Kind of a look like the whole face is smushed to small circle in the lower third of the head. Big forehead. Thin, blond locks. Somewhat beady eyes. And, often, the women look like that too.
More seriously, I’m always interested in just how Mormons reconcile their forgoing of polygamy. It’s right there in the D & C. Is it just a matter of “well, we have to do this but one day, we’ll get it back.” I’d think there would be a always present lingering feeling of “geez, maybe we are supposed to be polygamous.” And, in the same vein, do some members look at FLDS as actually living the truth. Shoot if you’re going to drop one law to make it easier to get by, why not drop them all?
Also, do you think Elizabeth Smart went along with Immanuel freely?
Now just a darned second there - everyone knows it’s the Jews who have horns! Are you stepping into our territory? Mumble mumble Gentiles!
At last! A place where I could really use a “Happy Orthodox Jewish Guy” smiley!
Except I’m not Orthodox. And I’m not happy - what with my sinuses making my horns ache, and my tail is sore from sitting all day. Oy! Such tsuris!! :rolleyes:
No, communal showers are fine. BYU dorms had them until a few years ago; some of them might still, for all I know–I didn’t go there.
Birth control is allowed, but at the same time it’s considered important to have as many kids as you can reasonably handle (physically, emotionally, and financially). The official doctrine these days is that it’s between you and God, and nobody else’s business. So I have two kids, and nobody bothers me about that, but that’s pretty small for a Mormon family. 3-4 is average, and 5-6 is common. You don’t often get 8-10 these days, but some do have that many.
Trunk, the withdrawal of polygamy is also right there in the D&C. I would say that most Mormons are pretty happy with the current situation.
I didn’t know that. Which passage? Who wrote it? When? Did someone conveniently receive this message from God right about the time that Utah wanted to become a state?
Regardless, IMO, going back and rewriting what Smith wrote is no different than just poo-pooing it aside, so to me, the point still stands.
Ah. . .from Wiki.
I guess that’s the problem with a religion where everyone can receive revelations from God. How do you order them?
IANA Mormon, but I suspect that that those descended from the old-stock families who walked across the Plains dragging those tiny covered wagons do have a typical look to a slight degree. The ones I’ve met usually seem to be a little larger and sturdier than average–the sort of people you would expect to have ancestors that went through a difficult migration. This ‘look’ would be superimposed on that of typical ‘WASPs’ from the American Northeast. Maybe the general good nature that’s been mentioned is related to that as well–the ability to be cheerful and optimistic in the face of hardship.
