It’s just another cult. We met loads of these boys in our assignment in the Caribbean . Two years on their bike, back home. Financial compensation and heroes. 🤮
The mormon church(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
by asp59 21 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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shadow
Jacksons far superior to Osmonds
No contest on the tennis court either
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lancelink
my wife was a jw, and left the cult then "changed horses in midstream" becaming a mormon.
It is a carbon copy of the jw lifestyle, but the people have much more education.
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RubaDub
The Mormons have one advantage over JW's: the Magic Underwear thing.
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joe134cd
Lacelink- when I left the JWs I didn’t think it was possible to get any more bat shit crazy. It wasn’t until I started to investigate the mormons that I discovered how wrong I was. What on earth made your wife get out of the frying pan and into the fire.
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Carmichael
My father was LDS. My mother was JW. My relatives were Humanistic and Reconstructionist Jews (which my parents were raised as). There is sincerity in the ranks of the LDS, but a lot of what you see in public can be and truly is just show.
The best way I can describe the smiles on the faces of the missionaries that you see are "forced sincerity."
The "excessive happiness" on the faces of missionaries "elders" is very much Part 1 of the Love Bombing that all missionaries and LDS members are trained to engage in. Non-members are meant to be "smiled and loved" and "fussed" all over, even to the point of pretending that you are interested in the non-member's religion, attending their religious services once or twice, and then asking them if they can "practice" a lesson with a newer missionary at your place. That's how it starts. (Yes, they are trained to do this like Witnesses are trained to publically preach).
Mormons "love" their non-member neighbors and workmates the same way. They feign interest in them to the point that the non-member feels obligated to go to church with them. Part 2 of the Love Bombing then occurs at the Ward church building and continues on, hoping to get the person baptized and qualified for Temple attendance.
Temple attendance and work is the main goal. Mormon religion is all about going to their Temples and baptizing for non-Mormon dead people. They love to convert Jews because they can't baptize dead Jews unless they are relatives of the converted proxy.
A lot of what you see in LDS people are their attempts to stay clean enough in daily life to remain holy enough to qualify to visit their local Temple. If they mess up in any way, they have to confess their sin to their Ward bishop. If they don't do this, they can't visit their Temple and do this most important work (even more important that missionary work). Even the most private and embarrassing thoughts and personal things must be confessed to the Ward bishop--who is a man in his 50s--and children have to confess too!
Some live this way because they want to advance to the highest levels in the Church and Temple service in order to advance in the afterlife. They are told to tell the press that Mormons don't believe that they can become gods over their own worlds if they advance enough in this life, but they do. Some of what you are seeing is this, believe it or not.
There is some fear to do right too, of course, but that is mainly among those who do not fit in with the LDS standard: i.e., LGBTQ people, women, and yes, people who are not white men.
They have become a little more normalized into the culture than the Witness, but only because they have been around longer and their end of the world prophecies that have failed have been pushed to the back for over 100 years (until just recently, that is--the latest prophet is pushing the idea that "we are very near" the end). They tend to lightly celebrate Christian and worldly holidays but mostly to purposefully fit in with the objective to try to proselytize about the "Restoration." This another part of the smiles and happiness. They are told to act like close families for this purpose.
First answer here: Been reading for a while.
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cofty
Hi Carmichael thanks for your insightful post. I love hearing first-hand experiences from other cults. There are so many things in common. Welcome to the forum.
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joe134cd
The thing I can’t understand with this guys wife is why she would leave one cooky religion to get into another one, that may appear a bit more main stream, but is just off the charts with crazy. Ok you have got the pyramids of Russel, and Booze Rutherford, but OMG they are nothing compared to the antics of J Smith. That guy was just just out of control. Well that’s just my thoughts on it.
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slimboyfat
I’ve seen lots of switching, between fringe groups, and across to the mainstream too.
I met someone at the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Dundee who had been baptised a JW, a Mormon and a Seventh-day Adventist in turn. He didn’t seem terribly happy with the Seventh-day Adventist Church either. So he might be off to join another church shortly.
I also knew two separate JWs who are ex-Moonies, and I’ve met a number of Christadelphians who are former JWs. I know a Mormon who is a former JW, and a JW who is a former Mormon. I know two former Quakers who are JWs, and a number of former JWs who are now Unitarians and Quakers. Plus one former JW who is a Church of Scotland minister.