I think it was the overriding idea that you just don't question the brethren. The church is true and God speaks to the profit so there's nothing to worry about.
If I had a time machine and could back and have a chat with myself 8 or 10 years ago it would probably go something like this:
Me Now: Dude the church is a steaming pile of shit and you will eventually leave it
Me Then: No way! You must be an evil spirit sent to destroy my faith. Here shake my hand...
MN: You really believe that crap about discerning spirits with a handshake?
MT: Uh, well...uh...
MN: Do you have any idea how much money the church has and what they spend your tithing money on?
MT: Of course, they build temples and churches and do all kinds of great charity work.
MN: How much do they spend on that stuff?
MT: What do you mean?
MN: How much do they spend on temples and churches and charity work?
MT: All of it!
MN: And how much is that?
MT: I don't know and I don't need to know. God is in charge of this great work and I don't need to know how much money it takes (fingers go into my ears at this point) La la la I can't hear you evil spawn of Satan. Be gone and take your evil questioning ways with you.
The apathy about the money spent on the jesus mall shocked me. No personal opinion AT ALL! It changed the way I looked at members. The programming to not care or worry about it was blatantly obvious and it was coming from folk that I thought better of.
There are thought patterns that some here describe as thought stopping scripts. Mormons run these scripts all the time and it shocks me how universal they seem to be. Here are some samples:
1. That's not important to your salvation. 2. The church is perfect but the people are not. 3. We'll understand it in the next life. 4. I know the church is true.
Until I was nearly 40 years old these kinds of thought patterns kept Mormonism basically untouchable in my brain. It was locked up tight and nothing was allowed in except reinforcing mantras. In those days I just didn't care to hear about any problems with the church and would have discounted any negative info immediately.
I look back and I don't know how I never cared about the money either, maybe because I was led to believe the funds were sacred, the Lord's money was used for bulding churches and temples, missions, schools, etc. And by schools I somehow understood building an elementary school in Africa, with senior missionaries serving these people in humanitarian missions and young missionaries teaching them the gospel.
Maybe because I heard the stories of sacrifices made by the pioneers traveling west, the poor, honest and dedicated man in Utah giving all to the church or the family in a third world country selling all their furniture in order to travel to the temple. How could I even think of not paying tithing and even question where the money went. We mormons are the givers not the doubters.