Ask a Mormon, Part 4

[caketastydelish]

Sorry to bump an old thread. I've got a question:

Maybe this is just a little bit prejudice of me, but my understanding is that Mormons are super strict and would never even consider marrying outside their faith. Am I correct in these presumptions? If I am wrong, would you care to hook me up with Lindsey Stirling?

 

[onejayhawk]

Sorry to bump an old thread. I've got a question:

Maybe this is just a little bit prejudice of me, but my understanding is that Mormons are super strict and would never even consider marrying outside their faith. Am I correct in these presumptions? If I am wrong, would you care to hook me up with Lindsey Stirling?

Not really. There is enough there to say it is a reasonable question, but not for an affirmative answer.

Most religious groups encourage marriage within the group. Mixed marriages bring issues within the family and with respect to the locl gathering, whether it is called a ward, a parish, a congregation, a synagogue, whatever. Basically if you can bring your spouse to profess, everything is cool. Otherwise not. On a scale of strictness, less than Amish and Orthodox Jews but more than average. Camparable to Roman Catholic perhaps.

If you want Lindsey Stirling, get in line.

J

 

[Camber]

Most serious LDS people have the goal of marrying in the temple, which to us is one of our most important goals because it unlocks a lot of blessings in the afterlife that wouldn't otherwise be possible. Most notably, the promise that your marriage and family bonds can continue beyond the grave.

To go to the temple, you need to be a member of the church in good standing. Like any faith, there are varying levels of commitment among members. Usually less than half of members are at the level of commitment for attending the temple, but a lot of those hope to be at that level someday. At my local church we have over 400 people on the membership rolls and about 160-180 attend each week, so there are a lot of people who are semi-committed, and even some who were baptized but haven't attended worship services in years.

If you're interested in marrying a Mormon without converting, those are the ones most likely to consider you a good prospect.

But I also regularly see people who appear to be serious members, and still marry a non-Mormon. I don't want to get your hopes up though. Anyone who takes our faith seriously will understand why the temple is a high priority, and would expect that a Mormon spouse would be hoping you'd convert someday, so they could be with you not just in this life, but in the next life also. I mean, what would you rather have, Lindsey Sterling for a couple decades in mortality, or Lindsey Sterling for a couple trillion years and beyond?

Yeah, Lindsey Sterling is awesome. What do you like best about her?

 

[caketastydelish]

Well she's beautiful and talented.

Adding her specifically was mostly a joke. I wanted a serious question about Mormon inter-faith marriage. But I had to add a funny line at the end because that's my style.

 

[Gen.Mannerheim]

My great uncle married a Mormon lady way back in the 50's and it evidently caused a bit of a scandal, as I come from Deep South Southern Baptist stock. Indeed after marriage he didn't come back into regular contact with the family until the late 70's (though that might have more to do with him moving 2 state away than anything else)

My great aunt of course remained Mormon, and they raised their children Mormon, but he himself never actually converted. You can imagine that his created quite the situation when he dies this past year with his wife & kids/grandkids wanting his funeral in the local Mormon church, my family wanting to do the service in his hometown Baptist church, the leader of their Mormon church trying to tell the family that since he never actually joined the church he wasn't eligible for a full Mormon service, and one of my uncle's son-in-laws trying to argue down the minister since he was a deacon (? I don't know Mormon positions) and trying to make the service happen anyway. It was madness

Though I must admit it brought the two families back in to contact, I've meet more second cousins in the past two years then I ever knew I had.