I want to be Mormon

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone else follow the Skalla sisters? They're Utah Mormon influencers. Rachel and Emily are the big bloggers then they have younger sisters who are getting into influencing too.

Anyway, they seem so happy and like they have perfect lives!

Look a little deeper. Mama Skalla obviously favors Rachel, and Emily is forever trying to catch up. Rachel had a business flop when copying jewelry designs and almost quit blogging because of it. The dad is a developer who lets his daughters live in his spec houses to avoid paying taxes. He also made some questionable business deals when building a shopping mall across from the SLC Temple. Emily's husband's family is a bunch of doctors and business executives who have high positions in the church. They're embarrassed their son (who is no dummy) married one of the Skalla girls, who barely eeked out an education and had been engaged twice before. At least one of Emily's boys has some special needs which are becoming harder and harder to hide on the blog. He was living with the Skalla parents for awhile I believe. The second-youngest sister broke her engagement to a seemingly nice guy and got married to another seemingly nice guy before she even removed her registry from Engagement #1. The whole thing was carefully curated for the 'gram, by the way. The youngest sister is unfortunate-looking by comparison to the others and has had a lot of plastic surgery, starting at a young age. All the girls have, but the youngest one has had the most, and she's still not as cute as her sisters and they don't let her forget it. Papa Skalla is horrified that his married daughters do not wear garments, as it's hard to wear skintight exercise clothing and sundresses with those things underneath. Emily wears hers at least some of the time, especially around the in-laws.

It's probably a matter of time before the wheels fall off in a big, public way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone else follow the Skalla sisters? They're Utah Mormon influencers. Rachel and Emily are the big bloggers then they have younger sisters who are getting into influencing too.

Anyway, they seem so happy and like they have perfect lives!

These brainless twits. They all seem like terrible people. Worshipping at the alter of consumerism, uneducated, zero intellectual curiosity, barely literate, obsessed with plastic surgery and their looks. Only goal in life is to get a husband after Daddy Skalla gets you the full pakage- Big fake boobs, nose job, veneers and filler/Botox when you're practically a teenager. Doesn't really matter if you marry someone after like, a month, it's about checking that box. Emily seems like a horrible mother who runs away from her kids at every opportunity and appears barely bonded to them. They do like to sexualize the girls early though, dressing them up little little Jon Benet Ramseys and having them do sexy dances to sometimes inappropriate songs. None of them appear to have any friends, they only really hang out with each other, which is odd. I don't think they're religious or spiritual, I think church is just an opportunity to dress up for the 'gram. Maybe they're happy and good for them I guess, but I think they're pretty awful.

Just saying, I'm sure there are many Mormon women NOT on Instagram. My friends who do Instagram and FB are way more narcissistic than average

I mean...obviously?

[Anonymous]

Pointing to people on Insta and fb as examples is dumb

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s a cult. I mean that literally. They’re nice, but it’s a cult.

Except it's not. Worship... Jesus Christ

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: except I cant give up coffee!

Geez or chocolate!

Op, I know exactly what you mean.

Chocolate is one of the major food groups for Mormons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: except I cant give up coffee!

Geez or chocolate!

Op, I know exactly what you mean.

Chocolate is one of the major food groups for Mormons.

Yep chocolate is totally allowed.

Mormons love sugar.

The only things that are banned are “strong drink” (alcoholic beverages) and “hot drink” (meaning coffee and tea).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My Mormon friend says they're nicest to non-Mormons but don't care to help out fellow Mormons.

The church used to lease an apartment in a building next door to my house for their missionaries. They had a habit of using the dumpster for a different small apartment house for their trash until the owner there padlocked the dumpster. He and his handyman were perusing the dumpster one evening, found a lot of pizza boxes plus letters from the Mormon who was overseeing their mission work, advice about what kind of ties to wear (not too loud or garish), how to talk to people, etc. They would stop by sometimes when we were outside around our fire pit and visit. They didn't push conversion when I told them I was UU. We discussed sci fi a lot--a lot of sci fi writers are Mormons. Which makes sense given their goofy theology. If I were going to be a Mormon it would probably be BECAUSE of the goofy theology.

