You commented on culture in your Dehlin post.

I'm just curious what you mean about some people liking the culture apart from the Mormon church. What is the culture if you'd care to comment. Thanks.

(why did you start a new thread instead of asking me in the one where I made the statement?)
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,780003

I think the best way to understand it is to see how cultural jews came about from religious judaism. The mormon culture was historically instrumental in forming the west as it is today. The people have a strange perspective, and for good or bad, they are a unique people. Even as an exmo, my perspective of life is forever altered by the lens I was raised to believe, no matter how much I wish to toss it away.

I'll go back to my thread to list cultural elements that may be worth keeping...

I started a new thread because I thought I was going off on a tangent. But I'll go to your thread and check out your list. Thanks.

Trying to describe the Mormon culture to someone who is outside of it is like trying to describe what water tastes like.

Ha! Think North Korea.

I marinate any poultry I cook in some combination of Sprite, soy-sauce, and garlic salt.

I have fun on July 24th.

I thought Napoleon Dynamite was a hilarious movie, and I understood it probably better than a never-mo (despite the lack of overt Mormonism in the movie).

I speak with traces of a funny accent I've only heard in Central and Southern Utah. It seems to stem from the accent my Scandinavian ancestors had when they moved to Utah and started speaking English.

Outside of Utah membership in the LDS Church conveys a very powerful sense of identity to its members (much as being "Jewish" does) while they exist within a larger community.

Here it exists as a powerful cultural monolith, dictating that most businesses aren't open on Sunday, periodically overhauls liquor laws, always with the goal of making it less available or convenient, and provides a closed system of information exchange that creates the inertia that impede change. Note that both the Black Priesthood doctrine and the Gay Rights issue emerged as a result of "outside forces" being brought to bear on #47 E. South Temple...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2013 04:10PM by SL Cabbie.