Young and Single: Our First LDS Church Day

11/23/2008

Lauren and I, after an intense study of the Mormon church (which has mostly consisted of watching Big Love) decided to make our first church trip to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We readied ourselves with lots of coffee (oops) and bagels at Interzone, and walked over to the College Hill Ward, a special ward for young single people. "Young" was defined as 18-30, which leaves me out of the loop. It occurred to me that people would think we were Prop 8 protestors or something - a couple of old (ish) single women, together, at church. I suppose that if they knew we were mostly interested in them because of an HBO show about polygamy, they would be equally offended.

Here are a few impressions:
1) So, nobody thought we were visiting from another ward. It's like we don't look Mormon. Not enough glow? Lots of people came up and introduced themselves, usually by saying something like "you're a new face around here ..." and extending their hands. Big handshakers. Several people explained things about what to expect, whether we had to eat the bread, and so on, but nobody asked whether we were Mormons.

2) I really dig the weird stuff in the Mormon church. Your babies come from the spirit world, where they've been living with God? Sweet. You receive direct testimony from God? Boogie down. Jesus came and lived in America, and Joseph Smith found out because of an angel? Yessiree. But it's all smothered in a bland sauce. A bland white sauce. I can't take the overbearing blandness of it. I think I could get into this Mormon stuff if they would add some dark eyeliner and a few icons into the mix.

3) They love their families. Yeah, big surprise there. Husbands and wives are "equal" but have "different roles." That is, men have to wear suits and flag pins and tell people what to do, women have to wear dresses and lipstick and tell each other how sweet they are. Also, families are "eternal." This part is kind of cool (see spirit babies, above), but also has uncomfortable implications, as when Mormons get all weird about family history and bringing their ancestors into the fold.

All in all, this was a great first church-going. We have a meeting with Tom on Tuesday next week; he coordinates classes for "investigators" like ourselves. Everyone was so damn nice at the Mormon church, and several had stories of when they were brought into the church. I can't imagine actually wanting to join any church, let alone one where everyone's so clean, but I did feel very righteous after all the praying and singing.

Personal note: my mom's great-grandfather was Mormon, along with all his family, who came to Utah in the early days. But her grandfather left the church, which (so I'm told) meant he left the family. He raised my mom's dad an atheist, and her family are all atheists or next to it. So I feel like I have a little Mormon in my blood. I didn't find out much about it until my mom told me about her second (third?) cousin who'd contacted her because he's gay and has left the church. And she (mom) told me that he was looking for family. I guess that you can't have a fag in your celestial kingdom. I'll have to think on that.