( Posted by: HangarXVIII, Date: November 25, 2013 09:53PM, http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1092792,1092792#msg-1092792 )

"Have you ever noticed that every building owned by the Church smells the same? The "mormon smell" is found in every ward building, stake center, temple, visitors center, conference center, the Tabernacle, the MTC, BYU, Deseret Book, the DI, and even City Creek. I've noticed the homes of ultra-TBMs even start to smell this way. What is it?

"Is it the white-painted cinderblock? Is it the scent of baby spit-up and crushed Cheerios ground into the cheap carpet? Is it the chemicals that untrained TBMs use to clean the building each week? Is it the smell of old men who forgot to wash their white shirts on Saturday? Is it the pile of dirty diapers filling the trash cans? Where the hell does the mormon smell come from?"

If the smell is the same in the temples as in the meetinghouses, it SHOULDN'T have much to do with Cheerios and unemptied diaper pails. I'm just saying that it shouldn't, not that it absolutely DOESN'T.

I understand what you're talking about regarding the smell, though I'm not sure I smell quite the same scent in the temples. I haven't been in awhile, though, so I'm hardly the definitive expert on LDS temple smells.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2017 06:32AM by scmd.

--Here's another forum discussion of the matter which is clearly causing a real stink, with everything from unpaid janitors to the smell of old people and burlap being the culprits:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/567t54/do_all_mormon_churches_smell_to_you/


--More here in yet another comparison of annoyed nose notes where, among other complaints, the smell of digesting food storage is singled out:

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,447511,447511#msg-447511


--Additional observations on the phenomenon known as "Scent a Mormon," bring caused by the smell of cleaning chemicals mixed with too much perfume:

http://www.timesandseasons.org/harchive/2011/08/scent-of-a-mormon/


--Some complain that Mormon chapels smell of cigarette smoke and blame it on people who aren't keeping the Word of Wisdom:

http://www.staylds.com/staylds/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=7822


--Even "Yahoo Answers" sticks its nose into it, with one testy Mormon testator insisting that LDS churches smell like any clean public building because, well, Mormons clean them:

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20170125171439AAA7Mok


--One defensive Mormon, writing in the Deseret News, claims that Mormons don't smell and that's because being non-smelly is very sacred to Mormons:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700026392/Lack-of-scent-is-sacred-for-Mormons.html
-----

At any rate, the issue still lingers, so to speak, and doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon.

*PERSONAL NOTE: To be ex-Mormonly honest and blasphemously blunt, I think a lot of the sour and even rank smell in Mormon wardhouses can be naturally and organically attributed to Mormon ungodly garments not being changed or laundered often enough.

Seriously.

Their bizarre, non-contoured design that creeps and crawls virtually anywhere then refuses to back out, combined with their thin, non-durable, non-absorbant, sticky-icky fabric lead to quick, predictable, constant, unsightly and unsanitary soiling in ways not typical of normal human underwear--and certainly in ways that are inhumanely unfit for normal human fitting.

I wore this awful armor of God in the super-gooey tropical climes of Okinawa on my mission. We would come home after a hard day of tracting with salt rings encircling our trouser legs from top to bottom. We didn't take our garments off--we PEELED them off. They didn't "breathe"--leading to what we unceremoniously described as the development of "The Crud" in all of our moist personal body nooks and crannies.

Oh, and they smelled like hell.

Give me Haynes or Fruit of the Loom any day over Elohim's Uncleanliness-is-Next-to-Gross-out-Godliness garmies for the Lord's Armpit Armies. How can this sacred sweat-lodged montage even serve as a "shield and a protection" when it's bad enough getting into them, not to mention odiferously nauseating to stay inside of them, especially when they end up stinking so bad?

Yech! Talk about uncouth and uncool. It makes me wonder how Mormons can manage to ignore their unflattering bunched-up undies long enough to produce as many babies as they do. Talk about a test of faith and no sense of fashion.

No wonder they're secret.

Pssst, brothers and sisters. Before you go stinking up the chapel again . . .

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fi5.walmartimages.com%2Fasr%2Fcf6696da-0fea-4abf-bb51-075fd0cb6a11_1.2ff2fc9040c47576d4c48b3f52bcbff3.jpeg%3FodnHeight%3D450%26odnWidth%3D450%26odnBg%3DFFFFFF&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.walmart.com%2Fip%2FSecret-Bora-Bora-Fresh-Orchid-Clear-Gel-Antiperspirant-Deodorant-2.6-oz%2F43494486&docid=TyrKxrBpaDNctM&tbnid=si08r62__VzfYM%3A&vet=10ahUKEwjygKm9-JDVAhUC4GMKHZu9BcAQMwijASgXMBc..i&w=450&h=450&client=safari&bih=559&biw=375&q=Secret%20deodorant%20stick&ved=0ahUKEwjygKm9-JDVAhUC4GMKHZu9BcAQMwijASgXMBc&iact=mrc&uact=8


Learn from the Scriptures. The people in the Book of Mormon got the hint, especially when folks started to complain.

