The lowdown on us Mormons... (Salt Lake City: bad credit, loan, good schools)

[prairiestate]

Are Mormons allowed to work at Starbucks. I'm sure their isn't any specific ban, but is it something that would be frowned upon.

[Calibelle]

Why do you post this in the Utah forum? Why don't you post in religion? And yes mormon's can work at starbucks, to answer your question. Starbucks serves a variety of things from food, to water, to juice, to hot chocolate, to coffees.

Along your line of thinking..... perhaps mormons should never work in gas stations, restaurants, or walmarts, or in any food industry where they might have to ring up or serve coffee, beer, or cigarettes. Yeesh.

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by prairiestate

Are Mormons allowed to work at Starbucks. I'm sure their isn't any specific ban, but is it something that would be frowned upon.

The Church wouldn't prohibit one of its members from working at Starbuck's. I don't think they'd even particularly frown on it. Making a living fulling cups with coffee isn't on any list of no-nos I'm aware of.

[doctorjef]

Originally Posted by SKORTH

All LDS may not be Republicans, but it is pretty safe to say that most are (at least in Utah). One of the Mormons that I work with actually told me that Mormons would vote for Hitler as long as he was a Republican.

I just thought I'd point out that the current Democratic Majority Leader in the US Senate is LDS. He's also a convert, which could perhaps have something to do with that, and IIRC he converted secondary to marriage. Still, he apparently gets away with being a ranking Democrat and simultaneously a Mormon. Harry Reid really had a hardscrabble childhood and youth. If you know something of his life history, you know that he's actually a kind of working class hero and very much a self-made man. Not what you generally associate with the political class in America.

[markg91359]

I just thought I'd point out that the current Democratic Majority Leader in the US Senate is LDS. He's also a convert, which could perhaps have something to do with that, and IIRC he converted secondary to marriage. Still, he apparently gets away with being a ranking Democrat and simultaneously a Mormon. Harry Reid really had a hardscrabble childhood and youth. If you know something of his life history, you know that he's actually a kind of working class hero and very much a self-made man. Not what you generally associate with the political class in America.

Active LDS people statistically vote Republican more than just about any other religious or ethnic group in America. Nevertheless, it doesn't change the fact that there are Mormon Democrats who serve in Congress. As you point out, Harry Reid is by far the most prominent. Thankfully, Harry Reid won a narrow re-election campaign in Nevada a year ago. His opponent was a real fruitcake who kept talking about people "taking Second Amendment remedies" into their own hands if they didn't get their way. This election shouldn't have been close, but Nevada was hurt badly by the foreclosure crisis and has an unemployment rate that is greater than 10%.

Other examples of Mormon Democrats who serve in the US Senate would be Mark Udall and Tom Udall of the states of Colorado and New Mexico. Locally, Jim Matheson serves in the US House of Representatives and has developed a reputation as one of the few moderates left in Congress who is willing to vote against his own party's legislation for the good of his constituents and his nation.

Gordon Smith is a Mormon and served as a Republican in the US Senate from the state of Oregon until his defeat in 2008. He was not a staunch conservative though and developed a reputation for being a moderate who put the interests of his state first. He was one of the first in his party to tell President Bush that the Iraq War was a mistake.

These politicians refute the notion that all Mormons are hardline Republican conservatives when it comes to politics. The world can be quite complicated and less predictable than we think.

[TCAS007]

There were times when the majority in Utah voted Democrats and that was in the past when the state had an even higher LDS percentage. So nope not all Republicans.

[Davros]

I'm curious ...

would the experience of a non-LDS living in Utah be any different than the experience of any non-Christian living in any majority-Christian area, say, Georgia or Texas?

In other words, do the Mormons "shun" or "push their religion" on people who are not part of their religion any more than evangelicals or Catholics ?

I'm not intending to be rude, so please don't take anything I've said as trying to be an insult. I've just kind of been thinking about that, since non-LDS people are always nervous about moving to Utah, but we aren't constantly getting questions like "what if I'm not a Christian" on the Georgia or Texas forums.

[kaytidid]

Originally Posted by davros

i'm curious ...

Would the experience of a non-lds living in utah be any different than the experience of a non-christian living in any majority-christian area, say, georgia or texas ?

In other words, do the mormons "shun" or "push their religion" on people who are not part of their religion any more than evangelicals or catholics ?

I'm not intending to be rude, so please don't take anything i've said as trying to be an insult. I've just kind of been thinking about that, since non-lds people are always nervous about moving to utah, but we aren't constantly getting questions like "what if i'm not a christian" on the georgia or texas forums.

bingo!!

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by Davros

I'm curious ...

would the experience of a non-LDS living in Utah be any different than the experience of any non-Christian living in any majority-Christian area, say, Georgia or Texas?

With the exception of Utah County, probably not. Utah Country seems to be its own little world, and non-Mormons do tend to have a harder time fitting in there. Salt Lake, Davis and Weber Counties, however, are really pretty diverse. (Three quarters of the population of Utah probably lives in these four counties.)

In other words, do the Mormons "shun" or "push their religion" on people who are not part of their religion any more than evangelicals or Catholics?

No. As a matter of fact, people outside of Utah have a greater chance of having LDS missionaries call on them that do non-Mormons in Utah.

I'm not intending to be rude, so please don't take anything I've said as trying to be an insult.

Your question didn't even approach rude.

I've just kind of been thinking about that, since non-LDS people are always nervous about moving to Utah, but we aren't constantly getting questions like "what if I'm not a Christian" on the Georgia or Texas forums.

That's probably because there's a whole lot more misinformation out there about Mormonism than there is about Christianity in general. And where there's misinformation, there's fear. Hence, this thread.

[TCAS007]

Katzpur said it all

Although it appears there are only two Mormons on this board according to this:

What denomination are you?

What I mean is most Mormons do not wear the LDS badge around in the world and net as other denominations do and mention their church all the time.
But there is that image of the Missionaries that makes people think that Mormons must constantly try to be pushy and drag you to get baptized.

My own experience tells me that before I visited Utah the first time in the late 90's I did never see a Missionary and did not know what a Mormon is.

During Utah trips for at least 10 years before I moved here I rarely got asked "are you familiar with the church?" and rarely saw the Elders walking the streets. The people I met that became friends the religion topic was never one that was discussed at first.

There are so many other denominations in this country where the members pay tithing, go to church regularly, have missions and Sunday school. Nobody cares about them and brings them into the media.