Soon after the Holy Nelson became our beloved prophet the "M" word became a "victory for Satan" and that's why I don't go by "Honest TBM" but now "Honest TB[long]". Now the fact that you would use this "victory for Satan" word just triggers me to be super offended. It's just how I'm programmed to think thanks to the beloved Correlation program that we have in this wondrous Church of ours. If you don't like that then it's obvious that someone along the path from Nursery class (where people like me gained powerful testimonies of the cheerios) through the rest of the grooming path of the beloved Correlation program you somehow got on to some other path besides this beloved path that I found myself on & thus its just where I ended up. My brain is programmed to obey the Holy Nelson and any other approach to thinking gets immediately discarded.

So, rather say "Mormon" you should be saying "follower of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" or more accurately you could replace "follower of" with "people with brains that are programmed to be obedient to" so people can be impressed with accuracy and how amazingly peculiar we've become. Since this phrase takes so long to say I tend to just shorten it to be "[long]" because it saves lots of time for me to just write "[long]" so I can spend my time more efficiently on other activities, like scrubbing the toilets at the chapels or temple; or harassing my neighbors that they need to get themselves and their families fully assimilated into this wondrous Church of ours as the prophets have taught us to be missionary-minded and that's why we have such a sacred duty to go and harass people.

You are so right (and I do remember the cheerios), but it resembles a Kurt Vonnegut story but real, terrifying

It makes them feel special (peculiar)

and THEN they are offended. Good job.

Well, they were doing it for your own good, so being ungrateful is hardly the response they expected!

Only if you tell them the truth.

Yet they think they are the most sober people on Earth.

That should be their first clue.

Yes, but they have to practice a lot to get it just right...

Mormons use the word "offended" as kind of a put down when applying it to others but a badge of self righteousness when applied to themselves. They like to say that brother or sister so and so left "the church" because they were offended. It implies that they didn't really have a strong testimony. They copped out of LDS Inc. simply because someone offended them. They were week.

If a Mormon tells another person, "I find that really offensive" (something my TBM friend is fond of saying), they're exhibiting how righteous they are by pointing out how unrighteous you are.

Mormons can be crazy making.

I found this site accidentally. Looking up Jody Whitaker. May I ask why other religions are often described as cults but I’ve rarely seen the resentment IF I stumble across a website against the cult. They don’t have websites dedicated to ex-Methodist, etc. I have Mormon friends and they don’t give off any vibes of cultish behavior. Scientology is a cult. I have studied cults practically all my adult life. I met my Mormon friends while writing my dissertation. I have many friends who have left their previous cult lives. I’ve seen bitterness but more often I see healing and happiness as their goals. I’ve seen bitter Catholics. Now I fell into this website of bitterness. Religion always seemed personal and if it’s not freeing then why not free yourself from it and walk without all this looking back.

"I have Mormon friends and they don’t give off any vibes of cultish behavior."

Because you didn't offend them?

Mormon friends act the way they think they are supposed to act, which is "nice" and "Christ like" even if they couldn't care less about you personally. Why invest in a lost soul? Appearances are their reality. Think Jr High students with a fully developed prefrontal cortex.

AI bots will be your friend too.

I'm not bitter, I just understand the Mormon friendship. At least, most of them. There are outliers of course. It took about 10 years for me to overcome the trauma of depersonalization. That's when your Mormon identity implodes like OceanGate"s Titan submersible. It's a lot to work through.

Would you ask a rape victim to "get over it"? A Holocaust survivor? I mean, they do but they don't need to be told.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2023 10:19PM by bradley.

I'm not sure I buy your story.

You seem to care a great deal about your friends' religion and its perception by others. Also, I don't think anyone who considers Scientology a cult can deny Mormonism the same honor--especially if you have studied cults your whole adult life. It's a bit hard to believe that someone who is effectively an expert on cults would not recognize the symptoms.

In short, you sound defensive. You appear to have more than an academic stake in the matter.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2023 10:17PM by Lot's Wife.

I also didn't buy the story.

If you are sincere and not a drive by troll, I strongly suggest you read the Biography board. It is linked at the top of the board. This site was started in 1995, the first of it's kind. If there was not a need, it wouldn't exist. Your study of cults seems to be lacking. Stick around and learn :)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2023 12:48AM by Susan I/S.

The Methodists (Presbyterians, Lutherans, UUs, etc., even the Catholics) will not hunt you down or harass you for leaving their churches. The Mormons will quite often do so. The church puts out quite an extensive list of possible ways of finding members who don't want to come anymore. I can't find the list at present, but this church-sponsored forum for ward clerks gives something of an idea of the lengths they will go to find someone:

https://tech.churchofjesuschrist.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2482

The harassment (including phone calls and repeated visits, sometimes involving several men,) can be so bad that exmos are often driven to formally resign from the church, sometimes using the services of a lawyer. In what other church is that a necessity? (None that I know of.)

One board member told the story of how she was attending church one day, while her sons (with her permission,) were home sleeping. Some men from the church, without her permission, went into her home to throw her sons out of bed, to get to church. In what other church does that happen?

Plus, some/many former members are often shunned by those still active. They don't even get a pleasant smile or "hello" at the supermarket. Active Mormons have been known to turn their shoping carts around and go the other way upon sighting an "apostate."

The Mormon church meets every bullet on Steven Hassan's BITE model for assessing cults. If you think of cults or cult-like organizations as being on a continuum, with a group like Heaven's Gate on the far end, with Scientology close by, and Mormonism and the Jehovah's Witnesses a little further down the line. Mormonism, like the JWs, is a high-control group with little patience for those who deviate from its strictures. This is not just a "go to church on Sunday" group. This is a group that sucks a great deal of time and money out of its members, to the point that the church had to, in years past, designate one day of the week where all members stay at home with their families ("Family Home Evening.") Even FHE was designated as religous indoctrination for a part of the time.

