Living with Mormons

Last night I read the free e-book “Living with Mormons” of Hanneke Koppers read.

Interesting to see the world through the eyes of an exchange student, how she struggles with herself and her new environment. She clearly ends up in a family that is not open to the world. Her first host family desperately clings to their own world. OK, if you host an exchange student, the intention is for her to be part of your family, that you encourage her and especially invite her to learn from your way of life and culture, but imposing that is, in my opinion, a step too far.

Witness to this is the story about the answer why people vote republican: “because they have been doing it for generations and don't ask questions about it”. My hair stood on end at so much short-sightedness.

When you read this book, you read, in my opinion, a kind of indictment against rigid Mormon thinking. Let me make it clear that this is not peculiar to Mormons. In my opinion, you can find narrow-minded people in every culture. Even in my family, I know people who, when asked “why do you always vote for the socialists”, will answer “because our family always did that for all the good things the socialists did in the past”.

What I found beautiful from the moment I found out if The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was for me, is the eleventh Article of Faith of our church:

We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege: let them worship how, where, or what they may.

OK, I admit that it is often a difficult balance for us as Mormons. You must understand that we are immensely happy with the revelations we have from our prophets and with our knowledge of God's plan of salvation. The ancient proverb says “shared joy is double joy”. That explains a lot why Mormons naturally like to talk about their faith. We are not a dark cult, nor are we constantly hunting for converts. We just like to openly talk about our happiness and share it with others.

There is, of course, also the commandment from our Lord: “Go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15). We as Mormons also take this commandment seriously. That is why young men (and women) at the age of 18 or 19 years spend two years traveling the world to preach the Word full-time. Sometimes they do this by knocking on doors or by speaking to people at the station, but equally based on referrals from members.

But we certainly have respect for everyone. I will freely talk about my faith myself, my good friends have all had a book or leaflet by now so that they at least know or have the chance to know why I have changed so much, but I am not going to knock on 100 doors every week or go around imploring everyone in my circle of friends “convert or great misfortunes will happen”.

So to come back to Anouk's experiences: the final scene is really typical for Mormons. The fact that she prayed in her own way and made the sign of the cross received a lot of approval and respect. As fellow Christians, we are simply happy when someone else also believes in Christ, even if in a different way.

If there is an exchange student somewhere who also wants to try living with Mormons, he or she can always let me know.