Confusion and transference After an initiation period comes a time when the new member must be “cult broken” The method for achieving this is to keep the member/mark confused. What is good today is bad tomorrow. What is praised today is condemned tomorrow. What is rewarded today is punished tomorrow. The goal of the cult is to render the member/mark totally submissive the cult. So today the word comes down from on high that women must no longer wear hats inside the meeting area. All of the true believers then stop wearing hats to meetings. The interpretation is if you wear a hat then you are not following the mandate of the leader. Therefore you are against God. Beards and mustaches are acceptable for a long period of time then suddenly without explanation facial hair is taboo. Time to get out the razor men. If you want a position in the organization clean shaven is the gospel. Failure to conform means that you are “against God”! The member becomes confused about what is and is not acceptable. The member is told to look to the leaders for guidance. These people are the only ones who know the right way. The power to think is then transferred to another being and confusion reigns supreme. It becomes blatantly clear that the only way to regain ones self esteem and control over ones life is to remove ones self from the negative environment.
These shifts in policy, often contradictory, serve several purposes.
They give the illusion of progress. Progress requires change, but absent any reference points that indicate forward motion, change can be easily passed off as progress. In an organization that proclaims eternal progression, real and apparent change has to happen. Whether that is perceived by members as progress or not is left to the PR department. Meanwhile, new changes are heralded as evidence of the latest steps forward and distract from the lack of improvements that were not produced by previous changes.
They reduce self-reliance. If a person on his or her cannot come to an understanding of the value of a doctrine, then that person must rely on authority figures to provide that valuation. Members are encouraged not to develop their own doubts and convictions. Those who do are often left out in the cold if their hard won convictions no longer align with new leaders' directives.
They make the insignificant monumental. The moral foundation of Christianity was set thousands of years ago. Each individual has to integrate that spiritual code personally into his or her own life. The core struggle is personal, not institutional. The big themes and topics are not going to change. But the LDS church has to show change as evidence of progress. The consequence is that the church nibbles around the edges of popular culture, criticizing fashion, music, and social movements.
These practices, in an organization that holds that obedience is the greatest good, produce members who cannot be willfully obedient, acting as an extension of their own inner motivation and commitment, but instead produce passively obedient members who respond to external directions, and then only until an authority tells them something different.
Being BIC. Trusting Mormon parents--as you do. Reinforcement from a Mormon community. Mormon leaders who chip away at your self esteem until they have convinced you that you are broken and only they can fix you.
I saw this confusion at a local level, not just from 'on high' as a 'mark' myself.
First my SS teacher suggested that I host the missionaries for meals....which I started doing....when I mentioned that to the RS President, she was horrified! If I had said I had murdered them she could not have been more horrified! Even though all I did was meet them at a restaurant in broad daylight! Not even seeing them in the parking lot!
So, yeah, they spin your head, do this, no no no don't do that!