My family and I are moving 1/2 a block away from a mormon church what can we expect?

[acatholic4ever]

My strong Catholic family and I are moving to a town with a mormon church down the block and many in town. We are a little worried about it because we have little children

we have 4 girls and the oldest is 7 and we want to raise them strong in the Catholic faith.

May be it sounds odd to feel weird but we are moving Monday and just feel that perhaps this may be a little bit of an ajustment for us. I don’t know much about Mormons. All I knows is that they knock on doors and such.

Any advice? f this is a silly topic I am so sorry.

 

[TeJay]

My Son lived in Ogden Utah for 3 years as a LT. in the Air Force. He had many friends at work who were Mormon and he respected and liked them. He also had several military friends who lived in the community and were accepted by the locals (Mormons). Their kids all played together. Once the locals realized that this guy and his family were not Mormons they were completely ignored and their kids were not allowed to play together. That may be an exception but it does not sound very Christian to me.
I am not an expert on this subject but the Mormons do have a plan: Do anything to appear to be a family oriented Christian accepted by all then try to convert everybody to the Mormon faith. They mean well and have done a very good job of spreading their invented belief system.

Stay strong in the faith, pray, and when they find out your Catholic for the most part they should leave you alone.

 

[thirdn6]

You expect them to knock on your door.
They expect you to let them in.
Invite them to pray the holy rosary.

Don’t lose some sleep. I trust our fellow catholics here to give you good advice on this matter.

God bless.

 

[AMDGtoo]

and when they find out your Catholic for the most part they should leave you alone.

Didn’t work with me. The missionaries were still intent on canvassing. Of course, it could be different for you. But grounding yourself (and your children) in your own Catholic Faith couldn’t hurt.

 

[RebeccaJ]

Hi, I live in Utah and have many Mormon churches around me. One not too far up the road.

There is a lot of traffic on my street on Sundays. I can tell when their service gets out because there are a lot of cars, all coming from the direction of the church. I can tell when the teens are mtg because they congregate together on my street afterwards.

If the Mormons decide to pay attention to you (and they may not), expect a warm welcome. Missionaries on your doorstep. And fellowshipping. That is the word Mormons use for being a friendly neighbor.

That’s where it get uncertain, as some Mormons will be your “friend”,fellowshipping, in an attempt to proselyte. They will help you in some way and then invite you to church on Sunday. Always in that order. Others are genuine in their friendship.

As for your kids, I see no problem with children playing with people of other faiths. The only line I would draw is letting them go to church. Mormons get this idea that once you go to church with them, you are just 6 short missionary lessons away from converting. This starts when kids are very young, asking your kids to go to primary, which is sort of like Sunday school for the 3-12 year old age group. Just say no. Depending on the family, saying no to primary may cause your kids to not be friends any longer, or it may not. You just have to wait and see.

One of my daughter’s mormon co-workers gave her a Book of Mormon AND sent missionaries over to our house. She was a young teenage mormon, getting all gung ho on the mormon slogan “every member a missionary”.

I told the missionaries that my daughter was not interested. They were pushy and said that she expressed interest with this girl at work. I know this was not the case as we had already discussed all that had gone on at work. My daughter was just a polite listener, but came home telling me this girl would not leave her alone about religion. My daughter quit over it.

Anyway, it isn’t like these sort of things go on hourly or daily. It is hit and miss. We can go months with no mormon contact of any kind and then periods where they won’t leave us alone. You just have to be polite and firm and don’t let them have their way.

Each person is different. I have mormon friends who don’t try to convert me and I have mormon neighbors who don’t stop trying to convert me. So you may have some or none or all of these sort of behaviors.

 

[PattyPryor]

i am glad I live in a Catholic/ luthern community but I would just polietly say you are not interested

 

[dolphinlove]

You can always put a sign up:

Mormons beware
Catholic Dog

 

[BDawg]

Hi acatholic4ever,

I’m a Mormon, and I’ve lived in several states (as well as Germany.) Here’s the scoop.

