Ask a Mormon

[Sondst]

Re: Ask a Mormon

Ah nice to see I was not alone in my up bringing haha. I to can answer questions lol. My father was a bishop. My mom could not perform any church duties do to same sex attraction but she practices Mormonism and is still married to my father. My brother and his wife practice.

Then there is me the tattooed, pierced mother with a child out of wedlock raising her child pagan and teaching her about witch craft lol.

[Johnkat]

Re: Ask a Mormon

Okay, say someone (me) joined the church, but ended up, later on, wanting to leave. Is that possible?

[thalassa]

Re: Ask a Mormon

Okay, say someone (me) joined the church, but ended up, later on, wanting to leave. Is that possible?

Yes. Des would be able to tell you more, but as a friend of hers, she's left the church formally. This site gives some information on that process.

[Sondst]

Re: Ask a Mormon

Okay, say someone (me) joined the church, but ended up, later on, wanting to leave. Is that possible?

You can just stop attending. Though people may nag you every now again, a lot at the beginning. Or you can formally request for you name to be taken off their records. Personally I have not done this process yet. Because I left as a youth I do not get harassed by the church whatsoever. It seems the older you are and have callings ect the more likely you are to be annoyed about when your coming to church next ect. The striking process can be a short one or a long one depending on who you deal with. But from many I have seen its been a fight for them to remove. They don't like seeing their flock leave regardless of reasons.

Your first step is to talk with your bishop.

[Dez]

Re: Ask a Mormon

Actually, you are under no obligation to speak with a bishop unless you wish to. The steps from an LDS perspective can often be rather different from what is legally required.

Johnkat, if you'd like some more links, or more information about my resignation letter, I'd be happy to help in any way possible.

[Gleb]

Re: Ask a Mormon

I know that my question may seem a little bit stupid, but really I haven't found any answer before to it.
What is the Mormon religion all about? I only know that this religion is somehow connected with Christianity, that's all.

[Amunet]

Re: Ask a Mormon

I wasn't a very good Mormon growing up ... I created my own ideas apparently o.O

Lol but I was raised Mormon. The basic principal that I think differentiates is the main God type ... person. It is Abrahamic (like all Christian, Judaism and Islamic) but Mormon's believe that God (Also called Heavenly Father), Jesus and the Holy Spirit (or also called Holy Ghost) are SEPARATE entities and that Jesus is the son of God, not the form of God on earth.
There are also MUCH more deep things that I even had no idea about. I very much believe that Mormon or the LDS religion has become so populated that there are still different thoughts on the very basic beliefs.
Such as Hell. My mother just learned last month that Mormons aren't suppose to believe in Hell.

Also, for the afterlife ... well ... Mormons believe in an afterlife. They are taught (in what I call, advanced Mormon class) that there are 3 tiers of Heaven. Each tier has it's own name, but I completely forgot. But the lowest Tier is watched over by the Holy Ghost, 2nd is watched by Jesus and the top tier is watched by God. Which tier depends on sins and conversion and all that fun jazz. If you're in a higher tier, you can visit your family in the lower tiers, but they can't visit you in the higher tier.
The belief BEFORE being born is that we were pre-existing souls with personality all formed before being born. There are some that believe our families were already families before being born and some believe that we chose our parents prior to being born (but didn't know them before apparently o.O).

Church is also 3 hours long; Sacrament (pretty much like mass), then split into class by age, then split into classes by gender (this is for tweens thru adults). For younger children it is Sacrament, Primary (mini mass for little kids), classes of about 7-10 children. Each class/mass is an hour long.

Mormons do not have an elected or paid official for the 'branches' of church. I don't know too much about high clergy but I do know that every Elder in the highest branches of the church (or heads of the whole church ... like a pope) is considered a prophet.
As for the 'branches' of the local church (called Wards, dependent of where you live), the Bishop and the Bishop Rick (no idea if that's how it's spelt, but that's how it's said) are volunteers and are appointed position by prayer of someone from the Bishop Rick (like a comitee) or the previous Bishop.

Tithing is also involved. 10% of each paycheck or income you get.

Only men hold Bishop and places of power within the church. Women are more ... well ... homely and children oriented.

Also, as for beliefs, apparently God resides on a planet somewhere in a specific place in a galaxy o.O But yeah, I had no idea about that until my husband converted and took 'advanced Mormon class' as I call it XD

Sorry to ramble! If there are any other questions, I'll try my best to answer
If anyone else could get in here and help with the proper terms, that would be most helpful too!

P.S. I never took Advanced Mormon Class

[Siloh]

Re: Ask a Mormon

I know that my question may seem a little bit stupid, but really I haven't found any answer before to it.
What is the Mormon religion all about? I only know that this religion is somehow connected with Christianity, that's all.

I know this is old, and this is my first post in a million years, and this is Dez's thread, whom I respect immensely, AND I have no life experience within the LDS church, BUT I do love talking about mormonism and researching it and talking to Mormons, so I'll just take a stab.

Mormons believe in the Old and New Testament insofar as it has been correctly translated according to--as I understand it--ongoing revelations of Church doctrine prescribed by the prophet (seer, and revelator/the president of the Church).

Mormons believe that there was a Great Apostasy during which there were no prophets to preach God's word. This period was just after Christ's ascension and spanned until the 1800s, when little Joseph Smith was visited by an angel and told to find some gold plates on which the Book of Mormon was written. These plates, the BoM, are gospel and equal to the Bible, maybe even holding more sway, I don't know, ask Dez.

Joseph Smith was the first modern prophet following the Great Apostasy, and his legacy has continued, unbroken, through a long string of modern prophets of the Church. This is why the Mormons call themselves Latter-Day Saints--it's quite literal, as I understand it.

Anyway, the Mormons also have a bunch of other qualities that differentiate them from most mainstream Christian sects, such as their afterlife beliefs, which I'm not even going to touch, because I read things that Mormons typically never do as I understand it, so I really can't say how much a part of the practiced religion they are.

Mormons also believe that Mary did not have a virgin birth, as I understand it, but that Jesus was literally the progeny of Mary and God. Like, God fornicated with Mary. Again, no idea how much that's really spoken of in the Mormon culture at large.

God also has a wife, the Heavenly Mother, who seems like a wonderful figure, but I think these days she's really not exhalted a whole lot in an open way? I feel like Dez was actually my source on that.

And then there's a priesthood, where basically every boy over I think the age of 13 is/can become a priesthood member, which is certainly different from most Christian sects.

That's all I got that I can say in a fairly confident and tidy way. I encourage you to Google (or DuckDuckGo!) Chat with a Mormon, where you will be connected to two LDS missionaries through a chatbox. I think they work 9-9 Utah time. They're quite happy to answer easier questions about their faith (I wouldn't go asking about God fornicating with Mary right off the bat), and they are lovely kids with every good intention. Just be warned, if you present yourself as genuinely interested in learning about the LDS doctrine, they very well might try to schedule a follow-up with you, and they will pressure you for your phone number or ask to send you a BoM... or some live missionaries, or all of the above.

I like this site a lot for information on LDS doctrine: http://lds4u.com/

You can learn a lot about Mormon perspective by going to the official church website. Also, somewhere in here Dez posted like the LDS Girls' handbook or something, and I read the whole thing (amazingly), and it was super revealing of the culture and world perspective of the church.

Okay, Dez, other ex- or current Mormons, sorry for jumping in there. Hope I didn't get too much wrong. And Dez, you probably don't remember me at all, but I hope you're doing well, sorry to hear times have been rough on you.

[Wenny]

Re: Ask a Mormon

Why is church service 3 hours long.