The Purpose of This Experience

Asking Questions

Back with I was John Hummel, Mormon, instead of just John Hummel, I'd get people asking questions about my (now former) faith. There would occasionally be people who obsessed with the status of my underwear, or why Mormons don't drink. But then - I'd get conversations like this:

Schoolmate: Hey, John - you're a Mormon, right?

Me: Yup.

Schoolmate: So does that mean you think that women in Heaven are eternally pregnant?

Me: What? No! No! What on Earth makes you think that?

Schoolmate: Oh, I heard it from [pastor|friend|book|someone|pick one].

Me: No. It's not true.

Schoolmate: Well, I heard it was. And why don't you guys believe in Jesus?

Me: Who told you we don't believe in Jesus? Our church's name is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - why would you think we don't believe in Jesus.

Schoolmate: Nuh-uh! You're church is called the Mormon church!

Me: (sigh)

I think what always surprised me wasn't just the inaccuracy. I mean - anyone can hear something weird about someone else's culture or religion and get things wrong. It happens. But two things struck me as odd about these experiences:

1. The level of surety that my school friends would have.
   They knew that Mormons didn't believe in Jesus or other odd things - and nothing I said could convince them. I could show them parts of the Bible and Book of Mormon that talked about Jesus as the Son of God, Redeemer of the World, The Way the Light the - well, you know all of the designations. But nope - didn't matter, they had heard that Mormons didn't believe in Jesus and that was the end of it. They were right, I was wrong - even though it was my own religion.
2. The source of the wrong information.
   Usually these things are just rumor - so-and-so said that Mormons or Catholics or Jews or Muslims or whatever believe something, and they told someone else, and by the time it got around to my school mate it was so twisted that it probably looked nothing like the original rumor.

Other times, it seemed deliberate. I remember running into a Christian magazine in my school library that had a story on a recent Mormon General Conference - an event held bi-annually when the leadership of the church would speak about current issues and give counsel to the Latter Day Saint faithful. I turned the pages of the magazine, curious to see what a non-Mormon publication would say about what Mormon leaders said.

What I read not only shocked me, but deeply offended me. I can't remember the exact title - it has been nearly 20 years later, but I think it was "Christianity Now" or something like that. And, according to them, the LDS leadership told people that "masturbation was a worse sin than murder."

I remember reading that and not sure if I was going to break out laughing or not. It was so - obviously stupid. Who would actually say something like that? And besides, I had attended every session of that year's conference, and I didn't remember the word masturbation even mentioned, let along portrayed as a worse sin than murder (which no member of the Mormon church would believe, let alone say).

There was more - something about how Mormon leaders said that wheat germ could cure addiction to pornography and other such oddities. In the end, I had to wonder if they had even watched the satellite broadcast (my bet was "no"), or read the printed version the Mormon church distributed in their monthly magazine (again, the answer was likely "probably not.")

This experience gelled in my head and offered two lessons. The first, is that people were willing to make up complete and utter nonsense about other religions. Why I still to this day don't know. Jealousy? General douche-bag behavior? Is it the same impulse that drives radio show hosts to make up complete bullshit like Rush Limbaugh to support their claims - or just laziness? After all, why bother actually reporting on what happened when you can make it up?

The second, is that I could never trust what people said about other religions (or cultures, for that matter) who weren't direct members of them. If I wanted to know something about Muslims, I shouldn't listen to what either my Sunday school teacher or schoolmate said. I should seek out an actual Muslim and say "Hey, what do you people believe?" Otherwise, like that magazine article or my friends at school, I might wind up getting fed absolute nonsense.

Now that I had officially become an atheist, I wondered what people would think of my new-found lack of faith - my decision to simply live my life by being a good person because it's the logical thing to do, rather than doing so because I wanted a reward of Heaven or feared the punishments of Hell.

Evidently - there are people out there who have a problem with that. All over the Internet and at times in the news I saw people railing against Atheists. And Mormons. And Catholics, and Muslims and - well, everybody. It seems that everybody has this horrible image of every other religious group. Southern Baptists are all creationist nut-jobs who want to take over the schools and force our children to ignore science. Scientologists are all members of a cult who want to take over the government. Jews run all the banks. On and on, one stupid thought after another.

I had seen such comments before, and though I think all such stereotyping is just silly and bigoted, I never really thought about what could be done about it. After all, I was a member of the LDS church, and no one was going to listen to me.

Then I found myself with a lot of free time on my hands, and a lot of curiosity. Like "I wonder what the people in that church down the road believe. And what they do to help the community." Or "That temple looks really keen - I wonder what they do in there?"

Of course, the only way to find out would be just to march up and say "Hey, mind if I take a look around? Talk to the parson/iman/priest/president? What's this about? What's that?" Basically, I'd have to have the mentality of a 3 year old just going around saying "Ooo - what's that? What's that do? Why do you think that?"

I probably could just go find a book of religions around the world, or look it up on Wikipedia. But how would I know that was the right information? What if it was like that magazine I read as a teenager, which so completely got the information wrong as to be laughable?

Obviously, the only solution would be to go to each religion and ask them directly. Which would be a foolish thing. Who goes from religion to religion asking them to explain where they came from and what they believe in.

And then I thought - well, why on Earth not? What if, for every Sunday that I'm no longer in church, I try to visit 52 different religions? Go hang out with some Wiccans? Sit down and listen to the debates of Humanists? Hear the songs of a Pentecostal church?

So I sat down, went to Google Maps, and started charting out the names of every major religion I could think of. Asked my friends on Facebook (BTW: I'm John Hummel there) and Twitter (username: johnhummel) and Livejournal (yup - johnhummel) if other people could name them.

Which leads me to - here. Sitting at my computer, with a list of names and people to call of varying religions. Just to ask them - "So - what do you believe in?"

And that's what I'm doing. Going to each religion I can in my local area (in this case, the Tampa Bay area of Florida), and sitting in on their services. Talking to their respective leaders to learn for myself just what makes them tick.

I also have a bet with myself. See, I believe that most people want to do the right thing. And I'm also willing to bet that most religions - or even groups that wouldn't classify themselves as "religions" but as "groups that meet together to share beliefs" - all agree on some things: that people should help each other, that we should be good to each other. They may reach the solution through various means - one may claim the words of Jesus for why they do the right things, while others will claim pure reason, while still another may pick from the teachings of ancient gods of their faith.

I believe people are basically good. And I believe that most religions seek to do the right thing. So perhaps by me going out and talking to as many as I can, I can show other people that no, Religion X is not an evil cult intent on controlling people - but has the same goals as I: help the helpless, tend to the sick, comfort the afflicted.

And the only way to see if I'm right - is go talk to people. So I fired up Google maps, and typed in "churches" and my zip code, and started calling houses of meeting. The chapters and tales that follow tell of my journey. I really don't know how it will end.

But that's all in the fun of it.