parallels between Joseph Smith and Brian Mitchell?

Declaring himself a prophet, prophecy that gets him what he wants, and unholy hypocrite, self serving mission.

Elizabeth Smart: "Well, nine months of living with him and seeing him proclaim that he was God's servant and he had been called to do God's work, and everything that he did to me and to my family is something I know God would never tell someone to do," she said. ''God would never tell someone to kidnap a young girl from her family's home in the middle of the night, from her bed that she shared with her sister, from her sister's side, and continue to rape her and sexually abuse her. ... I know he was not called of God because God would never do something like that."

And the fact that Mormons can't seem to draw any parallels at all.

and Brigham Young were called on by God to do.

Send men away from their families to do missionary work, leaving wifes and children to fend for themselves at the mercy of "Priesthood holders"


"murderers", "wife-stealers", "child-molesters", "adulterers", "racists", "occultists", "drunkards", "homosexuals", "horse thieves", "liars", "abortionists", "moonmen believers", "Adam-God worshipers", and "guilty of every imaginable evil"

all approved of by God

The situations are not the same. Joe used emotional blackmail as the head of the church to force girls to agree to have sex with him. He was acknowledged as the spiritual leader.
Elizabeth was abducted and raped by two mentally disturbed people. She used her faith to survive the situation so it only strengthened her beliefs.

I feel sorry for the woman and think that she has a boat load of unresolved emotional baggage with the abduction since she never got any therapy but it will probably not manifest itself for years.

I don't think that she will become the poster child for progressive thinking and leave the church. I have read numerous posts here for people who want to project their own agenda on the woman. Base on her experiences I would think that she would have future problems with PSD and depression but maybe she will not.

Everyone here hopes that she gets out of the Morg but she has a lot invested to stay in that supportive sheltering environment. In a way her experience validates her beliefs --She had faith and she survived.

What is the same is the delusion that God had told these men that certain women were "given" to them. Both men felt justified in their actions because of some perceived divine command. They both used positions of authority to manipulate women into having sex. One by persuasion, another by force.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2010 10:36AM by badseed.

I think 'nevermo' and 'they don't want me back' are both right.

While Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped and raped it was her faith that sustained her; and there are definite parallels between Brian Mitchell's thinking (however mentally ill he is) and Joseph Smith's.

And I still believe that the LDS way of teaching young women to subjugate who they are and what their needs, hopes and dreams are to the priesthood (remember: you can't go heaven without being married in a temple to a worthy priesthood holder!) set Elizabeth Smart up to be a victim. And LDS, Inc., are not the only ones guilty of this--my point is that we all, as a society, have to look at what we teach our daughters about protecting themselves. And the most important thing is: being female doesn't mean you are lesser, so don't act as if you were.

And please, 'nevermo', don't read into that that Ms. Smart could have done something different. I am saying society (in particular groups like LDS) needs to--or this will keep happening.

nwmcare Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think 'nevermo' and 'they don't want me back'
> are both right.
>


I read a couple of the days of testimony. Her abductor used force initially to get her, which JS probably didn't do.

But eventually he became as powerful to her as JS was to some of his young victims. JS used emotional blackmail, along with threats of angles and swords and your future in the next life. Brian David Mitchel (BDM) used emotional blackmail and threats to her and her families safety. She just didn't believe his "priesthood" BS.

However, she saw it work on his wife. If the wife got jealous of his attention and sex with Smart, he'd give her a blessing that was just an exaggerated version of a very mormon sounding blessing. And it would work like a charm on his wife. she'd calm down and feel special and blessed, like many mormons would.

When I read through the testimony, I also wondered if she saw all that working so well on his wife and ever thought, "That is all too similar to what works on us too." "Are we being suckered too?"

It's hard to picture her getting a blessing and not think, OMG, that sounds too similar, and look, I'm feeling like too much like Barzee did.

Morgbots will say something like "evil imitates the real thing". Mitchell imitated Joe just like Ra, Buddah and the rest imitated (before the fact) the Jesus Myth.

It is all spin.

And she may be very unlikely to find out. Who will tell her? Her family, BYU friends, her missionary companions? She lives in an echo chamber supporting the morg.

I had no idea myself until I was much older than she and quite discontented--and had the internet.

>
> Elizabeth Smart: [in part] ...I know [Mitchell] was not called of God because God would never do something like that."
>


I guess Elizabeth has never read the Old Testament.