You are required to hand over a hefty portion of every single paycheck even if it means foregoing basic necessities of life. The cult has no responsibility to show any transparency as to how your money is being used and any pesky interrogating could affect your standing in said cult.
You spend a three-day weekend in sunny San Diego, and spend the entire time in the temple.
You miss the chance be there for your daughter while she is having her first baby, so you can sit at a computer in a basement, logging in fake "hits" on a Mormon website.
You tell your best friend that you have to go teach Sunday school, and can't go over to her house and talk her out of committing suicide--but you'll drop by later--if she is still alive. (The truth is, that I almost said that, as a reflex, brainwashed reaction. It horrified me, and gave me the first glimpse that I really was in a cult. My friend really needed me! Her whole family was at church, and she was alone, after coming home from the hospital and cancer surgery. She was having an adverse reaction from the hospital drugs, plus a major panic attack.
You know you're in a cult when professed "Christian friends" chew you out and threaten you, because you missed teaching a Sunday school class, just once, and they accuse you of breaking a covenant with God It was a volunteer job, and there were three kids in the class, so they doubled up with another class that had two students (our ward was dwindling, even back then). After they had snarked and vented at me, I said, "Not one of you has asked how Karen is doing. You don't even care."
You spend a couple years (actually it was fifteen months, I hit the missionary lottery and got sent home early) in beautiful San Diego; without ever going to the beach, seeing the Zoo, going on a date with any of the cute California girls who seemed to like you, or actually getting to experience any of the numerous fun things that San Diego has to offer.
Some day, when I am not broke, I am going back, and I am going to do all the things I wanted to do on my mission, but wasn't allowed. Well, almost everything. The women have probably either moved on, or were never interested in me.
you believe that the God in charge of earth lives on a planet named Kolob very far away from earth (very inconveniently) that can't be found by the Hubble or any other huge space telescope.
that your cult sings a hymn about said fake planet
You believe you will get your own planet to rule over after death where you will live in polygamy and screw through eternity making millions or babies.
Your cousin pretends to know nothing about the Monson tonight (Feb 8) on the phone ever though she is in SLC and is a TBM. When I mentioned it, she didn't want to discuss it. (I think she knows something is amiss but doesn't know what to do with it. She pretended to ask her husband if he had heard about it, but she said he didn't.
The cult doctrines change continually but nobody will stand up and say that they changed the doctrines.
you have to steadily breed and have children from puberty to menopause because of spirits waiting to be TBMs and it is your duty to provide bodies for them.
you believe that JS was a true profit from god, complete with revelations whenever he needed them to get what HE wanted.
You believe that Mormons are going beck to Missouri for the second coming because Jerusalem is in Missouri.
The leadership positions of the cult are filled with NOT ONE man who sill stand up for the teachings of the cult
You scream on FB that you have had such a stressfull day, where everything possible went wrong and how you just absolutely and totally need a Dr. Pepper, like RIGHT NOW!! ...
Your FB friends then ask: Did you get your Dr.Pepper? You sure deserved it after the kind of day you've had....
You ask for prayers on FB because you can't find your keys.
You then tell everybody on FB how blessed you are because you FOUND your keys...
You think that all of the above is perfectly normal..
When they tell you: What to eat, drink, wear (including underwear!!) How to dance, speak, think When to have sex Where to get married What you CANT do with your body...piercings, tattoos, etc Who is acceptable to hang out with, date, marry In order to go to heaven you must do all that we say...
your moral compass is broken. You can't think your way through an ethical dilemma. You can't tell right from wrong or truth from lies; only is it "following the prophet" and "building up the kingdom of God".
You get up at 4am to make sure children are up by 5am to get to religious indoctrination class by 6am. And then you can't figure out why they are always grumpy when they get home from school...Humph...must be hanging out with the wrong crowd.
"I'm a failure as a parent!"
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2014 11:29AM by flanders.
if they want free room and board. So I don't invite them to stay because I don't like being used. Besides, we have nothing in common and it's awkward being around them and they're highly judgmental gossips with an agenda of ushering me back into their church.
...I was 19 years old and went through the temple endowment ceremony, and was made to swear oaths to "suffer my life to be taken" if I revealed the signs and tokens. But alas, I was young, naive, and completely brainwashed, and it took me another two decades to realize it.
You know you're in a cult when you are lying in bed on the edge of death from pnuemonia, and its fast Sunday so your wife doesn't even bother to fix you breakfast. Then she trots off to church for three hours leaving you alone, so she can watch nursery kids for other cult members.
You know when you leave and get a long way down the road and look back to see something you thought was so big is actually so small. Like a testamonkey.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2014 12:44PM by moremany.