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Joe Martin
REL 110-IN2
Professor McAlhaney
10 December 2012
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
Ive known Collin Wootan since fifth grade. I learned many things from him early on. I
was astonished at the size of his family, having three sisters and two brothers. It was also very
evident that he was one of the more intelligent kids in the class. Then I learned his family didnt
have a single television in their home and mainly read for entertainment. Then I learned that he
was Mormon. I think it came out when we talked about the Mormon religion in Social Studies.
In the past eight years that I have known him, I knew very little about the religion and decided
that it would be best to interview him about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Unfortunately, I moved away from New York over the summer, but I was able to get
ahold of Collin via Skype. When questioning him, I essentially went down the list of
providedquestions; however I threw in a few more of my own as I thought of them. He also
answered some of the questions on my list in previous responses, but I will still acknowledge
these questions anyways.
I began asking what the essential teachings of his belief were. Knowing that the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) is a Christian denomination, I asked him to explain
how his church differs from others. I already sort of knew the story from South Parks episode
about Mormons, but I didnt want to simply rely on Trey Parker and Matt Stones ideas about the
religion (even though the episode was very accurate, historically speaking). He responded,
speaking about how Joseph Smith was the founder. He began having visions of an angel, which
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directed him to a set of golden plates with sacred writings on them. He allegedly found these
plates and published a translated version of them, calling it The Book of Mormon. This
eventually became the holy book of the Mormon people. I found out from him that the difference
between LDS and other Christian groups was that that Mormons believe after Jesus resurrected,
he visited North America, before returning to Jerusalem and ascending into Heaven.
From the previous response, the sacred Scripture was revealed to be The Book of
Mormon. In addition to this, they also use the King James edition of the Bible. In fact, I
remember seeing Collin with a King James Bible in elementary school or middle school, reading
and studying it during his down time. It was also revealed that Joseph Smith is the founder of
this faith.
Worship inside his church is very similar to that of any other Christian church. Growing
up as a Catholic, I was easily able to see the similarities between the two groups. The main
difference in the Mormon Church is how seriously the worship is taken. As a Catholic, I simply
took about an hour out of my day to attend mass, or skipped it completely if I had something else
going on. I remember asking him to hang out on a Sunday one time and hearing that he couldnt
because he had to go to church and spend time at home with his family, but any other day would
be fine. Basically, their worship in church is very similar to that of any other church, but really
extends beyond that. Entire families gather to celebrate the faith sing songs, and pray together.
The members within the congregation are a very tight-knit community. He has even invited me
to several events in the past, like a church dodge ball tournament/ dinner.
I remember passing his church one time and noticing how new it looked. This seemed
sort of odd to me, especially considering how old my church was, built out of grey stones with
tall, stained-glass windows. I asked him to describe the inside of the building to get a better idea
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of what Mormons see every Sunday. He spoke about how it looked somewhat plain. I found this
to be unusual for a church, knowing that mine was always decorated growing up with crucifixes
all over, some crosses, and at least a thousand candles. I visited a Polish Catholic church on
occasion and remember elaborate paintings on the wall behind the Alter, as well as the beautiful
architecture. Knowing how serious Mormons are about worship, I expected something much
more interesting than that, but they also seem much more charitable and less needy than
Catholics.
In speaking about his worship, I found out that his father is actually a Bishop in his
church. I also found that Sunday services are much longer than those at my Catholic church. For
anywhere around three hours, Mormons will worship very similar to how Protestant
denominations do, singing songs, praying, and listening to sermons. Children are also admitted
to a sort of Sunday school class.
Having been invited to church events in the past, I figured that visitors would be very
welcome, but I asked if anyone could attend a service if they wished. Collin told me that anyone
would be welcome, but they may want to ask permission first. In asking how visitors should
behave, he simply told me what I expected. They should participate how all others do. He also
recommended that I meet other members and speak to those running the service, like his father.
Growing up as a Catholic, I have always been surprised finding out that other churches
dont celebrate sacraments as I did. The most significant, different coming of age event that
Mormons experience is missionary work. I learned from Collin that the missionary rules have
recently changed, but didnt really follow how they were different from previous rules. Basically,
when a Mormon turns eighteen years old (men only), if they wish, they can participate in a
missionary program where they inform people of their beliefs and ask them to attend a service
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and join their church. There are many benefits to this, including scholarship opportunities at
BYU schools.
Missionary work is just one way men participate in LDS. Like other Christian churches,
they are also involved in the higher levels, such as Bishops and Councilors, who lead the
congregations. Men are also usually involved in teaching Sunday school or educating children on
weekdays, usually in a church members home. All women who are above the age of 18 and
married belong to the LDS Relief Society. This is a group which helps those in need within the
church by providing financial and emotional support to families in need of it. Children are only
really involved in the education process, but do regularly attend church events and help in
charitable ways.
In talking to Collin, I found out that Mormons are very respectful to others in general.
Other than the Wootan family, I knew several other Mormon families in my community and
never met one that was disrespectful or rude to others. In our interview, he spoke about how he
professes his faith, but doesnt close out other ideas or ignore people based on faith.
As I began to wrap up the interview, I asked Collin if he knew how many people
belonged to LDS. He knew that there were somewhere around 15 million in the world, but didnt
know how that number was distributed by country or state. Mormonnewsroom.org confirmed
this, showing that 14,441,346 people belong worldwide. This website also showed a total of
6,229,233 total participants in the United States and 78,419 in North Carolina.
At the conclusion of the interview, I asked Collin what the most important thing was that
he wanted people to understand about his faith. This question brought up a couple of stereotypes.
First and foremost, Mormons are not polygamous. Probably the most common, untrue stereotype
about the church is that they still allow men to wed several women, as their duty was formerly
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believed to be to populate the earth. I also asked him about the South Park episode about The
Book of Mormon, briefly described it and sent him a link to the full episode. Another stereotype
that Mormons face (mainly through this episode) is that they are all goody-two-shoes type
people and perfect. He explained in his own church that there are actually several people who are
not very respectful and caring about the religion.
To completely wrap up the interview, I asked him what he thought about the presidential
election and his thoughts on Mitt Romney. I remember back in 2007 and 2008 that he was
excited to have a Mormon candidate run for the Republican nomination and that his church and
family were also very happy about it. His thoughts seemed to remain the same. He said that
Mormon support around the country was absolutely behind Mitt.
Through this interview, I concluded that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
is very small part of the community that has a very big impact on it. Through charity, service,
and reputation itself, Mormons respectfully, but silently participate in our society in a very
positive way. I would love to, one day, visit a Mormon church, or even temple, and experience
their religion firsthand.

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This is the most recent photo I could
find of us two. I think its from 2008
when we were in 8
th
grade. I am
wearing the red hat and Collin is
playing the bell set.
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Works Cited
Facts and Statistics." Www.mormonnewsroom.org. LDS.org, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2012.
"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." Online interview. 8 Dec. 2012.