... scare you into behaving? (aka: being righteous)

I recall many times my mother would say that she dreamt that Satan was quibbling with us kids in our own home. She told stories of inactive members that came back because of demonic activities in their basements/attics. I even remember one story of a family that heard singing in their backyard only to discover it was a choir of Satan.

I was BIC in the 70's and by the horrible 80`s I was running away.

BTW, I grew up outside of Utah Mormondom in the Washington, DC area.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2012 05:12PM by sciencegirl.

That would be rough. My grandparents were like that, but my parents had moved on to straight guilt instead.

My mom motivated by passive-aggressive guilt; my dad by yelling.

My parents used Santa to scare me.

They wer both bad at acronyms and by the time I was old enough to get it it was too late already.

<giggle>

Makes me wonder what they had stashed in the basement/attic that they didn't want you to get into?

YIKES! That's not par for the course in this neck of the woods!

What part of the area did you grow up in (if you don't mind saying)?

As a result, we kids were terrified of Old Scratch when we were young. Once we were all grown, my youngest siblings used to joke about whose soul was most strongly in Satan's power.

She held her arm to the square and said the magic words - pissed me off like crazy.

Now that I'm a mom of 3 who have gone through their teens, I totally get why! ;o)

But geez... she was SO dramatic about it!

My dad said he saw Satan in a random hotel room and that's why he finally took himself to rehab instead of being dragged there. He really did recover that time.

My mom has always been quick to bring up Satan, and dad would play along. They told me that drugs were Satan's ruse in the 1970's and sex was going to be the big thing for Satan in the 1990's. It just couldn't be a normal conversation about the birds & bees--no Satan was center stage. When I told them that I didn't believe in the LDS church and would likely resign my membership, mom went straight to the Satan card.

I sometimes wonder if she believes in the power of Satan more strongly than the power of God. Things always seemed to be about keeping evil/Satan out, but there were so few ways to let God in that did not involve absolute boredom. I guess when every little thing from the movies, to multiple earings are evil one can't help but be overwhelmed by the great day of his power.

Whenever we got caught doing something we shouldn't (cigarettes, boyfriends, girlfriends, r- rated movies or skipping school) my parents would always say it was satan trying to persuade us into wanting to do those things so we will leave the church. Even if we were "sick" and didn't want to go to church they would blame satan for makinf us want to stay home.

Yes. I remember F&T meetings where members would says things like, I don't have a super strong testimony of HF and JC but I can testify that SATAN is definitely for reals. Then they would spout some story about it. It wasn't an isolated event either. This would be in the 70s.

Then in the early 80's for something like 4 weeks in seminary, our teacher read us "Jays Journal". Purportedly it was a journal left by some mormon kid that took drugs and killed himself after being tormented by sin and satan. I remember my blood just going cold as he would read that stuff. And you thought seminary was all warm fuzzies! Not where I went! I can still remember the feeling I got when he described the copper colored demon dude sitting at the foot of Jay's bed looking longingly at Jay's body. Amazing that the seminary teacher got away with it. I think attendance went up though. No denying is was sensational.

Not Satan, so much, as the end of the world - the apocalypse. I'm a 40-something woman and my mom is trying to scare me back to church with all these videos by GA's discussing how the only safety in the last days will be in the church, following the leaders exactly. You must be part of the church to escape the doom and gloom that will fall upon humanity.

In a way, I feel sorry for my mom. While I'm sure individual groups of Mormons will band together in an emergency, to depend on the "leadership" for any kind of significant help or guidance is foolish in the extreme. Hopefully she will never be in a situation where she has to face this.

LOL if the apocalypse was right around the corner, the morg would not have built a $5 billion dollar mall.

They are not planning on it happening anytime soon.

Meanwhile "let's go shopping!"

Yeah, my mother is so sure that jeebus is right around the corner. REPENT! THE END IS NIGH!

