Simple, Yes/No Questions

Mitt Romney thinks that religion should not be brought up during the campaign.

True, we shouldn’t waste too much time on religion when there are more pressing things to discuss at the debates, like foreign policy and the economy. However, I think these questions are relevant to Romney’s competence as a Presidential candidate. Therefore, I have distilled them down to just a few simple yes/no questions so that we can quickly get them out of the way and then move on to unemployment and other pressing issues facing the nation.

Question: Mitt Romney, did you hold your right arm to the square and "promise before God, angels and witnesses" to "consecrate yourself, your time, talents and everything with which the Lord has blessed you, or with which he may bless you, to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for the building up of the kingdom of God on the earth and for the establishment of Zion"?

Answer if Romney is not lying: Yes

Question: When you made this promise, did you mean it? Did you take it seriously?

Answer if Romney is not lying: Yes. Yes.

Question: Have you since forgotten about this promise? Or have you memorized it by repeating it hundreds of times, every time you attend the Mormon temple?

Answer if Romney is not lying: I have not forgotten. I have repeated it hundreds of times.

Question: If you were elected President of the United States, would you consider your position as President to be one of the things that falls under the category of “everything with which the Lord has blessed you”?

Answer if Romney is not lying: Yes

Question: When you participate in the “true order of prayer” in the Mormon temple, are all of the women (but not the men) in the room required to wear veils over their faces?

Answer if Romney is not lying: Yes

Question: When Thomas S. Monson was named President of the Mormon Church in April 2008, did you participate in a “Solemn Assembly” where you raised your right arm to the square and promised to sustain Monson?

Answer if Romney is not lying: Yes

Question: And does “sustain” in this context mean that you will follow the teachings of Monson, whatever they may be, because the Mormon Church teaches that the President of the Church will never lead you astray?

Answer if Romney is not lying: Yes

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.

The Elephant in the Campaign Room

Let's review:

 

• Gingrich’s political director was asked to resign on Tuesday because he said that Mormonism is a cult.
• Gingrich’s campaign reassures us that Gingrich himself has never said anything negative about Mormonism.
• Rick Perry’s campaign distanced itself from Baptist pastor Robert Jeffress because he called Mormonism a cult.

 

Everyone is afraid they will be accused of religious persecution if they say Mormonism is a cult. Or if they bring up Mormonism at all.

 

Let me be clear. Some people may throw the word “cult” around like it’s some general insult, like calling someone a jerk. But on this blog, when we talk about a cult, we are talking about the scholarly definition of a cult. This blog exists to compare the characteristics of the Mormon Church to the academic definition of a cult as defined by psychologists. And Mormonism fits that definition. If it looks like a cult, and talks like a cult, and psychologically manipulates people like a cult, it’s a cult. That word may offend some people, but it is a fact. It is not illegal to be a member of a cult. This is a free country. You can belong to any religion you choose, so long as you do not break any laws. Whether or not you like the word “cult” does not change the fact that certain religions fall into that category.

 

“Romney, in an interview with the Register’s editorial board on Friday, said he doesn’t think religion or spirituality should play a role in the election process.” –Des Moines Register

 

I beg to differ. Romney has sworn his life, his possessions, and his eternal soul to a particular church, which happens to fit the definition of a cult. That is a relevant fact when we are considering whether to ask him to swear his allegiance to the American people. The voting public is not doing their job if they think they can choose a President without considering where that candidate’s loyalties lie.

 

So, America, are we going to ask Mitt Romney the salient questions or not?

Today's vocabulary word: Cult

I am disgusted by news articles claiming that Mormonism is not a cult, such as this one in the Baltimore Sun, which states that Mormonism is "a form of Christianity that is shared by 14 million people worldwide, including 6 million in the United States. That's no cult."

Apparently, the author thinks that a cult is defined solely by the number of people who are members.

Even CNN says, "Intolerance toward [Mormons] because of their religion is just like intolerance toward Catholics, Jews, blacks, women, and gays: bigotry that we must put behind us."

Wow. That is completely analogous to saying that intolerance of Nazis is just like intolerance toward Jews, gays, Romani, blacks, and the physically and mentally disabled (the very groups that Hitler tried to exterminate). The CNN author managed to name five groups who are discriminated against by the LDS church. They could have made the list complete by including the mentally ill, and anyone who does not believe in the Mormon doctrine.

