I watched the above video recently, and I have to be honest, It creeps me out a little bit. OK, a lot. The religious rituals, the secrecy, the knocking, the passwords, the spacey outfits, totally bizarre to me. And this is coming from someone who is not unfamiliar to Amish and Mennonite culture!

A couple thoughts to share:

1. Honestly, this video makes me a little embarrassed to be a religious person. It is not my aim to be disparaging to anyone’s religious conviction, but watching these secret ceremonies and knowing what I know about Mormonism’s racist, misogynistic and separatist past (and present) tendencies, it really makes it difficult to be a defender of religious practice (not that mainstream Christianity has done much better mind you). But watching this, I completely understand the critique of religion being nothing but brain washing and blind ideology. Scary.
2. I would love to point my finger and deny Morman’s the right to claim they’re Christian, but I can’t. Because for me to do that would be hypocritical. I would not be showing Volf’s will to embrace or be practicing Pete Rollin’s brand of Evangelism
3. If Mormons are my crazy Christian cousins–or if they’re not–Christ still compels me to love and respect them despite their crazy rituals and weird underwear.

Tags:JesusMormonismreligionritualsspirituality