5 ms·

I'm not a member of the church I'm atheist, but if things were going horribly wrong LDS would be high on my list of people to be around.

by cbr 9y ago

henrikschroder 9y ago
Pro: A bunch of them are nutty doomsday preppers, with a lot of food supplies in their basements. Con: The polygamy, child abuse, and endless fast and testimony meetings get kinda old after a while.
- xj9 9y ago
  i'm not a member of the lds church, but you should do some fact checking: mainline mormons don't practice polygamy.
- heartles 9y ago
  > polygamy, child abuse, and endless fast and testimony meetings Speaking anecdotally about my experiences in Oregon with Mormon friends, this feels like a gross misrepresentation. I haven't seen any of these situations pop up, and certainly not in any way that would cause it to be systemic.
  - henrikschroder 9y ago
    Polygamy was tongue-in-cheek, they of course only practice spiritual polygamy these days, since it's illegal. Worthiness interviews are absolutely systemic though. You might not think it's child abuse for an adult man, a "bishop", to have one-on-one interviews with 11-14yo children asking them if they masturbate, but I do. Fast and testimony meetings are of course systemic, every first Sunday of the month. Their horror is more of a roll-your-eyes extreme boredom kind, though.
- joshuakcockrell 9y ago
  Mormons stopped practicing polygamy in 1890.
  - amazingman 9y ago
    How was that decided?
    - greggman 9y ago
      the law banned it. note though all Christian religions claim to believe in a book, the Bible, that has people who practiced polygamy blessed by God. It's pretty hypocritical for any one who believes in the Bible to be against polygamy when the God that book is about blessed the practice.
      - tisdy 9y ago
        Where in the Bible is this polygamy blessed by God?
  - gonzo 9y ago
    They declared the practice “over” twice. Once in 1890, and again in 1904. Many Mormons entered into polygamous marriages after 1890. Over 200 polygamous marriages were performed between 1890 and 1904.
- rexpop 9y ago
  What's wrong with polygamy?
  - WillReplyfFood 9y ago
    Eh, it strongly correlated with civil war in nearly every run down country in the world?
- QAPereo 9y ago
  I’m not a Mormon, or even a Christian, so I have no stake here. What the fuck? No. I’ve traveled all over, and met a lot of Mormons and have Mormon friends. The most sinister thing they’re into is family game night. Ok, I’m no fan of the missionary thing, but again, as a non-Christian I appreciate that the Mormons take no for an answer, and will still hang out with you. Their religion is wacky, but so is every religion. They have cults, but so do all religions. So... no.
  - henrikschroder 9y ago
    Of course your anecdotes are true, individual Mormons can be the nicest, most well-meaning people ever, and Mormonism does indeed have a reputation for being a wacky but harmless religion. However, Utah has one of the highest youth suicide rates in the nation, and one of the highest rates of anti-depressant medication use in the nation. This is in large part due to the unrealistic expectations and pressure its members are subject to. Sure, they're not as overtly harmful as similar high-demand cults like FLDS or Scientology, but try joining and then not paying 10% of your gross income to the church and see how that works out. Look... If you want a different perspective, just start reading people's stories here: https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/ https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/
    - QAPereo 9y ago
      How’s the suicide rate among evangelical Christians? Southern Baptists? If you tell young people to shape up or be damned, some will implode, especially LGBT youth, people struggling with addictions, atheists, etc. Sadly (imo) Mormons are like many other Anrahamic religions (and others) which make life very hard for a significant portion of the population. I also don’t believe they’re somehow different or worse than any others. They have strengths and weaknesses like any large group of humans. https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/155/5/413/171404 https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/155/5/413/171404 Not compelling, especially when you note that suicide is only one metric, violence against others being another, and so much more. Most of all though, I didn’t say they were wacky in particular, I said that they were wacky as are all religions. I don’t see them as materially different from any other religion, except in some cases, age.
- sky_rw 9y ago
  It seems odd to call them "nutty" when the subject is who to turn to in an oh-shit real-life doomsday scenario.
- dang 9y ago
  We've warned you before about keeping religious flamewars off Hacker News. That's just about the worst thing you can do here. I appreciate your positive contributions to the site, but if people do this repeatedly, we ban them. Please don't do it again. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13227701 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13227701 https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
weaksauce 9y ago
Why is that?
- owenversteeg 9y ago
  I suppose living in southern Idaho for nine years makes me qualified to answer this :) Many Mormons are very into prepping (preparing for emergencies.) For example, when I lived in Idaho Falls, many of the Mormons I knew had thick concrete shelters in their basements, massive amounts of dried food prepared, huge jugs of water stored, and regularly did drills with other members of there community. Additionally, Mormon churches are usually pretty visible (plus, they'd probably be willing to take you in) and common enough that it shouldn't be too hard to get to one.
  - Fnoord 9y ago
    I saw this in a local documentary about the USA (De Verenigde Staten van Eva). They called these people "preppers". I had never heard of that before. Don't remember if Mormon was mentioned.
- patch_collector 9y ago
  Speaking as a Mormon, we're highly encouraged to be prepared for the future, regardless of if that means losing a job, a natural disaster (hurricane, earthquake, etc), or unstable individuals with big, red buttons on their desk. The Church has encouraged people to have a minimum of a 72-hour kit (typically a backpack or backpacks with everything your family would need for 3 days away from home), as well as storing as much water and food as is possible in your circumstances, ideally a year's supply.

