Shades of Gray

Readers of this blog might ask, “Aren't there some other (intermediate) terms on the continuum between religion and cult?”

Yes, there’s a continuum, and some religions fall closer to the “cult” end of the spectrum. The thing about a cult that makes it so dangerous is that people take it so seriously. The problem with the Mormon Church (and every other extremist religion) is that they seriously believe that their leader is the mouth of God and is always right, no matter how wrong he is. That’s dangerous. That makes people do things they would ordinarily not do…up to and including killing people. Mormons are firm believers in the ends (including murder) justifying the means. If Mitt Romney was President and he felt that going to war with country X would further the mission of the Mormon Church, he would do it. Never mind how many people might die. (Remember how he swore on his life in the Mormon temple to do everything in his power to further the mission of the Church?) Romney has already sworn on his life, on pain of his own eternal damnation. How can he swear allegiance to the American people when he’s already sworn on his very soul to obey the Mormon President and to give everything he has to build up the Mormon Church?

And why is no one bringing this up at the Presidential debates?

These people are not making rational decisions based on facts and evidence. They are making decisions based on gut feelings and the advice of delusional "prophets." But it's not really about Romney. Even if he was President, how much damage could one crazy person really do? Reagan was suffering from dementia when he was President, and we all lived through that. No, the problem isn't with one person. It's not even limited to the Mormons. It's a problem with most of the people who live in America. We're the only developed country in the world with such a high level of religiosity. A study of 137 countries showed that the more educated, more economically developed a country is, the less religious it is. Everywhere except the U.S., that is. In the U.S., church attendance increases 15% for each additional year of education that a person has. People in other developed countries are more rational. (Canada is looking better and better.) In the US, people make decisions based on truthiness, i.e. if it feels good, then it must be true. (By the way, truthiness is the foundation of the whole Mormon religion, with the caveat that if it feels wrong and the prophet says to do it, it's still true.)

I know an innocent woman who is serving time for child abuse. The jury, in truthiness tradition, thought, "Child abuse is bad, and the prosecutor says she abused the child, so I'm voting guilty." That's all fine and dandy except for the fact that she's innocent and now she's doing hard time. If people had any common sense they would have looked at the evidence in the case and said “not guilty.” There was so little evidence and so many holes in the case that the prosecutor knew the case was not strong enough for a felony conviction, so she tried to bargain a misdemeanor. Unfortunately, this woman maintained her innocence, didn’t take the plea bargain, and now has two felonies on her record.

The problem is that when people make decisions based on magical thinking, other people get hurt. The Mormons justified the scourge of the Native Americans because they said that God was punishing the Lamanites (their ancestors). The Mormons justified slavery and segregation of blacks, even saying that slavery was ordained of God, because God was punishing blacks for their pre-mortal sins and the sins of their fathers. The Mormons even think that the Jews deserve what they have gotten over the last 2,000 years because they need to be punished for crucifying Jesus. (This is ironic coming from a religion that proclaims that you'll only be punished for your own sins, not for those of your fathers.) Mormons also wanted to exact vengeance on the United States for the martyrdom of Joseph Smith. In fact, until the 1920's, all Mormon temple initiates took an oath to "never cease to pray to Almighty God to avenge the blood of the prophets upon this nation, and that you will teach the same to your children and to your children's children unto the third and fourth generation." (Does that sound like a call for jihad?) The Mormon arguments for genocide are EXACTLY the same argument that Hitler used when he told Germans that it was their Christian duty to exterminate the Jews in order to bring back religious values to German culture. It's dangerous when we let people make up their own reality and decide which people need to be punished/killed for something that they supposedly did in a previous life. What if they decided that people with brown eyes needed to be punished and they killed all brown-eyed people?

There's no telling where these people will go because they are acting on magical thinking. Before you think that Mormons are better than Hitler, that the issue is ancient history, realize that Hitler was long dead when Mormon President David O. McKay sent a letter to the whole Church in 1969 saying, "The seeming discrimination by the Church toward the Negro is not something which originated with man; but goes back into the beginning with God…Revelation assures us that this plan antedates man's mortal existence, extending back to man's pre-existent state." And don't think that Mormons were above killing people that they thought needed to die in order to repent (for example, for adultery)....that's what blood atonement was all about, and it was preached adamantly in the early Mormon Church. Mormons don't practice blood atonement today, but not because they don't believe in it. They are just reigning it in temporarily because they know they'd go to prison for murder. But if the opportunity presented itself, they'd do it again because it's the gospel truth. Same with polygamy. Same with discrimination of blacks, who, according post-Hitler Mormon prophets, wouldn't receive the priesthood until after all white men in the world had received it. There's no apology for these Church actions. They never said it was wrong, that they were sorry, that they won't do it again. They said that they were right, they are not sorry, and if God tells them to do it again, they will. When asked about slavery and segregation and Mormons denying the priesthood to blacks, Gordon B. Hinckley (then-President of the Mormon Church) told Mike Wallace in a 1996 “60 Minutes” interview that it was just a "flick of history" and "don't worry about it." That's not an apology. That's Hinckley telling the world that they should stop making such a big deal about it. This is crazy-making. This is on par with Holocaust denial.

• When Mormons say slavery and segregation are ordained of God, people get hurt.
• When Mormons say that it's okay to harass and kill people because of the color of their skin or because they don't buy into the Mormon doctrine, people get hurt.
• When Mormons perpetuate homophobia and gay people (who would never have voluntarily chosen to be gay when it would be so much easier in our society to be straight) commit suicide, people get hurt.
• When Mormons say (as they did at General Conferences in the 1980s) that mentally ill people are sinners, people get hurt.
• When Mormons campaign to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment because they say it will “stifle God-given feminine instincts,” people get hurt. (Think of all the mothers trying to provide for their families, who only get paid 77 cents for every dollar that their male counterparts make for the same work…and that's perfectly legal because we never passed the ERA.)
• When Mormons teach children blind faith instead of independent thinking skills, people get hurt. (Think Elizabeth Smart, who could have easily escaped from her kidnappers hundreds of times but didn't because she was such an easy target, psychologically).
• When we teach people to make decisions based on gut feelings and truthiness instead of evidence, innocent people go to jail, and people get hurt.
• When Mormons make innocent children feel guilty and ashamed because they might have let one brain cell step out of line of Mormon Doctrine, and those children grow up to have anxiety, depression and other mental disorders because of the crazy-making, people get hurt.

It is abuse. Mental, emotional, and spiritual abuse. And sexual abuse if you count the Mormon temple rite called the “Initiatory,” which, until 2005, included what can only be described as "inappropriate touching" of naked temple patrons. It is brainwashing and psychological abuse. And it's perfectly legal because the Mormon Church is a tax-exempt religious organization.

A wise man once said, “The difference between organized religion and organized crime is the former is far deadlier, more profitable, and safer from prosecution.”

So, no, it's not just about Romney. It's not just about Mormons. It's about magical thinking and the pain and suffering it causes innocent people. And religions that fall closer to the "cult" end of the continuum are worse offenders than the religions that are closer to the other end of the spectrum.

Amen.