Apparently, I really am a Mormon.

--and a snob.

I have been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for ever, but as you know, dear readers, I am not a very conservative person. I'm not as liberal as they come by any stretch, but I definitely lean left. I think religion - in most forms - is here to make people better citizens of humanity. I have a very laissez-faire approach to the religious beliefs of myself and others, thinking that if we do what we can to work out our own salvation, in whatever way we see fit, the rest will fall into place. And, I think too frequently orthodoxy replaces the necessity of thinking, ruminating and decision making. Somehow, I reconcile these beliefs into the person you know, and have grown to tolerate.

A typical Sunday at church sees me judging someone for faulty logic or just plain irrationality, and let's be honest, bad dress or hair. Then there comes the inevitable guilt of thinking that judging inside of church is somehow worse than outside of church. I often feel, much to my own doing, like an outsider. I don't chat up a lot of people at church because I just don't care to. I fancy myself a socially-challenged snob and a wannabe intellectual-liberal who sees things differently than most of my LDS fellows. This, however, came to a screeching halt today.

My dear friend Brittney, whom I have known since our Girls' Camp days and who is my source for 90% of the things I access on this interweb, told me about the Belief-O-Matic. It is a quiz that you can take that tells you where you fall on the spectrum based on 20 questions.

Here's the truth, I was anticipating getting a pretty high score on Seventh Day Adventist, or maybe some reform Judaism, some Baha'i. Here's what I got:

1. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (100%)
2. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (96%)
3. Jehovah's Witness (92%)
4. Liberal Quakers (82%)
5. Unitarian Universalism (79%)
6. Baha'i Faith (76%)
7. Sikhism (75%)
8. Reform Judaism (74%)
9. Orthodox Judaism (73%)
10. Orthodox Quaker (69%)
11. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (67%)
12. Jainism (59%)
13. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (59%)
14. Mahayana Buddhism (59%)
15. Neo-Pagan (59%)
16. Hinduism (58%)
17. Islam (58%)
18. Theravada Buddhism (58%)
19. New Age (53%)
20. New Thought (49%)
21. Secular Humanism (49%)
22. Seventh Day Adventist (47%)
23. Eastern Orthodox (46%)
24. Roman Catholic (46%)
25. Scientology (40%)
26. Taoism (39%)
27. Nontheist (31%)

I wanted to include all of these results because I said to my Mormon friend Brittney who got Orthodox Judaism before Mormonism, "I bet I'll get Seventh Day Adventist." I said that. And there it is, sad little #22, with its 47%, and Mormon, loud and proud with 100%. I even took this quiz twice. Same results. I'm not disappointed by any means. I'm just shocked that despite my own religious conviction and all of the wonderful, enlightened, and bright LDS folks I have met over the years, a computer validated which building I drive to on Sunday afternoons.

As an aside, I read an article today on Mormons and blogging, and would like to stress that this little blog is not intended to be a Mormon blog, notwithstanding the quote that closed the article: “It’s such a big thing with our church that probably 90 percent of the girls I know have blogs,” [Peter Priesthood] said. “It’s a way of documenting their lives, but it’s also about validation. You get noticed, and they like that.”

As another aside, if I weren't trying to stop over-using the phrase, "punch him in the esophagus" I would write a quippy comment on how I would like to do said action to that Peter Priesthood twerp.