I remember hearing Mormon Folklore all my life, anyone hear the story of the Missionaries who tried to contact satan and were thrown back by a force of "power". I heard that story twice in my life, first was in Sunday School class from my teacher, and then again in the MTC a few of the elders were also aware of it.

Anyone on here know that one?

I loved Satan. He would come around once a year, in his red suit, with a sack of gifts and toys. Or wait, you mean that other fictional guy.

Mormons and lots of Christians fear Satan more than they trust God.
The thing about the Satan of mormonism is that if you have the M' Priesthood, you can defeat him with a raised hand. Thus, mormons trust in their own arm of flesh more than they trust God.

Yes, satan is hiding behind every tree and he's just waiting to leap out, but fear not! Full-tithe paying mormons can make him tremble with fear, while the rest of the Christian world has to wait for God to perform a miracle.

My sister told me that when she was a young teen (13, 14?), she was sitting in the pew at one of LDS Corp's 'churches' with her (our) mother one Sunday. She said that her mother was angry at her for something, and so her mother placed her scriptures on the seat between them. She told my sister that she did this so Satan would not be able to come from my sister and past the scriptures to infect her.

Crazy...

Any slight hint of free thought or rebellion is obviously satan.

Disclaimer: Nevermo here.

I had a girlfriend who tried to exercise me. That didn't work either.

+1

Yes. Mormons are obsessed with Satan and are terrified of Satan. I believe they feel the presence of evil far more than good, in their minds of course.

My parents believe in wraiths, poltergeists and evil spirits.They weren't the only TBMs who believe in evil beings and have a testimony of actually seeing them. None of the TBM adults I overheard as a kid ever mentioned angels or good spirits, but they sure did obsess on evil.

My father told stories of friends who'd had experiences with haunted objects, and a guy who was stabbed by a Satan worshipper, but they were always secondhand.

I was terrified of Satan, demons and malevolent ghosts as a kid. Once I got to my teens and was questioning my belief in God, I realized something - if Satan ever actually revealed himself to me, that would, by association, prove that God existed too. And ghosts would prove the existence of an afterlife. So for a while I was really interested in those stories...but of course, to this day I have never seen anything with my own eyes even remotely resembling ghosts or demons.

I was told that if my room was dirty, evil spirits(satan's minions) would stand on every thing that was left on the floor and stare at me all night. The dirtier the room, the more evil I was letting in. I was five, that scared the bejeezus out of me.

I was also told the holy ghost goes to bed at 10pm, and that if you say anything bad out loud, satan hears you and will use it to try and turn you into of his servants.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/17/2012 02:29PM by icanseethelight.

Wow. Nice way to create OCD in your kid. Religious people suck.

My parents never referred to such things.

My dad was a nevermo agnostic, my mom grew up as a Presbyterian, converted to Moism at 24.

I count myself lucky because of it. I grew up with a more conventional view of "right and wrong" than my Mo-household peers.

Minnesota, 70s/80s.

Any parent who would stoop to that level is not better thaqn the spawn of said being.....JMHO

Ron Burr

I thought Satan was my parents best friend. They talked about him constantly. He obviously had more going for him than God.

I used to piss my parents off by saying if the end comes in my lifetime I'm going to be one of the first to go. Thank God!

Why would I want to survive and chew on wheat and weevils for the next 10 years?

Satan was in control of the neighbors and co-workers who didn't like my father. The black people who frightened my mother were Satanic. When my father was fired, it was the adversary. And Dad was fired a lot, proving his righteousness.

The Devil embarrassed my parents with their lack of scientific literacy. Old Scratch delighted in exposing their hillbilly superstitions. He attacked them with music, literature and history. They would open their mouths and ignorance would pour forth, because Satan confounded their speech.

I was supposed to hate Satan, but it seemed like he was the only one capable of running a house.

My parents would separate my "good friends" from the bad ones
by telling us the bad friends, (the ones who weren't tbms),
brought an "evil spirit" into our house
when the came over to see me.
I guess satans minions are
trailing behind all non mo folks.
They must be really busy....