The youth programs are the absolute center of Mormon cult brainwashing. I remember all the pressure to get up during Youth Conference and proclaim how much you loved the church and God.

It was strange for me to see kids who swore, stole things daily, and were awful people get up and talk about their love for Jesus. The leaders seemed to think they were doing a great job with this.

From what I understand, EFY is even worse. People have told me of kids getting so psychologically amped up that they claimed to have seen angels and all sorts of superstitious stuff.

Typical of a dangerous cult.

They were so strange in retrospect. I literally saw a boy being bullied once and then within a matter of hours, his assailants were testifying and crying about Mormon Jesus.

I never attended one of these things as a youth. We lived in texas, not many mormons there. I was so lucky to not ever lay foot down and utah, Of course there were mostly utah transplants who made up most of the mormons in texas, and if they were wealthy, they always sent their kids up to utah for the conferences. We were poor so I never had to go!!!

Forget about Jesus. As a youth, I went to youth conferences and Especially For Youth to meet new girls. The girls liked the guys that cried at the testimony meetings. I never cried at youth conference or EFY. Some other guys did better than I did with the girls. The guys who could come accross as more sensitive and 'safe', would typically find it easier to break the girl's standards down later so the girls would agree to have sex with them. I never stooped that low though. But you have to put your priorities in perspective. Those guys know what they're doing and sometimes it works.

I went to one in Edmonton in 1963. The only semi-memorable moments were the music on the final night and the Sunday service in the Northern Jubilee Auditorium which featured newly minted aposthole TSM...who might as well have been Elvis for the rock star reaction of the assembled lambs.

I once went to a youth conference at BYU.

Can we say it's a good thing these programs have been jettisoned (have they all disappeared?)?

Cults rely on these types of activities to occupy minds that otherwise might invoke - employ logical thought.

WATCH OUT when you're told Dear Leader can't make mistakes...

I don't think these things are discontinued, except in regards to COVID19.

As you say, they are a critical component of cult indoctrination. They are one of the most significant reasons that people who are born in the church have a hard time leaving it.

In the 1960's, we used to have awesome youth conferences. They'd generally last a couple of days, and there would be grilled food, speakers like liar Paul Dunn, who made the girls swoon, and then a dance with a live rock band. I met lots of girls, some of whom traded addresses and wanted continued contact. But there was too much fun, and they could save money by telling us that the budget no longer allowed this stuff. When all the dances went to just recorded music on the PA system, we all knew that it was getting away from us. By the time my kids were teens, there was seemingly nothing left to keep their attention. Everything had changed. The only thing remaining was the constant preaching of virginity.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/2020 02:51PM by cludgie.

That is an interesting perspective. It sounds like fun youth events were yet another casualty of correlation penny-pinching.

When I was a teen in the 90s, we never had live bands at our dances. We did go on campouts somewhat regularly. By the time my younger siblings were teens in the aughts, the campouts had mostly disappeared as well.

And then Mormons wonder why they are losing young people so much? Kids and young adults aren't generally interested in doctrinal discussions so the fun activities are really the only thing that keeps them sticking around. Throw in the proliferation of internet use where anyone can see the church's fact claims are false and this is a pretty easy explanation.

The outright anti-intellectualism of evangelical youth culture is repugnant to me but at least their leaders have the sense to put on live music and smoke shows for the kids. And while the "Jesus is my boyfriend" music is sickening to anyone outside the tradition, I'm sure it has lots of fans of those who have never known anything else.

I attended EFY a couple of times as a youth leader. Both times there was one entertaining speaker so the kids could laugh and have a little fun. Then two speakers that caused the kids to feel guilty for being interested in sex stuff.

The one and only time I ever went to a youth conference. It was god awful.

What was so awful about it?

Russell Mallard Wrote:
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> What was so awful about it?

See this

https://www.exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,2327755,2327853#msg-2327853

Wow that does indeed sound awful. Have you ever wondered if it was an insurance thing? It's very odd behavior on the leaders' part.

My Mormon daughter's Mormon friends would make EFY more interesting, by having a contest to see who kissed the most boys.
They went to the one at BYU.

My daughter didn't want to go. The cult made money off of BYU's EFY--it was quite expensive. There were other camps and summer workshops that she wanted to attend, and I was glad to pay for those. Every year my daughter was of age, the ward would offer to pay for her to go to EFY, and we would have to be very assertive to prevent her from being pushed into it. She actually cried and begged me not to make her go.

Somehow I was able to escape all of this. Families with limited resources haven't traditionally sent their kids on these excursions, kind of like primarily the upper class actually go camping. The poor actively avoid it.