Sort of, anyway. He was never actually baptised.
Of more interest to me than the “oh my heck he’s gay” angle is the sort-of-Mormon angle. This is someone considering himself Mormon who isn’t officially, but we often discuss/think about things from the opposite end: people who are officially Mormon, but don’t really consider themselves so. I find this variation on the theme interesting.
(Thanks to my officemate, Jill, for the tip on the article and suggestion I post it here.)
I think it’s pretty common for people who are culturally Mormon to describe themselves as Mormon even when they are technically not. Before I was baptized in my mid-30s I often pointed out to people that I “came from a Mormon family.” This man’s description of Mormon lifestyle is mostly positive, so good for him.
I had a classmate in law school whose grandmother was a Mormon. He was not religious, but said once to me that if he were asked what his religion was, he’d probably say “Mormon.”
That struck me as odd then, especially since his ties to the church were nonexistent, and it still strikes me as odd.
Besides, I doubt that he knew anything about jello or funeral potatoes.
I think the cultural and heritage identification applies to most religions. I come from a mixed-religion family, dad was Jewish, mom Presbyterian. Both were completely inactive and I think that was part of the bargain, whether it was explicitly stated or not. But when asked, dad professed agnosticism and mom professed to still be a believer.
I think us kids liked the Jewish side of the family. Either that, or just because dad was in charge, us kids identified ourselves as Jewish when anyone asked; though our participation was nothing beyond eating mahtza ball soup, chopped chicken liver, bagels, blintzes and pitzels, and wearing a skullcap when going to synagogue when visiting dad’s side.
As a small kid I thought dad’s side of the family was more lively and “cooler” than mom’s WASP-ish, reserved and sort-of calvinistic relatives. I definitely liked Jewish food better than the white-bread WASP fare. And oh that Jewish delicatessen!
“Besides, I doubt that he knew anything about jello or funeral potatoes.”
If you read the artical…
“I would call myself a gay Mormon. They [the church] would not call me a Mormon. But it’s a part of who I am. I grew up with my family, we eat scalloped potatoes at funerals, we have Jell-O all the time like we’re Mormon,” he joked in an interview with CBS.com (contestants are not allowed to talk to news media during the show’s run.)
silent reader –
he wasn’t talking about the guy in the article. He was talking about an old classmate.
Last night I went to my mom’s house just to watch Survivor to see who you all are talking about. We have been TV’less for over two years. I would recommend it.
Nice guy in the episode I saw.
The term that I think of for someone like him is “Cultural Mormon”.
I have unbaptized cousins that if asked will say that they are mormons. They sometimes even talk about not drinking cause it is against the WOW or will attend seminary.
1 of them even took the discussions as teenagers with inactive parents looking on bemused and then got baptized. He is on a mission now. OK he is a mormon for sure now.
I suspect that there are lots of people like this in Utah and Idaho.
yeah i served my mission in utah and met a lot of people like that. you’d be surprised at how much success we found in looking for nonmembers at church or in seminary. often times we’d even get their less active family members more active (but sometimes just less less-active).
The religion/cultural thing is interesting.
Culturally, Irish/Canadian. Religion of childhood, Anglican (yes, there are Irish people who aren’t Catholic). Current religion, none. I have no idea how anyone else in my family identifies – the subject doesn’t come up.