Friday, July 02, 2010

Mormons and criticism

Many Mormons do not like to hear or read criticism of their church. They believe they have a God-given right to correct what they see as misinformation about the Mormon church.

If we are to believe Mormons there was never any blood oaths in the Mormon Temple ceremony, Joseph Smith only had one wife (and if he did have more than one wife, including women already married to other men and young, nubile girls under the age of 16, it did not matter as they were only ever 'spiritual' wives) and Mountain Meadows was only an attack by Indians on a wagon train of people passing through the territory. And in any case, it did not matter, as did you know that some of those people on that wagon train were actually part of the mob that martyred Joseph Smith?

And did you know that neither Joseph Smith or Brigham Young ever ordered a group of men called the Danites (which didn't exist, anyway) to murder people? And even if Joseph Smith and Brigham Young HAD ordered the non-existent group to murder people, it would not have mattered as they would almost certainly have deserved it, and blood atonement was never preached or practised.

When Mormons tell or pass on these lies, do they know they are lying? OR do they really believe what they are saying? I remember one former Mormon mentioning the blood oaths in the temple ceremony to someone who had gone through the temple at roughly the same time as them. They were shocked when the practising Mormon denied there had ever been blood oaths as part of the temple ceremony, and challenged the former Mormon asking them why they would make up such a story? It was, they reported, as if part of the memory of the practising Mormon had been surgically removed. Unless, of course, the Mormon was just a liar? Which tends to indicate that some Mormons do "Lie for the Lord."

4 comments:

AlexisAR said...

"Lion OF the Lord," "Lyin' FOR the Lord," what's the big difference?
I am 16. My dad, whose parents were converts when he was 13, went on a mission as was expected of him. Immediately following, he told the Church, "Sayonara' (he actually probably said "Adios," as his mission was to a Spanish-speaking country) and has had varying degrees of success at letting the Church go one way while he went another. They (the church) do like to hang onto you if they've ever had you in their clutches, as you most likely know.

My grandparents had my twin brother and me blessed when we were two without my parents' knowledge. I believe that blessing stuff usually happens to actual infants, but it took my grandparents two years to hatch a plan and act on it. I'll tell you the story sometime if you genuinely want to hear of it.

So, anyway, courtesy of that blessing, my brother and I were LDS children of record for a few years. It amounted to very little except that I was made to fear Mormons about as much as child predators (maybe they were actually "child predators" in sense) when I was a kid, and had nightmares about it.

Soemday I'll compare otes with you if you're interested. In the meantime, I enjoy your blog immensely.

Matt said...

Thanks, Alexis, great comments. I would be genuinely very pleased to hear your story.

Have you looked at www.exmormon.org? It's a place were lots of exmos hang out, plus some nevermos who have links of various sorts with Mormonism.

Perhaps I'll see you over there one day?

I'm very pleased that you enjoy my blog. Thank you very much.

AlexisAR said...

Matt,
i wrote a brief overview of my blessing without my parents' knoweldge in my most recent blog. You'llwant to scroll to somehwhere around the middle. The rest is hospital story stuff that is even boring to me. I jus wrote it to. The middle part is a godd summary, thoug. Early in my blogging days I blogged once on the exclusive topic of the mormons' attempts to get us. I'll have to look it up to give you the link.

I'vr checked out exmormons.org. It's one of my new favorite sites.
Thanks for the link.
your reader,
Alexis

Matt said...

Alex, your blog is good. Very good.

In another parallel existence, I am a paid writer. (Meaning I found someone to employ me to carry out my hobby!)

I think you might just have it within you to be a good or perhaps great writer. You have a great style.