As we read in Alma 19, verse 5, the wife of King Lamoni tells Alma:

"I would that ye should go in and see my husband, for he has been laid upon his bed for the space of two days and two nights; and some say that he is not dead, but others say that he is dead and that he stinketh, and that he ought to be placed in the sepulchre; but as for myself, to me he doth not stink."

Yo, Queen, he stinks. Get him out of those garments.

What's that sign on the outside of your wardhouses?: "Visitors Welcome. Nose Plugs Advised."

Might wanna focus less on your anointings and more on your washings.



Edited 23 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2017 08:10AM by steve benson.

I don't notice a distinct smell in LDS buildings.

No. They did not. Actually I take back my comment. I was in nursery when I was pregnant and could smell everything. That did suck. Overall, the actual physical smells? Not often.

Metaphorically the church stinking, yes!

It's the smell of decaying, rotting brain tissue.
From lack of use.

It's the smell of obedience, and ignorance, and sheeple.

ificouldhietokolob Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It's the smell of decaying, rotting brain tissue.
> From lack of use.
>
> It's the smell of obedience, and ignorance, and
> sheeple.

SO true Hie, SO true! Fortunately, I was out of the cult after only five months (which felt more like five years), so I can't speak personally to any first hand experience in the temples.

I do however recall that "smell" in the meeting house. It's one of those things that is indescribable... a true mix of physical and mental rot in every sense of the word. The underlying scent of chlorine from the dead dunk pool, along with the multitude of other nasty things already mentioned, permeates every inch of the buildings.

Even thinking of it causes a repulsive visceral reaction in me... it's like someone serving you a plate of food, and before you even see it, you KNOW it's that same dish that gave you virulent food poisoning way back in junior high school cooking class.

Projectile vomit. And to think (I know, not allowed), some "lucky" morbot will be "volunteered" to clean it up since TSSC doesn't "believe" in janitors.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2017 11:32AM by cynful.

It has been called HPDG to me before -- High Priest Death Gas. The smell of a room full of LDS men when you walk in. Hair gel, old spice, feces and gas, rotting teeth, not sure what else it is.

Good description. *LOL*

It's the reek of mendacity.

The lingering stench of dissimulation.

I smelled a rat the last few times was there, metaphorically.

But physically, I didn't smell any bad odors except the occasional dirty diaper that needed changing.

Mostly the church was kept clean when I used to go, and deodorizers in the lavatories. That was in the days before the laypeople were required to clean them with their own supplies.

But never noticed an odor, not.

Mormons don't smell funny. It's the religion that stinks! :/

I totally know this stench! To me it always smelled like saliva wetted paper (like when you were a kid and made spitballs or tried to eat paper, that smell). It made me think of stale breath and maybe it was just too airless in there and too much exhaled breath. But it's possible cheerios and diapers had something to do with it, plus a lot of bad old lady perfumes. Yuck!

That smell is one of the reasons I stopped going to church. Being chemically sensitive, I would get a massive sinus headache the second I walked in the door and would be in pain the rest of the day. I've been to several other churches (not LDS) and never had that problem.

I think part of the problem is that LDS buildings spend so much time unused and empty with the A/C turned off.

steve benson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> LDS brains spend so much time unused and empty with the A/C turned off.

Quite the opposite, Steve.

The LDS church tries to occupy every last byte and cpu cycle of your brain doing tasks that only have worth to the church so you have no time to question what you are doing or why you're doing it.

I agree that the A/C is turned off though, because that might cost money to operate. ;)

Think "sweltering sweatshop" rather than "empty warehouse".

--One defensive Mormon, writing in the Deseret News, claims that Mormons don't smell and that's because because being non-smelly is very sacred to Mormons:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700026392/Lack-of-scent-is-sacred-for-Mormons.html
-----

^^^ OMG... absolutely over the top... talk about melodrama, with extra scoops of sanctimonious, condescending, arrogant attitude thrown in to top it off- what sickening drivel, especially these last few sentences:

Perhaps the distinctive Mormon scent is simply that — freshness scrubbed of ugly odor.

