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braddick
Posts: 23,995 ✭✭✭✭✭
WHAT IS WRONG WITH MORMONISM?
We know how much Mormonism asks. Ultimately, it wants full commitment. It is designed to push us as far in that direction as we will go. But perhaps Glenn Beck does not know that yet. This is because Mormonism uses sales pitches like his to get people in the door and on the train on the basis of attractive "milk". Then the train starts to move, social commitments are made, roots go down, the forces of cognitive dissonance kick in, and the more momentum the train has the harder it is to get off. The Moonies, Hare Krishna and many other cults explicitly recruit on this basis. So do the Mormons, though most Mormons don't realize it until the facts are pointed out to them. That is, the "hard doctrines", the "meat", the "mysteries" ("Why did God tell the Mormon leaders to lie about so many things!?"), the commitments required of those who attend the temple and become Mormon leaders, and a host of other aspects of Mormonism, are kept purposefully hidden until the convert gradually becomes "ready". Why is that? Well, by that time the train will be moving so fast that it will be very hard for the convert to de-couple his life from it. The forces of denial and cognitive dissonance will then hide Mormonism's flaws from him.
There is no need to review the reliability of Mormon authority with you. You should be as familiar as I am with that. "Lying for the Lord", "Faithful History" and other well established Mormon leadership traditions clearly indicate that the Mormon brand of authority should not be trusted as an accurate guide to reality. It is designed to further the interest of the Mormon institution at the expense of individual members, or whomever else must be sacrificed in this regard.
John D. Lee is a good example. When Brigham Young needed a scapegoat for the Mountain Meadows Massacre, his faithful foot soldier and adopted son John was sold down the river in a heart beat, and eventually executed as a result. The "greater good" justifies this just as it did Laban's death in the Book of Mormon. I reject this form of utilitarianiam.
The plight of gays, intellectuals and anyone else who stands in the Mormon way and is against its interest is a more mundane, and better, example of how the individual interest is sacrificed to the institutional interest within Mormonism.
We know how much Mormonism asks. Ultimately, it wants full commitment. It is designed to push us as far in that direction as we will go. But perhaps Glenn Beck does not know that yet. This is because Mormonism uses sales pitches like his to get people in the door and on the train on the basis of attractive "milk". Then the train starts to move, social commitments are made, roots go down, the forces of cognitive dissonance kick in, and the more momentum the train has the harder it is to get off. The Moonies, Hare Krishna and many other cults explicitly recruit on this basis. So do the Mormons, though most Mormons don't realize it until the facts are pointed out to them. That is, the "hard doctrines", the "meat", the "mysteries" ("Why did God tell the Mormon leaders to lie about so many things!?"), the commitments required of those who attend the temple and become Mormon leaders, and a host of other aspects of Mormonism, are kept purposefully hidden until the convert gradually becomes "ready". Why is that? Well, by that time the train will be moving so fast that it will be very hard for the convert to de-couple his life from it. The forces of denial and cognitive dissonance will then hide Mormonism's flaws from him.
There is no need to review the reliability of Mormon authority with you. You should be as familiar as I am with that. "Lying for the Lord", "Faithful History" and other well established Mormon leadership traditions clearly indicate that the Mormon brand of authority should not be trusted as an accurate guide to reality. It is designed to further the interest of the Mormon institution at the expense of individual members, or whomever else must be sacrificed in this regard.
John D. Lee is a good example. When Brigham Young needed a scapegoat for the Mountain Meadows Massacre, his faithful foot soldier and adopted son John was sold down the river in a heart beat, and eventually executed as a result. The "greater good" justifies this just as it did Laban's death in the Book of Mormon. I reject this form of utilitarianiam.
The plight of gays, intellectuals and anyone else who stands in the Mormon way and is against its interest is a more mundane, and better, example of how the individual interest is sacrificed to the institutional interest within Mormonism.
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