Monday, January 7, 2008

Mormon Terminology

This blog is written from the perspective of someone who was Mormon their entire life. As such, there are probably some things that I say which some readers might not understand. My target audience are those people still involved in Mormonism and know it very well... the cliche, so to speak... the Mormon terminology.

I will do my best to avoid this, when possible, and provide explanations when needed for the sake of non-LDS readers. I can't promise I will be perfect at it, but I will try.

For example: I think most non-LDS know that Mormons wear garments. However, I would bet that most non-LDS do not know that when a pair of garments is worn out, it is not simply tossed into the trash. As long as the cloth bears the marks (V) (L) (-) it is still considered holy and sacred. Only after the marks are removed is the cloth no longer sacred. After that, it can be used to scrub your toilet, if you wish. The marks themselves must be destroyed. You can cut them into tiny pieces, or burn them. But if you defile a pair of sacred underwear while it still contains the holy marks, your salvation could be at risk.

So in the post when I talked about throwing my garments into trash complete with markings, (Holy Sacred Underwear, Batman!) I was talking about the holy markings, not the skid marks, although they contained them as well! Funny though, even as a member I wondered why the sacred garments were allowed to get shit on and pissed on and stained with other bodily discharges. It seems that just by the very nature of wearing them, you are defiling them with your humanness.

Just another evil apostate...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How did that even start? Deciding to call your underwear holy with markings? Who puts the markings in there?
Are they Hanes underwear you buy from the store and then sew a "holy marking" into them?
Are there markings on your shirts and pants, too?
I just don't understand how something like that would ever start...who would have thought it necessary to mark your clothes of God?
I don't think, if He had a choice, that God would want to or care about having "His mark" where the sun don't shine all day.

Mormon411 said...

Hi Julie, welcome back! Things have probably slowed down for you now that the holidays are over.

I totally agree with you... once you actually start thinking about it, you realize that the whole garment concept is just stupid. Now, on to your questions.

Joseph Smith started it. I don't know how he got the idea to sew markings into underwear, but the marks themselves come from the masons. I'm sure you've seen their symbol, the square and the compass overlapping.

The garments are manufactured by the church right here in SLC, where they are shipped around the world for the members to buy. Funny huh, they tell you what underwear to wear and then make you buy it from them.

I've actually been inside the manufacturing facility. They have a nifty little sewing maching that puts the marks in. It's actually pretty cool to watch it done. Of course, to work in this facility, one needs to be a Mormon in good standing with temple recommend and, in most cases, wearing garments yourself.

No your pants and shirt are not marked; only your underwear.