I have heard this from TBMs way to many times. Some have even told me that people have said to them "we heard Mormons have horns on their head." Well I think anyone who actually thinks that there are people who believe this are stupid! Do any of you know anyone who really think that there are people who truly believe that "Mormons have horns on there head." Is this just another myth perpetrated to make people (TBMs) feel like victims? I will say it again, anyone who thinks that there are people who believe/believed Mormons had horns are stupid! It is just another childish fairy tale.

Sometimes crazy fundamental christians say crazy things about crazy mormons. Just like sometimes crazy mormons try and discredit standard christianity.

They both try and out crazy each other. And they both succeed.

I first heard this nonsense as a nevermo freshman at BYU, NOT in the nevermo world I came from. We had an assignment in my first "religion" class at BYU in which we were to identify some misconceptions people have about Mormons and refute them. Well, honestly, growing up in suburban NY most people I knew had never even heard of Mormons and those who had only knew of the Mormon Tabernacle choir and that they had been polygamists many years ago. So imagine my surprise to hear from one of my TBM classmates that people who aren't Mormon think that Mormons have horns. I was apalled...not at the idea that some believed that but that Mormons believed that some people believed that. I was leaning towards becoming a Mormon but somewhere down inside I could see this was a bunch of nonsense meant to paint Mormons as vicitims. As a matter of fact I had to sit the assignment out as I had absolutely nothing to contribute....and it became apparent that anything I could think of that might be said in criticism of Mormons was painfully true.

Also had an English professor that said that many people believed Mormons held virgins captive in the Salt Lake Temple. (I think this myth actually had some basis in fact—I believe there was a late 19 or early 20th c critic who wrote something to that effect but certainly it was not widely believed at all.

And btw, nonsequiter, I myself am an evangelical Christian and your comment is nonsense.

your comment about his comment is nonsense.

Yeah, but c'mon, Dave. I'm a never-Mo and even know a few Christian Crazies... and the only place I've ever heard the idea Mormons have horns is on this board. Well, actually, I believe my TBM sister-in-law has horns, but I never thought it was because she was a Mormon...just a B!tch from Hell.

My comment is NOT nonsense, maybe you have had a different experience than me? But how does that make my experiences nonsense?
Are you seeking to validate your claims by making me appear nonsensical?

Well here you go.

So MANY very IGNORANT christians say some pretty damn stupid things about mormonism because somehow in their heads it makes them feel better about all the nonsense they personally believe.
Mormons do the SAME thing. Probably, and apparently, all religious people do the same thing.

Maybe christians in this day and age dont say the horns thing (Who knows if they did back in the late 1800s?) But they say some dumb things anyway. I mean they are pretty good at it.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2015 01:05PM by nonsequiter.

Exactly

It's funny, but I've never heard a non Mormon mention the horns. Only Mormons have talked about it in my experience. It figures that Mormons would have persecution wish fulfillment, along with all the other crap they believe. I'm glad I turned in my horns.

I had never heard this until it was mentioned in a church history class at BYU. The professor said the myth was started by early anti-Mormons after Rockwell, or some other Mormon thug, yelled some threat about goring a group of hostile Missourians.

That may be true, but it was probably made up by Mormons in an attempt to bury legitimate anti-Mormon arguments under a bunch of nonsense.

donbagley Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It's funny, but I've never heard a non Mormon
> mention the horns. Only Mormons have talked about
> it in my experience. It figures that Mormons would
> have persecution wish fulfillment, along with all
> the other crap they believe. I'm glad I turned in
> my horns.


Same here. I've only ever heard the horns myth from a TBM friend. I am certain many Mormons would be chagrined if they knew just how little most non-Mos ever think of them, good or bad.

I've met a few non-Mormons who have mentioned horns. I don't think they truly believed it, but if they did then you are right about them being stupid.

I think it may be begun with a reference made from a silent movie (or a film made in the '20s maybe earlier?) I've gotten the "How many moms do you have?" more than the "Horns" bit myself. ;)

I've know fundie Christians and they don't say such things. Even though they think Mormons are evil, they certainly don't think any humans have horns. My DH grew up in The Church of God and knew about the other fundie churches and he laughs this off as a Mormon persecution tale.

Because so many Jews had changed names or didn't let people know they were Jews.

But there is a historical reason back to Michelangelo's sculpture of Moses. They actually believed that Jews had horns.
http://www.jewishanswers.org/ask-the-rabbi-category/jewish-history/post-biblical-history/?p=3072

Mormons keep trying to associate themselves with the Israelites (Exodus, hatred from others, etc...) I propose that it was the Mormons who started this self-identifying myth to mock how others viewed and treated them.

My fifth grade teacher asked me if I had them . . .

