if you cna come back form a year or so of travelling through the world including europe etc and still believe as you do now i will be shocked...
I've been restraining myself from getting involved in this argument, partly because it was getting so vitriolic and off-topic, and partly because I was annoyed by some posters' neglect of punctuation and spell-check.
However, I now wish to offer my own experience as an example of one who:
1) Is not Mormon, never has been, whose parents are not Mormon, and has never lived in a predominantly LDS community,
2) Has lived for extended periods of time (at least 6 months) in Zaire, Cameroon, and Belgium, as well as in Kansas, Illinois, and Massachusetts, in addition to travel throughout other regions,
3) Is well-educated regarding the Bible and the history of the Christian church, and
4) Agrees with most of the main points made by Wilson, Reaves, and Ookla, specifically:
a) That extramarital sex is immoral
b) That I've personally known many people, male and female, who have chosen to refrain from extramarital sex
c) That Jesus was without sin or flaw, that he was divine as well as human
While a person's upbringing and cultural surroundings certainly tend to influence that person's beliefs, those beliefs are not thereby invalid - that is, the person would not necessarily change those beliefs if exposed to a different environment.
As to the lack of sexuality in Mistborn, it wasn't something that occurred to me as a problem but now that it's been mentioned, I agree that the trilogy wouldn't have been hurt by just a little more evidence of physical attraction between Elend and Vin. As others have said, it wasn't utterly absent. (One of my favorite examples that I haven't seen mentioned is at the end of The Final Empire, after the fight in Kredik Shaw, when Elend says, "Valette? Do you think you could go put your clothes on? This is ... kind of distracting.") But a few more hints that they appreciated each other's bodies would not have been amiss.
That said, I believe that characters can be realistic and believable without conforming to the majority on any particular characteristic. Even if muboop is correct in estimating that 99% of the world's population engages in extramarital sex (although I would contend that the percentage is considerably lower), I think an author has the right to write his characters from within that other 1%. This is all the more true when, as in Sanderson's case, the author himself, and many of his close associates, fall within that 1%. After all, authors write stories about princesses, movie stars, defense attorneys, assassins, and many other groups that comprise far less than 1% of the general population. If they do it well, readers are not left thinking, "How unrealistic! Nobody I know is a defense attorney!" Rather, they enjoy the vicarious experience of a world and an outlook different from their own.
As for pizza, I love sausage, pepperoni, and mushrooms. And maybe some extra mushrooms. They're about the only vegetable topping I like, I can't stand onions, peppers, or olives.
And my pink unicorn is named Jewel, and he's an excellent warrior against both koloss and Calormenes.
