What do you know? Not much.

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ, also known as a Mormon. I live in Utah, which has a fairly high percentage of Mormons. At my work, however, I am a minority. It doesn’t bother me. All of my coworkers are really nice and respect me. We make jokes about how I am in charge of the coffee because I don’t drink it, and they all make an effort to watch their language and agree that it lends to a more professional atmosphere. What surprises me is what people know and don’t know about my religion. I don’t want to get into any theological discussion, I don’t necessarily think this blog is the time or the place.

However, I am going to talk about the facts some of my coworkers know regarding my faith. Some background information: I have two coworkers who I work with on a daily basis. They have lived in Utah for more than 20 years, and they are highly educated. I get along with them really well and consider them to be good friends. As far as I know, they don’t support any religion strongly. We were talking about Easter and how the calendar day is calculated every year. (Something regarding the first full moon after . . . something. All I know is that I look at my calendar to see when it is.) I googled it and read the description to P and Q.

P looked at me and asked, “Do Mormons celebrate Easter?”

Q looked up from her desk and said, “Yes, Mormons are Christians.”

I made the comment that our official title is “The Church of Jesus Christ.” I can’t remember exactly how, but this led into a discussion of polygamy.

P then said, “Oh, I know you don’t practice that anymore. The only reason you did was because when you were coming to Utah a lot of your men died and it was a way for the women who had lost their husbands to be taken care of.”

Q said, “I didn’t know that. I wondered why anyone would want to share a husband.”

Oh how little I know. If anyone were to ask me about another religion, my answers would be just as scattered.