Posted by:
connedvert
(
)
Date: September 29, 2017 09:51PM
Why is the Mormon church so keen on interviewing its members? Is it just a control tactic like everything else?
I was a convert at the age of 12 and had my first "birthday" interview with the bishop when I was 13. My parents never sat down with me and asked me personal questions, especially about morality - if I had clean thoughts, etc. They pretty much just ignored me. So when the bishop invited me to his office to ask me personal questions - even though he scared the crap out of me (he was a lawyer by trade and conducted the interview like a cross examination), I mistook the experience for one of caring and nurturing and not the prying and controlling experience that it actually was. I thought it was so wonderful that an adult cared so much for me - the church was true!
Throughout my 20 years as a TBM I had several interviews with bishops and other church authorities, including birthday interviews from the ages of 13 - 18, yearly tithing settlement, temple worthiness interrogations, new calling interviews, etc. Seems like they were frequently delving into my personal life and I obediently answered all their prying, none-of-their-business questions.
I didn't realize how damaging the interview techniques were until I was a missionary. My mindset on my mission was to spend my time trying to convert people and not focus on myself; I would try and loose myself in service. My mission president had other ideas. He would ask deeply personal questions unrelated to the mission work (e.g.: were you molested as a child?) to try and find the "real" me. He didn't seem satisfied until he'd struck a painful chord and made me cry. The interviews left me feeling drained and emotional. Later I'd heard that other missionaries had the same experience. Those interviews threw me off balance because I was trying to forget myself - and doing a pretty good job of it until interview time when the president probed into my deep feelings and personal life. I ate up the attention and fake caring because my non baptizing, rejection filled mission damaged my self confidence. The mission president knew how to make us dependent on him and to crave meeting with him. I think he was just on a huge ego trip and liked making the missionaries needy for his attention. Unfortunately the amateur psychology he practiced caused a great deal of emotional damage and unnecessary mental trauma on my mission.
Two years after I returned home from my mission I attended the mission reunion. After all those very personal interviews with the mission president I was looking forward to seeing him. When I walked up to him to shake his hand, he didn't remember me. I was crushed. He was nothing but a big fake.
I'm wondering if the frequent interviews with the bishop and other church "authority" figures aren't just another needy-making (I just coined that), dependency inducing technique from LDS Inc. Members become addicted to the attention from the bishop and are less likely to leave the church.
I also think that the Mormon church intentionally starts the interview process when members are young (12 yrs old), vulnerable, malleable, and more obedient, so that by the time they reach adulthood they won't think twice about answering the invasive questions they've been conditioned to answer since they were young. To this day, the only Mormon man I have contact with continues to drill me with personal questions whenever I see him. Often I will tell him everything he wants to know without thinking about it. They programed me very well indeed!
I'd like to hear your thoughts about interviews with the bishop and other "authority" figures in the Mormon church. Is it all about control? Is it a common practice in other religions or unique to Mormonism?