Close Topic Options

Mormon Urban Legends

Mormon Urban Legends

Do you ever hear a common Mormon Urban Legend in your Branch / Ward? Which one above all is the most common that you end up having to correct?

NOTE: This Thread is only to mention the Legend, NOT Discuss it. If you wish to dispute Mormon Urban Legends then look for Threads Discussing that Topic or start a new one.

Legends Urban Mormon

One of the oldest Urban Legends or Myths that I heard is that the reason for practicing Plural Marriage was to provide husbands and fathers for widows and children.

Mormon Urban Legends Studies Doctrine Mormon

What about the one that you must wait a year after baptism before you can enter the Temple.

Legends Urban Mormon

I like the "faith promoting rumours." There are several of them that I have heard over the years, including statements that some GA or other has said that the people in a certain stake should get their food storage done right away, indicating that the 2nd Coming is right around the corner. The particular General Authority, along with the particular stake, changes with each story.

Then there is the "birds" story, about a little boy who was crushed by a garage door, and had an NDE. When he was revived, he spoke about the "birds" who helped him, and after some questioning, people came to realize he was talking about angels.

Finally, my favorite is a real tearjerker. In it, a young woman is in a car accident. Somehow, she survives until help can come. She talks about someone who held her and gave her strength.

Later, she attends an LDS fireside, where the man who painted the ever popular picture of the Savior in his red cloak, with a reddish brown beard, is speaking. When she sees the picture for the first time, she immediately exclaims, "that is the man who held me!"

Legends Urban Mormon

Isn't there a possibility that those "rumors" could be true though? I mean, they are not doctrinal distortions, they may just be exaggerated stories of real events.

Mormon Urban Legends

I have read several discussions about these "faith promoting rumours" showing that all are just that - rumours. They cannot be tracked down to any sort of actual events.

Mormon Urban Legends

Most urban legends, whether LDS or not, actually are founded on some truth. I believe that most of these legends that we hear about are based on true stories. However, over the years and from one person to the next the story is enhanced for story telling purposes.

To demonstrate, next time you teach a class play the telephone game. This is where you tell a secret to someone on one side of the room and then thy pass it one by one across the room. The final story generally has nothing to do with the original story. It is still founded in truth but has been changed with each subsequent telling.

Mormon Urban Legends Mormon Doctrine Studies

This rumor made the local tv news in Arizona some years ago and was also on a segment of a national tv show dealing with supernatural or unexplained events.

A 3 year old girl was kidnapped from a parking lot. The Mom had dashed inside a store for just a second and left the girl in the car with the motor running. When she came out, both her car and little girl were gone. A massive hunt for the girl was initiated without success. A few days later, a man driving his car through the desert spotted her walking aimlessly and stopped and picked her up. Apparently the kidnapper had dumped her in the desert and fled. The little girl said her older sister appeared to her and told her the direction to walk to find help. She stayed with her the entire time until she was found by the man in the car.

Years letter, after the girls parents had another daughter and this new daughter reached the age of the sister who appeared to the girl to lead her out, the girl who had been kidnapped said her younger sister, the one not yet born at the time of the kidnapping was the one that helped her find her way out. This family is LDS and believe in the pre existence of spirits.

Sounds kind of fishy but certainly possible.