Also they used to do PSA ads about kindness and families and stuff that I thought were very lovely and well done.

So wrong, on so many levels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Mormon friend says they're nicest to non-Mormons but don't care to help out fellow Mormons.

The church used to lease an apartment in a building next door to my house for their missionaries. They had a habit of using the dumpster for a different small apartment house for their trash until the owner there padlocked the dumpster. He and his handyman were perusing the dumpster one evening, found a lot of pizza boxes plus letters from the Mormon who was overseeing their mission work, advice about what kind of ties to wear (not too loud or garish), how to talk to people, etc. They would stop by sometimes when we were outside around our fire pit and visit. They didn't push conversion when I told them I was UU. We discussed sci fi a lot--a lot of sci fi writers are Mormons. Which makes sense given their goofy theology. If I were going to be a Mormon it would probably be BECAUSE of the goofy theology.

Also they used to do PSA ads about kindness and families and stuff that I thought were very lovely and well done.

So wrong, on so many levels.

Because you get the most respect for converting people and fellow Mormons are already converted...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How to be a Mormon in 73 easy steps

Well you guys didn't make it past #1 ... Hell for you

1. Never use the word “Mormon” in describing anything Mormon. Doing so is a win for Satan.

https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2019/07/31/commentary-how-be-mormon/

#2 is "Never believe anything the Salt Lake Tribune says about Latter-day Saints"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I felt this way when I spent a week with a friend who is an Orthodox Jew. I loved the emphasis on family, resting and reflecting and not using any electricity (or electronics) on the Sabbath as opposed to running around like a maniac, having other religious neighbors over and really feeling like a community. I think covid is making everyone a little lonely and craving community again, and that's a role that religion feels. I'm a terrible rule follower and there are a lot of rules that bother me in every religion, so I wouldn't be able to pull it off, but it's a good sign that we should slow down a bit and focus on neighbors, relatives, friends, the simple things. It also gives a sense of order when the world is in chaos. I bet a lot of people turn to religion when this is over, or even now.

Interesting: when I was in college I knew many Mormons who were friends and housemates with Orthodox Jews. The Mormons helped the Jews with stuff on Saturdays and the Jews handled things on campus for the Mormons while the Mormons went on their missions.

Missions are the creepy part of Mormonism
Everyone who doesn't marry by a certain age has to do it for 2 years. You do not have a say as to where you will be sent. Contact with family is not allowed.
Mormonism is divided by class. You are assigned a church. Rich and poor do not belong to the same congregation. Rich get nice mission destinations like France, poor are sent elsewhere

Some definite misinformation here. First, people volunteer to serve missions, and now they can contact their families each week.

Next, your membership in a congregation is based on geography, so some units have more of one SES than another, but most are mixed. Missions are definitely not assigned by class. Everyone pays the same $400 to go on their mission and they are assigned based on need and inspiration. I think you must have information from the 1970s when people had to pay the actual expenses related to their mission, so yeah, NYC and Tokyo were out-of-reach for some.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Beneath the cheery surface, there is a tremendous amount of fighting over/stressing over money in Mormon families, even *seemingly* affluent ones. You have a culture where women are encouraged not to work and stay home and couples are encouraged to have a lot of kids at an early age. That means that a Mormon man is often supporting a family of 5+ in his 20s and many struggle to do so. But even if they're struggling and fight a lot about money, they'll pretend to have it together.

That's also why so many women are so susceptible to the lure of MLMs which promise them that they don't have to work outside the home but they can make money to help out.

You have repeated this a couple of times. I don't think it is true. I do think that women in this culture are under stress, but not because of money, it is because they feel pressure to be perfect. And that pressure doesn't come from the church or its teachings, but from internal feelings of not measuring up to the ideals that we are to strive toward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a cult. I mean that literally. They’re nice, but it’s a cult.

