I had no knowledge of this scandal you referred to, so I did a google/wikipedia search and don’t see how it has any relevance to the OP or the post you quoted. **Bizerta’s **post is a legitimate question to any Mormon missionary who is probably shielded from the history of their own “religion”. I know this is not the forum for debates so I won’t go into things any further here. I’ll just refer all to my previous post recommending a book that will enlighten anyone who is unaware of the Mormon agenda.
Last year I ran into two female missionaries, which is rather rare. Outside of a church, I think either coming or going to door knocking. Only males are required to go on missions. Polite, we spoke awhile but they weren’t pushy. I like LDS missionaries better than JW ones.
The church is well aware of the Parker/Stone musical, and is surprisingly cool with it. Yeah the mormons got surprisingly well in the South Park episode, even though it was critical.
I guess that’s true in the same sense that it’s a “legitimate” question to ask any Catholic who is probably shielded from the history of The Inquisition. I’m an atheist, but I don’t feel the need to poke people about their religion. As for Mormon missionaries, my experience is that if you simply say you’re not interested, they’ll leave you alone. If they insisted on bugging the living shit out of me, perhaps I’d feel the need to fire something at them to make the feel defensive.
Otherwise, you know, live and let live.
I don’t want to get my peepee whacked for arguing in this forum but I’ll say it once. Just because they’re polite doesn’t mean they’re harmless. They’ll smile in your face and move on to the next victim/sucker/convert until they catch one.
I’ve encountered more than a few Mormon missionaries. They have always been fine young gentlemen, and though their message is not something that interests me, I have to admire them for wearing dress shirts and ties in the middle of a hot summer that would indicate anything but.
I will admit that I did once buy a pair of them some ice cream at a Dairy Queen in the middle of summer. They looked so uncomfortable in their shirts and ties in the 90F heat! They enjoyed the ice cream, and thanked me. All I knew was that a couple of young guys in uncomfortable clothes had a cold treat on a hot day, when they might not otherwise have had one.
As I said, I’m not interested in the Mormon gentlemens’ message. But do unto others, etc. It seems to me that the Golden Rule matters, no matter what faith one subscribes to, or not.
Whether you like it or not, it’s still a religion.
I’m usually polite to the Saints. When asked I admit to having read the Book of Mormon and that I find it rather dull and repetitive. I usually then challenge them to read the Book of Concord. At least one took me up on the challenge and while we’ll never agree we had some interesting conversations.
John’s approach is fine, but there is a difference between, say, simply knowing a Mormon and bringing up the MMM out of the blue, versus someone who is actively trying to convert you to their religion: it’s a legitimate debate topic as to whether it is a bad mark on the religion, whether or not you think the answer is “yes” or “no”.
I find it odd you were approached on the street. I’ve lived in Arizona off and on and am currently about a half mile from the Temple in Mesa* and, while I constantly see pairs of missionaries on their bicycles and, less often, trios or quads of Sisters in the neighborhood, I’ve never been approached by any except at the door.
One pair started out with, “Have you accepted Christ?” which is a bit odd for them. I answered, “Naw; I’m Buddhist.” There was a blink or two while they processed this then the more outgoing one said, “Really? I confess I don’t know much about them.”
I said, “Well, when you boil it down to the simplest term possible, the Lord’s message and the Buddha’s message is pretty much the same: Don’t be a dick.” This got a bit of a smile out of him and I went on to say that since there’s no real deity involved, in the strictest sense it’s not a religion but more of a philosophy or way of life. “In fact, on our side, there’s nothing that says you can’t be a Mormon Buddhist, or a Catholic Buddhist, or an Islamic Buddhist. Your mileage may vary, of course.” With that they left.
A co-worker once told me that Mormons had made him lose his faith. They were pretty well into their explanation of Joseph Smith and the hat and he kept thinking, “This is such bullshit.” Then he got to considering the tenets of his current faith and came to the conclusion it had a similar lack of evidence and, rather than convert or embrace both, he dropped both.
*It’d more like a quarter-mile if they’d set it on the front of the lawn.
I though they knocked on doors. Easier to corner someone and you have to be more creative than mentioning a musical.
A lot of your posts follow this format:
- So-and-so said/did this.
- I said/did that in response.
- Look, I bested him!
Missionaries can and do approach people on the street. It really depends on the area and the local rules for their mission. Knocking on doors “tracting” is one of the least effective methods and everyone tries to get out of it.
I am surprised by that line. Maybe they were adopting the phrasing from other churches since “accepting Christ” has no significance in Mormon doctrine. It’s never referred to as such. You can “gain a testimony” that the church is true. You can get an answer that the Book of Mormon is true, but they don’t “accept Christ.” The entire point of Mormonism is that it’s unique among Christian faiths by being God’s correct church and they are careful to avoid terminology which would suggest that salvation can be found in another church.
A minor quibble. The missionaries would most likely not mention the hat, but rather talk about the classical explanation for how the Book of Mormon was translated. The hat part only became famous after the South Park episode.
However, your larger point stands. Once people leave Mormonism, we are much more likely to become atheists or agnostics.
Isn’t there a 4. Everyone applauded!
I can’t see most missionaries getting bested by someone mentioning the musical. They get far, far worse things thrown at them.
Mormon missionaries scare folk? Kids, I lived on the border of Wheaton, IL, home of Billy Graham’s alma mater, and the turf wars would inspire such distaste and mild animosity as to make your head…um…stay in place. Later, dyed in the current liturgical color (she was a natural ELCA–today is green!) would offer them, Mormons, Adventists, or Moonies, a cold drink because she was a better person than I.
I grew frightened when my dismissive,“Sorry, I’m Catholic,” stopped deterring them. What did they have to offer that was weirder than the RCC. Not even Satanism tried. 
That only works on JW, because according to their literature the RCC and Satanism are one and the same.
I see LDS members riding trains in suburban Tokyo at least 1-2 times a year. A few times make eye contact and they make a beeline towards me. Some small talk about America ensues before the invite to one of their meetings comes.
I heard from some Japanese friends that they entice potential members by offering free English lessons.
They always ride in pairs, always seem to smile, and appear very friendly.
South Park made up the hat part? I could swear that I heard the story about the hat long before South Park even existed. Is my memory playing tricks? What is the “classical explanation”?
He’s saying that missionaries aren’t going to mention that part to an interested party, at least not right away. You might learn that much later. Like Xenu is part of Scientologist theology, but you have to spend lots of time (and money and dollars and $$$) in order to get to the point where they tell you all about that. South Park was just speeding things along.
At one of my apartments about 10 years ago, our next-door neighbors were two very attractive, very friendly female Mormon missionaries. When we had to leave for a few days, they looked after our cats. They never once insisted on throwing their religion in our faces.
Yeah, I was a Mormon missionary in Chile in 2002-2004. Things really heated up for us with the the start of the Iraq war. The insults were tolerable, but the rocks and chunks of concrete were just taking things too far. 