Monday, July 14, 2014

What about that Mormon Underwear?

What's up with Mormon undies?


"Garment-wearing Mormons tend to own several pairs, and wear them on a daily basis in lieu of regular underwear. There are obvious exceptions, though: no one keeps them on while playing sports, for instance, or on trips to the beach.
Because of their sacred nature, garments are not sold in retail stores or manufactured by outside companies;
they can be purchased at various church-owned stores throughout the world (often attached to temples), or online at one of the LDS church’s websites.

Are they magical?
In a word, no.

Mormons are taught that by putting on “the whole armor of God”—a Biblical metaphor regularly employed in LDS discussions of the subject—they are afforded protection from temptation, in that they have a physical reminder not to sin. But there’s no magical guarantee involved. Just as cheating spouses ignore the vows symbolized by their wedding ring, plenty of garment-wearing Mormons sin. The power is in the symbolism of the garments, not any kind of miracles that result from wearing them.
Within Mormon folklore, there are stories of garment-wearers receiving physical protection—being spared from injury in a car accident, for example—but this isn’t part of official LDS doctrine, and it’s not widely preached.
Elder Carlos E. Asay, a high-ranking church official, explained the garment like this: “It is given to remind wearers of the continuing need for repentance, the need to honor binding covenants made in the house of the Lord, and the need to cherish and share virtue in our daily living so that promised blessings may be claimed.” BuzzFeed


As for the armor of God--there is nothing in the Biblical text about underwear.
As for using them for a physical reminder not to sin......Depending on your underwear for that?
I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
Isaiah 61:10 NIV
In the above text we see that it is GOD who does the clothing of you.... with a  robe of righteousness.....NOT you with your own underwear.