[WillowTheWhisp]

Originally Posted by entwisi

I was in a hotel the other week whilst on a training course and I was surprised to find not only a standard bible but the Mormon equivilant(Sorry, can't for the life of me remember its proper name).

It's called The Book of Mormon Ian That's why they call us 'Mormons' which is actually a nickname but we're so used to it that we call ourselves that too. The correct name of the church is "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" and the members are the latter-day saints. That doesn't mean we are all holy saintly and wonderful. (But anyone who knows me shouldn't need to be told that! )It relates to the name St Paul gave the early Christians in the Bible. They didn't use the name "Christian" back then. ( Example Ephesians 2:19 - "Now therefore ye are no more strangers but fellow citizens with the saints and of the houehold of God." ) The latter-day bit means us living in this day and age as opposed to them living way back then.

Oh yeah, and it's not actually a Mormon equivalent of the Bible. People are often surprised to learn that we do use the Bible, the King James version, and this year in our adult Sunday school class we are studying the Old Testament. We've just been doing Daniel. It's gripping stuff. The BOM is an entirely different thing written by and about people living on the other side of the world before and after the life of Christ who had prophesies about his coming and then believers in him after he'd been.

Originally Posted by entwisi

I've always been intruiged about different religions, Paganism, Wicca, Mormon etc.

Me too, I'm fascinated by different beliefs and have a great regard for many of them, in particular those which respect the earth and other people. Some pagan religions have a great affinity for animal life and the environment.

Originally Posted by entwisi

I'm interested as to how most people get involved in the 'lesser known' ones.

I became what I am basically due to my insatiable curiosity in the first place. Before I was LDS I had vaguely heard of them but knew very little. As I was always looking into things and beliefs I knew nothing about, when I encountered a real live Mormon colleague I bombarded him with questions and probably drove him up the wall! I adamantly refused to 'meet the missionaries' to be taught or 'indoctrinated' as I described it at the time and just wanted to read all I could get my hands on (pro and con) and ask questions. That progressed to going along to choir rehearsals to have a look at some more of these weirdos and then to the Sunday meetings to see what they got up to. The more I found out the more I liked.......................

That's enough waffling for now before anyone accuses me of preaching.