Here’s how they do it: Going on a mission to convert others to mormonism is part of the religion. Boys basically must do it and girls are encouraged or allowed if they’re not married.”

At the risk of being kind of offensive, there’s a phrase that non-Mormon guys use when talking about dating Mormon girls: they say the girls are “hooking for God.”
Because in order to marry in the Church, the non-Mormon must convert. And most Mormon girls I’ve known refuse to marry outside of the Church.

And it does tend to gain converts. Now how sincere the conversion actually is, I can’t say.

MAJeff, the God of Biscuits

It took quite a while of me saying, “Mother, stop it” at her “maybe someone is trying to tell you something” bullshit when things in my life would happen. (for instance, the car accident we were in on the way to the airport was because I didn’t see the black ice coming up on the road–the imaginary buddy didn’t put it there just to get me to believe, as evidenced by the other cars in the ditch).

My mother and I just had nearly the exact same discussion. A few weeks ago, my girlfriend was in a car accident. She was shaken up, but fine. Her car got totalled, though. According to my mom, my girlfriend was OK because she had been praying for her, and the “hand of god” protected her. I just wanted to ask why it was too difficult for him to protect the car, too, or just prevent the accident altogether.

Mormons tend to be white everyplace except for Hawaii and other Pacific Islands. Somehow, it caught on big with Polynesians, especially Samoans.

Not true. Mormons are spreading like wildfire, you just don’t see it here because it’s happening in other countries. I just read about it in Good Magazine. They’re seriously taking over the world.

Here’s how they do it: Going on a mission to convert others to mormonism is part of the religion. Boys basically must do it and girls are encouraged or allowed if they’re not married. They send missionaries everywhere, to places where they’re the only Americans these people have every seen. They act all friendly and provide basic services and speak the language. That’s key - they speak the language.

Every male Mormon I’ve ever met can speak two languages: English and something else. They have seriously good language training programs, even the US military goes to them for some language training.

The article is insane: Mormons are taking over the world. Read it:
http://www.goodmagazine.com/section/Features/the_mormons_are_coming

as above you responded to my statement about the quakers I know being atheists, it’s just because they were atheists looking for an avenue for their social justice work and found the cambridge meeting. If it were some of the evangelical or other things you were describing, they wouldn’t be going. I only know a few quakers.

i still feel physically ill if I go to church. My family has finally accepted this and if I’m visiting won’t ask me to go to church anymore (my aunts had me sit in the coffee shop attached to their church, where I sat reading “The God Delusion”)…but I’m still going to hell.

It took quite a while of me saying, “Mother, stop it” at her “maybe someone is trying to tell you something” bullshit when things in my life would happen. (for instance, the car accident we were in on the way to the airport was because I didn’t see the black ice coming up on the road–the imaginary buddy didn’t put it there just to get me to believe, as evidenced by the other cars in the ditch).

It just gets so tiring.

I’m not denying that there are Quakers that fit your description. I’m merely quibbling with your blanket statement about Quakerism “mainly being non-evangelical.” Pacific Yearly Meeting has 1500 members; Yorba Linda Friends Church has 4000 attenders a week.

I actually have a lot of problems with Evangelical Quakerism, but it’s most certainly Christian theist.

I’m joining the support group as soon as it’s set up.

I have much the same experience as you, mothworm, feeling no “happiness” eminating from my mother despite her strong xtian belief (although I think if she belonged to a church that actually spoke of God as a loving god instead of one that will toss you into hell for the smallest of discrepancies, she might be OK). In addition, though, I fought off terrible nightmares as a child since the church also told us from a very young age (as young as pre-school) that we were all going to burn in hell if we didn’t believe/do/follow the right path. It took years of work on my part to undo that brainwashing.

I even blame much of my past anger issues on the crap I was fed - it wasn’t until I started studying Buddhism (as a philosophy, not a religion) that I began to feel at all at peace. Needless to say, this adds even more fuel to the fire as far as my mom is concerned…I am going to burn, burn, burn. And she literally will cry and ask what she did wrong to cause me to be such a heretic (truly, I am one in her eyes since I was thrown out of our church at 15 and told not to return).

I mention FGC because large numbers of the Quakers I know have attened FGC (esp. in view of the distances/costs).

I’ve never known a monthly meeting which didn’t include words which appear to make them, nominally Christian, but in practice, I’ve never seen one which actually required it.

By inference (since I’ve not attended the yearly meetings) they seem to be much as the montly/quaterlies I’ve attended).

I’m not sure why this is (but then I’m not that tapped into the greater political questions in Quaker churches… talk to me about the Roman Catholic church and I’m on more solid ground).