This IS Illegal, right?

[shuamort]

How and where is mind controlled used in the Mormon Religion?

Here are some examples per the link:


Brain washing and the Reinforcing of brain washing by Mormon church leaders.

Following are some of the answers to questions given by Church officials in order to reinforce brain washing, which transfers faults of the Church, Joseph Smith or church leaders to rank and file members: The scholarly book The Mormon Conspiracy goes into further detail.

1. Some things haven’t been revealed yet and will be revealed to you later or in eternal life.

2. Lucifer wins a great victory when he can get members of the Church to speak against their leaders and do their own thinking.

3. You are not trying hard enough. Try harder and pray about it.

4. Or if a member of the Priesthood’s blessing does not cure a health problem: It is not the blessing that didn’t help you to overcome your sickness, it was your lack of faith. You need to have faith and pray about it.

5. Or if you don’t believe in the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, you don’t know enough about it to understand it. Here again, it’s not church leaders, God’s or Joseph Smith’s fault, it is your fault and you should feel guilty to question the word of God, Joseph Smith or church leaders.

6. If a person questions why they aren’t receiving the church’s promised blessings, You need to examine your life and see why you aren’t righteous enough to deserve these blessings.

7. If a member questions the church’s claim that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, or a fraud, You need to kneel down and pray about it and God will tell you that Joseph Smith is a true prophet.

8. Or a member questions church doctrine or practices, Pray about it “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

9. If you question the authorities of the church, “You must not speak out against the Lord’s anointed.”

10. Or if a member violates a church rule, “Satan has gotten ahold of you, ask a member of the priesthood to remove Satan from your body.”

11. If you have written something critical of the church, “You are doing Satan’s work in attempting to harm the church.”

Because they interpret the Bible in a different way they are a cult?

As per cultwatch.org, it's the extraneous interpretations that are outside of the Bible.

To delve into further, the American Family Foundation gives us guidelines to go by as to what defines a cult:

1. preoccupation with bringing in new members and making money
2. discouragement or punishment for any doubt or questioning of authority
3. a polarized "us vs. them" mindset
4. leadership is not accountable to any authority, either financially or morally
5. belief that "the ends justify the means" and readiness to use unethical means to achieve their goals
6. requiring members to socialize only with members of the cult
7. in more extreme cases, requiring members to cut ties completely with family or the outside community

I would still like to see examples of this.

Here ya go: linky

 

[-Demosthenes-]

Following are some of the answers to questions given by Church officials in order to reinforce brain washing, which transfers faults of the Church, Joseph Smith or church leaders to rank and file members: The scholarly book The Mormon Conspiracy goes into further detail.

1. Some things haven’t been revealed yet and will be revealed to you later or in eternal life.

2. Lucifer wins a great victory when he can get members of the Church to speak against their leaders and do their own thinking.

3. You are not trying hard enough. Try harder and pray about it.

4. Or if a member of the Priesthood’s blessing does not cure a health problem: It is not the blessing that didn’t help you to overcome your sickness, it was your lack of faith. You need to have faith and pray about it.

5. Or if you don’t believe in the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, you don’t know enough about it to understand it. Here again, it’s not church leaders, God’s or Joseph Smith’s fault, it is your fault and you should feel guilty to question the word of God, Joseph Smith or church leaders.

6. If a person questions why they aren’t receiving the church’s promised blessings, You need to examine your life and see why you aren’t righteous enough to deserve these blessings.

7. If a member questions the church’s claim that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, or a fraud, You need to kneel down and pray about it and God will tell you that Joseph Smith is a true prophet.

8. Or a member questions church doctrine or practices, Pray about it “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

9. If you question the authorities of the church, “You must not speak out against the Lord’s anointed.”

10. Or if a member violates a church rule, “Satan has gotten ahold of you, ask a member of the priesthood to remove Satan from your body.”

11. If you have written something critical of the church, “You are doing Satan’s work in attempting to harm the church.”

Other religions don't claim to be the correct religion? If they do are they a cult? If you tell a catholic priest that you don't think the Bible is true they won't tell you that your wrong? If a religious leader doesn't agree that religious doctrine is wrong then it's brain washing?

Then every religion is brainwashing, and is a cult. Cool.

To delve into further, the American Family Foundation gives us guidelines to go by as to what defines a cult:

1. preoccupation with bringing in new members and making money
...

Other religions try to convert people, does that make them a cult?

Money brought into the Mormon Church goes directly out to: welfare programs, temple and other church building, and other expenses of the church. Only cults do this?

...
2. discouragement or punishment for any doubt or questioning of authority
...

For doubt? I have studied the Mormon Church extensively, and those who express doubt are encouraged to explore that doubt, study scripture, and pray concerning the matter. What is sinister about this?

...
3. a polarized "us vs. them" mindset
...

Blatantly untrue concerning the Mormon Church, not in any of the meetings that I attended, it is true that visitors and non-members are encouraged to attend. It is true they abstain from things that normal people do, but so do other religions, who are no more cult-like in nature.

...
4. leadership is not accountable to any authority, either financially or morally
...

Who is the Pope accountable to?

...
5. belief that "the ends justify the means" and readiness to use unethical means to achieve their goals
...

I have seen no examples of this in my study, and I doubt there are any.

...
6. requiring members to socialize only with members of the cult
...

Again, untrue for the Mormon Church. Members socialize openly with non-members, and even encouraged to do so.

