A week of spiritual expressions: This is the fourth in a series of columns on various belief systems for the week. For Technician’s introduction to the series, visit “Introducing a week of spiritual beliefs.”

The Mormon faith, formally known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is arguably the second-most-misunderstood faith in America, next to Islam. Fortunately for Mormons, the misunderstandings haven’t resulted in significant hate crimes or serious social prejudices since the 1850s. However, there is still a great deal of miscommunication. Some people pervert the things they hear about the faith and others believe these people with no further inquiry.  Having grown up as a Mormon I’ve heard just about everything under the sun about what people think of them. Lots of these things are trivial, like people confusing Mormons with the Amish, but others are misconceptions about their core doctrines, like whether they believe in heaven.   As these stories have circulated throughout society, a mystery has come to surround what Mormons believe and practice. When I was in elementary school, I was still in the naive mindset that everybody adhered to the same creed since I had only ever known one faith. I remember telling my teacher where I went to church. She recognized the location and figured out I was a Mormon child. Her eyes got big as a sudden, sick sort of curiosity spread across her face. She started asking me why I didn’t think heaven existed, telling me I needed to accept Jesus as my lord and savior and stop worshipping that evil man Joseph Smith, and so on. The only way I could think to respond to her was that I did believe all those things, and she would have known that if she paid attention in Sunday school. Now, I don’t think anyone reading this column is as crass or as intolerant as this teacher was, but it is not unlikely an average reader believes a lot of the same tenets. First of all, Mormons are Christians, plain and simple. Christ is the central figure of the religion, and they still celebrate every Christian holiday with church services and choir music.  Another question I get a lot is about how many wives my dad has. This assertion actually has some root in fact. In the early years of the Mormon faith, polygamy was practiced, but it was banned while the church was still in its infancy. Anyone acting as a proponent of it was excommunicated pretty much on the spot.  The topic of the Book of Mormon often comes up as, “Don’t you guys have, like, your own special Bible?” Again, this is partially correct. They do have another set of sacred scripture. The thing most people get confused about is whether Mormons still read the Bible. And the answer is yes, they do. The Book of Mormon is actually just another testament of Jesus Christ and acts as a corollary to the Bible. I know people are still going to think of Mormons as kooky cultists in this world, and there are a lot of issues I just don’t have the space to discuss, but, really, they aren’t different from any other groups of faith.