I'm not a member of the church I'm atheist, but if things were going horribly wrong LDS would be high on my list of people to be around.

by cbr 9y ago

I'm not a member of the church I'm atheist, but if things were going horribly wrong LDS would be high on my list of people to be around.

henrikschroder 9y ago

Pro: A bunch of them are nutty doomsday preppers, with a lot of food supplies in their basements. Con: The polygamy, child abuse, and endless fast and testimony meetings get kinda old after a while.

xj9 9y ago
i'm not a member of the lds church, but you should do some fact checking: mainline mormons don't practice polygamy.
heartles 9y ago
> polygamy, child abuse, and endless fast and testimony meetings Speaking anecdotally about my experiences in Oregon with Mormon friends, this feels like a gross misrepresentation. I haven't seen any of these situations pop up, and certainly not in any way that would cause it to be systemic.
- henrikschroder 9y ago
  Polygamy was tongue-in-cheek, they of course only practice spiritual polygamy these days, since it's illegal. Worthiness interviews are absolutely systemic though. You might not think it's child abuse for an adult man, a "bishop", to have one-on-one interviews with 11-14yo children asking them if they masturbate, but I do. Fast and testimony meetings are of course systemic, every first Sunday of the month. Their horror is more of a roll-your-eyes extreme boredom kind, though.
joshuakcockrell 9y ago
Mormons stopped practicing polygamy in 1890.
- amazingman 9y ago
  How was that decided?
  - greggman 9y ago
    the law banned it. note though all Christian religions claim to believe in a book, the Bible, that has people who practiced polygamy blessed by God. It's pretty hypocritical for any one who believes in the Bible to be against polygamy when the God that book is about blessed the practice.
    - tisdy 9y ago
      Where in the Bible is this polygamy blessed by God?
- gonzo 9y ago
  They declared the practice “over” twice. Once in 1890, and again in 1904. Many Mormons entered into polygamous marriages after 1890. Over 200 polygamous marriages were performed between 1890 and 1904.
rexpop 9y ago
What's wrong with polygamy?
- WillReplyfFood 9y ago
  Eh, it strongly correlated with civil war in nearly every run down country in the world?
QAPereo 9y ago
I’m not a Mormon, or even a Christian, so I have no stake here. What the fuck? No. I’ve traveled all over, and met a lot of Mormons and have Mormon friends. The most sinister thing they’re into is family game night. Ok, I’m no fan of the missionary thing, but again, as a non-Christian I appreciate that the Mormons take no for an answer, and will still hang out with you. Their religion is wacky, but so is every religion. They have cults, but so do all religions. So... no.
- henrikschroder 9y ago
  Of course your anecdotes are true, individual Mormons can be the nicest, most well-meaning people ever, and Mormonism does indeed have a reputation for being a wacky but harmless religion. However, Utah has one of the highest youth suicide rates in the nation, and one of the highest rates of anti-depressant medication use in the nation. This is in large part due to the unrealistic expectations and pressure its members are subject to. Sure, they're not as overtly harmful as similar high-demand cults like FLDS or Scientology, but try joining and then not paying 10% of your gross income to the church and see how that works out. Look... If you want a different perspective, just start reading people's stories here: https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/ https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/
  - QAPereo 9y ago
    How’s the suicide rate among evangelical Christians? Southern Baptists? If you tell young people to shape up or be damned, some will implode, especially LGBT youth, people struggling with addictions, atheists, etc. Sadly (imo) Mormons are like many other Anrahamic religions (and others) which make life very hard for a significant portion of the population. I also don’t believe they’re somehow different or worse than any others. They have strengths and weaknesses like any large group of humans. https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/155/5/413/171404 https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/155/5/413/171404 Not compelling, especially when you note that suicide is only one metric, violence against others being another, and so much more. Most of all though, I didn’t say they were wacky in particular, I said that they were wacky as are all religions. I don’t see them as materially different from any other religion, except in some cases, age.
sky_rw 9y ago
It seems odd to call them "nutty" when the subject is who to turn to in an oh-shit real-life doomsday scenario.
dang 9y ago
We've warned you before about keeping religious flamewars off Hacker News. That's just about the worst thing you can do here. I appreciate your positive contributions to the site, but if people do this repeatedly, we ban them. Please don't do it again. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13227701 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13227701 https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

weaksauce 9y ago

Why is that?

owenversteeg 9y ago
I suppose living in southern Idaho for nine years makes me qualified to answer this :) Many Mormons are very into prepping (preparing for emergencies.) For example, when I lived in Idaho Falls, many of the Mormons I knew had thick concrete shelters in their basements, massive amounts of dried food prepared, huge jugs of water stored, and regularly did drills with other members of there community. Additionally, Mormon churches are usually pretty visible (plus, they'd probably be willing to take you in) and common enough that it shouldn't be too hard to get to one.
- Fnoord 9y ago
  I saw this in a local documentary about the USA (De Verenigde Staten van Eva). They called these people "preppers". I had never heard of that before. Don't remember if Mormon was mentioned.
patch_collector 9y ago
Speaking as a Mormon, we're highly encouraged to be prepared for the future, regardless of if that means losing a job, a natural disaster (hurricane, earthquake, etc), or unstable individuals with big, red buttons on their desk. The Church has encouraged people to have a minimum of a 72-hour kit (typically a backpack or backpacks with everything your family would need for 3 days away from home), as well as storing as much water and food as is possible in your circumstances, ideally a year's supply.