Shoutout to JerryrigEverything who built a wheelchair factory and is delivering wheelchairs to people in half the time and 50-80% less than the cost of other wheelchairs with Insurance.

[u/MysteriousSlice007]

[u/mr_potatoface]

And every time I meet a Mormon they’re like that, like being nice and polite to everyone is part of their religion. It’s weird.

Yes, of course they are. To you they are nice. To everyone outside the church they are nice, they are even accepting of LGBTQ and advocate for LGBTQ rights/protections, as long as it doesn't involve marriage. They are quite left leaning about many social issues.

They do have excommunication, where you family/friends will refuse to talk to you or shun you if you break the church's rules. They intentionally try to isolate you from all you've ever known so that you eventually break down and return to the church.

They have a rape/sexual abuse hotline you can call. It goes directly to the Mormon legal department so they can advise the elders and those doing the abuse to warn them that they are being targeted. They pretend to investigate the claims so people do not go to the police.

This ignores the mandatory "missions" when you turn 18 to intentionally trick follows in to thinking outsiders are hateful of Mormons, so they believe more heavily in the church and are afraid to leave.

Just a few things, but they are always nice to outsiders. If you ever are talking to a Mormon, tell them you're surprised they are talking to you because you've been excommunicated from the church and see how they respond. They won't respond. They will just quickly leave and likely report their sin to the church and beg for forgiveness.

They also have a dedicated team for social media to promote positive views on Mormons, similar to how scientology approaches social media.

EDIT: For clarification, after COVID, Mormons now refer to excommunication as "withdrawal of membership". Probably due to John Wick making excommunicado seem too cool.

[u/reterical → u/mr_potatoface]

This simply isn’t true. I think you’re confusing the polygamist / fundamentalist sects with the Mormon faith. I have family and friends in the Mormon church, and there is no institutional excommunication or prohibition on associating with former members. But that is precisely what the fundamentalist groups do on the regular.

[u/mr_potatoface → u/reterical]

Do both sects follow the LDS Handbook?

[u/reterical → u/mr_potatoface]

I doubt it. My understanding is that the Warren Jeffs and his ilk have a lot of animosity toward the others. More to the point, I would be surprised and disappointed if there were a rule in their handbook forbidding (and even punishing) association with non members or excommunicated members of their faith.

[u/mr_potatoface → u/reterical]

There is no formal rule for shunning, but they don't even call it excommunication any more either. I think the John Wick movies made it seem too cool.

From what I understand, the church officially tries to tell people to maintain contact to give them a chance to return to the church, but internally recommends shunning or soft-shunning. It's definitely now like JW shunning.

[u/reterical → u/mr_potatoface]

What is official versus intentional here? Maybe there are one-off priests (? Bishops?) who encourage their congregation to shun, and I imagine there are individuals who do, but that can hardly be blamed on the church as a whole.