Mormons, Religion

They sit in front of me eager to convert, the conversion factory. Several points come to mind:

1. They remind me of soviet style planning. Each factory head and production unit had a production quota and in earlier times, if you did not meet it, you were dead meat. Do they have a production quota also? Is somebody in Utah going to order them be executed if they don't convert a certain number of people at the end of the year? Why are they so eager to jump to baptism even without knowing if I really believe or not?

2. They look like a man that wants to sleep with the woman under the testosteron pressure and can't wait. They are so eager and so rushed, they just see the baptism at the end of the road and nothing else.

3. Why do people turn to them? It is certainly not the belief structure, it is so childish, it is funny. No, I understand now. It is the warmth and the friendship and the shallow smiles.

4. Why do the Christians smile so much? Are they the ones that have not yet heard the bad news? Seems everybody else is dour and sour because they know the reality of the cruel world.

5. We intellectuals tend not to take them seriously. We under-rate them. We think the ideology is so unscientific, so childish, that there is no chance of winning the masses with it. While we are laughing at them and think they are just marginal, they are busy converting. Since talking to them, I tend to take the danger more seriously. They fill up the void in people's life, the huge void opened up by capitalism.

6. In a sinking ship most people suddenly remember god and religion and start praying in earnest even if they did not believe before. Why is it that in the most capitalist country in the world Christianity is so powerful? Is it a sinking ship? In a cruel capitalist world, where people don't find any help or support system, they turn to these groups, to these ideologies to feel support and peace of mind. If they have a clear, defined, safe future ahead of them, and know that a powerful welfare and social systme supports them, they will be like tourists on a cruise ship, enjoying life and not caring that much about religion. As a proof, it is just enough to check Europe in comparison to the US.