Missionaries at German University campuses

[_Some Schmo]

OMG... LOL

Let me take a Mormon stab at these:

Question One: Wer hat die Blumen gemacht? (Who made the flowers?) Joe Smith's brother Jesus.

Question Two: Warum ist das Gras gruen? (Why is the grass green?) Joe Smith's brother Jesus made it that way.

Question Three: Gibt es einen Gott, der alles erschaffen hat? (Is there a God who created everything?) Yes.

Question Four: Warum sollte ich anderen helfen? (Why should I help others?) Because Joe Smith's brother Jesus thinks you should.

Question Five: Was bedeutet mir meine Familie? (What meaning does my family have for me?) An eternity of togetherness.

Question Six: Kann ich mit meiner Familie fuer immer zusammen sein? (Can I be with my family forever?) Yes, if you live everything that Joe Smith and his brother Jesus taught.

Question Seven: Was ist der Sinn des Lebens? (What is the meaning of life?) Nothing unless you follow the teachings of Joe Smith and his brother Jesus.

Question Eight: Gibt es ein Leben nach Democrat Tod? (Is there life after death?) Of course, and if you do everything right, you'll get to live with Joe Smith and his brother Jesus.


How can you possibly answer these questions from a Mormon POV and not look like an idiot?

Thanks for sharing, gramps!

[_mormonmistress]

Why is coca cola allowed? Seems strange that you can drink caffeine that way, but not in coffee or tea. What about no-doze? Students here are fond of them when they have exams and deadlines coming up and they are chocka full of caffeine. We also have these other pills here which are legal (but not for long, as parliament is going to ban them). They contain BZP and have similar effects. Keep you awake, give you energy. They were introduced as a herbal alternative to meth. Would they be okay by the church?

[_gramps]

The Bavarian Catholics are a different story altogether.

Bavaria is another story altogether from what I hear...

I do go more in depth with students who are interested outside of class. I just don't have enough class time as it is to get anything in their heads, let alone lead them through the arcana of "doctrine" and history. And of course, I don't want any discussion to be solely about religious belief: my approach is secular history not the Big Question of whether there is a God or not. My students are often incapable of making that distinction and I scrupulously avoid using the classroom to tell them, even indirectly, that they are wrong to believe as they do. If anything vaguely religious ever comes up I present it in as neutral a fashion as possible (I.e. assuming that these are cultural myths like any cultural myths) and let them draw their own conclusions as regards their personal belief.

Because I am dealing with American students, I.e. people who have had absolutely NO exposure to the study of philosophy (or geography, or much science, or ANY art, etc.) it is very hard to broach these topics in a rationalist and intellectual manner. I do consider it my duty to give them access to different ways of seeing the world than the ones they came in the door with---that is what teaching is about, afterall---and I will answer honestly about my lack of belief if asked, I don't volunteer that information (directly, its probably obvious in other ways) because its very easy to get mired in an emotional argument about various religions being Right or Wrong.

It must be wonderufl to teach sentient beings, gramps....

Well, what is funny is that the Bavarians whom I teach in Munich are far more ahead of the game and much more sentient than a lot of the former east Germans. Their education in Bavaria is very good. There is still here a big socialist mentality and it didn't help them in some ways (read: sentience). Perhaps one might say that it did help them in other ways. The only Christians around are the EV types. Haven't met a catholic, yet, I believe. Nearly all have no belief in a god at all.

So, I don't push it on them. They've nearly all seen the Southpark shows before I ever bring up where I am from.

And Scientology is not classified as a religion here. It is a business. It was even in a contract I had with one employer here when I first arrived. They weren't hiring Scientologists. I found that interesting.

I never bring this stuff up, but I am happy to answer any questions and give my feelings on the matter. They are interested!

Edited to add: I go out with my students every week. It is a kind of standing appointment, a stammtisch, as they would call it. We choose a different pub each week and different students come each week and we have a good time. It comes up a lot over beers. The only rule is that we speak English. It really helps them to get over their shyness.

Your weekly "conversation" is good. In fact I have been known to attend a similar stammtisch for Japanese students that an young professor I met at a Fall concert runs informally. "Eat/Drink Club" is a lot of fun. The dynamics with american students are, of course, quite different. However, if I ever did end up teaching again in Utah, I think the potential for such extracurricular activity would be greater. Maybe that seems counter-intuitive, but I could see the need for such a thing as well as it working out more interestingly in Utah.

Having lived in Japan for ten years, I would jump all over that chance. The students studying outside of Japan can be quite interesting and fun, but hesitant and shy until they get some beer in them.

