So am I. They are not strange, but they are getting..well.. queer.
In either politics or religion, there are a lot of screwy ideas going around.
My experiences with Mormons is limited. I have had the same experience as you, all quite nice people. I did get one seriously annoyed, when I asked him, "Couldn't you do better than "Joe Smith"? That's what people sign in motel registers!".
In our circle of friends, the Mormon sent the Jew a Ramadan card as a prank.
A month later, the Mormon received a dozen Wedding Anniversary cards where he worked..it was all light hearted, so I never got the impression the guy was a humorless hysteric.
I had heard from people in Utah about how they resent pervasive Mormon influence, yet by all other accounts, Utah sounds like a good place to live.
My entreaty to fellow freepers to confront the Mormon menace in person is not recruiting any volunteers.
I forgot that there is a high per centage of inmates, amputees, shut-ins, and people with no gas money, who attack Mormons on FR.
I have close relatives on both sides of the current Church divide, and I hear opinions!
My relationship with God is quite personal, and I'm apathetic about a lot of this.
But, you know, there have always been queer Churches. In the city in which I grew up, everybody knew that the queers went to a certain church. I went there a few times, for various reasons, and it seemed to me that the priests were queer. Everybody seemed to shrug it off. But it was important that it remained officially unacknowledged. Today, now that it has been officially acknowledged, people have been forced to take sides.
It was the same in the military. As long as homosexuals kept their proclivities undisclosed, nobody noticed or particularly cared. But if they insist on making a public spectacle of themselves, yes, it offends everybody else.
I suppose I believe in a certain amount of hypocracy as well as apathy.
I have also heard that non-Mormans living in places controlled by Mormons feel a certain unspoken oppression. I've never experienced that... Well, once on a plane ride out of Salt Lake City, sitting next to a Morman couple, I felt them grow supercilious when I ordered wine. They ordered milk. But, in my experience, Mormans have always been friendly, wholesome, kind, and good people--just the kind I like (Man! Am I sick of sleaze!) (And dysfunction!)--and I don't understand why anybody would object to electing a Mormon to public office any more than a Presbyterian, a Catholic, a Jew, or Whatever.
But I'll bet you that if Romney is nominated for the Presidency or Vice Presidency, the Democrat Sleaze Machine will beat him over the head with "Polygamy"! (Nothing is beneath those people.) (Man! Am I sick of... But I repeat myself.)
I've made lots of jokes about the Episcopal Church--like you did about its being queer--and in a vein similar to the clever exchange you mentioned between the Mormon and the Jew. I like irreverent humor. The Catholics tend to do the same sort of thing. My wife was raised Catholic, and she and her family shocked even me with their irreverant quips.
I have also observed--to fellow Episcopalians--that apathy has always been the great strength of the Episcopal Church. That's meant to be funny, but there is a deep truth in it.
The Church of England emerged from the hideous religious wars and horrifying excesses of so-called "Christians" throughout the Middle Ages and beyond (what could be more perverted or blasphemous than to torture and kill people in the name of Jesus Christ?), and, in retaining the rituals of the Church of Rome (and the Roman Empire) while opening itself to more and more tolerance, it created something beautiful, a context that allowed a great deal of individual freedom of belief and exploration and that encouraged people to find their own individual ways of communicating with God and finding their paths to Him, the ultimate human desire.
Roman Catholics assert that the Catholic Church does the same. This may be true. In fact, it probably is.
Deepak Chopra has said:
This is another irreverent quip, but there's much truth in it.
I once had an employee who was very clever, bright, and charming, but who had loads of problems. She was homosexual, alcoholic, dysfunctional--I don't know what all else. She was of African descent, and she had a wonderful, warm, winning, disarming charm, often encountered in Black American subculture.
One day I told a joke that was a bit irreverent. Then I began to worry that maybe I had offended her. So I said, "I think God has a sense of humor, don't you?"
She replied: "I'm depending on it."
The truth is, my experience has taught me and convinced me that God is not only loving, forgiving, and patient but also indulgent.
Those who believe Him to be cruel are horribly misguided.
Those who commit cruel and horrifying acts in His name, commit the ultimate blasphemy.
"My experiences with Mormons is limited. I have had the same experience as you, all quite nice people. I did get one seriously annoyed, when I asked him, 'Couldn't you do better than "Joe Smith"? That's what people sign in motel registers!'."
Too bad he didn't see the humor.
I got an Episcopalian seriously annoyed, when, referring to the "born again, evangelical" service at our Church, as opposed to the traditional one, I asked her: "Do you go to the 9 o'clock service or the Holy Roller one?"
Some people just don't have a sense of humor.
God does. Uh...at least...I hope He does...