Ask a Mormon, Part 4

[Eran of Arcadia]

Interesting. But what about the first part of my question: how about Mitt Romney himself, seeing as he is he Mormon; how do Mormons feel about him trying to run for president?

Well, it's mixed feelings. He does get a lot of support from Mormons who are Republican but who wouldn't otherwise normally agree with his positions. A lot of Mormon Democrats don't like him. Most Mormons of all political stripes are wary of him winning, as they worry that the public may conflate criticism of him with criticism of the church - that is, people will say "I know of one Mormon - the president - I don't like, so I don't like Mormons."

 

[downtown]

Interesting. But what about the first part of my question: how about Mitt Romney himself, seeing as he is he Mormon; how do Mormons feel about him trying to run for president?

Mormons, generally speaking, have a very high opinion of Mitt Romney (I think his approval rating among Mormons was in the 80s, according to that last Pew survey). Part of this comes from his involvement in the Salt Lake Olympic Games (a moment that was pretty important to Utah, a state where most Mormons live), part comes from his politics (most American Mormons are pretty conservative), and part comes from the fact that as a church, American Mormons badly want to be considered part of the "mainstream", and we thinking electing a Mormon president is our ticket to acceptance.

By and large, we seem to be more than willing to overlook his flaws as a candidate. Stuff like off shore accounts, or not being super concerned about the poor, are not things that appear to trouble LDS folks. I'm a little surprised his lukewarm support of the pro-life movement hasn't raised more eyebrows...but I think we just want this *bad*.

 

[downtown]

Interesting, they do not baptise victims of the Holocaust, but, victms of the Holocaust were not all Jewish, so it seems they are giving the relatives of SOME Christian dead a choice but not others.

Does the Mormon church baptise Muslim dead and do they tell members of the Muslim faith they are doing that ?

We have no idea what religion somebody was when we perform an ordinance for them. We know a name, a birthdate, a date of death, and a country of origin.

Just anecdotaly, I've never seen a middle eastern country of origin when I've gone to the Temple. I guess it is entirely possible that we don't do temple work for people who are from countries where the church is not permitted (and there are about a two dozen or so of those countries)

 

[downtown]

Well, it's mixed feelings. He does get a lot of support from Mormons who are Republican but who wouldn't otherwise normally agree with his positions. A lot of Mormon Democrats don't like him. Most Mormons of all political stripes are wary of him winning, as they worry that the public may conflate criticism of him with criticism of the church - that is, people will say "I know of one Mormon - the president - I don't like, so I don't like Mormons."

(sorry for not combining these posts)

See, I would have THOUGHT this would line of thinking would be more common...it is far and away the biggest concern I have about Mitt being president (I would totally fine with us NEVER having a Mormon president, honestly), because I see lots of people failing to make this distinction, ESPECIALLY overseas, where most of the church growth happens, anyway.

However, the only people I've ever heard (in person, on the internet, whatever) express this concern are people who would be less likely to vote for Mitt for political reasons. I've never heard an actual Mormon republican say this.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

I have heard people say that other people might have that concern, so . . . I dunno, very meta.

(As for me, I would consider voting for the Mitt who was governor of MA, but that's not the Mitt who's running.)

 

[classical_hero]

When Going door knocking, what percentage of people respond positively to what you do and what percentage of people are most likely to just close the door on you?

 

[mayor]

When you go door-to-door will you speak to/try to convert people of all ages of is their a rule that under a certain age you won't start a conversation?

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

When Going door knocking, what percentage of people respond positively to what you do and what percentage of people are most likely to just close the door on you?

Well, the majority of people who respond just say something along the lines of, "no thanks". It's relatively rare to get a door actually slammed in our face, and more common to get a rude/angry response. We would also get people who weren't interested in what we were teaching, as such, but who were more than willing to talk about other things (including religion, as a topic).

In fact, I learned early on a rule that seemed to work: if an old shirtless white guy opens the door, he's either going to slam it in your face or talk your ear off.

When you go door-to-door will you speak to/try to convert people of all ages of is their a rule that under a certain age you won't start a conversation?

We would talk to anyone, but if they were young we would just ask to talk to their parents. And it's a Church rule that we won't baptize anyone under the age of 18 without the consent of their parents (it is not, so far as I can tell, an actual law).

 

[mayor]

In fact, I learned early on a rule that seemed to work: if an old shirtless white guy opens the door, he's either going to slam it in your face or talk your ear off.

We would talk to anyone, but if they were young we would just ask to talk to their parents. And it's a Church rule that we won't baptize anyone under the age of 18 without the consent of their parents (it is not, so far as I can tell, an actual law).

I asked it because when I was around 14-15 I had some Jehova witnesses at the door and they tried to convert me... The second time they came they got yelled at by my father, and rightfully so I feel, for trying to convert a minor. It is good to hear you don't do that

 

[Ajidica]

Is there any official policy for accepting hospitality when you are door knocking? A couple years ago when it was extremely hot out some Mormons came to our house (they might have been Jehovah's Witnesses, I can't remember) and when we offered them some water, they refused.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

Is there any official policy for accepting hospitality when you are door knocking? A couple years ago when it was extremely hot out some Mormons came to our house (they might have been Jehovah's Witnesses, I can't remember) and when we offered them some water, they refused.

