I don't believe what Mormons believe - I would find it difficult and like many revealed religions it seems on its face, to me, absurd. But it is another of those examples of where believing something has a great deal of functional utility. Like a lot of folks, they may believe crazy and live sane. Probably better than the reverse.

If I had to pick neighbors, Mormons would be pretty high on my list, even though I am sure some of them would consider me Satan's spawn if they knew what was in my head - though not, perhaps, what was in my heart.

I know when Katrina hit they did the right thing. I know that a lot of Mormons I've known personally have been pretty nice people who seemed to have the secular part of their heads screwed on pretty straight and who were a lot less judgmental (of non-Mormons) than I expected.

They have a lot of rules that I wouldn't advocate for society as a whole, and I understand why someone might find being a Mormon stiffling or repressive. But their behavior certainly can't be considered high on the list of "dangers to society".

I don't feel very threatened by Mormons, Evangelicals, Hassidim, or pretty much anybody who thinks they have it worked out for themselves. At least their behavior is predictable and is seldom sociopathic.

Do I want them deciding how I should live ? Of course not. But I wouldn't want the Harvard faculty, Moveon.org, Noam Chomsky or the 9th Circuit court doing that either <s> And they're a lot more pushy about it.


>>Are you Mormon?
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>>Whether or not he is Mormon, one thing is fairly obvious - you are a bigot.
>
>Another first -- we disagree.
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>I do dislike Mormons, but not out of bigotry. I just don't like the way they behave. Self righteous, narrow minded, and clenched tighter than a fist.
>
>I don't dislike blacks. I don't dislike Hispanics. Or Chinese, or Indians, or Pakistanis. I do dislike Mormons.