Only to the extent that any organized religion is a cult.

What makes it cult like is the demands on your time, financial exploitation, pressure to rat out your friends who do break rules, compulsory mission service and pressure to avoid outside information, contacts with people or family outside the organization, limits on your diet, dress code and secret insider language. The division between us and them. Criticism of the leadership is never allowed, neither is questioning what your tithe is used for

Anglican and Presbyterians do none of that, nor mainstream religions.

You just have so many misunderstandings of this community...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Beneath the cheery surface, there is a tremendous amount of fighting over/stressing over money in Mormon families, even *seemingly* affluent ones. You have a culture where women are encouraged not to work and stay home and couples are encouraged to have a lot of kids at an early age. That means that a Mormon man is often supporting a family of 5+ in his 20s and many struggle to do so. But even if they're struggling and fight a lot about money, they'll pretend to have it together.

That's also why so many women are so susceptible to the lure of MLMs which promise them that they don't have to work outside the home but they can make money to help out.

Maybe because I live in Boston but literally every Mormon I know makes 150k a year

You have a very biased sample. Most Mormons can’t make anywhere near that much. Many don’t have college degrees.

Like I said, I live in Boston near Watertown which is the Mormon area. Every single one I have met is a high achieving professional. Of course, that's biased to whom I know, and the Mormons who move to Boston are usually here for degrees or good jobs.

But I suspect the same thing is going on on this thread. I suspect very few people here are actually familiar with Utah Mormons. We are familiar with the very UC Mormons we meet. I know many people who know Mitt Romney for example and I'm sure he can afford his wife and kids.

Only 20 percent of Mormons in America even have a Household Income over over 100 k, about the same as the US population as a whole.

Half have a HHI under 50k and 27 percent have a HHI under 30k.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/10/11/how-income-varies-among-u-s-religious-groups/

Changing demographics with lots of converts among Hispanic immigrants probably affected this statistic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I felt this way when I spent a week with a friend who is an Orthodox Jew. I loved the emphasis on family, resting and reflecting and not using any electricity (or electronics) on the Sabbath as opposed to running around like a maniac, having other religious neighbors over and really feeling like a community. I think covid is making everyone a little lonely and craving community again, and that's a role that religion feels. I'm a terrible rule follower and there are a lot of rules that bother me in every religion, so I wouldn't be able to pull it off, but it's a good sign that we should slow down a bit and focus on neighbors, relatives, friends, the simple things. It also gives a sense of order when the world is in chaos. I bet a lot of people turn to religion when this is over, or even now.

Interesting: when I was in college I knew many Mormons who were friends and housemates with Orthodox Jews. The Mormons helped the Jews with stuff on Saturdays and the Jews handled things on campus for the Mormons while the Mormons went on their missions.

Missions are the creepy part of Mormonism
Everyone who doesn't marry by a certain age has to do it for 2 years. You do not have a say as to where you will be sent. Contact with family is not allowed.
Mormonism is divided by class. You are assigned a church. Rich and poor do not belong to the same congregation. Rich get nice mission destinations like France, poor are sent elsewhere

Some definite misinformation here. First, people volunteer to serve missions, and now they can contact their families each week.

Next, your membership in a congregation is based on geography, so some units have more of one SES than another, but most are mixed. Missions are definitely not assigned by class. Everyone pays the same $400 to go on their mission and they are assigned based on need and inspiration. I think you must have information from the 1970s when people had to pay the actual expenses related to their mission, so yeah, NYC and Tokyo were out-of-reach for some.

Yeah, it's been standardized since the 90's but I think it's now $500/month. You can get moved around during your mission and paired with new companions. You don't choose where you go but if you are fluent in a foreign language you can state a preference for a location.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Black people were second class citizens until the late 70s.

Thank you. I'm so suprised at how everyone thinks they are so nice. They are so RACIST. In high school my Mormon friends told me I was a descendant of Cane. My black skin was the mark of Cane, a curse. As a whole we never be successful because we were being cursed for our sinful ancestor.