[_Gazelam]

The card given out is no different than the ones they hand out here, there are twelve different ones, many missionaries try to collect all twelve, some are harder to get than others.

All of them dirrect a person to the church website: http://www.Mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/

[_gramps]

Why is coca cola allowed? Seems strange that you can drink caffeine that way, but not in coffee or tea. What about no-doze? Students here are fond of them when they have exams and deadlines coming up and they are chocka full of caffeine. We also have these other pills here which are legal (but not for long, as parliament is going to ban them). They contain BZP and have similar effects. Keep you awake, give you energy. They were introduced as a herbal alternative to meth. Would they be okay by the church?

Well, that is the million dollar question! Coca-cola is ok, because no prophet has said it was not ok. I think that is as good a rationale as you can get from a Mormon.

No-doze: no problem. Don't know about these other pills, but if they are legal, I can't see the church saying they are bad. My guess is that they are ok. Now, when they become illegal, then.....

[_gramps]

The card given out is no different than the ones they hand out here, there are twelve different ones, many missionaries try to collect all twelve, some are harder to get than others.

All of them dirrect a person to the church website: http://www.Mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/

Well, if you are collecting Gaz, I will send this one to you, or if you know that some missionary would like this one, let me know.

What do you think about this marketing scheme, Gaz? Are you impressed by it? Are you happy about your tithing dollars going to pay marketers for such work?

It's funny. No active church goers have commented on this marketing scheme. I wonder why?

[_Gazelam]

First: In regards to Caffine, The Word of Wisdom states you can't have Coffee and Tea, it does not say why. The reason is, is that there is no reason other than that we have been asked not to. Men like George Burns lived to be ancient while smoking and driking coffee. Whats in the drinks and smkes is of no consequence, its a test of our obedience.

Now included in the Word of Wisdom is a little piece that says we are to take care of our Temples (Bodies). How you choose to do that is up to you. If you see things like Red Bull as hazerdous to your body, then by all means steer clear.

It is my personal opinion that the whole Caffine thing started up in the eighties when everyone began discovering caffine in their drinks, I think all the Mormons at the time all went "Oh, that's why God says we can't have Coffee and Tea". If that were the case we could drink decaff. We cannot drink decaff.


Second: What do I think of the marketing scheme?

Well the website is put togetehr pretty well, and has lots of answers on it. I think people are more likely to dig around on the internet than they are to invite two Mormons missionaries in their house. I believe the hope is that people wil become excited enough about what they read that they will then want to talk to the missionaries.

We'll see. Porter certainly enjoys the chat feature at the website.

[_Gadianton]

It makes me cringe, gramps. When I was a missionary, the push was to find creative ways other than the typical door approach to draw interest. I had a "companion" once who had one of those personalities that no one like to be around. He went down the path of looking for the Lords blessings as he consulted with the spirit over new finding methods. He came up with this survey asking questions much like those you listed that just begged for sarcastic replies. So I just trailed behind him, door to door, as he tried to get survey data. Because of his awkward personalitiy, it just made the situation worse. Not only did you have a dumb question from a total stranger dressed like an FBI man, but asked by someone with negative people skills. It was a horrifying week for me. To make it worse, on the last day of his trial week, right at the end, after everyone had sacked us with extra frustration and sarcasm, my "companion" decided to try one more house which would put us right at the time we were suppose to stop tracting. I pointed this out to him but he invited me to have faith. So one more. And guess what? This lady was totally excited to take the survey, invited us in, and they went over every question with enthusiasm, she and her husband, for an hour and a half. They were total reborns. At the end, my comp brought up the Book of Mormon and I was dreading it because i knew that they didn't know who we were but if they did know, they wouldn't have let us in. The woman got this shocked look on her face and sort of weasled their way out of comitting to the discussions. But he won, i have to give him credit, his survey got us into that one door when I was sure it would fail completely.

[_Polygamy Porter]

Grampapa, please tell me you gave those young twits a sure-sign-o-the-nail handshake as you asked:

"Was ist das?"

"hat es ein Name?"

"geben Sie es mir?"

[_Runtu]

First: In regards to Caffine, The Word of Wisdom states you can't have Coffee and Tea,

No, it doesn't. Nowhere does it say anything about coffee or tea.

The reason is, is that there is no reason other than that we have been asked not to. Men like George Burns lived to be ancient while smoking and driking coffee. Whats in the drinks and smkes is of no consequence, its a test of our obedience.

It kind of sucks that the test isn't really from God, after all. 40 years I went without understanding how good espresso is, and how nice a Guinness is after dinner.