Welcome to my blog. I hope you enjoy what you find here. I thought I would start with post about who I am and what I’m doing here. And why the name “the geeky mormon.” So…let’s begin.
First of all, my name is Jake. As you may have guessed from the title, I am a geek. It is important to understand my understanding of the word geek, and how it relates to other common terms. Specifically, nerds. This is important to me, because I do not identify with the word nerd, but in popular culture, the two terms seem to be used interchangeably. There is some overlap, but I just want to clear this up for you before you read any further. I feel like the biggest difference is a nerd is typically very, very smart. Geeks don’t have to be. There is however a lot of overlap between nerd and geek culture. It’s just important that you realize that I don’t identify myself as a nerd because I am not a smart man. It is also important to know that I have always been a geek. This is not some jump on the bandwagon, I thought Avengers was a cool movie kind of thing. For as long as I can remember, I have been into geeky things. This is not something that should be taken lightly. In recent years many people have jumped onto the nerd/geek bandwagon. It’s not right. To help demonstrate this please watch the following Nerd PSA from Portlandia
That’s my nerd side. But why the Mormon part? That is another side of me that I strongly identify with. It’s part of who I am, and will influence a lot of what I post on this site. That doesn’t mean I am going to get all preachy or anything like that. It’s not that kind of site. If you want lots of information about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormons) check out www.mormon.org or if you want clarification on some point of church doctrine, check out www.lds.org. What I mean by influence is that this site will be kept relatively clean. I will try to avoid any kind of profanity, whether in my own posts or in the media I post here as well. This should be a site that you don’t have to be embarrassed about looking at.
So, because I am a Mormon, there are probably some questions that people might have who are not familiar with the LDS Church. Although many churches are now evolving with the times, and many are turning to technology to help them get their messages across. For example, the idea of using media (look at this page for more info) to communicate and keep the church community up to date about any changes is becoming much more popular, so you don’t need to look far for answers these days. With that being said, I’m here to clear up any confusion you may have about the LDS Church, so I have listed what I thought might be the top 5 questions, with their answers.
1. How many wives do you have? Common question. I have one wife. That’s it. Members of the actual Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints stopped practicing polygamy over a hundred years ago. There are splinter groups that do still practice plural marriage, but they are not members of the actual LDS Church.
2. I’ve heard Mormons typically have a lot of kids. Is that true? Mormon families come in all shapes and sizes as far as the number of kids. I know some married couples who have 1 or 2 kids, and that is enough for them. Others who, for whatever reason, have no kids. Then there are families like mine. We have 5 kids. The oldest is 7 and the youngest is 15 months. If you are looking at that, thinking I must be crazy, then that many kids that quickly is not right for you. And that’s ok. The number of kids a couple has or doesn’t have is really between the couple and the Lord. Not really anybody else’s business.
3. Why can’t Mormons send flowers? This question comes from an old Cheers clip. The truth is, Mormons can send flowers. I don’t send them as often as I should to my wife, but I certainly can. We can also dance, as in, we are allowed to dance. If you grew up in the LDS Church, then you certainly remember Stake, or multi-stake dances. We are allowed to dance. Whether I can, as in able to dance, well, not so much.
4. Are Mormons Christians? Here, to avoid a big religious debate, I am just going to say yes. We believe in Jesus Christ, we read the Bible, along with the Book of Mormon and both testify of Jesus Christ.
5. Why are there so many Mormon geeks/nerds? I don’t know. I hope to explore that a little bit on this site. But there are a lot. Some evidence to support that: Orson Scott Card wrote one of the most beloved SciFi novels of all time Ender’s Game. Mormon. Joshua and Jerusha Hess, co-writers and directors of Napoleon Dynamite, got their film making start at BYU, in Provo, Utah. Last April (2014), Salt Lake City played host to the largest, per capita, comic type convention in North America, FanX. Over 100,000 were in attendance. It set all sorts of records for conventions in the state of Utah. Records previously set by the Salt Lake Comic Con, held in September of 2013. That Con was the largest first time Con ever. Not everyone who came was Mormon, but a lot were. The point is, we Mormons like this geeky stuff. Maybe it’s because a lot of it is quirky and weird, just like us.
I hope to explore this connection a little bit, or at least give you some kind of insight into my life and my love for everything geek.
