I hesitate to say I was raised Mormon but from about age 5 - 14, that was the church we went to almost every Sunday. My memories of it are hazy (and mostly entail playing Red Light, Green Light with other kids) but there are some parts of the theology that I remembered. However, I will say that upon reading this book and getting the full low-down on the Mormon history, I am APPALLED that my parents signed us up for this! I know missionaries are very persuasive, well-meaning (at times) people and I'm sure painted a great story about eternal life and family and all that but did they tell them about Joseph Smith translating from a top hat or these Revelations? Do people honestly hear these things and think "Oh, yeah, I can see that"?
The book was fascinating, from my own personal history but also just in a cultural study. It goes back and forth between a savage murder in the early '80s by two Mormon Fundamentalists and the history of Mormonism, starting with Joseph Smith, through Brigham Young, and into current LDS life.
Mormonism is interesting in that it is such a young religion in comparison to other main-stream religions that there is a lot of media coverage and modern thought stemming around its creation. I feel that there is less to battle with Catholicism, Judaism or Islam since they go back so far and their starts are so clouded in history and honestly, at this point, can you really argue with something so entrenched in daily society? But to create a whole new religion that has so many similarities with those already in existence and to continue to claim yours as the "one true church" is an exercise in arrogance.
