Is Mormonism Weird?

I am hearing this a lot lately. Mormons and their "weird beliefs." I think I am tired of hearing it, especially when I hear it from other Mormons. "Weird" is so subjective, and is therefore a matter of perspective.

For example, I personally think the Baptist idea of Grace is weird: that you can sleep around, be a raging alcoholic and drug addict, treat other people like trash but still get into heaven as long as you have "accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior." I knew plenty of people like this when I was a kid - people who did and said some supremely mean things to me for being Mormon. And yet these same people considered themselves superior disciples of Christ. (Yeah, ok, maybe I'm still a little upset about that. For what it is worth, I was picked on a lot more by Catholic kids in New York and Fundamentalist Christian kids in Texas than I was by Muslim kids in Kuwait. Christian is as Christian does.)

So how is this less weird/ heretical/ hypocritical than the idea of God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost being three separate individuals?

I could point to other things as well. Some ultra-Orthodox Jewish families keep two separate kitchens - one for meat products and the other for dairy products - so they can be absolutely sure that they never cook a kid in its mother's milk. At least they are thorough.

Is this less weird than the Law of Tithing? Or the doctrine that as literal Children of God, humans have the potential to become like Him?

I read that when the Conquistadors first came to Mesoamerica, the indigenous population considered Christianity to be a bloody and violent cult. Only one deity? How bizarre.  


My point is that every religion has bits that seem weird to outsiders but make perfect sense to its adherents. I think it's unfair to single out Mormons for being "so weird" when there is plenty of weirdness to go around.