The Mormons Originally, I had intended to attend a Catholic mass and write about my experience with it but, after going to the meeting, I didn’t feel like I had enough to write about. There just didn’t seem to be a whole lot to really base an opinion on it for me because I didn’t really have any pre or misconceived ideas about the religion going into it. It has been around for much longer than many other Christian denominations and so it just wasn’t exciting enough for me. After I attended the mass I really felt like I should find something more interesting or controversial, so this time I attended a Mormon meeting and I found that experience to be more in line with what I was looking for.

Misconceptions

First, let me just say that this meeting was far longer than I had expected. It was three hours to be exact, broken into three meetings. I hadn’t expected anyone to really enjoy going to church on their day off from work, let alone spend three hours there. Although it was long, it was extremely informative and the speakers were quite impressive given the fact that they were not paid for their time spent preparing or giving their sermons. This was one of the things that really blew all my preconceived ideas about religious worship. I thought that all religious clergy were in it for the money but, in fact, no Mormon clergy are paid for their service. And another thing I learned from my time spent in the church was that the “Mormons” prefer to be referred to as “Latter Day Saints.”
Latter Day Saints, I thought, was a little over the top but after asking about it, I learned that the official name of the church is “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.” This was a bit confusing to me at first, but I found out from a lady I was sitting next to in the Sunday school class that Mormons are Christians and that they believe the term Saint to mean “one who worships Jesus Christ”. I got that part cleared up but I still was curious about the “Latter-Day” part of the church’s name, so I asked her about that. She said that the members of the church believed that we are living in the last days and so the church’s name reflected that principle in it. That part sort of made me tremble a bit, with the thought of the days ending but I let that roll off of my back and kept a positive outlook on the rest of the meetings.

Although I didn’t really know much about the Latter-day Saints, I had brought with me some preconceived ideas about them that I had heard from people over the years. One was that the men have multiple wives. This apparently was true at one point in the history of the church, but only for a few selected individuals. Today, no one is permitted to have more than one wife and if they do they are excommunicated from the church.

Another thought that I had heard about the church was that homosexuals were not allowed to me members of the congregation. This is not entirely true. Although the Latter-day Saints do not permit the act of homosexuality, they do welcome all people regardless of sexual orientation. This was what I was told by another member but it would be very interesting to speak to someone that is homosexual and find out their take on the matter. It seems to me that it is sort of an oil and water type of thing to, on the one hand, condone someone’s lifestyle while also accepting them as part of the group. But, at the same time, I can also see the Christ-likeness in such an action.

My time at the Latter-day Saints’ meetings was very interesting. I had always heard that they had another Bible that they used in conjunction with the King James Version and, in fact, they do although it isn’t really a Bible. It is used like the Bible, but it doesn’t have anything to do with the Old or New testaments. I was informed that it is honored as a sacred text and that it was written by a man named Mormon and is called the Book of Mormon. The nickname “Mormons” was given to the Latter-Day Saints because of their use of this book.

I was given a copy of the book by two young missionaries called Elders which immediately brought questions to my mind. The first was why these two nineteen and twenty year-old young men were called Elders. I had always thought that the title was historically given to older men that had been lifelong scholars of the scriptures, but that isn’t the case for the Latter-day Saint church. They said that the title was just a title given to them because of their ordination and that it had nothing to do with scholarly education. That brought more questions to mind, these young men have little to no scholarly education, yet they are set apart to be the church’s representatives? I thought that was very unusual, but I figured they must be doing something right because I was told that the churches membership is over twelve million worldwide and that there are more members of the church found outside the United States than within.

I was really taken back by my experience. I kind of expected to find a lot of old people wearing Mennonite type clothes talking about churning butter or something, but the majority of the members that I saw and spoke to were very much like anyone you would meet on the street or at work. The women were dressed modestly, yet modernly. The men were mostly all cleanly shaven and were wearing business attire. I was a little underdressed but it didn’t bother me. The people seemed to be genuine and after three hours of meetings, I would have to say that they are because it isn’t easy to make it that long for church.
The one thing that stood out the most besides the fact that the Latter-day Saints have additional scripture other than the Bible was that they also believe that there are prophets living today and that those prophets are the leaders of their church. This was an idea that I had never considered before. The only picture my mind has ever drawn with regards to prophets was that of some really old guys with long white beards carrying scrolls around warning people to repent or be damned. This idea of a prophet today gave me two feelings. One was of skepticism and the other is extreme interest. I’m not sure either feeling will lead me to study the religion any further at this point but the concept did intrigue me.

New Take on the Mormon Church

All in all, my understanding of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was altered. I had always been told that they were not Christians but the very official name of their church specifies that they believe in Jesus Christ. I have always thought that a Christian was simply someone who believed in Jesus Christ and tried to follow his teachings. Even the extra book that I was given is book about ancient peoples’ experiences with Christ. The people I met were very friendly and, by all accounts of my understanding, they would easily be classified as being Christians.
Misconceptions about Other People’s Religion

I believe that misconceptions about other people’s religions are common. I mostly believe this because I found myself having my own misconceptions about religions and I know that others have had the same ideas that I had because other people are partly responsible for the ideas in my own mind. I believe misconceptions about religion are much like misconceptions about culture. Stereotypes are common because there are those that “fit the boot”. However, I think it is unfair to pin all people of one religion or culture to certain behaviors just because it has become commonplace for many to think of them in a stereotypical way.
I think that these misconceptions create less harmony in civilizations and lead first to segregation and then to prejudice. Misconceptions breed ignorance which, in turn, gives way to less of the truth being told and understood. I believe that everyone should check their resources when getting information.

Recommendations on Misconceptions

One simple step which could help minimize misconceptions about other religions is to attend a religious meeting and to go there with a clear head, with the intent to understand things on a personal level. Go there with all misconceptions and preconceived ideas left at the door. I think that everyone should have a fair chance to explain their case and I don’t see why religion shouldn’t be given the same respect.

Another way to rid the mind of misconceptions is to get information about a religion from someone who is a faithful practicing member of that faith. It doesn’t make sense to base an opinion on something someone said about a religion if that someone was bitter about a religion, or if they had their own misconceptions. Again, the source of information is vital to fully eradicate the misconceptions from flying around.

Conclusion

I never thought that I would go to a Mormon church but now that I have, I can say it was a very enlightening experience. I am now under the opinion that everyone should go to different meetings from different churches and learn from that experience. I think that intrinsically people will have more tolerance and understanding about others and will be more likely to get along with others if they will try a bit of another religion and culture.

References

Fisher, M.P. (2011). Living Religions (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson