I taught senior high Sunday School for about five years and enjoyed it immensely. Once, I organized a class along the lines you outline. I explained carefully, that it was not an opportunity to proselytize, just an educational experience for my students to look into other religions for insight. One pair was a couple of Mormon kids on mission. They agreed to the conditions. Their pledge lasted all of about five minutes before they launched into their script. I just said "Hold it right there." I re-explained the conditions and asked them if they could abide by their words or if they had been just deliberately lying to me to get a foot in the door. That stung, I could tell. They apologized and a genuine discussion ensued, some of the basics of the origin of Mormonism (didn't get into the required holy underwear, etc.), and they opened up, finally about their reasons for following the religion (largely because of family) and their fears in being in their situation. Their biggest fear? "Losing their faith." Interestingly enough, in the wrap-up, with just my class, Mormonism was the faith they had the hardest time really understanding and developing an empathy for. One remark I remember was to the effect "The whole thing is just so unlikely!" Now, these were UMC kids, so by definition almost, what evangelicals would call "liberal protestants" (or worse). However, the UMC does not deny the possibility of present day miracles in real time. One them which seemed to develop on its own (I made an attempt not to inject my own opinion and guided as little as possible.) The class was roughly divided between girls and boys. It came from the girls more, but the boys agreed - the religious tenets of the religion seemed to be arranged largely for the convenience and comfort of the male gender, from its inception. This has to be seen from the perspective of the 70s, when there was a great awakening of feminism and women's rights...
