The Religious Perception of Utah (Salt Lake City: living in, military, moving to)

[markg91359]

Does anyone else get tired of the fact that the first and last question most people have when they talk about moving to Utah is always about religion?

I mean, I understand that Utah and the Mormons are inexplicably intertwined. However, I would bet this is literally the only state in this country where that question is asked.

I do not believe people on the Massachusetts forum ask about how powerful the Catholic Church is when they moved there. I do not believe that people moving to Alabama or Mississippi ask about how powerful an influence the Southern Baptist Convention might be in their state.

I mean, I sort of understand it. However, I am also getting sick of it. There are endless people who have asked this question on endless threads. Endless threads contain replies to this question as well. The question has been asked and answered many, many times.

If anyone seeking to move to Utah reads this thread, I might ask you to do us all a little favor. Take a look at some other threads where people considering moving here have brought this same topic up. You aren't going to get any significantly different answers. Its wishful thinking if you believe you are.

Thanks. Vent over.

[some boring guy]

Apples and oranges. The LDS church isn't very well understood outside of Utah and certainly not as mainstream as the Catholic Church, for example. There's a fair amount of mystique and infamy to the church, based on limited portrayals by the media (that are in some ways fair and some ways not), so I think it's natural that people moving into "Mormon-central" would be a bit apprehensive and have questions.

But I get how it can be frustrating for forum 'regulars' to field the same sort of questions over and over. Wasn't there a sticky thread at some point on all things Mormon? Would it maybe help to do that again?

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by markg91359

Does anyone else get tired of the fact that the first and last question most people have when they talk about moving to Utah is always about religion?

I mean, I understand that Utah and the Mormons are inexplicably intertwined. However, I would bet this is literally the only state in this country where that question is asked.

I do not believe people on the Massachusetts forum ask about how powerful the Catholic Church is when they moved there. I do not believe that people moving to Alabama or Mississippi ask about how powerful an influence the Southern Baptist Convention might be in their state.

I mean, I sort of understand it. However, I am also getting sick of it. There are endless people who have asked this question on endless threads. Endless threads contain replies to this question as well. The question has been asked and answered many, many times.

If anyone seeking to move to Utah reads this thread, I might ask you to do us all a little favor. Take a look at some other threads where people considering moving here have brought this same topic up. You aren't going to get any significantly different answers. Its wishful thinking if you believe you are.

Thanks. Vent over.

Okay, if you're done venting, I'll take up where you left off. I, too, am sick to death of seeing the same question over and over again. What amuses me, though, is that the question is usually posed as if the poster hasn't even considered the fact that probably half of the people who will read and respond to his question are LDS. We're being talked about in the third person, as if we aren't even here, and most of the time in a derogatory way. I'm wondering how people expect me, as a Mormon, to respond to a statement like, "I'd love to move to Salt Lake City, but the idea of living among all of those Mormons really makes me nervous. How do you manage to cope?"

It also makes me wonder what it is about me that turns people who have never even met me off. For crying out loud, I'm not exactly an alien from outer space.

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by some boring guy

But I get how it can be frustrating for forum 'regulars' to field the same sort of questions over and over. Wasn't there a sticky thread at some point on all things Mormon? Would it maybe help to do that again?

Yes there was. Unfortunately, it was never a sticky, because there is a limit to the number of sticky threads each forum can have. It was called "The Lowdown on us Mormons." It's super long, but it's been over a year since there was any activity on it. I just started a new thread -- same name, just Part 2. By the way, it's in the Utah forum, not the Salt Lake forum.

[Ankhharu]

Originally Posted by Katzpur

Okay, if you're done venting, I'll take up where you left off. I, too, am sick to death of seeing the same question over and over again. What amuses me, though, is that the question is usually posed as if the poster hasn't even considered the fact that probably half of the people who will read and respond to his question are LDS. We're being talked about in the third person, as if we aren't even here, and most of the time in a derogatory way. I'm wondering how people expect me, as a Mormon, to respond to a statement like, "I'd love to move to Salt Lake City, but the idea of living among all of those Mormons really makes me nervous. How do you manage to cope?"

It also makes me wonder what it is about me that turns people who have never even met me off. For crying out loud, I'm not exactly an alien from outer space.

