Re: religious group retention rates (Mark Twain and Brigham Young)

From: John M Grigg (starman125@mailcity.com)
Date: Tue Jun 20 2000 - 14:46:13 MDT


On Tue, 20 Jun 2000 13:23:04
I wrote:
>>Comparing Mormons to the Amish or Mennonites is not >really logical because the
>Mormon church is in large part living amongst the >secular world.

J.R. Molloy wrote:
>That's true enough, if you consider Utah part of "the >secular world."

Hehehe... yes, I do. lol! Mark Twain once said(before Utah got so full of gentiles) and I am paraphrasing here "Utah is a strange and eerie place where you will feel as if you have stepped into another world!"

It was said that Brigham Young was one of the few people who could put Twain in his place and get the last word in! I greatly admire both men but found the account I read very interesting.

As Zeb Haradon has stated, in the small towns you still get that "other worldly" feeling of stepping into someone else's world. Recently church leaders have really expounded on members(especially Utah members) being extra friendly to newcomers to their areas. Utah Mormons love to call Utah "Zion" while the rest of the world is called "the mission field." This pisses off nonUtah Mormons no end(myself included)!

Regarding the connection between church and state in Utah, I once saw a cartoon(by a Mormon) that showed the church president looking at a newspaper with a headline about him controlling the state legislature. He calls up his secretary and tells her "tell the legislature to pass a resolution saying I am not in charge of Utah!!" ;)

best wishes,

John Grigg

Send FREE Greetings for Father's Day--or any day!
Click here: http://www.whowhere.lycos.com/redirects/fathers_day.rdct



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:13:55 MDT