The essays are definitely the topic at the front of everyone's mind right now, and I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what the people at the top are scheming. Why are they doing this? What do they have to gain? I don't believe they are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, or out of a desire to be more "transparent". I think I may have come up with a plausible answer, based on some of the posts I've read in the past couple of days. Of course, I'm operating under the working assumption that the church is not trying to change, that the pattern of increased corporatization, maximizing shareholder value, minimizing legal liabilitities, and continuing with increasing levels of correlation, holds. This isn't the work of some rogue elements in the hierarchy. This is just the next manifestation of a pattern that has been developing for some time.

Apostacy is a problem in the church, a big one, but so far the church has been unable to come up with an effective, correlated response. The old method was to refer members to FAIR, for the top guys in the hierarchy to wash themselves of the responsbility of answering questions. This wasn't working since FAIR is an uncorrelated mess. And the responses were written by humans. The personalities of the respondents were getting in the way. And as humans, they weren't always on the same page. Sure, they all chanted “Follow the brethren!” but outside of that, there were all sorts of embarrassing theories being thrown around. The other problem with the FAIR approach is their answers weren't official. So when a doubting member would ask a bishop, and that member was unsatisfied with an “unofficial” response from FAIR, if the bishop had a bit of integrity, he would need to start looking around himself for the official answer, potentially exposing himself to damaging material in the process. Often he'd pass the buck up the foodchain, to the SP, to the regional authority. While most of these Priesthood leaders ignored the concerns being passed around, enough bishops and SPs, and even the Regional Authority Hans Matheson, were having their testimonies shattered when no “official” answers were forthcoming, and they had to do their own research. And if a Ward Sunday school teacher leaves the church, other members can laugh it off or pull the “he wanted to sin” card. But if a Bishop, or a SP leaves, the aftermath can be devastating.

So the church needed an official set of correlated responses, not to answer the apostates, but to close down the flow of damaging information UP the foodchain. To shield the mega-tithe payers inhabiting the church's "Middle Management" from the doubts of the unwashed sheep.

I was reading the thread yesterday about the bishop who after two days sent a “carefully considered” response to a doubting member, that was in the end, just a canned response. And also the email being sent out to stake presidents, telling them of the upcoming training and that doubting members should be refered to the “Gospel Topics” section of the official website. I'm pretty convinced that what the church is trying to do, is what many corporations have done, especially those peddling a shitty product. They are trying to automate their customer service response. They are trying to remove the human element from the process of apostacy. What this is, essentially, is the customer service hotline where an impersonal robot answers your questions (the essays have no names). You have doubts? The bishop tells you to call the hotline (in this case the website), but he himself doesn't have to research your doubts for you! In fact, if he goes to the website casually, most of the topics will look pretty innocuous. Atonement. Priesthood. Member Missionary Work.... blah blah. Anyways, you call the hotline. “Press One if you have doubts about Polygamy. Press 2 if you have doubts about the translation process. Press 3...” And the option to speak to a “Live Operator”? Not there. Customer Service in the modern corporate world tries desperately to avoid direct human interaction. Why? Because then the customer service rep needs to start bargaining to satisfy the demands of the customer. The rep needs to give out goodies, promotional offers, free coupons. And in the end, the service rep starts to loose his own faith in the service being provided.

The thinking was that under the new system, someone will walk into a bishop's office with doubts. He is instructed not to address the doubts himself. He is instructed to refer them to the “official response” and to ask them to pray about it. Tell them..."Don't take my word for it. Trust the Lord!" You don't feel peace when you read the essays? Your prayer isn't being answere? Want more info than the official response? Well, we have a longer version of this essay that is 60 pages, but this is “Premium Content” You need to log-in to access it. If your doubts are trivial, you might be wary of logging in, since you know Big Brother is watching you. But in this case, you are unsatisfied with the answers. You log in. You are flagged as an apostate. Your temple recommend is blocked. Your bishop gets an email saying he needs to be very careful around you. He needs to start the shunning process. He is amazed at the power of discernment coming from above.