So some here refer the Mormon church as a cult for the above reasons and more. Some don't. But I think you can see now why the term "cult" might apply. And yes, it can be very difficult for former members to walk away -- hence the need for support groups. I'm a former Catholic, and in leaving my own church, I didn't go through even a fraction of what my exmo friends have gone through.

> Now I fell into this website
> of bitterness.

hmmm...Are you looking in a mirror?


> Religion always seemed personal
> and if it’s not freeing then why
> not free yourself from it and
> walk without all this looking back.

I see it as commiserating with those who were either wounded or saw others struck down while trying to practice the religion. I never suffered as a mormon, because when I practiced (but never perfected) the religion, it was at a time, in the 50s and 60s, when it was mostly a pleasant walk in the park.

The people who nurtured me in the church as a youth were all salt of the earth.  But I've seen the pain and misery it can cause to those it decides must be victims.

And finally, who doesn't like shouting imprecations at people who hurt others but can't hurt me?

Only if you disagree with them about Mormonism.

Then you're anti-Mormon.

Yes, just call them MORmONs,

What other religion has leaders who sit down with a list of members and former members (you know people who stopped attending/participating) and discuss/plan something to visit to get these disaffected personages to begin attending again?

I don't know any. However, Mormons discuss members who no longer attend. Mormons send spies to meet and report their findings. For some members, it reassures them that they are indeed special and build up their affirmations that they are in the true church.

I belong to several interest groups and while members may notice that so and so has gone missing, there is no formal plan to find out why they have chosen to "disappear".

But Mormons are well-intentioned. They know your eternal salvation is it stake. They know they will get a great reward if they can reactivate you. If it weren't for that carrot, there would be no love bombing. It's all transactional.

Mawg, we're not doing this for blessings. We're doing this for a sh=tload of blessings.

So why do Mormons think this way? Because their doctrine creates inside and outside groups. Anyone who is not with them is of the church of the devil. It's in their scriptures. Anyone who is of the church of the devil should be pitied or converted, right? Tell me that's not a cult.

If I can't love you unless you're a Mormon, I can't love because I don't know what love is. That’s no way to be.


And you can send me dead flowers every morning
Send me dead flowers by the mail
Send me dead flowers to my wedding
And I won't forget to put roses on your grave

Yes. Always have been since Joe & the gang.

Problem is they were ten times worse to anyone around them in response to any perceived slight - which is why they make Crappy neighbors and were run out of most everwhere they tried to settle.

Considering the fact that JS was put in prison for destroying a printing press for printing papers about his polygamy, I'd say this checks out.

There's something about the Mormon vibe, especially when you trigger them but they keep up the "nice" facade.

This reminds me of a meme that went around here a while back to describe Mormons: "Please ignore the ferret hanging out of my ass."

The interview question "Are you honest with your fellow man?" is moot if the answer to "Are you honest with yourself?" is "No".



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2023 08:18AM by bradley.

Oh, God yes. Mormons LOVE being offended and giving offence. It's a very happy mix for them.

It depends on what it may be that might offend them

If you point out a mistake that they had made
If you seem to understand the scripture deeper than they
if you address something that is not in your calling relm
if you crack a joke and they think you are mocking the church

Oh the list could go on and on and on like the song that never ends.

EXAMPLE: The Missionaries came over to my home and started talking about the 3 degrees of glory. They asked me which kingdom I expected to go to.

I told them I would be going to Outer Darkness, The were trying to assure me that i could possibly go to one of the lower kingdoms.

My response was according to theology, because I have recieved the "fullness of the Gospel" I do not qualify. I told them that they were probably out of time for that visit but they could come back again and I would fully explain the 3 degrees of glory.

No one has come by since in almost a year. LOL I think that is how to properly offend them

The faux outrage that LDS are now supposed to have over the word Mormon is in line with other aspects of modern life I suppose.

Well that whole issue is stupid!

After all the TV ads ending with : "Brought to you by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints...(THE MORMONS)"

The Choir (The Mormon Tabernacle Choir)

The Videos (Film Strips) especially the one titled "MEET The MORMONS"

And of course the entire religion is known the word over as "Mormonism"

I say own it.... The Church embraced it for so many years rejecting Mormon is just one more reason to poke fun at it.

Kind like when John Cougar decided he was adding his real name to the stage name John Cougar Melencamp.... it was stupid and so he dropped Cougar and became John Melencamp ....then he kind of faded away......

Rusty makes it hurt so good

My TBM MIL gets huffy and rude when we're out to dinner and the server asks if she would like to see a wine list or would like coffee with her meal. Instead of just saying, "No thank you," She'll say something like, "Absolutely not! Nobody at this table wants anything like that."

She expects that the Mormon halo above her head should be easily recognized.

In my mother's final days, she was SLC hospital (forget which one) and there was a Starbucks on the bottom floor. When my TBM uncle and I went down for a break, he wouldn't even look at the menu. I had to say, "You know they serve other things besides coffee". He told me what he wanted and then sat as far away from the counter as he could. He was more worried about being seen at a Starbucks then his dying sister upstairs.

They are quick to designate criticism of their doctrine as "anti Mormon", taking it as a personal attack on the individual rather than a criticism of Mormonism, the doctrine and practice.

I am offended by the whole point of this thread. But as always I will suffer in silence.

BTW I'm still suffering in silence here.

:)