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Here is a nice cartoon to explain a whole LOT to people who haven't had much (or any) contact with this church in the past.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy0d1HbItOo
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just watched this. the movie does have a lot of "truthiness" but is definitely just a propaganda film. i would say the movie is 80% true, but almost 100% of the disturbing things are just flat out wrong. Does LDS doctrine often sound far-fetched? certainly at times, to an outsider. Is LDS doctrine sinister or bigoted? are they a cult/do they brainwash people? i must answer a honest and adamant no.
"the mormon jesus" who the [censored] is that? its just jesus round here. in fact, calling LDS people Mormons is somewhat derogatory, or at least inaccurate, though 99% of Mormons recognize that its not worth fighting and just fully accept the name. it wasn't until after about 5 years of inactivity that i used the term mormon to refer to LDS people in front of non-LDS people. kind of like how it is often more socially acceptable to say the n word if you are black. eventually though, i decided that since no mormons care, i probably shouldn't care either.
I think TS's suggested direction of this thread would be more interesting then most of the stuff i have been discussing.
LDS culture, the people, their mentality is really interesting in my opinion. they really are unusually nice, hard working, and charitable people. mormon house life (the family centricity, the food storage/emergency preparedness), and mormon adolescence (mormon dating, the responsibilities of the young men, the attitudes of mormon teenagers) is also pretty interesting.
Drinking coke at a party with mormons is like doing coke at a party with regular people. Mormons can't date until they are 16, but once they are, they are practically PRESSURED to date as many people as possible. oh and you shouldn't have a steady boyfriend/girlfriend. which is pretty nice, since a guy can have a different date lined up every night of the week with impunity (except sunday of course, though you could go to a different ward with a girl i guess). also, pretty much any mormon guy can secure at least 1 date with any mormon girl if he is at ALL socially capable. so there are benefits, of course you can't have sex or even make out (i mean that is if you both buy into the whole church thing, which you almost certainly do). also, a lot of mormon girls are very hot. all that clean living.