1. If you live outside of Utah/Idaho, then probably the Mormons in your town are a small minority, and they are used to living around lots of non-Mormons. So in places like these it’s maybe easier to get to be good friends with the Mormons you happen to meet, without as many uncomfortable moments.
2. When Mormon missionaries go door-to-door, they don’t just hit the ones near the Church. Their apartment is probably somewhere else in town, anyway. So living near a Mormon church building probably isn’t going to make it any more probable that your door will be knocked on. It probably isn’t any more likely that your neighbors will be Mormon, either. I know some Baptist churches where the whole congregation meets up at the church and hits the bricks, but it isn’t like that for Mormons.
3. Inside Utah, it can be a little different, because in many places almost everyone in the neighborhood goes to the same Mormon church. So if you aren’t Mormon, you sort of stick out like a sore thumb. You will undoubtedly get invited to Church, and stuff. The happiest non-Mormons I know in Utah just politely refuse efforts to be proselytized, but treat their local Mormon church as a sort of community center. By that I mean that they might sometimes go to the women’s group during the week, or the weekend BBQ at the church, just to meet the neighbors. The unhappiest non-Mormons I know in Utah are the ones who take offense at being proselytized. Inevitably, they will meet a few pushy Mormons who won’t take no for an answer, and so they will hold a grudge against all Mormons for that. In a state that is 70% Mormon, that makes for a life of misery.
4. Just like other groups, Mormons have our share of people who are a) pushy, b) somewhat stupid, and c) self-righteous. From my experience, it seems like Catholics have a somewhat smaller percentage of these people than Mormons, and Evangelicals have a somewhat higher percentage. (Catholics tend to lean more toward the “salad bar Catholic” side of the spectrum, if you know what I mean.) Whatever you think of our doctrine, I think its fair to say that Mormons tend to be about as easy to get along with as anyone else, on average.

Hope that helps.

 

[RebeccaJ]

A Crucifix inside your front door works well. When the missionaries tell you they have a message about the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, you can open your door wide, point to the Crucifix, and say you already know allll about Him.

 

[BDawg]

A Crucifix inside your front door works well. When the missionaries tell you they have a message about the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, you can open your door wide, point to the Crucifix, and say you already know allll about Him.

Hee hee. I once met a guy in Iowa who couldn’t stand Jehovah’s Witnesses. So he plastered his windows with American Flag stickers and put a totem pole up in his yard. The JWs would come around and ask things like, “Who is the God you worship?” (They were trying to get into a discussion about how the name of God is Jehovah.) Anyway, when they would ask that, the guy would point at the totem pole and say, “There he is.” After doing this once or twice, the JWs would never knock on his door again. He would see them pointing and whispering as they skipped his house, though.

As a Mormon missionary, I always found that the line that worked best on us was, “Sorry boys, but I’m not interested in your message. Thanks for stopping by.” Then we would thank the person for their time and move on. Maybe we would knock on the door a few months later, after we had gone through all the other streets in town. If someone tried something more extreme, however, it didn’t help them at all, because we didn’t keep records of who yelled at us, threatened us, or freaked us out.

 

[acatholic4ever]

RebeccaJ- If you don’t mind me asking do they seem to try to get the children to go to church more than talking to the parents? I would hate for my children to be in that situation. They are young 7, 5, 2 and 4 months (I don’t worry about the 4 month year old). My children will be going to a Catholic school. I was told by someone that the mormon children in her area would wait outside of the Catholic school to hand out Mormon items to the children!

I won’t lose sleep it is just my husband worries so much about the area. We are moving because of his work.

Also I guess someone else told me mormons are very big on families and with all my little ones taking walks with me I wonder if that will attract more mormons.

I don’t hate people of other faiths I just don’t want them telling my children they are in the wrong faith

do you suggest I learn about mormon beliefs also?

 

[BDawg]

RebeccaJ- If you don’t mind me asking do they seem to try to get the children to go to church more than talking to the parents? I would hate for my children to be in that situation. They are young 7, 5, 2 and 4 months (I don’t worry about the 4 month year old). My children will be going to a Catholic school. I was told by someone that the mormon children in her area would wait outside of the Catholic school to hand out Mormon items to the children!

Mormons are not allowed to bring non-Mormon kids to church, or to baptize them, without parental permission. Even in cases where there is one Mormon parent, divorced from a non-Mormon parent, we won’t baptize the kids without permission from both parents.

Also, I’ve never heard of Mormon children standing outside of anywhere, handing out religious literature. Sometimes people confuse Jehovah’s Witnesses with us, however.

 

[acatholic4ever]

Mormons are not allowed to bring non-Mormon kids to church, or to baptize them, without parental permission. Even in cases where there is one Mormon parent, divorced from a non-Mormon parent, we won’t baptize the kids without permission from both parents.

