I always had trouble getting Mormons to talk about church history and doctrine when I was in meetings. I taught gospel doctrine a few times and people literally complained to me if I used books such as the Journal of Discourses or other books by deceased leaders.

Other times, people just simply told me not to worry about how particular doctrines actually worked. "Just have faith" was the common answer.

I found such responses to be complete cop-outs when I was a Mormon. Eventually, they drove me to start seeing what non-Mormons had to say. Then, I encountered mopologists and their nasty behavior and total dismissal of church leaders (but only those who were dead) sealed the deal.

There's an intellectual and spiritual laziness to them, yes. As a TBM, I hated history. Since my shelf broke, I absolutely love it, learning about the history of the U.S., about the history of the Bible, and specifically about characters like JS, BY, and Jesus Christ.

I used to think I was really intellectual, diving into deep doctrine like Adam and Eve and how much they were aware of, or Christ being married, etc. But I always accepted the premise that anything the church told me was true. I wasn't curious or thoughtful at all. It comes from the emphasis on obedience. I don't have to think too hard about this. If I just do exactly as I'm told, I'll get to where I need to be.

"There's an intellectual and spiritual laziness to them, yes."

You forgot cowardice. They are terrified of truth. Stops them from getting what they want. And so when BKP told them "some truths are not very useful" they clung to that phrase like a life raft.

You're right! They don't! And, more importantly, they are discouraged from learning about their religion's history by its current leaders.

Easy to discount outside sources, but oddly, their own church books are what brings the difficulty to doubting their doubts--like you found out.

I knew all the smoking guns from Church History as I was growing up courtesy of our Priest teacher who was studying to be a Church Institute teacher and they weren't hiding anything yet--- but instead of causing concern, it inoculated me. Gave me bad devil dreams though.

It wasn't always this way.

In the 60s/70s we had frank discussions in sunday school and priesthood meetings.

Correlation killed all that.

Easier to keep people under control if you can control their thoughts and behaviour.

After correlation the men were infantilized, the doctrine was reduced to specific spoon fed portions, the church began to encroach on what to wear, eat or do and slowly reduced the members to clueless sheeple.

Heartless Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It wasn't always this way.
>
> In the 60s/70s we had frank discussions in sunday
> school and priesthood meetings.
>
> Correlation killed all that.
>
> Easier to keep people under control if you can
> control their thoughts and behaviour.
>
> After correlation the men were infantilized, the
> doctrine was reduced to specific spoon fed
> portions, the church began to encroach on what to
> wear, eat or do and slowly reduced the members to
> clueless sheeple.
This brings us back to the B I T E control system to which I have added an S
Control the
Behavior
Information
Thoughts and
Emotion
and you control almost everything.
I have added "S" for sex to the control word
so we now have BITES

It’s also difficult to “know” something that changes steadily.
Morgbots just conform and imitate.

Keep them too busy with activities, obedient to a lot of rules, and repeat the same rote "truths" and emotional faith-promoting stories over and over and over again.

That's how to keep them in line.

Chicken N. Backpacks Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Keep them too busy with activities, obedient to a
> lot of rules, and repeat the same rote "truths"
> and emotional faith-promoting stories over and
> over and over again.
>
> That's how to keep them in line.


- mundane, mostly non - productive activities; 'busy work'.

- subtly promote lots of klitch such as 'Testimony Gloves', etc.

- keep significant details such as finances & policies secret; if anyone asks, tell them that the 'Lack Faith' in their leaders which is necessary 'for the work to continue'. Mask policies as 'Revelations' at least inspiration thus diminishing if not denying all human influence - origins.
- don't insist on uniform compliance with rules or discipline.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/2020 03:11PM by GNPE.

They are an authoritarian cult. Mormons are committed to the network of leaders, NOT to any doctrine, principle or idea.

From time to time they are tested on this when leaders totally change "eternal truths" and require the opposite.

The only real belief they have is obedience.

It was 1984-85 when I was most active as a gospel doctrine teacher. My system was to tell the class that I would presume that they had read the material and would use that as the starting point for my lesson.
I then reasearched the material and presented a lesson that made my average class, by their choosing, a little over 100 every Sunday.
In this day and age I wold not be allowed to teach in that manner due to the present state of mind control in the organization



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/29/2020 08:38PM by thedesertrat1.

It was a challenge as a Gospel doctrine teacher to get people to discuss doctrine and implications.

I had to rely on a handful of people to keep up a 'discussion' going.

A few knew the really weird stuff --- Brigham Young 'doctrines' but rarely shared it in class except under their breath. I learned a lot of that sitting in classes which I was not teaching. Why they remained members understanding what Brigham Young taught is amazing to me.

Why do you think they stay?

No knowledge?
No problem...

Many people want to be part of something bigger than themselves, something that fills the emptiness inside and gives their lives meaning. Eric Hoffer explained this very clearly. These are the people who join religious and political cults. They don't want to be corrected, so they view correction as persecution.

And they stay.

Seems like...Pffft, now there's an understatement.

When I started to question the Church's veracity, I began asking members, family and otherwise, about doctrine and history. I was shocked to find that everyone had their own skewed version of historical events, doctrine and it's meaning. They cherry-pick things to make it fit with what they want. I'm not sure there actually is just one religion to know, since each person has their own specifically tailored version, which of course makes it the perfect religion for them. Pointing out flaws and contradictions is pointless, since they "know" it's true and everything to the contrary is of the devil.

On the other hand, I suppose they know their individually specific religion quite well since they are the ones that created it.