were to always show up at church wearing those Groucho Marx mustache/nose/glasses things, a propeller beanie, striped t-shirt, suspenders, orange pants that go just down slightly below the knees (but long enough to cover the garments) and bright-red Chuck Taylor sneakers.

Everything else is normal. The guy participates in Sunday School, reads aloud from the lesson manual and such. He takes the sacrament. He pays his tithing. He calls everyone "Brother" and "Sister" and "President This" and "Bishop That".

Would they put up with it? Would he be able to get his temple recommend renewed? Would it be canceled? Would they eventually bar him from attending meetings if he persisted in wearing that outfit? What would be the specific grounds for "disciplinary action" if any?

I know it sounds silly. But I like exploring through thought experiments like this. The more serious underlying topic is this: How hostile is Mormonism to unusual individuality in the absence of any overtly immoral or harmful behavior?

My initial thoughts are that reactions may vary considerable depending on the local congregation and leaders. Some may treat him as a harmless eccentric. Other places may accuse him of irreverence and see him as a potentially harmful influence on the children and take relatively harsh action against him.

My guess is that they wouldn't put up with it. They seem to take their dress code quite seriously. The only possible exception I could see would be if the guy tithed in seven figures, and even then I'm not sure it would be quite kosher.

I used to have a bishop who dressed this way.

I got thumped on the back of the head for letting my scriptures lay on the floor. I have never associated the church tolerating non-conformity. I guess that I always had hard-nosed leaders.

What else?

-Palm tree tie clip was wrong
-Skinny neckties
-One less active kid wore dark brown corduroy pants (they wanted blue or black slacks)
-my haircut was too radical
-had my legs shaved due to ankle wrapping for sports

This does not strike me as a particularly useful thought experiment. Would a work place put up with that? Would a professional sports team? A volunteer orchestra? The Elks Lodge? Not many domains of ordinary social life would accept without question someone who went out of their way through their appearance to provoke everyone else. This sort of dress would rightly be viewed by most people as trolling, and would be stigmatized. People everywhere—not just Mormons—dislike being mocked and don’t prefer to include trolls within their voluntary associations.

In other words, I don’t think this particular thought experiment reveals much about Mormon totalitarianism. Messygoop’s examples above are much better illustrations of Mormon hyper-conformity.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/2019 04:46PM by resipsaloquitur.

I think messygoop's examples relate mostly to youths, however.

They feel a lot more free to bark out orders at young people who don't conform.

It would be a different story with a forty-something individual. I intentionally used an extreme scenario because I know there's a sliding scale. The type of scenario I described would no doubt trigger a quick and negative response 99% of the time. If nothing else, they would accuse the person of making a mockery and creating a distraction...and it would be hard to find anyone who wouldn't reasonably agree.

But then you work back from there and things become increasingly arbitrary. Take off the Groucho Marx glasses and beanie propeller? Still too much? Pretty soon it's easy to see that any expression of individuality will likely be cracked down on, just as Messygoop's examples illustrate.

It's the IBM corporate dress code all the way, baby! That's how the thought experiment works.

I think they would treat it like schools do. An otherwise straight A student dressing as you suggest would be seen as a distraction and they would be told not to dress like that anymore.

Same for church.

A Mormon priesthood leader slammed the piano shut on my hands! After YM/YW, 5 of us teens were quietly gathered around the piano, in the chapel. I suppose we weren't supposed to be there at all. A friend had asked me to play for him. The Priesthood holder said, "No noise in the chapel." I looked at him arrogantly and said, that was not noise--it was Beethoven." (Pathetique concerto, second movement, slow and peaceful)

He hurt my hands. A few years later, he was the Scoutmaster, and he would hit the Scouts with a stick. Why did the Mormons allow a creep like that around children, in the first place?

I got kicked out of a dance at BYU, because my formal dress was too sheer across my shoulders. No cleavage, or anything like that. My date was a student body officer, and I was humiliated. what was ironic, was that the dress was a hand-me-down from a GA's daughter, who had worn the dress at BYU, also.

I would say that if Wally Prince's Bozo look-alike was an important Mormon GA, then no action would be taken. In fact, soon other Mormons in the ward would start dressing like that, too!

a VERY LONG TIME AGO, a poster here wrote something like this:

(paraphrase) 'I make my kids wear swim goggles & & flippers not because it serves any reasonable purpose, but because I use it to teach them obedience/respect'


apologies to the person who originated that for my errors, btw...