Also, I’ve never heard of Mormon children standing outside of anywhere, handing out religious literature. Sometimes people confuse Jehovah’s Witnesses with us, however.

They were handing out book of mormons and saying give this to your mother I guess. this was a girl online not me

 

[RebeccaJ]

Mormons are not allowed to bring non-Mormon kids to church, or to baptize them, without parental permission. Even in cases where there is one Mormon parent, divorced from a non-Mormon parent, we won’t baptize the kids without permission from both parents.

Also, I’ve never heard of Mormon children standing outside of anywhere, handing out religious literature. Sometimes people confuse Jehovah’s Witnesses with us, however.

That doesn’t stop the kids from inviting, and then the parent (me) saying no. In Utah, where the majority of the youngsters all go to primary together, NOT letting your child go with them gives your own child a sense of being left out. As their friends talk about what they did together at church, and/or church activities. This is from experience, with my own kid, not some sort of theory.

By the time the kids are in jr high, they have self-selected themselves into groups of mormon and non-mormon. A few kids traverse between the two groups, but mainly, the kids hang around with people they have in common. And mormon kids grow closer together because of all the church activities they do together.

I don’t believe or see kids purposely not choosing friends based on religion, the social stratification just happens. Though, there are the cases where parents filter friendships based on religion. But I have seen this with people of differing religions, not just mormons.

I didn’t say kids hand out literature. The mormon kids who hang out on my street are just doing that, hanging out. I don’t have a problem with this, at all. I like kids, just letting the OP know what goes on when you live near a Mormon church.

The teenage girl did give my daughter a BoM at work, if that is what you are referring to.

 

[acatholic4ever]

no this girl emily I talked to online said thier were kids that stood outside of the catholic school handing out mormon materials

anyway. I am moving to Utah and now seem a bit worried. May be we should homeschool our children. I know the Catholic school system is wonderful there though. I wonder if the sisters and the priest would help us settle in.

I will tell you we went down without the children to look at the school and the house and there were a bunch of women peaking out of the house to see what was going on and the lady showing us the house said " you are moving into a town with a lot of mormons get used to too friendly of neighbors" I said “oh friendly neighbors are good” and she said “not these kind”

 

[BDawg]

I don’t believe or see kids purposely not choosing friends based on religion, the social stratification just happens. Though, there are the cases where parents filter friendships based on religion. But I have seen this with people of differing religions, not just mormons.

You hit the nail on the head, Rebecca. It’s sort of sad how that happens, and its hard to figure out how to handle it. I live in Utah right now, and I have to sometimes encourage my kids to befriend kids who aren’t Mormons, because my kids have this notion in their heads that other kids probably do all kinds of stuff Mormon kids wouldn’t be comfortable with. And their mother wasn’t even a Mormon until after high school!

Anyway, it was far different when I grew up in California.

 

[BDawg]

They were handing out book of mormons and saying give this to your mother I guess. this was a girl online not me

Well, if this is a true story, then they were pretty weird Mormons. I’ve never heard of that happening, anywhere.

 

[RebeccaJ]

RebeccaJ- If you don’t mind me asking do they seem to try to get the children to go to church more than talking to the parents? I would hate for my children to be in that situation. They are young 7, 5, 2 and 4 months (I don’t worry about the 4 month year old). My children will be going to a Catholic school. I was told by someone that the mormon children in her area would wait outside of the Catholic school to hand out Mormon items to the children!

I have had mormon children ask my daughter, where my daughter would then ask me. And I have had parents ask me if my daughter can go. And I have had mormon adults on my doorstep with more formal invitations intended for my daughter. All this over the span of 17 years. I have had missionaries on my doorstep asking for my daughter by name, twice, once when she was around 10 years old, and the one I already related. She was about 16 years old then. Those two times had me fit to be tied.

Catholic school is a very excellent idea. It would be interesting to know what the kids were handing out. Sometimes mormons do things that they feel are nice and friendly while at the same time spreading their religion. In these cases, they sometimes fail to see how inappropriate or offensive their actions are. Again, don’t take it personally, but don’t be a doormat either.

As BDawg said, the mormon church itself would not have their children handing out mormon literature. However, you never know what an individual mormon might get up to.

I won’t lose sleep it is just my husband worries so much about the area. We are moving because of his work.