To be fair, it’s not like other religions. I grew up in the Deep South, raised in a Christian home, now an Atheist. I moved to SLC a few years ago, moved away, and now I’m about to move back. I like SLC a lot. It has it’s problems, but show me a City that doesn’t and I’ll be happy to move there.

Prior to moving to Utah, I have lived in 8 states. I had only met 1 Mormon prior to moving there despite having a Utah friend during my Military career. You simply don’t meet many Mormons outside of Utah, even though they obviously exists. This adds to the mysteriousness of the LDS church. The fact that there are few religions that have had such an obvious hold on a states politics like LDS has had on Utah for so many years, and some of the very strict rules of the LDS church, it’s easy to see why outsiders think that Mormons are going to try and force non-believers to convert. How many religions have statements that have to be signed or have “temple garments” and other strong influences in peoples personal lives? These types of differences show the church has a firmer hand on it’s members in modern society than your standard “we claim to be Catholic but never actually go to Mass” group who essentially ignores all the rules of it’s bible. This can make people who have no desire to be a apart of religion or one outside of theirs, nervous. Obviously, those of us who have lived in Utah, realize these fears are ridiculous. No one shoves the LDS religion down your throat when you arrive and in fact, every Mormon I’ve ever met has been very nice and has never tried to convert me. 2 years of living there, I only had my door knocked on once. But the aforementioned differences make it stand out from your standard Christian orthodoxies that people have become accustomed to. Where as Mormonism, they can only imagine and in that case, the imagination can run wild.

As for the million threads constantly asking this same question, totally agree with you and OP, enough is enough. A 30 second search would answer this same tired question. Use the dad blame search function. Every forum has the issue of people never searching before starting their thread that has already been asked twice this month, just wished there was a way to put a stop to it.

[Ivory Lee Spurlock]

Utah is known to be mostly Mormon. I dont know the percentage, but im guessing 95%. I've never been around any Mormons. If I was to move to Utah, I'd be concerned about what it's like for a non Mormon to live there. If I was to move into a nearly all Jewish city, I'd be wanting to know what that would be like for non Jews. It would be the same with any place, if it was nearly all black, or all Mexican/Hispanic and nearly all Spanish speaking, I'd be wanting to know what its like for other non blacks or non Hispanics who live there.

I think that would be a common sense thing to do.

[Ivory Lee Spurlock]

Posted double...deleted..sorry about that.

[Ankhharu]

Originally Posted by Ivory Lee Spurlock

Utah is known to be mostly Mormon. I dont know the percentage, but im guessing 95%. I've never been around any Mormons. If I was to move to Utah, I'd be concerned about what it's like for a non Mormon to live with so many Mormons. If I was to move into a nearly all Jewish city, I'd be wanting to know what that would be like for non Jews. It would be the same with any place, if it was nearly all black, or all Mexican/Hispanic and nearly all Spanish speaking, I'd be wanting to know what its like for other non blacks or non Hispanics who live there.

I think that would be a common sense thing to do.

95% is too high. The Church has it as 62% and even that's too high, as I met many, some of which are friends, who long left the church but are still on the books as Mormons.

[some boring guy]

Maybe 95% in Utah County, but not the entire state. City-Data numbers seem to hover around 60% for Salt Lake and other big cities (and that's listed as 60% 'other', which isn't necessarily LDS). But I agree it's definitely misleading how the membership is reported. Probably fewer than a third of the ~15-16 million members they boast are active and practicing.

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by Ivory Lee Spurlock

Utah is known to be mostly Mormon. I dont know the percentage, but im guessing 95%.

Utah is actually about 65% Mormon. Salt Lake City is about 50% Mormon, and not all of them are "active, practicing, participating" Mormons.

I've never been around any Mormons. If I was to move to Utah, I'd be concerned about what it's like for a non Mormon to live there. If I was to move into a nearly all Jewish city, I'd be wanting to know what that would be like for non Jews. It would be the same with any place, if it was nearly all black, or all Mexican/Hispanic and nearly all Spanish speaking, I'd be wanting to know what its like for other non blacks or non Hispanics who live there.

I think that would be a common sense thing to do.

Yes, it absolutely would. That's not the issue. It's the fact that everyone who comes to this forum starts a new thread, asking the same questions over and over again, instead of taking the time to research other threads to see if the issue has already been addressed. It also appears that the majority of the people who ask how it's going to be living in a predominantly Mormon state have often already made up their minds that it's going to be an unpleasant experience.