My father owns a small business hardware store, and today he told me "If the church came up to me and asked for everything in my store, I would give it to them. Wouldn't it be nice if the whole world was completely honest like the church?"


.......I was astonished! There are so many things wrong with that statement. I often wonder if I would have said the same things in my TBM days.

Anyone else run into this kind of mentality?

I asked a missionary once if the prophet told him to kill himself would he do it? He said "absolutely"

Pass the Kool-aid please.

O.O wow. That's terrible! Why can't they think for themselves? *shakes head*

I've heard members say this frequently. They normally phrase it as "I would give up my house, my job, all my money, if the bishop asked me to. I would do it because that's what God taught."

I don't know if "completely honest" was a swipe at you or not, depends on the dynamic.

Members brains are completely gone. Nothing surprises me. If the Prophet told them to go out and kill atheist, I'd be genuinely scared and they would give Islam a run for their money.

I don't think "completely honest " was meant toward me, as he still thinks I am "going through a faze" . But I did tell him I thought that if everyone was completely brutally honest, society would collapse.

They did kill back in the day. The Mountain Meadows Massacre was a direct result of rabble-rousing done by apostle George A. Smith at the request of BY. He went down to Cedar City and made inflammatory sermons, working everyone into a lather about impending invaders. He may not have directly ordered them to attack immigrant trains, but that was the implication. He also blamed them for not being faithful enough, saying that was the cause of their economic problems and crop failures.
That was MMM, but there is evidence that BY secretly ordered other killings of individuals. I have little doubt that this could be done today if upper leaders ever decided to do it. There are plenty of Mormons zealous enough to do something like that if they commanded it to be done.

Remember that in the temple, every member swears to give everything to the church if it is asked, and sacrifice his own life if requested. This is religious extremism. It is dangerous.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2013 05:28PM by rationalist01.

Very scary, like the Taliban.

Interestingly enough, this is the very type of question that started me down the road to my exit a few years back. I had started doing my food storage and was doing fairly well with it. I was at work one day talking to another gentleman about it and he said, "what are you going to do if the prophet asks you to give it all to the bishop's storehouse in an emergency?". I said, "I'll pray about it and if I feel that God wants me to, then I will." He said "OH NO.... when the prophet speaks, you have to obey." I went on to argue that the responsibility of my food storage fell within my stewardship and the prophet doesn't have a say in it. Turns out that "doctrinally" I was wrong. If you're a true believer, the stewardship chain doesn't go God->Me->Family. It's more like God->long priesthood line of authority starting with Joseph Smith down through the current prophet->General Authorities->Area Authorities->Steak President->High Council->Bishop->Me->Family.

Doctrinally, I can't even get into heaven without Joseph Smith's permission.

I'm so glad I'm out and am not subject to that load of crap any more. :)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2013 06:14PM by cognitiveharmony.

I hate that saying "when the prophet speaks, the thinking has been done." I hate it so much! My bishop tried to use that on me too.
Pass the kool aid is right!

The Taliban or the Armies of Helamen. Generations of conditioning and brainwashing are the same. The potential of a blood bath is there. Blinders are in place, The right circumstance, be it real or imagined/revealed, is all that is needed. The current political and economial situation has the US divided, who has the most weapons?

A relative of mine said he believed in the law of consecration, yet under reported his income to reduce his tithing burden. Go figure.

OBEDIENCE is never a virtue, it is stupidity.

Authorities are still trying to hunt down the last surviving Nazis who prided themselves on their loyalty and OBEDIENCE.

My TBM mom's answer to this? "No true prophet would EVER ask something like this of a member."

Yeah, just like they never raped, destroyed innocent people's property, or killed innocents.

I regret that I have to oppose those people who so firmly beleive in the prophet, bishop, preisthood holders, but blessings from these men really wrecked my life in lots of ways. I was 'blessed' through many crisies in my very abusive marriage to 'be a good helpmeet' to my husband. It meant I stayed in a marriage for 20 years when I should have run as fast as I could VERY early on.

SORRY but NO 'obedience to priesthood' EVER again for me. If I make mistakes and fall on my face, it is ME who has to pick myself up, which was certainly NOT what tscc did when everything blew up in my face.