The other advantage to this process? It minimizes counselling by incompetent bishops, and potentially damaging lawsuits. The information is there. it is opened to all. We are being transparent. But every “good” member knows these issues are still not to be discussed publicly. (Note the Facebook silence from TBM's on the essays: They KNOW the essays aren't written for them.) In fact, an even bigger silence will pervade the issues. The issues have been dealt with. ALL of them. And if you don't accept the “official” responses, you are an APOSTATE!

Anyways, this is long enough. I think I'm probably off on a lot of details, but this is my working theory for now. Of course, I think the leaders thought they had come up with a brilliant plan, but right now it is probably blowing up in their faces.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/2014 06:34PM by greensmythe.

Wow. This makes a lot of sense. Unlike the theory that the church is writing the essays to innoculate the young (i.e., to manipulate the Bayesian prior probabilities of the next generation), it comports naturally with the burying of the essays deep within a website. Can't do a lot of innoculation by burying the essays.

Your post reminded me of Firesign Theater's We're All Bozo's on This Bus - where Ah, Clem is in the "Future" theme park in line to talk to the "President." But then I'm reminded of that album a lot.

I just googled this one, since I had never heard of it before. (a little before my time)

And I got an answer! Amazing that!

BTW I read once that COJCLDS got the first patent on talking animatronic dolls. Any one else here that one? Apparently they wanted to automate the temple square visitors center...

http://www.google.com/patents/US3973840



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/2014 08:50PM by greensmythe.

That explains the 15.

Church members go to their bishop with questions. Bishop is supposed to refer them to customer service. But what happens if it's the bishops themselves who are questioning? Or high councilors, or stake presidents? Leaders are just as susceptible to doubts or apostasy as anybody else.

Another problem is that we're talking about a religion, not a consumer product or service. If the church makes itself more impersonal to its "customer base," they'll drive people away.

Yes, I agree that bishops and SP have doubts. Many of these doubts come when they try to address the concerns of those in their congregation. this is what happened with Hans Matheson, the regional authority. He looked for an "official" answer and couldn't find it.

Many bishops and SPs are too busy to develop or nurse their doubts. They are typically at the peak of their careers when they are called, they are at the peak of raising their families, they are at the peak of time devoted to church service, they are at the peak of tithe paying.

Like any good pyramid scheme, its the people in the middle that keep the scheme going. The ones who have some people below them and can taste the promise at the top if they only try a little harder. Keeping the middle of the pyramid intact is the key to its perpetuation. People at the bottom contribute little and typically cycle in an out on a regular basis.

So my theory, not even a theory, hypothesis, is that the church needs to make sure its middle management spends as little time possible addressing member concerns.

And I agree totally with your last sentence. A religion SHOULD be a personal experience. It shouldn't be operated like a corporation or service provider. But it is becoming more and more impersonal. It is driving people away.

One of the posters here got an email response, regarding the essays, and the response was obviously a carefully-worded automated response. We know "Mormonspeak" when we see it. Pm our office computer, we have various canned responses, available at the flick of a key.

Greensmythe, I don't know who you are, but your theory makes sense to me, too. TSCC is most concerned about keeping their middle-aged tithe-payers. Children are just hostages and manipulative tools, to keep the adults paying. Younger adults in their late 20's early 30's, newly married, and with babies, are the group that has the most apostasy. These are the people who grew up in the Information Age. TSCC was able to absorb this mass exit, because many young adults are living off the older adults! Many younger ones have gone back to school, or have been downsized due to their low seniority in jobs. The ones who are making it are paying for their children, buying houses, buying cars, moving around the country, etc, and have much less disposable income than their parents. Lord! The Mormons came after my dying parents, to have them "remember them in their Will." Hopefully, the essays are buried too deep for an older, less computer-savvy adult to find--NOT! The Mormons are so arrogant, that they think everyone else is stupid.

My simpler explanation: TSCC saw that someday one of the lawsuits would succeed on the basis of the church misleading their members. The AnointedOne lawsuit showed them the risk was high, so they publish the essays in plain sight, giving them an ideal defense.