There's no official policy, but I would rarely turn down anything that someone offered us (at least, as long as it's something we would take anyways.) LA is hot enough as it is.

 

[downtown]

When Going door knocking, what percentage of people respond positively to what you do and what percentage of people are most likely to just close the door on you?

It varies a lot from region to region. It isn't very efficient though, which is why we avoid doing it if we're in area with more efficient options. I very rarely randomly knocked on doors on my mission...it just made more sense to do other things.

Is there any official policy for accepting hospitality when you are door knocking? A couple years ago when it was extremely hot out some Mormons came to our house (they might have been Jehovah's Witnesses, I can't remember) and when we offered them some water, they refused.

Not that I know of. I gladly accepted any and all free stuff from people, especially food. Your stipend that you get each month is *really* small, and if people dont give you food, it's actually kinda hard to pay for every meal.

 

[mayor]

It varies a lot from region to region. It isn't very efficient though, which is why we avoid doing it if we're in area with more efficient options. I very rarely randomly knocked on doors on my mission...it just made more sense to do other things.

Other things? Could you tell something about "going on mission"? (or direct me to the post where this is already done )

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

Other things? Could you tell something about "going on mission"? (or direct me to the post where this is already done )

Well, the purpose of mission work (the proselyting aspect of it) was "finding people to teach" and "teaching them". Thus if you were able to find a lot of people who wanted you to teach them, you didn't have to spend as much time finding them.

The missionary guidebook I used identified 15 different methods of finding people. Tracting was #13 in terms of effectiveness; #1-12 were mostly variants on "they know someone who's Mormon". Far more people join the church as a result of having Mormon friends.

 

[downtown]

Yeah. I did my mission in the greater Sacramento, California area. Northern California actually has a pretty decent Mormon population, so it was usually more efficient for me to work with other Mormons to find people to teach, rather than knock randomly.

When those pipelines ran out, we'd usually visit one of the local universities to talk to people, or find some community service to do. I would much rather be at a soup kitchen than randomly knocking doors.

 

[Plotinus]

Sociologists have shown that the number of people who join a minority religion because of proselytising of the door-to-door variety is vanishingly small. Almost all converts to religions of this kind convert because their social centre of gravity has moved into the religion. E.g. they acquire friends from that religion, they start going to events where there are more people from it - even not explicitly religious events - and so on. Eventually they just convert because it's become an important part of their life. This reflects the fact that religion is not just a matter of one's private beliefs - it may not even be primarily that - it's about belonging to a group. Often, beliefs follow behaviour, not vice versa.

Personally, when people try to proselytise me, I don't let them go. A year or two ago I was walking in the park with my brother in law when a couple of evangelical Christians asked us what we thought about God. They came to regret that decision.

 

[Yeekim]

Personally, when people try to proselytise me, I don't let them go. A year or two ago I was walking in the park with my brother in law when a couple of evangelical Christians asked us what we thought about God. They came to regret that decision.

I wish I could´ve been there!

 

[Atticus]

A friend of mine who claims expertise as he has gone out with a Mormon gal, says that Mormons have "Moonlight domain" and "sunlight domain" (domain as "kingdom" or "empire"), and also that they have a secret handshake which identifies on what level they are. Hmm... I don't know if asking about secret handshakes is itself kind of futile, but I ask anyway. Does any of this sound like something true?

BTW. I tend to read LDS always "LSD" and "Mormon" as "moron", although this forum has lessened the latter one. Do you have it the opposite way round?

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

A friend of mine who claims expertise as he has gone out with a Mormon gal, says that Mormons have "Moonlight domain" and "sunlight domain" (domain as "kingdom" or "empire"), and also that they have a secret handshake which identifies on what level they are. Hmm... I don't know if asking about secret handshakes is itself kind of futile, but I ask anyway. Does any of this sound like something true?

Well, I have spoken in this thread about the "degrees of glory" o which one will go in the next life. The Celestial Kingdom is usually symbolized by the sun, and the Terrestrial (next one down) by the moon. So that at least is vaguely like something we believe.

As for the other question . . . we don't use anything like "secret handshakes" to identify what level we are, given that no one will know for sure until final judgment.

BTW. I tend to read LDS always "LSD" and "Mormon" as "moron", although this forum has lessened the latter one. Do you have it the opposite way round?

I read "LSD" as "LDS" and "moron" as "Mormon" all the time, yes.

 

[bhsup]

- 82 per cent of Mormons keep a supply of food in storage in case of emergencies. Almost 60 per cent have a food supply that will last three months or longer.

I get the first part, but why a three month supply?

Source: http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2012/01/20/solid-facts-about-mitt-romney-and-mormons/