I do not owe my existence to Mormonism. In fact, if my dad had been an active Mormon I may not have been born. My dad married my mom in 1964. My dad was Mormon, but not active, and my mom was not even a Mormon. It was not until 1969, after I was born, that my mom and dad became active Mormons.

But some people to owe their existence to Mormonism, in a sense. If your parents met at some church function, as missionaries, at some church college or some other place they would never have been if they had not been active Mormons, then you owe your existence to Mormonism.

That's the crazy thing about life. Life does not have to come about because of noble ideals. Often life arises because of evil. Think of women who were forced to marry against their will. Think of men who killed their rivals so they could steal wives. I think you get the idea.

This is one reason people are in awe of religion, and of power generally. Religion "gets the job done". Religion had more influence, more power, at the time of their birth, and power makes the world go round.

The best attitude is to look forward, not backward. If Mormonism disappeared today, children would still be born. We just need to change the power structure so that enough power and influence exists elsewhere to counteract Mormon power enough to alter the mating habits of human beings.

Naw..more like the a warm July evening, a little wine, and the back of a '57 chevy.

Mormonism owes it's existence to US.

I owe my existence to my mother, who said she felt she had one more child coming....I was #6......and the only one to reject the church as soon as my dad explained it to me before I was baptized. It never felt right, true, etc, for me, even as a child of 6 or 7.

Nope. When Dad and Mom got married, she was a non-mo. She joined 20 years later after my brother and I were born.

Ron Burr

Kinda, yes. My dad would have divorced his abusive wife long before I was born if it weren't for his irrational belief that he has to stay with her for some weird religious reason. God told him, or something.

My mom was an active Mormon, but thankfully, I owe my existence to Musicals :)

Edit: and my dad was not an active Mormon



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/2012 02:45PM by nickson.

I sure do! So do each and every one of my siblings.

Mom and Dad met at BYU in the late 60s. He was 21 and she was 19. They met, were engaged in two weeks, married in four months and had their first child (me) before their first anniversary. By then, they already knew that they hated each other, hated being parents and didn't believe in the church.

They went on to have six more children and numerous church callings (including bishop, HC and RSP) because they felt the church was a good way to control their kids. (It didn't work; most of their kids were drinking, on drugs, stealing, abusive and having sex before age 16.)

In my case, the church brought a group of people together who never should have been in the same family. That's my take on it.

If not for mormonism I would not have been born.

However, in all likelihood, because of mormonism, someone just as awesome as I was never born.

They met only because they came to the Zion after converting to Mormonism. If they hadn't met, I wouldn't be here. And I wouldn't be bummed about that because I wouldn't exist.

...since my line passes through the non-first-wives of five polygamists, yeah, there's no way I would be here if it weren't for Mormonism.

I was 5th of 6 kids and have wondered if M and P would have even had me if it weren't for the commandment to multiply and replenish.

I understand the question and the point, but do not think this way. If I did think this way, most definitely, including polygamy, social events, university, mission box checked, and reproductive agenda of multiplying and replenishing the earth with Mormons.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/2012 04:51PM by gentlestrength.

I do. My parents already had decided on one kid. Then they joined the church and ended up with 6 kids.

Yep. Ancestors in the Willey Handcart Company. Polygamist great grand parents. Amazing how fragile everybody's timelines are. As much as I wish the church had died when Joe did, the fact is, I wouldn't be here typing this if it did.

Yep. My parents met at Rick's College. Beyond that, on both my mom's and dad's side I come from polygamy. One ancestor had 3 wives, I come from the 3rd.

I might have been a holy roller if mom didn't join the mormon church.

I owe my existence to the fact that my mom wanted a reason to stop working for a little while.
I wasn't able to accomplish my 'earthly mission' since she was not able to realy stop until 3 years later.
My family did not know anything about moism at that point in time.
It came a couple of years later.

Oh wait...I forgot that on my mom's side our some amount of great grandmother was Jane Johnson. That was apparently a really important midwife to Joseph Smith...although I don't think that the way our lineage came about was because of the fact that she was Mormon so it probably still actually isn't the reason completely. But maybe there is a little bit of a connection.

No use fretting over it because otherwise, I wouldn't exist :)

My parents aren't Mormon, but they weren't even sure they wanted kids at all. They were about to celebrate their 9th anniversary before I finally came along.

This is funny. My husband definitely does. Had his parents not been converted LDS, they would never have had more than 2 kids - definitely not more than 3. He's a 4th child. They've talked about it.

No mormon ancestry though related to JS (ugh). Six of our twelve children were born before we joined and the rest would have come regardless. So none owed their existance to mormonism. I am in good health because I left moism.

Um...if you're related to Joseph Smith, wouldn't that be the ultimate Mormon ancestry? I guess you can be related to him but not actually owe your existence to Mormonism. Still, that's pretty crazy.

I owe my existence to Mormonism. My parents had 3 children and were very poor when they converted to Mormonism in their late twenties. Then they joined, heard the teachings and started having more children. My sister and me - the two youngest - also owe our existence to my father claiming he had a vision in the temple of more children waiting to join our family. To be honest, no sane set of parents would have had my sister and me - my parents were so poor and so strapped for time that having more children was sheer stupidity.

I do! My parents met at a Stake Dance around... in the early 70's? I believe but they actually didn't hook up till later since they were with other people at the time. They never admitted to it, but I'm about 90% they had sex out of wed-lock and so there was like 6 weeks between when they had their first date and when they got married.

But then they went and had 5 more. Did I mention we were dirt broke and my dad off and on didn't have a job and my mom never worked? Yup. Although admittedly, I was a "surprise". My mom was having issues and the doctor put her on bc, however she stopped for like a month and then got pregnate with me.

So do I own my existence to Mormonism, yes. I love my life and stuff, but growing up kinda sucked so not so much on it being 100% okay.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2012 03:15AM by altava.

Definitely. My parents never would have met otherwise - it was the mission thing that brought them together. Neither set of grandparents would have been in the same geographical vicinity to even meet without the forces of Moism. Since I have Mo ancestors back to the time of Old Joe himself, I'm sure the same could be said about other ancestors.

I now spend my time trying to overcome my genetic heritage.

1. My father was TBM and because of that, he believed in large families. I was 7th of 8 kids, so if he hadn't been LD$, I would not likely have been born.

2. As a gay but closeted TBM, I tried really hard to follow the LD$ doctrine of "homosexuality is a filthy crime." So I greatly minimized my gay contacts, and definitely avoided anything that would be considered "unsafe sex" today. If it weren't for the LD$ fear tactics, I could be dead today.

(whew! - and glad I'm alive to say it!)