I follow the cartoon site Jesus and Mo. (http://www.jesusandmo.net/) In it, Jesus and Muhammad are roommates (possibly lovers) in the current world and say laughable things about religion, often during discussions with a barkeeper or during their musical act. Moses shows up occasionally. No Joseph Smith or L. Ron Hubbard yet.

This week's cartoon starts with Jesus suggesting, "Let's reread our scriptures as if we have never seen them before, without any preconceptions."

Mo replies, "Great idea. If we approach the holy texts with the fresh eyes of an innocent first-time reader, we may be able to appreciate their sublime perfection in new ways."

After reading for a while they toss the holy books aside. "That wasn't such a great idea," says Jesus.

Mo concurs,"It doesn't really work without the preconceptions, does it?"

Back when I was a young member, following the brethren's counsel to read the scriptures (over and over and over) I often thought, "I was raised with this stuff, but what would a non-Mormon or non-Christian think?"

It seems like rereading the scriptures can lead in at least two directions.One is that it gets deeply embedded and accepted as truth and grand wisdom. But if people reread it with a bit of awareness turned on, they might start thinking, "Wait, what does this say? What does it mean? Do I really believe that?" I guess it's a risk the brethren are willing to take.

So, you converts out there, what did you think when you read the BoM and the rest of the Standard Works?

Like watching general conference with fresh ears. It was dull as all get out when we were in, now it is interesting for different reasons than the Corp intends.

Because my parents were not members, much less even religious, I went to the temple with "fresh eyes". All I had readily available with which to interpret that experience was everyday common sense; no friends or family to talk me out of labeling it stupid and weird. And that's even without knowing we all got the same secret sauce recipe that day!

I followed my heart. My heart led me to hell and back. I'm ready to do it again, aren't you?

But going back to the dumpster fire of Mormonism isn't really my thing. It will burn itself out soon enough, and maybe keep a few bums warm in the process.

The "standard works" are a kind of pulp mythology that only succeeded by fueling class resentments. They are a kind of manifesto of Joseph's personal psyche and his family's struggle with poverty.

It is rather unfortunate that his religion didn't die with him. Well actually, Joseph Smith's religion did die with him. The Smith family disavowed any association with Brigham Young's breakaway sect.

Today's church is a cult, plain and simple. Only a cult treats you as "other" if you leave. They keep building more whited sepulchers because they are a real estate holding company using religion as a tax dodge.

Prosperity gospel is itself a cult. Mormonism is pure fantasy, a kind of free masonry dungeons and dragons mashup. Now, does the magic work? Maybe it does if you believe it. But there's the rub.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/2021 09:44PM by bradley.

bradley Wrote:
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> Well actually, Joseph Smith's religion did die with him.

Yes. Mormonism has died several times. It keeps reinventing itself in radically new form only then to abandon its doctrines and direction yet again.

1) Egalitarian reaction against clerical power in early JS years,

2) Centralization of power under the visionary JS in his later years.

3) Elevation of polygamy to the defining characteristic of BY's tyranny.

4) Bureaucratization under Taylor and his successors.

5) Abandonment of polygamy and replacement with mandatory WoW as defining characteristic.

6) Growth and internationalization as the movement's mission and source of legitimacy.

7) Streamlining of doctrine and power structure through correlation; Mormonism as six or eight one-hour lessons repeated ad nauseum.

8) De-emphasization of all remaining doctrine and apotheosis of obedience as the only principle that matters.

8) Redefinition as normal Christianity with emphasis on money and temple construction as the only unique legitimizing factors.

I made those stages up on the fly, but the point is that Mormonism has reinvented itself many times. I doubt very much that any of the early prophets would recognize the Mormonism of three decades after their deaths let alone what the church has become today.

Lot's Wife Wrote:
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> I made those stages up on the fly, but the point
> is that Mormonism has reinvented itself many
> times. I doubt very much that any of the early
> prophets would recognize the Mormonism of three
> decades after their deaths let alone what the
> church has become today.

Impressive list. Very nice work.

I think one thing will always thread itself through Mormonism - money. Joe was interested in it and so is Nelson. They would recognize their brothers-in-armies of Helaman when it comes to land and money.

Agreed.

But the nature of the monetary focus changed. JS started the movement to enrich himself; the church organization was a byproduct. BY wanted to build the church and its independence from the US government--goals above and beyond his personal fortune--although he too felt that anything that belonged to the church belonged to him.

I don't think the prophets from Taylor (maybe after Taylor) through McKay were particularly venal. In fact, they almost ran the church into the ground more than once. It was the ca 1960 financial trouble that transformed the religion into an overtly commercial enterprise for the first time since BY launched his bid for autarky.

And Nelson? I think we'd all agree that the Q15 are well off. But they don't participate in the church's upside--they have no stock options or annual bonuses--except insofar as the financial successes enhance their own legitimacy as well as brightening the church's prospects for survival.

So Nelson and his fellows aren't as personally greedy as JS was. They are corporate men focused on the bottom line, not individual grifters.

I stand corrected. I reduced to explain things. Common mistake. There were a few before Grant and maybe one after that didn't have the dollar signs and tokens.

Snow was particularly poor in regards to ruling a Mormon empire. Windows of heaven an all.

I was wrong. There was a time when the church was more the people than their leaders.

Yes, I like your reformulation. I think the church evolved from being a charlatan's cult to something that was more focused on the interests and needs of its members--how naive some of those prophets look now--and then to the modern corporate cult that we know and despise.

It's a fascinating history.

Lot's Wife Wrote:
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> It's a fascinating history.

It is. Human drama in the extreme. The Promised Land never looked so unpromising as it does today.

On one level I'd love to see our suffering, my suffering, dead and buried. It would be nice to have it all simply go away.

On another level, however, I hope that the history of Mormonism is fully documented and analyzed so that future generations are better situated to avoid the next such cult/s. Evil should not be forgotten.

The first time I read "the scriptures"™ with fresh eyes, I couldn't get past the horrific murder in the first couple of pages...

Great point. I never understood until post-Mormonism how Laban was a setup for teaching people to blindly follow and God has a penchant for handing out death sentences to the more success people who oppose his prophets.

Seriously, it isn't a leap of faith to turn the Book of Mormon into a kill all infidels interpretation. The Anti-Lehi-Nephis are the sole exception and they got defended instead of miraculously having God protect them.

I read the BoM again with a BIC lighter. Very illuminating seeing the pages burn before my eyes.

For me it was reading the NT with fresh"eyes for what it said to me rather than what church leaders claimed it said that took me out of Mormonism.

You're supposed to read scriptures with your spiritual eyes.

I never read scriptures before....not gonna start now

When I left Mormonism, I automatically assumed the mainstream Christian view and the Bible were true and it was just the taint of Mormonism I needed to shed.

So, I started from scratch reading the Bible without the Mormon bias glasses. The problem is, you need faith glasses to make it seem, well, not horribly alarming and absurd. Fresh eyes reading the Bible exposed it for the cultural mythology it is.

I wasn't a convert, but the reading the Standard Works with the intent to "study the scriptures" exposed them for what they are. If you have to "fast and pray" with faith to make something seem true, that should raise a flag.

  

Modern MormØŽism has almost become Scientology and these newly birthed saints of odd have got to try a lot harder at maybe appearing more normal.
Sad to say, but the LDS temples can't do that!

They keep this up much longer and I see a Broadway BOM2.0 headed their way.