My daughter has less than a month left!!!! W00t!+Yeah!
But her email today was whant whah…
In it she describes what is basically pressuring her investigators to get baptized with teachings her mission president used to increase baptisms.
She thought it was super spiritual. I was vomiting a little in my mouth.
But is this a successful thing? I mean Mormonism is a cult but this pressuring for baptism, has it been since the inception of their "restoration?" Is it a viable strategy? For an information age this strategy seems stupid and I hope it is and those poor people my daughter convinced to be baptized go "inactive" rapidly.
For a "church" with a posthumous net for human souls to be baptized hurrying it seems so paradoxical.
Elder Berry, you must be so relieved that your beloved daughter is coming home.
The church treats baptism like some sort of prize. As we know, it means little if the newly baptized individual does not soldier on with their church membership.
And really what would "God" want? Rushed to exaltation for eternity when God has a backup plan? IT Is basically bonus points for joining quick regardless of your maturity, education, IQ, EQ, etc. etc.
Uck. I am not sure why they have to do that. Maybe they count every baptism like McD's counts burgers? McD's doesn't say on their signs that all those billions actually liked their burger, just how many they cooked. So maybe for the cult it's "Millions and millions saved"...just not millions and millions stayed.
Glad your daughter will be back soon. Longest I've ever been without a kid visit is a few months and that makes me twitchy.
Most of the guys who get called to the mission president position get caught up in the fantasy that this special calling means they may be on track for a General Authority calling.
The stats are for their benefit. The MPs will do or say anything to get the worker bees to produce.
The MPs who squeeze the most work out of the worker bees will get the attention of the "Brethren". For any MP who isn't guaranteed a GA slot by virtue of being closely related to any of the most influential top leaders, the only way to get attention is through impressive stats.
The missionaries work hard to build up the resume of the MP. (Not building up the Kingdom of God. Don't be silly.)
for one reason or another feel like they need to please the missionary making the high-pressure sale. It's just emotionally/psychologically easier to go along than to resist.
And that's why such "converts" (probably at least 90%) invariably go completely inactive within weeks or months. Once the missionaries, who were paying the "convert" constant attention and acting like they were gonna be best friends forever are gone and there are no young, energetic local ward members stepping in to cuddle, hug and caress the "convert" constantly and at every turn, the convert realizes that the only reason they joined was because they enjoyed hanging out with the missionaries and being called, visited, messaged frequently by the missionaries.
None of the strangers at the local ward can replace that intense, but ultimately fake, relationship that the "convert" had with the missionaries and most of the locals don't even try because they're busy with their own lives and don't have the missionaries' luxury of devoting countless hours of attention to promising baptism prospects.
People who aren't weak-minded often respond adversely to the high-pressure sales tactics...the same as when a used car salesman seems to be pushing way too hard to sell a particular car. You instinctively check to see if your wallet is still in your pocket and then look for the nearest exit.
At the time, I was pretty angry at a sister missionary from Australia for pressuring my sister into getting baptized. My sister and a friend had been going to church for a year or two and I was hoping they would get baptized.
But as soon as they were pressured, they stopped attending and never went back.
Now, of course, I'm glad they made that decision. But at the time, I was quite put out, after all of my hard work in trying to get them into the Church.
I'd had a blessing which stated that many of my family members would be baptized due to my efforts. Never happened.
You know, generally speaking, TBMs have a total freaking melt down when a family member dumps Mormonism. Yet when they try to pressure someone into joining LDS Inc, they have zero empathy for any disruption that might happen in the person's family caused by the potential convert dumping their family's religion and joining the weird cult that is Mormonism.
It's not even on their bleeping radar. If they think of it at all, it is as an obstacle to be overcome so they can score their baptism. They don't give a rat's patoot about the potential parental broken hearts of a convert's parents.
Kind of revolting, frankly. And it certainly describes me on my mission. Yet another thing to make me flinch at what a jackass I was.
As a never Mo, this is one of my greatest pet peeves. If your family thinks you are nuts, it is your family with the issue. Convert them too and all will be well.
The angst is caused a friend of mine's parents when she joined the cult was palpable. Lutherans are a live and let live sort, and she was madly trying to get everyone to leave and join her special new perfect church.........
I have been attending meetings of a religion endorsed by a friend. what I have noticed is that they welcome you to visit and participate W I T H O U T any pressure to "join up" Thay state what they believe and you can take it, or leave it, or just leave it alone. No pressure. I do believe that the first time someone put the pressure arm on me to join up with anything would be the last time I associated with them!
Most other people haven't experienced the outrageous, persistent pressure and manipulation that the Mormons put upon their victims. They have no idea...until Mormons accost them in their own homes, in groups of two, and now mainly three, with a whole congregation of zombies and the Holy Ghost behind them. Once the "golden prospects understand what's really going on, it is very frightening, and the Mormons are very hard for people to shake off.
After we resigned, I thought I needed a relgion to take its place, so I went to some local Christian churches. They were more uplifting and pleasant than the Mormon cult had been, and had better music, and the people seemed more normal. But, as soon as someone approached me, and started asking me my name, and where I lived, etc., I evaded the questions, and left, and never returned. I had to be anonymous (and protected) in order to enjoy a church service.
I like to think that people are becoming wiser, and more prone to finding answers, and doing their research, before buying into anything. That's why the Mormons are hitting on children, and people who don't speak the language, and third world citizens who don't have access to the information superhighway.