I have been waiting for this moment for five years, and it happened! I had the following conversation:
Him: Hello. We’re from the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Saints.
Me: Oh, hi. I love The Book of Mormon!
Him, very flattered: Why, thank you.
Me: The musical!
They walked away.
Good to know.
Cool story, bro.
Did everyone around you cheer and give you high fives?
Let’s go to the quarry and throw stuff down there! Well-played, Annie!
I meant to add that the LDS church loves that musical. To the point that they sponsor it by advertising in the booklet that they give you when you see it in the theater. That wasn’t nearly the burn that you might imagine.
I have had many encounters with Mormon missionaries over the years all over the world (well, the part of it I’ve visited, anyway) and I’ve always found them to be very friendly and well mannered. Say what you will about the religion and the church; but their emissaries are a very fine face, indeed.
mc
Probably not as big fans of the South Park episode.
I found that ep surprisingly sympathetic, but I’m a cradle Catholic so I’m used to answering questions with, “yeah, well…”
So you know how when a customer brings something to your register and upon discovering it has no price tag, says, “Well, it must be free then, haw haw,” and you think, “Oy vey, enough already with that! It wasn’t clever the first time I heard it, and it hasn’t gotten any more clever the roughly 6,000 times I’ve heard it since?”
Well, that 's probably what those guys were thinking as they were walking away.
2 things: First. Some stores have a policy of giving you an item free if the marked price and the register price do not agree. I got a free $99 copper fire pit that way.
Second: Getting back to the OPs subject. I would recommend to anyone wanting to learn about the Mormons to read Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer. It focuses mostly on the radical fringe element of Mormonism but it will give you a good overview of the history and culture of current day members. Like most people I’d always considered the Mormons a pretty innocuous bunch, but after reading the book they come off as a lot more cult like than I imagined.
Surely Mormons are no more or less deserving of ridicule than other religions. True, the Joseph Smith thing is ludicrous, but so is the idea of transubstantiation, or someone rising from the dead after 3 days. A handicap that Mormons suffer from is that their religion is based on stories that supposedly happened in recent history, which makes it easier to mock.
I realize that the plural of anecdote is not data, but all the Mormons I’ve known (with one exception, who went to jail for embezzlement) have been fantastic people - kind, self-effacing, helpful, and even in some cases quite open-minded.
Proselytizing from any religion is off-putting, but there is no harm in telling people that you are not interested in a polite tone. If nothing else, it shows that atheists can be kind and considerate and we aren’t all representatives of the devil.
Besides, I think Penn Jillette has a point:
I met a couple Mormon missionaries in Campeche, México. We chatted for awhile. I was very impressed that they spoke perfect Spanish.
They must have a great language school.
The Missionary Training Centers lay the foundation for the missionaries’ language learning. During the entire assignment in the mission field (posting), the missionary is required to continue learning tbe language and is tested quite often. The locaI missionaries are required to learn English. I know one woman who is from Mongolia; during her mission in Korea, she was required to learn both Korean and English.
A liberal Catholic friend and I used to joke about that. The only difference is that Mormons know where the bodies are buried. Rather than have all the silliness 2,000 years ago, it was less than 200 years ago, and there are historical records.
Obviously, I know a lot more Mormons, so I know the bad as well as the real ugly. However, for most of us former adherents, it’s less the members than the organization.
Like many former missionaries who have quit Mormonism, I have more than a few mixed feelings when I talk to missionaries. While I would have loved to have had someone from outside our religious bubble point out the obvious errs much sooner, it would have made serving my mission all that much worse if I actually knew about the problem rather than simply simply suspected them.
However, rather than focus on those things, I mostly talk about the unspoken issues of depression and other problems. That it’s ok if they don’t feel like they have to be bubbly all the time.
The MTC is all right. They strongly emphasis the conversational language over grammar and difficult vocabulary. I sounded much better in Japanese after my mission than a friend who majored in that language, although they had a far better grasp of written and formal Japanese. OTOH, people who attend a university in a foreign country would be much, much better.
As missionaries, you are constantly meeting new people. Consequently, so get the same conversation again and again. You do get good at that conversation.
That has been my experience as well. They all ride bikes around my neighborhood and ride college buses in the city. The most well-mannered of all of the religion pushers. My worst experiences have been with the Rod Parsley people.
Being friendly and well mannered is pretty much a standard requirement for small to smallish cult recruitment. You usually gotta be one of the big cults before you can use threats of harm in this life or the next. I’m sure that recruiters for Jim Jones and Marshall Applewhite were perfectly friendly, polite people.
Beware the person wearing a smile and carrying a book.
I’m waiting to be approached. I’d like to open with, “Please tell me about the Mountain Meadows Massacre when Mormons slaughtered 120+ non-Mormons passing through Utah in 1857, and the church cover-up that ensued.”
That’ll show 'em!!
I’ve had several Mormon friends, and they were extremely nice. They didn’t drink, but they still liked to party with the rest of us. And when I was in corporate America, I had a few engineers working for me who were Mormons. I actually “inherited” them as part of a group from another manager, who informed me that they needed 2 weeks off at a certain of they year, but you couldn’t ask for better employees. Shit just got done, no drama, muss, no fuss.
I was in Australia once and was at a club one night talking to some locals. This one guy noticed my accent and brought up the Crédit Mobilier Scandal of 1872. I just walked away.