I agree... I think that is the primary motivation. There may be other effects, but this is the big one.

I second this. It is because Scientology lost fraud suits and because of the anointedone criminal charge. The church did NOT publish these to help their bishops and SPs, IMO. The system has been working fine. But now their bottom line is being threatened by lawsuits and they are SO scared they almost told the truth.

They are to the "I tried it but I didn't inhale" level of truth-telling.

The main problem with this theory is the apparent timing. According to a number of posts, from alleged insiders, the essays were in the works before Tom's law suit.

Other problems are that the essays wouldn't protect against alleged fraud before the publication of the essays, and the essays don't make full disclosure of all facts and are buried on a website, so may make for weak protection against alleged fraud after their publication.

In the works before the lawsuit, but before *awareness* of the lawsuit?

It may be a weak defense, but as strong as they are willing to make IMO.

Smart phones, tablets, netbooks. The bishop/SP can't just wash it aside if I bring one of them with me to meet with him. In fact, he'll get to see it for himself... where he may otherwise choose to avoid it.

If the church is thinking the online essays will bypass the front-line and middle managers, their thinking is short sighted. If the bishop won't answer my initial questions, or subsequent ones after reading the lds dot org essays, then maybe I need to start talking to friends and family about them... And mention that the bishop didn't want to talk about them.

Short answer? The Internet won.

They are salvaging what they can.

Smart phones are another problem waiting to blow up, but the q15 is still trying to figure out what happened with the internet so their thinking is still probably behind the curve on this one. Probably their only solution now is to ban them from services. They can't have everyone going around now with their own personal seer stone in their pocket... One that actually works!

It's such a good way to fake reading your scriptures while actually surfing the web for info about why those scriptures are wrong. I can see them banning them from services but it will just confuse those who use them for scriptures for real

Inside the ivory tower of C.HQ. in SLC is a bit of a tug a war. The old white wealthy, conservative men who can't let go of the past, and for a lack of a better term all the wacky held belief's that were told to them by their parents and grandparents. This belief system i.e. the B.Y. stuff, white and delightsome, American Indians are descendants of Jews, etc. This brainwashing for the Monson generation goes back as far the late 19th century. Taking into account grandparents teaching grandchildren old church doctrine. Even if these old guys know it's full of holes they are going to be very slow to change.

A younger generation is working in the ivory tower now, all born in the 1990s or late 80s not working as G.As but as corporate types including lawyers, accountants, business types, marketing. All working in their respective fields.

These younger people, just like when I was young are impatient and want change now. Maybe even wanting to come completely clean and re-tooling, metamorphosing the LDS church to more mainstream Christian church. With its primary priority cash flow.

The idea for the essays in the first place couldn't have come from the old white haired conservatives who have been so out of touch with ordinary people for 50, 60, even 70 years and need the help of their grandchildren to turn on a computer. It had to come from young minds.

It reminds me of the time The Soviets put in Gorbachev because the tide was turning and needed younger blood for the transition as not to upset the system to much.

IMO... They'll start out about the polygamy and the polyandry. No mass exodus from the core? Give them a few other tidbits of meat for example: J.S. sealed himself not only to other men's wives, but to other men. All as part of sealing one great family together?

Remember, in the Celestial kingdom, there was the third level of Celestial beings (Angels;) these are those who never married, never will marry and don't have children. They shall become servants (baby sitters and concubines) to the Breeding Gods. Because let's face it; for a gay man or woman to be eternally married and producing offspring would not be their glorified celestial view of Zion, but rather a hell. Praise Elohim for writing this into the everlasting gospel so that gay men and women can gain the celestial kingdom without the burden of having to reproduce!!!

This may not be as far fetched as many think. Legal ceremonies are now in many European and many U.S. states. and as long as TSCC claims sealings in Temples are Civil ceremonies also, they can be libel to having to perform said civil ceremonies or face discrimination lawsuits.

The garments; I think that was actually just as claimed, "We don't make fun of your priests and Cardinals running around in fierce frocks and waving purses that are on fire; so please don't make fun of our secret, magical underwear".