A Catholic and a Jew walk into a bar... the Mormon ducks.

My name is Glory and I’m a Mormon.

Some of you may be familiar with the "I'm a Mormon" campaign. If not, familiarize yourself. People ask me all the time (read: twice, ever) why the church is doing this campaign. And the answer is: Like 80% of the country knows little to nothing about us. They picture us like these weird 80's housewives praying in denim jumpers and mock turtle necks. Now I'm not saying that there aren't some LDS ladies sitting around in jumpers. There are. But I'm willing to venture that most of us aren't. I'm also willing to venture that there are some Catholics and Baptists sitting around in denim jumpers watching The View. We can't help everyone.

My point is, though, that we're not stuck in the 90's. We dress modestly but not out of date. I’m wearing skinny jeans, boots and a belted sweater today. Nobody would know I’m LDS.

Oh, by the way. LDS stands for Latter-Day Saint. Because the “Mormon Church” isn’t actually called that at all. We are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. A lot of people don’t know that. I’m always baffled when people try to tell me that Mormons aren’t Christians. JESUS CHRIST is like... in the name of our church, you guys. It’s right there on the sides of our buildings.

My best friend was explaining to a British boy once that I’m LDS and he was befuddled by the fact that I had a cellphone and the internet. She had to explain that he was thinking of the Amish, not Mormons. She told him that we had missionaries that had a book they wanted you to read and he was like, “Oh yeah! We have them. But over here we call them Jehovah’s Witness!”

I just have to stop and shake my head at things like that. I’ve heard people say a lot of things about Mormons... everything from, “Mormons are weird” to “Mormonism is a satanic political conspiracy.” I’m always just like... “What? Wait... where did you hear that?” and their answer is always that someone told them so.

Guess what? We’re NOT a satanic political conspiracy! You’re thinking of communists. We’re not communists. Most of us are Republicans. I’M not, I’m one of those backwards liberals. But that’s beside the point. We’re also not weird. Okay, I guess some of us are weird. But that doesn’t have anything to do with our religion. There are weird Catholics, weird atheists, weird Muslims, weird Jews... you get where I’m going here.

Let’s address some Mormon stereotypes.

1. Mormons are Polygamists: Negatory. We aren’t. At one time we were, but polygamy has been practiced in many different cultures. The church denounced the practice of polygamy over 100 years ago. It’s old news. Get o’er it.

1. Mormons have a lot of kids: Some of us do. That’s a choice. Some of us only have 2, some don’t even have kids. We tend to have larger families than most though, because family is a central part of the Church.

1. Mormons live in Utah: We sure do! We also live in Japan, Boston, Alaska, Russia, Spain, Chile, Nebraska, Mexico, Tonga and the UK. Not all of us live in Utah. That’s just where the originals settled. Don’t kid yourself... You can’t escape the Mormons. We’re everywhere.

1. Mormons can’t drink: We CAN. We just choose not to. The Word of Wisdom urges us not to partake in alcohol, coffee, tea, tobacco and other recreational drugs.

1. All Mormons eat is Jell-o and casseroles: I don’t really know why people think this... All I eat is steak and salad. But I mean... why wouldn’t we eat Jell-o? Do you know how awesome Jell-o is? Really awesome.

1. Mormonism is a cult: Cult-a relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister. Didn’t all religions start out as cults? I don’t think, though, at 13 million members strong, we can really be regarded as a cult. We’re legit, people. Deal with it.

Okay, here’s my point about all of this. If you want to know more about Mormons, ASK A MORMON! We’ll be straight up about our beliefs. We don’t bite... and we don’t sacrifice babies in the Temple. I don’t know why people would even think that. Seriously. Just ask us. Most of us are pretty cool.

I speak from experience. Because I’m like, awesome.