Kris Rhodes, I remember hearing a mention of the Smarts’ church during the first few days of the kidnapping as the headquarters for the searchers, and yes, they are Mormons.
Vanilla, you seem to be under the impression that there is even a one in ten trillion chance that I am going to allow you to argue Mormon theology in this forum.
There is not. Knock it off or take it to the Pit or GD or something.
Whoops, I forgot to mention, the place where my student’s story occurred was in rural Japan. My student had heard of the Mormons, but didn’t know anything about them.
Just out of curiosity, Monty, is that Michael Allred the underground cartoonist/comic book penciller?
So can anyone answer me this one - are the young people I’ve been seeing lately with black nametags (in addition to the shirt/tie or blouse/ankle-length skirt combos) Mormon missionaries or JW pioneers? I have seen them with what looks like Bibles in covers, but no other literature, but one always has a knapsack or briefcase which could be holding Watchtowers or whatever pamphlets the LDS favor, so I haven’t been able to tell the difference.
I’ve always enjoyed talking with LDS (Mormon) missionaries when they come to the door. They are a heck-of-a-lot more friendly than JWs.
It is interesting that most LDS missionaries know very little about thier church, I suppose one could say the same thing about most Christians though.
You can tell Mormons from the JWs by the books they have. The Mormons will have a King James Bible, a Book Of Mormon, A Pearl of Great Price and a Doctrine and Covenants, sometimes the last three are bound into one book. The JWs only use their own version (New World Translation) of the Bible which doesn’t follow the origional Hebrew and Greek texts. They also have magazines to sell.
Minor Irritant:
1st) Interesting name.
2nd) I’ve no idea if they’e the same guy.
Thanks for the book recommendation, Monty. Allred is out of print, but Amazon had a used copy available.
It’s going to a cousin in Anchorage.
Even more amazing, Doug; I get no commission! I got the tape a year before I got the book.
manhatten, i have no idea where youre coming from. I was not arguing anything, maybe you couldn’t see the imho that was printed right there.
And I dont see what hair color has to do with it either…weird…:rolleyes:
Maybe it’s just that the Irish in Utah tend to be Republicans, as are most Utahns, while nationally, Irish Americans tend to be prominently associated with the Democratic party.
My mother was a top tier executive secretary (and an extremely perceptive person) for over 20 years at one of the larger Mormon run corporations on the planet, and for the groups of Mormons that would come to tour the World HQ of this corporation, she did have the observation that many of them had the same weird “bunny rabbit eyes” look about them.
I think this probably speaks more to a common, peer group reinforced social posture (including dress and behavioral mannerisms) that Mormons take on when traveling in groups in unfamiliar circumstances that makes them (seemingly) behave similarly and which, to some people, will complete the picture of them “looking” alike.
In my youth I worked as a hotel employee in the Bethesda, MD area and we often had Mormon groups staying at the hotel while visiting the nearby Mormon Temple. We could always tell (virtually without fail) a group of Mormons (even in casual dress) at 100 paces. There was simply a “look and feel” to the way they looked and moved and behaved that ID’d them as “Mormons”.
Having said this there were Mormon doctors, lawyers and Indian Chiefs that took advantage of the LDS “group” rate, and visited the hotel for professional conventions or other non-temple business that were indistinguishable from other guests. That is why I maintain it’s more of a “group” behavioral mechanism than anything else re the “look alike” observation.
Did you verify this by any means? Because if not, you’ve fallen into a very common trap of circular reasoning.
“I’ll bet you that guy over there is Mormon.”
“Oh, really? How do you know?”
“He just looks Mormon.”
“How do you know that’s what Mormons look like?”
“Well, that must be what they look like, because he looks like that, and he’s a Mormon!”
Pray tell, what exactly are “bunny rabbit eyes?”
I have some Mormon acquaintances who insist that Ned Flanders has to be a Mormon.
<highjack>
A Jew and a Mormon meet. Who is the gentile?
</highjack>
Christ smash!
Sorry.
The IDs (impolite, stereotyping and impolitic as they may have been) were almost always confirmed to be correct when the guests checked in under the LDS rate.
The “ID” aspect was primarily a discussion the bellmen had between themselves as the guests arrived and they were trying to scope out the best tipping prospects and did not want to take an “up” or “front” for the Mormon groups coming in as they were relatively poor (or non) tippers. This aggravated them because the Mormon groups typically had lots of people crammed into a single room to take maximum advantage of the discount LDS rate and had a lot of baggage they needed moved to the room.
A Mormon group was typically a low return on investment timewise for a bellman. Because of this they learned to spot the tell tale “look” of a Mormon group (large group + 20-40 year old white + lower to middle class dress and style + lots of kids + etc) and would scatter when the groups began coming in. Interestingly, as often as not, even if bellmen were available, some sturdy Mormon young man or husband would deliberately avoid the bellstand (and the anticipated tip) and muscle the bags to the room themselves.
This was not so much a religious “ID” as it was a socio-economic class ID as the hotel was an upper tier, business class hotel and and most of the Mormon groups coming in on the discount package rates to visit the Temple appeared to be middle to lower middle class and stuck out like sore thumbs, basically by the way they dressed and their quite evident lack of ease in an expensive hotel, which typically catered to an economic cohort well into the upper middle class and beyond. To the bellmen they were bumpkin cheapskates and they did all they could to avoid them. It has nothing to do with their beliefs but rather their tight pocketbooks.
Does there remain a General Question here, or are we going off into stereotype land now?
If the answer is the second, don’t answer that.
I don’t know if the JW pioneers wear name tags (I’ve never ran into one) but if the name tag identifies the person as, “Elder John” (example here not being literal) or “Sister Smith” then you’ve found yourselves a (most likely pair) died in the wool LDS Missionary. 
Interestingly enough they aren’t supposed to refer to themselves as Mormons but Latter-day Saints (LDS) I don’t recall exactly why but I do believe the Prophet spoke about it a while back. (A while being anytime between 1 day and 18 years ago. ).
As for bicycles they don’t ride them just on off days (or for fun even) it just happens to be one of the more cost effective way of getting around from place to place. Now of course in colder climates you find more missionaries driving automobiles because not even my Uncle is crazy enough to ride to work when it’s -20 F out.
P.S. Most former missionaries I know they greatly appreciated the experiences of their missions regardless of the restrictions and hardships, they aren’t forced at gunpoint to go on a mission.