Continuing my series, here are my continued answers to the questions on the Mormon.org website.
Are all Mormons required to serve a mission?
All Mormon men are expected to serve missions from age 19-21. While not a "requirement" in the sense that you can still have a temple recommend and not serve, nevertheless it essentially a requirement if you don't want to be questioned, ostracized from dating "worthy" Mormon women, and judged. In other words, Mormons men are socialized into believing it is a requirement.
That said, even though Mr. Curie no longer believes in the Mormon Church, he doesn't regret his mission. It gave him a unique experience to be immersed in a foreign culture, even if he did have to pay for those two years.
Women aren't required to serve missions, and are discouraged from doing so if they have any viable marriage prospects. Women are not permitted to submit mission papers before the age of 21.
Why don't Mormons drink coffee, tea, or alcohol?
If you do not keep the "Word of Wisdom," you cannot attend the temple. And if you cannot attend the temple, you cannot live with God after this life. Since whatever separates us from God is sin, therefore drinking coffee, tea, or alcohol is a sin.
Personally, I always saw it more as an obedience principle - I did it because I was told to. However, temple "worthiness" is socialized in Mormon communities as a marker of righteousness. You will get a lot less grief from your neighbors by keeping the WoW, at least publicly.
Why are Mormons asked to donate 10% of their income to the Church?
So that the Church can continue its missionary and other operations. Building temples, meetinghouses, and malls, defeating same-sex marriage amendments, and purchasing Avalons and 100% cotton paper for the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles costs a bumload of money.
What are some things that tell you there is a God?
There is very little in the world that points to God that cannot be explained scientifically, imho. My choice to believe in a higher Something is not something that can be explained logically, and indeed can probably be disproven in many ways. Regardless, I believe that there is Something out there greater than me, and I think its worth trying to understand.
2 comments:
Wow, these are great!!!
I should have though of doing this, and I'm glad you did. It's great to see some simple, concise, accurate answers to these questions -- that clarify things, unlike the usual church spin that just adds to the confusion.
Also, I laughed at the part about the cotton paper. Is this a reference to The Book of Mammon?
You left out the part that Mormons have chosen to define the WOW as "coffee, tea, drugs and alcohol, etc. ." and have conveniently left out the gluttonous eating, food in its season, etc. . . to which a great deal of the membership would have to answer "no" to when asked if they keep.
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