Pleasantville

We scheduled a one day, two night stop in Salt Lake City. This is the last “big town” that we'll go through for quite a while, and we wanted to make sure that we allowed enough time to take care of a few things. While I had been through SLC several times on business, this was my first non-business visit.

SLC (and Utah) are popular destinations in the wintertime because of the excellent skiing, but I wasn't sure what there would be to do in the summertime. The answer is, (unless you happen to be Mormon), not much. We planned to visit the Temple Square just as tourists to enjoy some of the architecture and art that they have there.

We learned very quickly after arriving that they're none too keen on having people stroll around the Temple Square without an LDS escort. There is “a cast of thousands” awaiting you as soon as you step into the gates of the Temple Square. If you're unwilling to join a tour group, they'll quickly assign a person to give you a private tour. If a tour was all it was, that would be fine. Unfortunately, along with some history you receive a strong dose of Mormon doctrine (I'm being generous by using the word “doctrine” instead of a more appropriate word).

After a 20 minute tour of the new LDS Conference center, we'd had all we could take. Eva and I both felt an intense sense of spiritual warfare at work. We hightailed it out of there as quickly as we could and went to another temple.

There is spiritual warfare at work there as well, but not nearly as intense.

Since this blog is public, I'm sure that I'm going to get some email about this post. Before chastising me for my intolerance, allow me to say a couple of more things:

1.I've known a few Mormons during my lifetime, and in general I have found them to be nice people with strong family values.

2.Downtown Salt Lake City was one of the cleanest and safest-feeling cities that I've ever visited (and I've visited quite a few).

3.I know that Mormons are fairly sensitive to having their beliefs misrepresented. Rather than attempting to restate their beliefs (and possibly getting it wrong), instead I'll refer you to a communication directly from the LDS Church that was published by Fox News while Mitt Romney was still a presidential contender. You can decide what you think about it for yourself.

'nuf said about that.