[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

That was a bit of sarcasm (I figured it would be obvious, guess not), but it sure seems strange to be so obsessed over the person who started the church. The Lutherans don't CONSTANTLY swoon about Martin Luther. And no, I don't need to go read the latest issue of Ensign, you can put that to music.

Attending a university in Utah for 5 years guaranteed that I'll never join that church. For 5 years I heard them talk about "converts" and "transplants" with the same venom that most people talk about felons ("He's nothing, he's just a convert!"). If I join up, that's how they'll talk about me. Why would I want that? In the mormon church, if you're not a 5th generation Utahn, you're nothing and they'll let you know it. Maybe the CEO of the LDS church should have a good talk to the flock about ARROGANCE and being bonkers over appearing wealthy when you're not.

I found it funny that they assumed that if you've never been on a mission, you've never been anywhere. As a military veteran, I've spent more time forward-deployed than most of them have on the can.

[T. P. Pole]

The problem with your sarcasm is that there are weak-minded folks here that take everything negative they hear about mormons and believe it. There are enough differences between mormonism and orthodox Christianity that we don't need to be making stuff up.

For example, every Christmas around here you see claims that mormons don't sing Christmas songs in their church services. No amount of proof seems to satisfy the people who repeatedly make these claims. These type of person would easily believe a claim that the Ensign has article after article on Joseph Smith without any mention of God.

So when I see them (and have the time) I point out the most absurd claims, if only to get it on record that there is an opposing view. Sometimes, like here, I get an admission that the statement was false.

The other problem with your claim of sarcasm is that within the same sentence you expand upon your original point (which you just stated was a intentional false statement). Hard to tell for sure what you are intending here, unless you are intending to imply your original claim was the truth after all. Strange way of presenting your case.

As for your other observations, I suspect that they are spot on in the Utah region of the church. I've never lived in Utah, so I can't speak for sure, but I know many that did grow up there and that attitude would not surprise me. Outside of Utah (at least every place I have lived) converts are cherished, not shunned.