4 ms·

I was born and raised in Boise, but don't care if people want to smoke marijuana. My guess is that the majority of people in Idaho who object to legalizing it d

I was born and raised in Boise, but don't care if people want to smoke marijuana. My guess is that the majority of people in Idaho who object to legalizing it do so for religious reasons. Mormons are a large voting bloc in the state, and there are many other conservative Christian groups there as well.

xnyan 6y ago
As a former mormon, this is my take is well. Mormonism needs to be somewhat insular and us vs them to survive. After we were forced to give up polygamy, the word of wisdom (it has changed but today no coffee, tea, beer or weed) all of a sudden went from a “nice to do but not required” to “if you drink coffee, you will not live with your children as an eternal family after you die.” Mormons would ban coffee if they could.
- bigwavedave 6y ago
  Nothing confrontational intended by this observation, but I genuinely think it's interesting that you said "when _we_ were forced..." at first and then say "Mormons would ban coffee if _they_ could" [emphasis mine in both quotes]. You identify as a former Mormon, group yourself in with them when you bring up polygamy, then separate yourself again. Again, there's nothing malicious being implied here, it's just an interesting observation that I wanted to make sure you were aware of!
  - xnyan 6y ago
    Oh for sure, and I thought about it too as I was writing it. On the one hand, I have explicitly resigned from the LDS church. I think they engage in immoral practices and I can't in good conscience say I'm a member. On the other had, I was raised Mormon and my family goes back with the Mormons to the 1830s when the LDS church was founded (technically The Church of Jesus Christ, the original name) so to some degree it's a inseparable part of my identity. I try to split the difference in my life, but it gets messy sometimes.
    - reducesuffering 6y ago
      Since you have first-hand experience, what kind of immoral practices do you consider them generally to engage in, in modern times?

xnyan 6y ago

As a former mormon, this is my take is well. Mormonism needs to be somewhat insular and us vs them to survive. After we were forced to give up polygamy, the word of wisdom (it has changed but today no coffee, tea, beer or weed) all of a sudden went from a “nice to do but not required” to “if you drink coffee, you will not live with your children as an eternal family after you die.” Mormons would ban coffee if they could.

bigwavedave 6y ago
Nothing confrontational intended by this observation, but I genuinely think it's interesting that you said "when _we_ were forced..." at first and then say "Mormons would ban coffee if _they_ could" [emphasis mine in both quotes]. You identify as a former Mormon, group yourself in with them when you bring up polygamy, then separate yourself again. Again, there's nothing malicious being implied here, it's just an interesting observation that I wanted to make sure you were aware of!
- xnyan 6y ago
  Oh for sure, and I thought about it too as I was writing it. On the one hand, I have explicitly resigned from the LDS church. I think they engage in immoral practices and I can't in good conscience say I'm a member. On the other had, I was raised Mormon and my family goes back with the Mormons to the 1830s when the LDS church was founded (technically The Church of Jesus Christ, the original name) so to some degree it's a inseparable part of my identity. I try to split the difference in my life, but it gets messy sometimes.
  - reducesuffering 6y ago
    Since you have first-hand experience, what kind of immoral practices do you consider them generally to engage in, in modern times?