Work lunch and 1 (me) out of the 6 are apostates. So the whole conversation is about missionary work. I'm going to gag. I'm so pissed.
One guy hits me on the shoulder and says, "you'll like this" and proceeds to tell us about his missionary son who was invited to talk to an entire episcopalian congregation and hand out books of mormon then the minister wants to meet with them after to discuss! (they are so naive to think that the minister wants to do anything but rip them apart).
Someone said, "wouldn't it be awesome if he converts the whole congregation!!" I rolled my eyes at her because I could not believe what I was hearing. Shouldn't there be some kind of boundary for discussing religion at work? I mean, I realize they are so ignorant they think everyone is part of the MORG but even then it is inappropriate.
To top it off we got to watch a BYU accapella group perform at our company meeting.
I'd have to disagree. I'm not a lawyer, so feel free to disregard my advice, but if this is a major problem then I think you should take it to a lawyer. These sorts of things DO get resolved around here. Just like anywhere else you have to fight for it though.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2015 08:28PM by snb.
There are questions and topics that should be avoided at work. 1) how old everyone is: 2) What's everyone's ethnicity? 3) illegal immigration 4) what religion is "true" 5) the poor and welfare abuse 6) and who's a virgin?
the minister doesn't ask about the new essays on lds.org. You guys know about the new essays right? You know where they admit to JSs many women and the rock in the hat? You know about those right?
Don't they realize that many churches have series of lessons on the beliefs of various different churches? They bought into the missionaries naivete if they think that it was anything but informational.
saucie Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > So, Blindnomore.... > > I take you are out of the church but no one at > your place > > of employment knows it? Does anyone in your life > know it?
What makes you say that? You underestimate the gall of the Morg bots. Everyone there knew and everyone in my family knows.
My office is probably 50/50 TBMs and never mo's or jack/ex-mo's. We have a few elite TBM's that constantly talk (or more complain) about their callings and the amount of time and money they fork over. It makes the rest of us laugh because the work place is the only "safe" place to vent. They don't talk shit at church, like they do at work. Gets old sometimes because these conversations are not whispered. They are shouting over three cubicals.
You would have loved our company mtgs. Yacht dinner/dancing cruises, mountain retreats, VIP room at the track with $ to bet on the horses, Hollywood Bowl concerts, fine dining with view of the harbor/X-mas boat parade, Gondola canal boats, Catalina Island... No religion conversations!
Some were co. meetings, some sales dept. mtgs. When you generate $ and clients for the company, some CEOs are fairly generous. My day began at 7:00 AM (working with east coast clients...) It seems like more CEOs now only care about their own Forbes ranking.
Sorry, but I'm an exmo who attends a liberal episcopalian parish for several years and the notion of TBM mishies converting such a congregation simply cracks me up.
Trust me when I say the (highly educated, professional) Rector (minister) of any such parish was generously humoring, to an extreme degree, the missionaries by letting them address the congregation at all and being extraordinarily polite by inviting them to meet with her/him afterward. I can assure you the Rector was not even remotely going to 'rip them apart' but probably would attempt to initiate what she/he didn't realize would be a rather futile discussion about the nature of faith in a multicultural world, and the rather large difficulties inherent in trying to put God into a small box.
But yeah - the issue of mixing religion in the workplace as if you should rubber stamp what others find wonderful is wrong. Sorry you have to deal with that - I'm assuming you're in Utah or the Morridor, and I hope there will be ways that it can be minimized in the future.
Thanks! It is good to hear from someone who knows the denomination. I figured they were either humoring them or completely clueless about the Mormon religion. He said the "minister" sounded SO excited to meet with them afterward.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2015 12:45AM by Susan I/S.
I am an exmo who goes to a conservative Anglican parish that used to be Episcopalian and as my liberal brother has stated, I doubt that the LDS missionaries did very much to cause the congregation to hie to the Mormon church. I bet the rector of the Episcopalian parish has no plans to convert and if he is like others that I know he probably views the LDS church as a non-Christian cult. I imagine he just wanted to thank them for taking the time to come and visit.
I occasionally attend a craft group at the local Baptist Church that my best friend is a member of. She came to me one week (I had been working on the 'craft' day that week), and said that an older lady had turned up at the Baptist Church hall for the day (all women in the community are welcome there), and announced she was there as a missionary for tscc. Everyone was gob-smacked. My friend asked me (knowing I am an ex-member) if that was what Mormons did. I said "Only if they are a little dippy, above all else it was a VERY rude thing to do". When I managed to figure out who it might me, I told her to relax, she is a bit 'strange' in many ways, and I have seen her do some weird things like that. Even only having met her a couple of times I could see that.
Talk about NO boundaries!!! Guess someone is celestial kingdom bound!!
Just to balance out opinions... No matter where you live in the US, there's going to be quirky cultural behavior by the inhabitants.... in The South, there are "dry" counties (no alcohol sales, at all, in any store) yet they allow the sale of lottery, chewin' tobacco, etc. 'the Bible Belt' the meth addicts wear overalls instead of suits and really are married to their first cousin. Imagine working in that environment!
I think you need to talk to these people! They just assume they know you, but you never reveal yourself. The guy hitting you on the shoulder says, "You're going to love this!" But never knows that you don't love it. Are expecting everyone to read your mind? Why don't you speak up? If you think it's highly unlikely the kid converts even one Episcopalean, let alone the entire congregation, say so? Why let yourself be victimized by these people?
This is exactly why the politics in Utah is so awful. Lots of people disagree, but they do it silently. There is no vocal counterpoint to the dominant narrative.
That is utter garbage. The reason the politics in Utah are so awful is because 90% of the politicians are Mormon, work hand in hand with the Mormon church in making political decisions, and are voted in by Mormons, which is, roughly, 70% of the demographic. The state is saturated and it goes all the way up to the governor. "Talking to these people" does no good because they think they are privy to spiritual guidance and information that you are not. They are also instructed not to "be influenced" by non-Mormon information because it is not "of God."
Reference: Utah resident for more than 40 years and former member of the Mormon church.
I once got to speak to a congregation of Jay-Dubs. They chased us into the parking lot, all talking at the same time and reading Bible passages at us relentlessly. There is likely a lesson to be learned here.
I go through this same thing every day at work! I work at a hospital and the Mormon talk is everywhere. Even outside of lunch. I feel like I have to pretend to be Mormon around my patients because they all bring up the fact that they're Mormon so casually. Plus if they knew I wasn't, they wouldn't like me taking care of them anymore.