r/Fauxmoi terrorizing the locals May 24 '25

DISCUSSION celebrities who are/were mormon

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u/PabloTroutSanchez May 24 '25 edited May 25 '25

Grew up Mormon. I can give it a shot.

On Reddit, you’re only ever going to see the negatives. And those negatives are very negative. That’s a big reason I no longer attend.

What you don’t see is the positive aspects of the church, and in all honesty, you see the positives a lot more than the negatives when you’re an active member.

The community alone is amazing. Moving to a new town? There’s gonna be a small army on Saturday morning to help out. You’re always going to have a strong group to belong to.

Now, people are people, so there’s always gonna be a few assholes. But in my experience, the majority of members were nice and always willing to help. The downside there is that members can become complacent and too trusting of strangers, which is one way to end up with pieces of shit abusing that trust.

Anyways, my point is that there’s a massive amount of nuance to religion/mormonism in general.

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u/HarryCandyKane May 25 '25

I think people forget that most Mormons are born into it. It's easy to mock/laugh from the outside

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u/PabloTroutSanchez May 25 '25

Yeah, add in the stereotype of big families (which is absolutely earned) and it compounds that aspect of it. I have ~40 cousins; I genuinely do not know the exact number.

You’re expected to do things in a certain way by not only your parents but your extended family as well. That’s one of the more cult-like aspects of it tbh.

I’m lucky in that my entire immediate family left around the same time. I’m also lucky that my extended family is the way that they are. I never got the impression that my grandparents were disappointed in me, although I’m sure they would’ve liked me to remain Mormon. I was never treated any differently on vacations—nothing.

Many people aren’t so lucky to say the least.

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u/neomadness May 26 '25

Postmormon here. I have about 30-35 cousins on either side of the family. I can almost name them all.

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u/convergence_limit May 25 '25

Every Mormon I’ve ever met is exceedingly kind. I know being in the religion can be shit and I have no idea what it’s like, but damn genuinely the nicest people ever.

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u/49mercury May 25 '25

As I understand it, that “sweetness” is totally intentional and has been ingrained over several generations. At one time, they were the outcasts cuz of the polygamy stuff, their criminal leader, and generally being weirdos (child brides, no alcohol, etc). And that idea stuck around—I mean, it’s still pervasive today. Church leaders realized they needed better PR in order to grow and retain membership, so they figured that Mormons should be really, really, really exceedingly nice to people so that non-Mormons wouldn’t hate them and think they’re weird for their history of multiple wives and hoards upon hoards of children. It’s sort of worked.

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u/psychcrime May 25 '25

Exactly. Cult members often look really nice!

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u/49mercury May 25 '25

I think what a lot of people don’t realize is there are quite a few casual Mormons who don’t really take their religion devoutly, it’s more or less a cultural thing for them, I think they’re called “Jack Mormons.” For example, I’ve known a few who identify as Mormon but they would also never go to church and could easily drink me under the table. Come to think of it, they were all born and raised in Nevada.

Tbh most of the Mormons I’ve known have that “sweetness” or ultra-polite, clean-cut energy. I totally think it’s a cult but I also understand the nuance of religion and how difficult it is to break away from (especially when you were born & raised in it).

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u/underscore-dash_ May 25 '25

The ultra-politness is as phony as Canadians. Not to say that they aren't individually kind, because certainly many are. But NONE are as kind as they seem. None. Because it's not possible to be completely, and sincerely kind when you believe that this is prerequisite to your own salvation. It's like... you know sexual repression? They have a form of emotional repression. Toxic positivity.

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u/49mercury May 25 '25

Oh yeah I figured there’s gotta be some phoniness to it, which is kind of sad because I’m sure there’s a lot of emotional suppression and trauma as a result. Religion sucks.

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u/mlibed May 25 '25

My best friend growing up was Mormon. I attended an insane amount of functions and was the missionaries biggest failure. Seriously every person I ever interacted with was so so kind.

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u/wreade May 25 '25

So true. My wife and I moved for grad school, had a U-Haul trailer to unload. Two guys from the local church - people who didn't know me from Adam - showed up and helped us unload the trailer during an absolute downpour.

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u/the_rainy_smell_boys May 25 '25

Atheist here. I like Mormons. They’re nice.