"Mormon? What's a Mormon?"

I wish I was asked this question more, to be honest. I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, more commonly referred to as "the Mormons", and more often than not, when I am asked what religion I am, I am not met with the curiosity and innocence of the above question. I am met, instead, with the following assumptions that people seem to already have about me, my family, and my religion:

"So how many wives does your dad have?"

"How many moms do you have?"

"Oh, so you're not a Christian."

"You don't believe in Jesus Christ."

"Don't you have a ton of super strict rules?"

"Isn't that like being Amish?"

"Oh, so you worship that Joseph Smith guy."

I love talking about my religion. I love talking about it because I love my church and I love what we stand for and what we do in the world. Yet I wanted to write this article to clear up a few things, for everyone who isn't Mormon and doesn't really understand what goes on here.

No, my dad doesn't have eight wives and I only have one mom. Mormons haven't practiced polygamy since the late 1800s, and members of the Church who practice polygamy will be excommunicted from the Church. The show "Sister Wives" is not about us.

I am Christian actually. A fellow student in my sophomore year math class told me, repeatedly and adamantly, that I was not a Christian by any means. I tried to explain to him otherwise, but he simply would not have it; I was not a Christian because he had already been told by a third party that Mormons were not Christian. In actuality, we are Christian--our official name, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints", literally has Christ's name in it. We love Jesus Christ and believe that He is our Lord and Savior. Mormons are Christian.

Yes, we have many rules and guidelines. But upon discussing this with my friends the other day, one of them, who is Catholic, pointed out to me that his religion has many of the same "rules" that mine has: abstinence until marriage, no drinking, no cursing, etc. Yet, as he so eloquently put it, "You guys are the ones who actually follow the rules."

Many faithful members of many religions abide by the guidelines set out by their church, and it is no way only a part of Mormon culture. Yet the idea that Mormons have strict rules seems to brought about by that way of thinking: we have many guidelines, but they are all very similar to those that other religions have. We are simply more vocal and steadfast in following them than some others.

Last, but not least, we do not worship Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith, we believe, restored our religion in these latter days (those days being the 1800s), and we believe that he was called of God to preach the Gospel as a prophet, such as Moses or Abraham in the time of the Bible. He was a great man and a faithful servant of God, but we do not worship him as we do Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

So the next time you meet someone and they happen to reveal that they're Mormon, you're a little bit more learned on the topic of Mormonism in general. And the wives joke is really old. 125 years old, to be exact.