What's the appeal?

[tjohnson]

Hi,

My wife and I were both "born" into the church. She was much more active than I was during her teenage years, but at 18 I became active so that we could get married in the temple six months after high school.

I would like to ask any of the converts to the church "What's was the appeal?" What was the final straw that made you join the church?

Travis

[peter_mary]

I would like to ask any of the converts to the church "What was the appeal?" What was the final straw that made you join the church?

Travis

The appeal was 5'2", brunette, spunky and smart, and Mormon as hell. I was head over heals in love, and there was no way I was gonna get very serious with her if I was a gentile. Somehow, I managed a "spiritual enough" experience that I consented to be baptized, and we were engaged on the very same day.

The rest is history. Unfortunately, if her parents ever find out, it will be MY fault that their darling daughter bailed on the Church! Of course it's not true...she managed just fine on her own, but you know how it is. I don't look forward to that lovely little bit of blame. :rolleyes:

Paul

[nikki]

Hi,

My wife and I were both "born" into the church. She was much more active than I was during her teenage years, but at 18 I became active so that we could get married in the temple six months after high school.

I would like to ask any of the converts to the church "What's was the appeal?" What was the final straw that made you join the church?

Travis

I will give a general answer to your question as to the various reason people have joined the LDS Church.

Remember LDS people are told to convert their friends, and told which friends may be more open, and missionaries are given the same advise on finding people

Members are told to seek out people you know, become friendly with the purpose of converting them, and don't forget the people most impressionable for converstion are people who have just married, death in family, just left home for college, new baby, just moved in, ill, doesn't leave much as to why some join, does it. It is also the guidelines given to members by church authorties on how to convert.

The appeal is finding people who have emotional needs, and that is the time they are most likely to join. Many people do not know what they are getting into when they join. Utah and it's history is very far away for many.

The thought of family, eternity, and stability can be very appealing. A widow may find confort in feeling they can reclaim the spouse they lost through the temple etc. People may never realize, or they may go though a painful leaving before Mormonizm is understood, some people leave after a brief exposure.

The LDS church is active in missionary work in the U.S. unlike, faiths of Church of Christ, Baptist, and other mainsteam faiths. These faith may have community outreach programs, but do not go door to door as the LDS church. Most people find main stream faiths through the phone book or by 'church shopping', people do not "church shop" the LDS Church.

In the Christian faiths people are not assigned to a church, they 'choose' their church they wish to attend. This makes quite a difference, if something happens in the group they are unconfortable with, they do not have problems finding another group to worship with.

[dogzilla]

I joined for the sole purpose of earning my dad's approval and pride. I was 14. To this day, he has still never said the words, "I'm proud of you" to me.

He joined, I believe, because he was trying to quit drinking, AA wasn't really working for him and his brother was strongly recruiting for him to join a southern baptist church. So the Mormons won.

My opinion, in watching the families come and go over the years, is that most converts are emotionally needy or recovering from some crisis in some way. Most tend to get on their feet and slowly stop attending church after their personal crises are over. I saw a lot of single moms with many kids, struggling to feed and clothe them, join the church for the resources offered.

[silverfox]

I had some Mo friends I met at age 17. I had moved out of a violent home life and had been on my own since age 16. I joined the church in Michigan when I was 18.

I was drawn to the family aspect of the church. It seemed to be VERY important and I longed to have a family of my own. (I was estranged from my own family and very much alone and on my own)

It was all about family for me. It wasn't until after I joined that I was taught about some of the whacked out doctrine and history....polygamy, temple endowments, Mountain Meadows, etc, etc. Had I known about these I wonder if I would have joined. I wanted somewhere to belong so bad and wanted a strong family unit that I probably would have. I dunno.

I became inactive after a year due to improper advances from an elderly ward member. I wasn't believed. I was "the runaway" and young girl on my own so of course I had "asked for it" IF it had happened at all.

My Mo friends were happy and had sacraficed family to be members so I was intrigued by their dedication and commitment to it. All these years later only ONE of those 3 friends remains active, although she suffered physical abuse from her TBM hubby. She is still a devout Mormon.

The other two have long since left the church.

[stuckasamo]

The appeal was 5'2", brunette, spunky and smart, and Mormon as hell. I was head over heals in love, and there was no way I was gonna get very serious with her if I was a gentile. Somehow, I managed a "spiritual enough" experience that I consented to be baptized, and we were engaged on the very same day.

The rest is history. Unfortunately, if her parents ever find out, it will be MY fault that their darling daughter bailed on the Church! Of course it's not true...she managed just fine on her own, but you know how it is. I don't look forward to that lovely little bit of blame. :rolleyes:

Paul

That's exactly what happened to my mom! She fell in love with a TBM guy and he told her he wouldn't marry her unless she joined the church. That man ended up being my dad, someone who has no idea of my true feelings because he would reject me and right now I need him to like me so he'll pay for my (mormon) college education. Why someone would want to marry someone who wouldn't accept them without the religion, I don't know - that's a total red flag for me.

[free thinker]

Hi,

My wife and I were both "born" into the church. She was much more active than I was during her teenage years, but at 18 I became active so that we could get married in the temple six months after high school.

I would like to ask any of the converts to the church "What's was the appeal?" What was the final straw that made you join the church?

Travis

For me it provided order form the chaos of my life at the time.

You are not taught the true history though. When you find out about it, it becomes problematic , as it feels like a betrayal.

I do not think I would have joined the church if I would have known it's true history!

Free Thinker