Also I guess someone else told me mormons are very big on families and with all my little ones taking walks with me I wonder if that will attract more mormons.

No, but they might assume you are Mormon too.

Don’t sweat it, you’ll meet mormons who will become your friends, and you’ll see that not everything is about proselyting. Not for all mormons. But you will most likely experience the overt proselyting, and perhaps anti-Catholic bigotry. In the case of the latter, it is more rare than it was 20+ years ago, but there are still mormons around who have the whole Catholics are the whore of babylon thing going.

I don’t hate people of other faiths I just don’t want them telling my children they are in the wrong faith

Most likely a mormon would not say this to you or your children. They will just work on you, missionaries, invitations to church, giving you Book of Mormons (you will get at least one, I’ll wager on that one).

do you suggest I learn about mormon beliefs also?

Here at CAF, they have good responses to Mormon beliefs, from a Catholic POV. I also have a few that I know of if you are interested. One a booklet written by a former Bishop of the Salt Lake Diocese. The other a letter from another Bishop of our diocese. And there are localized to Utah, Catholic, online resources that I enjoy and find useful. Catholics have been the minority in Utah for 140 years or so.

Other than that, you can swing by here if you have any questions. There are a few of us around who are former Mormons who found our way home. And you’re always welcome to pm me.

 

[RebeccaJ]

no this girl emily I talked to online said thier were kids that stood outside of the catholic school handing out mormon materials

anyway. I am moving to Utah and now seem a bit worried. May be we should homeschool our children. I know the Catholic school system is wonderful there though. I wonder if the sisters and the priest would help us settle in.

I will tell you we went down without the children to look at the school and the house and there were a bunch of women peaking out of the house to see what was going on and the lady showing us the house said " you are moving into a town with a lot of mormons get used to too friendly of neighbors" I said “oh friendly neighbors are good” and she said “not these kind”

Yay, more Catholics in Utah! The Catholic schools are excellent. One of our Parish Priests teaches at Juan Diego, the largest of our Catholic schools. And, a woman who was in RCIA with me is now teaching at one of the smaller parish schools.

It sounds daunting, I’m sure, and most definitely you will have a culture shock. But we have a good, vibrant Catholic community here. And we have all learned how to deal with Mormons. The Crucifix idea I posted here, is actually something this nice little old lady of 87 years told me she had done just very recently. We have a sense of humor about it all and we support each other in those cases where things get weird.

 

[lovesMary]

Hi acatholic4ever,

I’m a Mormon, and I’ve lived in several states (as well as Germany.) Here’s the scoop.

1. If you live outside of Utah/Idaho, then probably the Mormons in your town are a small minority, and they are used to living around lots of non-Mormons. So in places like these it’s maybe easier to get to be good friends with the Mormons you happen to meet, without as many uncomfortable moments.
2. When Mormon missionaries go door-to-door, they don’t just hit the ones near the Church. Their apartment is probably somewhere else in town, anyway. So living near a Mormon church building probably isn’t going to make it any more probable that your door will be knocked on. It probably isn’t any more likely that your neighbors will be Mormon, either. I know some Baptist churches where the whole congregation meets up at the church and hits the bricks, but it isn’t like that for Mormons.
3. Inside Utah, it can be a little different, because in many places almost everyone in the neighborhood goes to the same Mormon church. So if you aren’t Mormon, you sort of stick out like a sore thumb. You will undoubtedly get invited to Church, and stuff. The happiest non-Mormons I know in Utah just politely refuse efforts to be proselytized, but treat their local Mormon church as a sort of community center. By that I mean that they might sometimes go to the women’s group during the week, or the weekend BBQ at the church, just to meet the neighbors. The unhappiest non-Mormons I know in Utah are the ones who take offense at being proselytized. Inevitably, they will meet a few pushy Mormons who won’t take no for an answer, and so they will hold a grudge against all Mormons for that. In a state that is 70% Mormon, that makes for a life of misery.
4. Just like other groups, Mormons have our share of people who are a) pushy, b) somewhat stupid, and c) self-righteous. From my experience, it seems like Catholics have a somewhat smaller percentage of these people than Mormons, and Evangelicals have a somewhat higher percentage. (Catholics tend to lean more toward the “salad bar Catholic” side of the spectrum, if you know what I mean.) Whatever you think of our doctrine, I think its fair to say that Mormons tend to be about as easy to get along with as anyone else, on average.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the interesting post.