Posted by:
sb
(
)
Date: January 18, 2017 04:41PM
(This is post #1 on a series of un-Christian Mormon Doctrines)
Mormon culture and I use that term loosely, is obsessed with appearances. In fact is it part of their post-Christian doctrine (Jesus taught the exact opposite, repeatedly).
Avoid the “Appearance of Evil” was drilled into my head. I walked around having to think of how might anything I was involved or could be associated with could be misconstrued by a potential member, worse, a member, an angel or general authority.
What clothes you wear are judged with a simple glance. Not just their level of “modesty” but the cost can be quickly assessed and categorized. A young faithful teenage girl comes with short shorts to mutual: inactive parents: pity her, turn her against her parents, push her to meet with a leader to ascertain the family situation, send the missionaries.
This doctrine, one of the very few clear teachings from the church in over a hundred years, is damaging and turns people into obsessive hypocrites.
It extends to your car, your haircut, what college your kids attend.
As I travel around, I have realized that this obsession with appearances is not only limited to public behavior: it is deep within the roots of Mormon culture. I visit locations across the country and see that people live in areas and types of homes that would never be tolerated by the Mormon ranking system.
A multimillionaire with an old, run down office? No!
A well to do doctor that chooses to live downtown in an old neighborhood?
A rich couple that spend their money in their hobby instead of purchasing the obligatory McMansion? Foolishness!
There is a recipe for joy in Mormonism and it starts with a white suburban and a 600k mortgage. It’s no wonder that Utah ranks at the top of bankruptcies. It is no wonder that credit card debt among Mormons is devastating, So much for being self-sufficient.
I had neighbor couple. Mr. Goldman Sacks and Mrs. BMW finance. They lived in a 7 bedroom home across the street. They had a 1 baby. One day they put the house on the market, they NEEDED something bigger, NEEDED IT, since they had a baby and were hoping for another.
Within 5 months: she lost her job, they had barely qualified for their home they currently had. They never sold it, it was foreclosed. In the following 3 years there were 10% of the homes sold on short sales: All Mormons, all hopelessly over their heads.
Since Mormons associate financial success with righteousness:
“We look to not only the spiritual but also the temporal, and we believe that a person who is impoverished temporally cannot blossom spiritually.”
- Keith B. McMullin, General Authority for over 37 years, now head of Deseret Management Corp. (DMC), an umbrella organization for many of the church’s for-profit businesses.
Think about what he said. Only rich people can be truly spiritual. That encapsulates Mormonism. He ironically said this as he is opening up a mall. Why a mall? “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints attends to the total needs of its members” he said. The members luxury NEED retail. Not food, not education, not drinking water, they NEED Tiffany’s.
And the race for appearances begins.
And the awkwardness and stigma of being poor is perpetuated…in a Christian church, of all places.
I bought a new Mercedes recently. It was part of a business perk. My mother, who is perpetually nagging me about how much money I waste (on things for my kids, like vacations or pet food) came to visit and saw the car. I braced myself for the 45 minute lecture. I was blown away when her inner Mormon came out “that car is divine, is a great way to show your money, what did the neighbors say?!”
I was floored.
This is what Mormonism and their false doctrines do to people. It all begins as an uninspired PR campaign that the members turn into a doctrine and get carried away with it. Why?
Because these people have nothing better to do. There is no great doctrine coming down from Monson’s bullet proof penthouse. The “meat” of the gospel has long been buried in an unmarked grave, right next to Brigham Young.
Lately their “doctrines” are:
“Hasten the work”
“Be good, be nice, be kind, be smiley”
“Lengthen your stride”
“How life is like a pickle”
“Truth does not matter”
“The mantle is FAR, FAR greater than intellect”
“Let’s go shopping!!!”
“Even one small deviation or mistake will ruin your life”
“Avoid truth, at all costs”
“Doubt your doubts”
They should be learning the basics: do unto others, don’t judge, don’t lie, take care of the poor and the needy, don’t cast stones, forgive, admit your mistakes, repent…but nah, who needs those. We got condos to sell.
Since I realized how bad Mormonism is to one’s soul I have left the church and that it is almost a sure recipe for spiritual unhappiness and financial misery.
I will be retiring at 55 to spend even more time with my family and our pets. I can thank that I no longer pay tithing for that enormous blessing.