Long ago, in a galaxy far away, I started a life-long career in sales. I listened to audio cassete tapes, from what now seems, just about every sales training icon on the "Speaker's Circuit" (i.e. Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, Joe Weldon, even J. Douglas Edwards which I'll bet most of you never heard of).

Anyway, I remember listening to one of Ziglar's tapes where he said, "The prospect (customer) is motivated more by "the fear of loss" than by "the desire for gain."

David Sandler gave an example, on his cassette series, how this principle worked. He cited the senario of a contractor who had been summoned to the home of a family that were having problems with their home. I forget whether it was something of an electrical, plumbing, the home's construction, etc. nature, but it really doesn't matter for the point I'm making.

The contractor, with the parents in tow, does a inspection of the home going from one room to the other. The final room he "inspects," by design, is the children's bedroom. The contractor feigns concern, has a worried look on his face and then says to the parents, in a very concerned tone, "This isn't the room where your children sleep, is it?"

The obvious implication is that the parents are placing the well-being of their children, maybe even their lives, in jeopardy by allowing their children to be in their bedroom, much less sleep their.

I wonder how many mormons realize this is exactly the tactic their so called apostles and prophet are using to keep them in line? Fear of losing association with family members in the current life and afterlife, fear of being shunned by other mormons, fear of losing their social standing and many other things they may fear losing.