The Mormon scent is the absence of scent — the absence of the aroma of tobacco, coffee, alcohol.

It is the absence of the scent of fear and despair.

It is a scent of promise and purity — the untainted breath of spiritual renewal.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2017 07:08PM by cynful.

He probably showers in battery acid to remove all hint of aromatic apostasy.

But, having done that, what does he then do about the battery acid smell?

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1997592,1997592#msg-1997592



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2017 07:53PM by steve benson.

Look at the picture provided, then imagine this caption:

"Yeah, it smells pretty bad but just be glad you're wearing only the bottom half of your army garmies and we aren't cooped up in the elders quorum room."

https://media.ldscdn.org/images/media-library/gospel-art/book-of-mormon/two-thousand-stripling-warriors-39660-print.jpg?download=true



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2017 02:26AM by steve benson.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2017 02:28AM by steve benson.

I am a never mo and dated a TBM, I always thought he smelled like vitamins........

I will tell you the secret smell. In our ward we are ONLY allowed to use the FM's concoction of VINEGAR and water, for everything! The windows, the toilets, sinks, water fountains. We are told to NEVER bring in other chemicals to use from home. It is stinky ol' vinegar! There are rings in the toilets that do not go away because we can't use 'the Works'! There You have the rest of the story. See if I am wrong. No chemicals, that would cost money.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2017 02:29AM by steve benson.

What do you expect, when half the building is a basketball court?

Mormon buildings have very few windows, and most of them don't even open. In the old days, we were allowed to hold Sunday school classes out on the lawn, which helped.

You are lucky that you don't have to dance with the garment-wearers! It's not just the men, and not just the women, but anyone who wears the polyester garments. I would gag, every time I had to do my Temple ex-husband's laundry.

Mormons sweat more than most people--this is my theory--because it is stressful to lie. Stress causes a more malodorous perspiration, that is different from heat-sweat. The stench of despair!

Haha good stuff...it takes a few extra splashes of old spice to fumigate a suit from 1962 that has never seen the dry cleaners...or that eighteen year old white shirt that doesn't need washed cuz it's only a few hours a month...yellow pit stains are a tender mercy..fasting breath is toxic...throw in a some aromatic garlic from the health conscious and urinals that didn't get flushed...she's a veritable cornucopia of smelly delights...then the janitorial staff consists of tragic house keepers slash hoarders run ragged chasing too many kids... too tired to touch up the edges...you could bottle that smell...and not sell a one...one old farmer used to do his chores before church often in his church duds....if he had to milk out a cow with a weak calf traces of tird were often still n his hands and clothes...often his shoes...he was also a hand shaking son of a gun...mmmmm.cow shit in the morning cuz he was always running late...he was also more disruptive than a three year old...having conversations three rows over...hey Denny...how's that new tractor...how do you spell stink?

When my mom was in the church-owned LDS Hospital (for cancer), I remember every time my dad and I entered the hospital, there was a nauseating odor on the main floor and it seemed to come from the kitchen area. Later on, I found out it was from old, rancid bits and pieces of trapped foods in the dishwashers! It was awful!

There is no such thing as a specific "Mormon smell" ! That's just silly. There is a commonality among old buildings and barns, and old houses that are often closed up for the majority of the time. That's just the natural combination of odors that collect over time. Old churches, schools, etc. have odors also.

There is a certain smell to every building: sheds, homes, barns, (that's a whole different odor), old elevators, religious or not. I've worked in some very old buildings and they had a distinct odor sometimes coming from chemicals used in printing, and other functions. Some were no noxious it was difficult to work there.

Most of it, in my experience, the building odor seemed to come from being closed up so much of the time. Windows were never opened, no cross breeze, no "outgassing" when new carpeting and flooring was put in. It's the smell of old wood, glue, varnish, and people odors and very often, food and oil odors, garlic is a long lasting odor, for instance.

Mormon buildings are usually quite old and gather odors in the flooring, walls etc. because they are not aired out. Bathrooms have no windows or ventilation, for instance.

I've noticed a particular odor in hospitals and clinics. Not all, however. So I don't know what makes the difference.

Outdoors has specific odors depending on where you are. Notice a particular wooded area and it's odors? Plants, flowers, trees, all combine to create odors. Some more pleasant than others.

SusieQ#1- DEAR, Vinegar stinks!! If you don't believe me, open a jug an take a whiff! Vinegar cleans everything or so they say. IT STINKS!!!!!!!

. . . have an odor all their own.

And here's why:

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1997592

SusieQ's counter claim simply doesn't pass the smell test.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/2017 03:09PM by steve benson.