That time my five-year-old brother was told Satan is out to get him…

When my little brother was in his earliest years (less than five) he faced an apparently life threatening illness, then a series of serious and life-threatening injuries.
My young mother, bless her little cotton socks, was a sincere recent convert to the LDS church, and sought out a priesthood blessing for my brother. The brother who came to our home was a member of the branch presidency, and was considered in the stake to be a spiritual giant. He had been the go to guy in our family for almost all priesthood related matters, as my father was, and is, a skeptic. When he gave my brother the blessing he told him that the reason he Had experienced so many life-threatening illnesses and injuries was that he had been specially selected in the pre-existence for a role in the latter days in the church, and that Satan knew this and was out to get him.
My brother was about five years old at the time, and for the next 12 to 13 years or so he literally believed that every time something went wrong Satan was using him in an effort to thwart God's plans for the world. Not that my brother thought he was anything special, quite the opposite, he was terrified senseless at the prospect of being a special target of the devil.
I cannot even imagine what that does to a developing psyche. In his mid teen years my brother came to accept that he was gay. Can you imagine the utter horror at coming to the apparent realization that Satan had made you homosexual?!!!
My brother is out of the church now but he's still bears the scars of damaged psychological development that Stamm at least in part from that moment of "inspiration."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/2017 09:02PM by srichardbellrock.

How horrible. If you bring it up with lds members, they will write it off as, "Oh, that's not official-that's just someone speaking as a man." But all these men are the teachers and leaders. I was told so much crap in church and especially seminary.
I am sorry for the harm this has caused your brother, and every member/former member who was told big bunches of crapola.

Sorry to hear that, but i know it's pretty typical in the cult to believe anytime something bad is happening (esp. that people are having a hard time stopping or controlling, like inexplicable illness), that it's Satan trying to interfere.

I grew up thinking things like that too. Believing that if I was being tempted to stray off the straight and narrow it was Satan's doing. I believed I was special in the sense the likely most Mormons grow up believing, as in one of the chosen. I'd been told like others that having been born into the church (my parents were converts) that I made the right choices in the pre-existence. I was told I was good enough to be able to chose to be born into a Mormon family.

It's easy as a child to believe in black and white and of course you get plenty of that kind of thinking in the cult.

My mom was especially superstitious about Satan's powers. She was so worried about her boys when they were on missions in foreign lands, convinced that they were special targets for Satan. She was a nervous wreck the whole time they were away, not sure if she'd ever see them again.

She told me once about her mother (my mom converted when she was a teenager when her parents converted, but my dad did it on his own, also as a teen).. had Satan actually visit her room one night. He came to her and said he was after her 2nd oldest boy and was going to take him from her (or something like that, lead him astray, etc,) and she commanded him to 'Depart in the name of Jesus Christ' and he did. That story always terrified me. I never got confirmation from my grandmother that it was true. In fact now I wonder if my mom made it up or exaggerated it (likely it was a dream, not a real apparition of Satan). Esp. given that my grandma left TSCC a long time ago and said she'd only joined in the fist place because she thought it would stop her then husband (my grandpa) from cheating on her. When it didn't, she left him and the 'church.' So it seems unlikely she would have said that, but maybe at some point she believed or at least believed in God, the devil, and visions.

Well of course then years later my uncle did end up with a drug and drinking problem and eventually died fairly young and that became proof that what my grandma supposedly saw was true and that Satan had in fact won. (My uncle had also left the cult, so that was further proof to the ones who stayed in it).

But what your brother experienced and my family is called 'confirmation bias' .. something we all have. If we believe something we look for signs of proof to back up that belief. So therefore anything bad that happened to your brother (once he'd been told by an 'authority' at a young age that it was Satan after him) he believed (along with your mother) that it really was Satan's doing. Likewise once my grandma had that dream or what have you and told my mother about Satan being after my uncle, well when he fell on rough times of course that confirmed the bias. I don't know if my uncle was told about this. He may have been and that could have in fact influenced him very negatively and contributed to his demise. Which is just self fulfilled prophesy, which is another damaging thing that happens psychologically when you are told things like that, esp. while young.

It really is damaging. I hope your brother is well over it. Poor guy.

I also had a friend about to serve a mission. We were seeing her off at the airport and in the bathroom she broke down. She was sobbing, she was really unsure, she felt she couldn't do it. Well her mom was there to reassure her by telling her it was Satan's doing and that he did this to ALL missionaries when they were about to embark on 'God's work'..

Silly satan! When will he stop doing that! : ) It couldn't possibly be that the missionaries are actually just freaked out for good reason, like they realize they are about to throw away 2 years of their lives and don't really believe in the gospel they are about to have to preach!

What a load of crap!

That "brother " needs a fucking tuneup.

I'm going to contrast this to the treatment I got at 3 (I was in danger of dying from Scarlet Fever) from a Lutheran Pastor.

His church was less than a block from my parents home. He heard from a neighbor (a member of his congregation) that a little neighbor child was horribly ill. He came to the hospital with a toy for me, and an offer of help for my parents. People he had never met. He told them that the church would be dropping off meals, they would provide transportation if needed, and offered help with my brother if that was necessary.

My parents asked him why and he basically said we although not members of his church, we were members of his community. That is what they were there to do, help the community.

A few years later we did join that congregation.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/2017 11:30AM by sbg.

The things said to you while growing up and can really mess with you in later on.

Church programming can be a real mindfuck.

I found out my boyfriend was gay, that satan was working harder on me because of what I was trying to accomplish by "saving" my boyfriend.

That didn't count always thinking satan was after me and living in fear if I left the church that I would be under his control.

NOW in my life, I seldom even think of satan unless I read it on here. What a relief to let go of that insanity.

Mormon brainwashing is a mind-fuck.

They use it on innocent children. My children were taught in Primary, that because their father and I were never married in the temple, that we would never be a "forever family", and that we would be alone in eternity, and would pass by each other, as strangers.

Thank God, we woke up to this, as parents! We took our children out of the cult, and ran.

There is nothing "good" about Mormon brainwashing. It is NEVER a "great place to raise children."

I'm so sad for your brother--and the other innocent children who are harmed by the evil cult. All of this lying, this emotional manipulation, is for MONEY! That adds up to pure evil, in my opinion.

Children are the Mormon cult's #1 source of fresh meat (new members).

It might be too late for us, and for our siblings--so maybe all we can do is PROTECT the children. Keep the "spiritual giants" from intruding into your life. Don't let the missionaries enter your home. Don't let Mormon neighbors take your kids to church. Supervise your kids. Don't let Grandma take your children on a temple tour. Don't allow Mormons to force your child to be baptized, "just to keep the peace" in the TBM family.

And the teachings are correlated, so they know what they're teaching. If you don't pay tithing, you're robbing God and could be struck dead or burned alive. They never warn against believing in stupid religions.

Teaching anyone about any 'make believe' devil/satan is significant for many people.

I blog on a number of other 'spiritual boards' where most people there have these amazing 'spirit' experiences.

Amazing to me is that many times people with these amazing experiences are ashamed and embarrassed because they were taught in 'Mormonism or other forms of Christianity' that communicating with spirits is 'of the devil' and these experiences are to 'deceive' people.

Who knows how much 'knowledge and help' is provided people from the 'other side' which is totally ignored because of 'Biblical/Christian' teachings.