As I understand the term. It refers to a person that follows the tenants of mormonism but isn't baptized.
An example might be a teenager who attends church, keeps the word of wisdom and is chaste, believes in the restoration and prophets but their parents will not allow them to be baptised.
There are varying degrees of course.
I'm not familiar with enough of these cases to say if TBMs are arrogant is labeling a person a dry mormon or not.
The fact they're TBM usually infers a degree of assumed arrogance.
"Dry Mormons" should cause the wheels to turn in TBM heads.
Someone is a good person and lives properly (by LDS standards) without the One True Church and its Living Prophet running their lives? How is that possible?
Just out of curiosity, I googled definitions and saw one that I think other Christians will find offensive. That basically Christians are dry Mormons because of their moral positions but that they don't believe the Mormon [B.S.].
Mormons insist that they're christian, but christians are "dry" mormons. So, mormons are christians but christians aren't mormons...
I have known a few "dry Mormons". They are few and far between because of the pressure missionaries put on them. They tend to be spouses of members who attend regularly and come along. Some people also get around it by not giving their address, so they attend and get all the social side, but hold no callings and get to meet their friends. It's a good compromise.
We even had dry Mormons who went on temple buses. (They didn't go in of course.)
I suppose you could say a lot of dry Mormons are semi-active. Some go because of family or friends, some don't convert because they're too young or they don't want to upset their non-LDS families.
I have never heard this term, but guess I would have been a dry Mormon as a teenager. All my friends were LDS...I went to seminary, stake dances, church on sundays, primary on Wednesdays, young women’s activities, girls camp, youth camp, roadshows and more! Everyone assumed (including myself) that I would Be baptized when I was 18. Had a date for baptism my freshman year of college...didn’t show up because I was afraid of upsetting my mom if I was baptized! Thank goodness her guilt trip worked!! She once said that she liked all the Mormon kids and their parents ( she was friends with all of them) but didn’t like the teachings for women to get married and not worry about having a career. My mom’s first husband had died suddenly at 28 and she always shared how glad she was that she had schooling to get a good job to support her and my older brother.
I’m glad I stayed a dry Mormon and can now say I am a never Mo!
I have also never heard this term, and as a teen living in Utah most of my friends were Mormon, although I, a poor member coming from an inactive family, had more non-mormon friends than most of my mormon friends.
It makes sense to me that this term originated somewhere in the mission field where the emphasis is so strong to get those investigators "wet" (babtized) come hell or high water.
I learned of Mormonism from the Osmond brothers when I was about 13 and had an on and off obsession with learning everthing I could about it. I had never met a Mormon. When I graduated HS I made my way out to Utah and attended BYU for two years. A few months into my first semester I began to become uneasy with doctrinal issues. And, of course, the image I had formed in my mind as to the character of Mormons had begun to tarnish and then shatter altogether as I lived among them. I met my TBM RM husband at the beginning of my second year, at a time when I had been heavily researching the history of the Mormon church. My husband and I married with him thinking I would convert at some point. Shortly after our marriage, the realization of the fraud of Mormonism seared itself into my soul. Eventually, DH left the Mormon church and we are both committed Christians.
Still, for a while, I lived as a Mormon. I was continually referred to as a "dry Mormon" and was often introduced that way to others (eyeroll). That I went along with this for even a short while I chalk up to youthful folly and insecurity.
I loathe having ever been referred to in that manner.
It's a way for 'wet mormons' to "think" that dry mormons don't have the courage of their convictions to follow thru with baptism, perhaps of some horrendous past error / mistake / or 'sin' that hasn't (can't?) be resolved for making them eligible for baptism;
it could also apply to a former ChurchCo member who wants(?) to return, but leaders won't let him/her join.