So I was sitting at the back of an institute class last week. The topic was the Book of Mormon, specifically Mosiah 1-8.

After a while of being in a daze of boredom I began listening. What was being said was mildly interesting, I decided to write down a few quotes, actually said by students and the teacher as if they were true.

"If the spirit isn't there, it is always because of you, the spirit never leaves, you leave the spirit."

"People who are not members are ultimately miserable."

"Joining the church and choosing church every time makes you happy."

"If we do not share the gospel, the sins of the people we might have saved will be on our heads."

"We know, as members of the church, the correct way to reconcile all things."

"Women always have to be built up, Men always have to be brought back."

"The world teaches you to hate yourself" (Oh really? I thought that was the church this whole time!)

And last but not least: "An essential step to gaining salvation (note: not exaltation) is to have children."

Anyway looking back I can see how mind numbingly ridiculous all these things are, yet people were eating this stuff up! None of this is even scriptural, its just silly Mormon culture. Meant to control.

Thanks for putting it here.
Gee you know (sigh) - I so do miss it.

As I was reading these comments I kept thinking, not true, not true. And a lot of these comments are arrogant.

Oh yeah, it was all so arrogant, it was sickening, especially considering what Mosiah 1-8 is actually about, you know, being humble and charitable

Even tho he made it up, I Personally find mosiah 1-8 inspiring, as a Christian. How can a teacher get those chapters wrong like that?

Well the teacher did tell us this awesome story about a time he bought some poor guy groceries. The moral of the story wasn't about charity though, the moral ended up being how upset he was that the guy didn't say "thank you" at the end to him.

"If we do not share the gospel, the sins of the people we might have saved will be on our heads." - OH CRAP, MITT ROMNEY IS IN TROUBLE!!!!!!

I had an interesting mental image while reading those comments. I suddenly saw mormonism in the same light that I always imagined "standard" cults. I thought back to some of the lessons I had been to with similar things, and they reminded me of what I imagined meetings with some of the weird death-cults from the 90's would look like. It is really interesting to have been out well over a year, I am starting to reframe everything in my mind, and it is wacky to see the mental transformation going on.

I mean to be fair not everything said in the class was terrible. There were some uplifting statements too.

But these just really soured any good moment I might have had.

@notnewatthisanymore

I never before have allowed myself to relate the church to a cult. And now that I have begun doing so in the past month or so, I just can't stop making connections.

nonsequiter Wrote:
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> I mean to be fair not everything said in the class
> was terrible. There were some uplifting statements
> too.
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Even a broken clock is right twice a day, y'know?

"The world teaches you to hate yourself"

That makes me so freaking mad!

nonsequiter Wrote:
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> "If we do not share the gospel, the sins of the
> people we might have saved will be on our heads."

So Thomas S. Monson gets to the final judgment. He's confident
he'll make it into the CK until it's pointed out that he COULD
have shared the gospel with that guy on the bus back in 1947 who
later committed all kinds of fornications. Sorry, Tommy, all
those sins are now on YOUR head and as a fornicator-by-proxy
it's off to the Telestial Kingdom with you.

"If we do not share the gospel, the sins of the people we might have saved will be on our heads."

And it's sister crazy teaching about being a bad example will yield the same results.


I find those teachings funny. I sort of fancy myself a mini-Christ. How lucky are those folks because I help them avoid the mess of this organization?