Chat with a Mormon
The Mormons apparently don't get mocked enough, so they have opened a new web-based service called Chat with a Mormon.
In this, you can go to a chat window very much like any decent customer support system and talk to two Mormon missionaries.
I decided to try it out. The first thing that happens is, you're asked by the chat facility itself what you want to talk about. I suspect this also confirms the site's guess (based on IP-geolocation and/or browser settings) as to what language you want to use.
I chose a topic that no religious person has ever answered for me satisfactorily, that being: is there a logical reason to believe? I figure if they are putting these people out into the world, they should be able to handle that.
The essence of their answer was, we get answers to prayers in our minds from the Holy Ghost and that is how we know what is true. Suffice to say, I did not find this any more satisfactory.
The chat facility is clearly designed more for them to teach and preach at whoever shows up than for honest discussion, but this is also not a big surprise. What I did find surprising was that they kept me on for a solid hour, even though they should have known within five minutes I was never going to be a convert. But then, I don't know how they accumulate the "brownie points" they get for missionary work. For all I know, talk-time is a big-deal metric. I was also disappointed in the poor preparation of these two workers. Not that I want to be giving them tips but how do they expect to relate well to people who live in the world if they know nothing about it? Check their response about newspapers....
There is a full transcript of the session after the jump. I edited it only for formatting and to fix that annoying chat phenomenon where responses show up in the transcript disconnected by a line or two from the statement to which they respond.
Enjoy! You can also try it yourself. I would be interested to know in the comments if they only staff this with females, so as to get women their missionary hash-marks without having to send them out into the actual yucky world.
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