Religiosity

So last night was very interesting. Among all the gripes and groans about not wanting to be there, two things happened. The first was that I overherad snippets of a conversation between the husband of a coworker and an acquaintance of his. What caught my attention was the word "Mormon." I'd had several conversations with my coworker about faith and religion, and knew her husband was more than a little skeptical/critical about the Church.
I eavesdropped for probably 10 minutes, pretending to watch baseball highlights on a nearby TV. Eventually, and possibly against my better judgement, I inserted myself into the discussion as an interested listener. I didn't want to immediately let slip that I was, myself, LDS. But I'm thinking the husband knew, probably from talking to his wife.
The guy he was talking to was curious about Mormonism because he was becoming interested in an LDS girl who, as it turns out, I knew years ago and who now lives in Arizona. What was most intersting to me is how someone can be so critical of a church that I have doubts he ever took very seriously. He's done a lot of research, found a lot of "evidence" against the church (interestingly enough, largely from disgruntled former members of the Church), and had nothing good to say, except that he truly believed we were "sincere" in our pursuit of faith and happiness and righteousness.
A lot of the criticism stopped when I got into the conversation, but it had to be brief as very soon after we started talking, the other "religious" experience of the night came blowing in. But the husband and I traded phone numbers- we'll probably meet and chat again. I'll let you know how that goes.
The second experience was a flood of about 100 Pentecostal women, fresh from their annual convention across the street, ready to invade the salad bar and tip 15%. Please don't misunderstand me, they were very nice, polite, and pleasant. They just kept us there more than an hour after we closed. So I got to bed very very late. Remind me to ask off this weekend next year.

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