...
7. in more extreme cases, requiring members to cut ties completely with family or the outside community
...

Nothing resembling this exists in the Mormon Church.


As you can see The Mormon Church does not fit the criteria to be a cult anymore than any other large religion.

I would still like to see examples of this.

Here ya go: linky

Thank you, I was very curious about that.

 

[shuamort]

Other religions don't claim to be the correct religion? If they do are they a cult? If you tell a catholic priest that you don't think the Bible is true they won't tell you that your wrong? If a religious leader doesn't agree that religious doctrine is wrong then it's brain washing?

Actually, the Catholic Church came out a couple months ago and said that the Bible was fallible actually.

As for the rest, what defines a religion and it's status as a cult or not is very subjective. Let's look at the definition from m-w.com

1 : formal religious veneration : WORSHIP
2 : a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents
3 : a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents
4 : a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <health cults>
5 a : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad b : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion

I've highlighted the definition which is most relevent to the impression given when the word "cult" is used. A humanist or atheist could deem all religions as cults as their beliefs are spurious. As such, one has to wonder why label some religions as religions and some religions as cults. Here's my take on it: it's a numbers game. Christians think that the beliefs of Hindus are spurious, Buddhist claim that Jewish doctrine is spurious, and vice versa and on and on. Now, if we've got these major religions calling each others' beliefs dubious and label them as a cult, how soon afterwards will the name be called at them? So, we've got an unspoken détente between the majors here. The minors and the splinters are the ones who get called the cult.

 

[-Demosthenes-]

So, we've got an unspoken détente between the majors here. The minors and the splinters are the ones who get called the cult.

Merely because it's smaller than other religions it should be considered a cult? You have simplified the definition of a cult down to numbers? That's completely unfair, if catholicism has less people then Buddhism then Buddhism is more of a religion than catholicism?

Who decides where the line is? Should the top ten religions be considered "religions" and the rest "cults"?

For you information the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the 15th largest religious body in the world.

(http://www.adherents.com/adh_rb.html)

Religious Body Number of Adherents

Catholic Church** 1,100,000,000
Sunni Islam* 1,000,000,000
Eastern Orthodox Church* 225,000,000
Jinja Honcho* 83,000,000
Anglican Communion* 76,000,000
Assemblies of God* 50,000,000
Ethiopian Orthodox Church 35,000,000
Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD)* 27,400,000
Iglesia ni Cristo (based in the Philippines) 27,000,000
Sikhism 23,000,000
Juche (North Korea) 19,000,000
Seventh-day Adventist Church 16,811,519
Southern Baptist Convention* 16,000,000
Jehovah's Witnesses** 15,597,746
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 12,275,822

If this Church is a "cult" then by you idea of "numbers" all religions with less people then them would be cults.

Cults according to shuamort:

Methodist Church
Choge Buddhism
Evangelical Lutheran Church
American Baptist Churches
United Orthodox Jewish Congregation of America
Church of Sweden
Church of Norway
Balinese Hinduism
Lutheran Church
Presbyterian Church
American Muslim Society

All have less members than the Mormon Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), these are all "splinters".



I think (and I think that it is rather obvious) that classifying cults using the number of members is blatantly stupid.

 

[shuamort]

Actually, in my opinion,all religions are all cults. From the largest down to the smallest.

How do you define a cult?

 

[UtahBill]

According the the rules of CultWatch, nearly all religions are cults, and especially the Baptists. I was raised a Baptist, and can say that the leadership was definitely interested in money, supposedly to do God's work. Somehow God is no longer interested in the teachings of Christ where we are told to take care of each other, but more interested in high salaries, subsidized housing, etc. for the preachers. They also use mind control, teaching us as children some pretty good things to get us believing that they can be trusted, but when we got older, suddenly they tell us that God doesn't like blacks, gays, catholics, mormons, etc.

I think the biggest complaint that some preachers have against Mormons is that there are no paid members in the leadership until you get up into the very high levels of administration, or those working full time for the church. And the pay is not substantial. Even some of those serve for free.
Bishops of local wards certainly are not paid, and they have to be tithe payers to get the job!

To respond to the original question, I like to ask the detractor what his religion is. If he has none, then I would ask him why he cares, and why he is so willing to use a derogatory term about it. Did a Mormon steal his girlfriend, or what?

If he admits to being a Whatever, I tell him that the church of Whatever must be wondering where its most ignorant bigot is, and that he should report in.:2razz:

 

[Antonia]

Okay we have this teacher called Mr. Bob (name changed)
Hes a pretty good teacher, but when they came on the topic of religion, and got to the mormon part, he called the religion a "cu;t" and then said saying stuff such as we worship Joseph Smith, which is completely false.
Isnt that illegal for a teacher to do?

Yes it is illegal! Definitely!

 

[shuamort]

Yes it is illegal! Definitely!

What's the law being broken?

 

[UtahBill]

Yes it is illegal! Definitely!

Stupid, yes, illegal, no......not unless he finds a way to discriminate against you because of it.

 

[-Demosthenes-]

Stupid, yes, illegal, no......not unless he finds a way to discriminate against you because of it.

Maybe not in a public setting, but in school teaching children I see no difference between slandering a reputable religion and the teaching of religious doctrines (as true) which I have fought so hard against.

I dislike double standards, both sides of the spectrum are wrong.