Scottie wrote:A couple of things that I've thought about over the years that are strangely absent from Mormonism.
One being godparents. Why don't LDS assign godparents to their children?
The other is lent. Why don't LDS observe this? It seems like a GREAT similitude of sacrifice to go 40 days without something you hold dear. Are the leaders afraid of Fat Tuesday?
Any others that you guys see as commonplace in other religions, but absent in Mormonism?
A lot of the things you're mentioning come as a result of Mormonism being a response to 19th century Protestantism, and a lot of the personal issues Joseph Smith had with organized religion at the time, including infant baptism. No infant baptism, no godparents (what remnant remained was a naming and blessing ceremony). Assigning godparents might screw up the concept of eternal sealing, since the purpose of assigning godparents in other religions is essentially to step in and raise the children in the faith should something happen to the parents, or at least to support the parents in that effort.
Even witnesses at a temple wedding/sealing are not the typical witnesses that would exist in other Christian religions (a bridesmaid/matron of honor as witness for the bride, and a best man/groosman for the groom). There are no elaborate or historic rites of marriage as might be present in a Christian church or Jewish synagogue.
Mormonism retained no sense of a liturgical calendar, even though the majority of Christendom adheres to one (Lent, as you already mentioned, and Advent, and everything in between). Even the way the Christian holy days of Christmas and Easter are observed in other Christian faiths is mostly missing in Mormonism, and certainly there's no real sense of there being any holy days at all (unless you count General Conference). In conjunction with that, there's no sense of feasting, or having feast days, in contrast to fasting (no other Christians would typically fast on any Sunday, since Sunday is historically regarded as a feast day, just as Easter and many other holy days are, and would consider fasting on a Sunday to be incompatible with historical Christianity).
Paid clergy got retained only behind the scenes, and not publicly. Clergy receive no formal theological training.
Altars are missing, except in the temple (got moved to the side in LDS meetinghouses as Sacrament tables). Crosses and crucifixes are conspicuously missing.
There is no rite of passage for young women around age 12-15, where Jewish girls would have a bat mitzvah, and many Christian girls would have confirmation (LDS boys get ordained to the priesthood, but there really isn't any correlating rite of passage for girls).
There's no concept of priesthood of the entire laity in Mormonism, just to males (many Christian religions believe the entire faithful hold a share of the priesthood, not to be confused with ordained priesthood in some religions).
There's no assigned scriptures in Mormonism read from the stand based on a calendar and published in a lectionary, where many religions have the same preassigned readings from scripture read in Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox churches, and Jewish synagogues, worldwide (the concept of a lectionary was inherited in Christianity from Judaism, but is conspicuously absent from Mormonism).
There's no religious clothing except in temple worship.
And most importantly,
There's no bingo.
