3 - A Peculiar People?

Summary

In many ways, Dee Dee Squires is a typical Mormon. She is a native of Charleston, South Carolina and converted to Mormonism shortly after graduating from college in 1975. Her husband, whom she married in 1983, is also a convert, and they have three sons (G. Hill 2005). Dee Dee’s self-created profile on Mormon.org, an official church web site designed for outreach by ordinary Mormons, provides a window into her background and shows that she is a typical Mormon in ways that go beyond marriage and family. First, she is very involved in her local Mormon ward (congregation) as well as her community, having had many “callings” (volunteer jobs that fill pastoral roles). These callings can range from teaching children’s classes to coordinating humanitarian service for congregation members to leading the ward’s program for teenage boys or girls. In describing herself, she writes:

I have especially enjoyed being a Visiting Teacher, assigned to visit other female members on a monthly basis and to befriend them truly as “sisters.” I have also enjoyed organizing service projects in the community for our congregation (Ward), such as working with “Habitat for Humanity” to build a home for a disadvantaged family, or working with a large local, historic cemetery to mow the grass and straighten headstones. It is such a wonderful feeling working side-by-side with our fellow members, wearing a yellow “Mormon Helping Hands” T-shirt, serving in a project together to benefit someone or some group that needed assistance. I love the way the Church is so well organized and members are ready to serve together when called upon.

(Squires 2012)

The commitment that Mormons demonstrate, especially within their ward, distinguishes them from their neighbors and helps define the contours of the secular boundary of the “sacred tabernacle” described in Chapter 2, or what we have called the first front of the two-front war.