Mormonism field trip!!!

The other week like half my class went to a "family home evening" event for college students and young professionals in the local Mormon singles ward.

Already, two students have mentioned in emails to me that they loved the field trip.

Anyhow, my art students noticed/asked the most interesting things:

- the girls all had longer hair (at shortest, shoulder length) and their outfits showed no cleavage.

- people (and people were late 20s at the oldest!) tended to use the word "homosexual" and not "gay" (as in someone said, "Yes, we have four homosexuals in this ward" in response to a question; the student who noticed this said that the vocab choice actually grated her ears).

- though celibacy is mandated for gays, supposedly 2 lesbians work at the local temple; they're these older women who live together and are obviously butch, and no-one asks if they sleep together or not.

- most people said it was hard to be gay and Mormon (my students asked a lot about this), and 2 of the people there had a (black) (gay) (Mormon) roommate who literally lived in a closet in their apt.  "Like, actually in the closet," they said.

-one young law student kind of hinted he was more liberal with sex than other Mormons his age, and when someone asked him how, he said that on dates he would kiss and hold hands, though "nothing naked" ("And he said it like he was all proud and was a rebel!", one student said).

- when I was asking about what's needed to get a temple recommend (which gets you into the temple), it emerged that the bishop asked rote questions, but a lot of times people had to be able to honestly answer that they adhered as they understood adherence...  "Like with tithing", the one law student said.  "Some people say a tenth, some people say a tenth of after tax income, and others don't count investment income."  Our readings had said that a lot of times people tithed less if they were poor and couldn't afford it, but it blew me away that there seemed to be this culture of jesuitical Mitt Romney-like tithing where you re-arranged finances in order to f*ck your own church.

- students were wondering since if you can get married for eternity in Mormonism, if you could get divorced for eternity too...  and the answer is yes!  You appeal to authorities in Salt Lake City and get the seal "broken", to use the correct terminology.  One woman there said her uncle married way too young and got his marriage sealed in the temple, and then later had it "broken" and is now remarried and re-sealed.  "But you can't get it broken casually, though," she said.  "Because everyone is kind of thinking, who knows, maybe they'll get back together."

Also, one student said she enjoyed the quiz game they played so much, that she could see herself "being Mormon in another life".

Also also, my one student who did all of the reading for the first 3 weeks is already like a third done with one of the major books in the course that we're not even due to crack open for like a month yet.

Also also also, my students were intrigued by how there's Mormon feminists, they never thought there could be such a thing...  Next time I teach the course (*if* I teach the course) I'm going to have to put a short reading on from one, I already have an idea.