So we went to the dinner last night. It was me, my wife, the couple and the "sisters" from the LDS church. We were hoping we would get away with no one mentioning religion. My hopes were quickly dashed when he told us that after the dinner he wanted us to watch a short video about their faith. My wife and I played it cool and we enjoyed the food they served; it was pork chops with broccoli.
So then came the video. It was called Treasures from Heaven: the John Tanner story. The jist of the video was: if you give all your money for the church, sacrifice everything for it and blindly follow you will be rich. Typical religious BS.
The funny detail was how this guy John had a infection in his leg, but by the power of God his leg was healed. Afterwards, John sell everything he owns and gives it to the church. Yet, this same god couldnt save his daughter from succumbing to an infection and dying when he was poor and traveling thousands of miles for Prophet Smith. Of course, they quickly mention the part about his daughter dying.
The video really made no sense. Again, typical religious BS.
Anyway, after the video they asked about what faith we have. We mentioned how we used to be JWs and told them why we left; shunning, blood issue, weird rules and restrictions, armaggedon and so on.
The couple was shocked at everything, but the "sisters" had a very uncomfortable look specially when we talked about shunning. The couple mentioned how that was wrong and any religion that does that is not the truth. They are fairly new in the faith so I dont think they know that Mormons do shun.
Then I mentioned I am an atheist which was a probably a shock due to the fact that I was quoting scripture after scripture. I mentioned that although I am an atheist I do believe that peace among humanity is vital to keep our species going and what is important was to be a "good" person and if a particular faith gets you there well then good for you. Very trite but I was trying to be as non confrontational as possible. The couple agreed and they were excited to be our neighbors.
Our neighbors are older couple (60s) and I mentioned how if they ever needed moving things or yard work I would be glad to help them out. The missionaries were very sweet and tactful but I could tell that they were uncomfortable with the similarities between our former faith and theirs. At first they were preachy but once they knew me and my wife knew alot about their faith and the bible in general then they backed off completely. One of the girls opened up more, specially once I mentioned I play music. She mentioned how they only do the missionary work while they are in school and she cant wait till she is finished. HAHA. They offered to help us paint and do whatever minor work we are doing in our new house.
All in all, it was a good dinner.
BTW, the guys baseball card collection is out of this world!! He has every Mickey Mantle card ever made!! Babe Ruth, Yogi you name it! His collection is for sure in the millions!!