Here are some early drawings of the mormon horned creatures.
Someone probably said they were horny and it went from there.
As we know, moroni has a horn.

I love the picture of Briggy in this article.

http://www.juvenileinstructor.org/graphical-images-of-horned-mormons/

The old pictures look like they are trying to connect mormons with satan/ evil by using pictures of horned goats.

My TBM sister told me an mormon myth or joke, can't be sure which, about two missionaries that knocked on a door tracting. When they told the woman that answered the door who they were, she said she heard mormons have horns horns.

The missionaries replied, "why yes we do, would you like to feel them"?

The woman agreed and started feeling around their heads trying to feel the horns. After a minute she said, "I don't feel anything".

The missionaries replied, are you shure you don't feel anything? Not even a little foolish"?

Mormons can talk about horns or the book of Abraham. They seem willing to talk about horns.

Crazy fundamentalist religious zealots of all denominations (and TBM's who place the cult in front of all else are in this group) all have horns....hidden ones....because they are all inherently evil. I truly believe that.

Ron Burr

It's a mistranslation from reformed Egyptian -> "rocks in their head".

Made me laugh out loud :)

My youngest brother (TBM) has had horn removal a couple of times. He gets some subcutaneous fatty deposits in his scalp that my sister in-law calls his "horns".

So, some Mormons might have horns after all!

I think this "horns" nonsense serves a purpose for Mormons. It seeks to convey the prevailing sense that outsiders just don't understand Mormons and Mormonism. But if they really and truly did understand they would embrace it. And that critics of the church are just spinning ignorant hateful lies.

Unfortunately, most of us ended up here critical of Mormonism by getting to know it far too well.

My next door neighbors growing up came from the Deep South. When I was a junior in high school they moved to the east coast & rented their house out. Two years later they came back to fix the house up to sell. The wife brought her super southern baptist sister to help & our family helped them for a week. My mom made them dinner every night because they were exhausted by the end of the day. The sister was mortified when she found out that we were Mormons even though her sister (the neighbor) said we were safe to be around. The last night they were in town we were having dinner & my grandpa was there to have dinner with us. He was really funny & outgoing. Gina asked a few doctrinal questions because she was afraid we were all going to hell & she wanted to save us. She asked if we really had horns because her pastor told the congregation that Mormons were literally the spawn of the devil. My grandpa let her feel his head for reassurance. He then wiggled his ears & told her Mormons didn't have horns but you could tell who was Mormon if you saw someone wiggle their ears. It totally freaked her out!! She was so relieved when he told her that he was kidding :) I thought it was crazy that there were people who actually believed in the horn thing.

Like so many, I have never heard any modern non-Mormon repeat the "horns" myth. Only Mormons. Hmmm.

There may be a few noMo's who mention it as a joke, but it does seem that Mormons who claim that this is an anti-Mormon lie may be the ones who are not exactly being honest.

The pictures are not exactly the same thing. It was pretty common to show anyone who was considered to be really bad as being kin to Stan, and sporting horns, as Stan may or may not do.

I thought they were asking if I was horny.

Joseph, Brigham, and other early leaders had horns. Unfortunately, our wise Hevenly Father did not leave detailed instructions on how to use them.

My mom said that she was asked this question growing up (she is now 82).

However, this myth was typically towards Jews. My mother-in-law who is Jewish and 82 said that she was asked this many, many times growing up.

Its ignorant and mean and hopefully doesn't happen any more.

I heard this back in the 50s. I read it in a book by a Mormon
author. I haven't heard it much lately, maybe because I don't
attend the Church.

The ONLY place I ever heard about this was from Mormons. This
was always given as an example of ignorance and persecution on
the part of gentiles. But I never heard it from a gentile.

I was asked this question as a teenager growing up in the 60's and 70's. I recall perceiving it as being a real question. Then again, I might have been a bit slow on the uptake. ;-)

Luckily, I had a handy hacksaw and file to take care of issue....

My mother who would be 87 years old today told me that early in her grade school years in rural Idaho they had a "reader" (in my era it was the Dick and Jane series) that was produced in the east. There was a story in the reader about the mormons and the illustrations showed mormons with horns.

No, some stupid fundamentalist Christians used to and some still actually do say that. Stupid vs. Stupid is all I have to say about that.

were SO eager to tell me as a Catholic when I first set foot on UT soil. As I just stared in incredulity as I listened to their assinine jokes I only hoped that my reaction might make an impression on their pea brains.....that perhaps they might figure out that I could not comprehend why they had all these dumb jokes pitting the Pope against the Mormon church president...and that maybe, just maybe they might be able to figure out that we had no such jokes because Mormonism was about as insignificant to an East Coast Catholic as a parasite on a flea.

Ziller has heard his never-mo relatives in the Deep South joke about the Mormons-have-horns myth many times.