According to the Pew Research Center, 52% of registered voters in America do not know that Mitt Romney is a Mormon. In addition, 52% of Americans who are not Mormons say that they know little or nothing about Mormonism." Mormonism is an important part of what makes this Presidential candidate tick, so it's important that Americans be educated about Mormonism. In fact, most Mormons do not know about many of the important events in Mormon history, and could use a serious education on Mormonism, as will be discussed below.  

Clearly, America needs to learn the definition of a cult and how it relates to one of our Presidential candidates.

What is a cult? According to Janja Lalich, Ph.D., and Michael Langone, Ph.D. of the non-profit research network International Cultic Studies Association, a cult is characterized by the following patterns (shown in bold below), all of which apply to Mormonism:

"The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law."

• The Mormons believe that whatever the President of the LDS (a.k.a. Mormon) Church says is the word of God. They believe that God would never let the President, a.k.a. Prophet, of the Church lead them astray. So, anything that Thomas S. Monson says is gospel truth. Period. There is no questioning.
• Mormons regularly hold "solemn assemblies" where they raise their right arm to the square and swear to "sustain" (i.e. obey) the Church President and all other Church authorities.
• In the Mormon temple rite, Mormons swear never to "speak evil of the Lord's anointed," or in other words, to never criticize a Church leader. The "penalty" for breaking this oath is eternal damnation.
• In another Mormon temple rite, Mormons swear to devote everything they have, all their "time, talents, and everything with which the Lord has blessed you and everything with which he may bless you" for the purpose of "building up the Kingdom of God," i.e. the Mormon Church. Again, the "penalty" for breaking this oath is eternal damnation.
• The Mormon priesthood hierarchy supposedly gives Mormon men authority over other people. For example, all Mormon men have authority over their wives and children. Mormon bishops have authority over all of the people who live in the boundaries of their “ward.” This includes all of the non-Mormons who live in the neighborhood as well as the Mormons. The Mormon Church is THE church, so it’s leaders believe they have authority over everyone whether they have joined the Mormon Church or not. That means that, no matter who you are, there is a Mormon bishop living not far from you who believes he receives revelation straight from God concerning you. “Stake Presidents” are one step up from bishops on the hierarchy, and they have authority over bishops. Stake Presidents answer to “regional authorities” and “general authorities,” who in turn answer to the Twelve Apostles. Above the Twelve Apostles in the hierarchy is the "First Presidency," which consists of the President of the Church and his two counselors. The only authority that the President of the Church answers to is Jesus Christ, who reportedly visits the President in person. In fact, all of the "Apostles" claim to have seen God in the flesh. The authority of the President of the Church extends not only to all Mormons, but to all people on the planet.
• It’s important to understand that the Mormons believe that their God-given, unquestionable authority applies to everyone whether they are Mormon or not. When the Mormon Church published their edict on family values, it was titled, “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.” Mormons believe that this proclamation applies to everyone in the world, and expects everyone to follow it’s guidance on ultra-conservative male and female roles. Mormons are already keenly aware of the principles outlined in the proclamation, so this was written specifically for non-Mormons. The proclamation was written by the top level of Mormon hierarchy (the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles) and states, “We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.” The proclamation says that if we don’t follow their advice (for example, if women don’t stay home with the children and if we do not conform to Mormon sexual mores), we will “bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.”  They warn that everyone, not just Mormons, “will one day stand accountable before God.” So you see that the Mormon Prophet, who has authority over all people, and who has the wisdom to tell “officers of government everywhere” what to do, will not hesitate to direct Mitt Romney in the finer points of the American government.
• While the head of the Mormon Church is called the “President,” it is important to note that he is not elected by the Church members. He is chosen by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles when the previous President dies. (The new President is actually chosen by 14 Apostles because the President's two counselors revert back to the Quorum of the Twelve when the President dies.) The Quorum always unanimously elects the most senior member among them to succeed the presidency. Therefore, the way to become the President of the Mormon Church is to (1) become a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, and (2) out-live all the other members of the quorum. This means that the Presidents of the Church are often very old and infirm. This brings up another important point about Church authority: The President is the authority over all the Church and all the planet, even if he is senile or in a vegetative state. In 1993 when the grandson of the president, Ezra Taft Benson, revealed that his grandfather (who almost never appeared in public to Mormons or anyone else) was senile and invalid and that the Church leadership had been covering this up, pretending that Benson was actually running the Church, he was told to be quiet, then forced out of the Church.
• Another example of Mormon Priesthood authority trumping mental incompetency is that of schizophrenic men in the Church. These men are still considered the authority in their Church positions and in their own family, and their wives are still instructed to “obey” and “honor” them. As a Mormon wife and mother, I was told to just be patient with my schizophrenic husband…even though it had been years since he had been capable of acting like an adult (for example, practicing personal hygiene) or holding down a job, I was supposed to be patient and have faith that someday my husband would be normal again. Well, I have a news flash: Religion does not cure schizophrenia. It is a lifelong illness. I stayed in a marriage way too long, until my son and I were suffering from major depression, because I was following Mormon family values.
• Even Mormon apologist blogger Joanna Brooks of "Ask Mormon Girl," who insists that Mormons are "normal" admits that the authoritarian structure of the Mormon church has impaired Mitt Romney's ability to interact with people. In an interview with NPR, Brooks says, "I'm not the first to observe his stiffness in terms of interactions with the public. Given that Mormon congregations don't openly dispute with their leaders, they are not used to, perhaps, candid feedback. So that lack of an ability to do a give-and-take with the press or the public is something we've already seen impact Mitt Romney's candidacy. And I think it may have been something he picked up in Mormon leadership culture." Do you think a person who does not know how to give-and-take in a conversation is capable of getting anything accomplished with our very partisan Congress? In traditional Mormon style, Romney cannot even comprehend that other people's ideas, if different from his own, may actually have merit.

"Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished."

• Church historians who come across evidence that is not "faith-promoting" are forbidden to share that information. Historians who do make the evidence public are excommunicated.
• Church Members are told that if they have a question about Church doctrine, they should pray about it until they are convinced it is true. If someone prays and is not convinced, that person is counseled to keep praying and waiting, possibly until the afterlife, when it will be explained to them. The person is counseled to continue to follow the questionable Church doctrine in the meantime, as this is required by God. Remember, whatever the Church leaders say is gospel truth. If a person prays and determines that a Church doctrine is not true, the person is told that Satan is deceiving them. Much like the Emperor's New Clothes, anyone who does not agree with Church doctrine is a sinner.
• To limit questioning, the Mormon Church controls what information its members have access to. Mormon missionaries are not allowed to read any books, pamphlets, etc. except for their missionary manual and the Mormon scriptures. In the past there were pamphlets distributed to the missionaries describing how black people were unworthy of the Priesthood, and how to tell if someone might be even a little bit black so that these people could be avoided. But missionaries were required to return these pamphlets to the Church, so they are hard to find these days. Other Church publications that used to be present in every Mormon home were also recalled. The Church's web site archives many speeches from Church leaders, but those describing certain discriminatory practices have not been included. Mormons are strongly discouraged from reading any "anti-Mormon" literature, which would consist of anything that does not promote faith in the Mormon Church. Church historians and insiders who make "non-faith promoting" information public are ex-communicated. As a result, many Church members are not aware of some of the more sordid chapters in Mormon history, such as the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857, in which Mormons dressed as Paiute Native Americans and slaughtered 120 men, women and children in a wagon train that was passing through Utah on its way to California. The only wagon train survivors were 17 children, all under the age of seven, whom the Mormons abducted and raised as their own.
• Mormons are so thoroughly entrenched in their religion that they don't question even the most obviously fraudulent practices. For example, Joseph Smith supposedly translated the Book of Abraham (part of the Mormon scriptural canon) from Egyptian papyri that he purchased in 1835 from a traveling mummy exhibition. The Church owns 22 papyri fragments that were part of Joseph Smith's original collection. Characters from the existing fragments match those in Smith's notes that he attributes to the Book of Abraham. Modern Egyptologists can legitimately translate the papyri, and they have found that the actual translation bears absolutely no resemblance to the story of Abraham that Joseph Smith wrote. In fact, the papyri contain part of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, a funerary text that was buried with a mummy to assist him in the afterlife. Any normal, critical thinking person would see this as a problem. But Mormons are told that Joseph Smith received the story that he wrote via divine revelation, and that is why it is different from the actual translation. Then why did Joseph Smith profess to have translated it in the first place, if, in fact, he wasn't translating it? Why did he say that the Book of Abraham was "a translation of some ancient records that have fallen into our hands from the catacombs of Egypt. The writings of Abraham while he was in Egypt...written by his own hand, upon papyrus," when Egyptologists can confidently date the papyri to 1500 years after Abraham's time? Why did Joseph create the "Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar," which arranges characters from the papyri and correlates them to text from the Book of Abraham, indicating that Smith attempted a literal translation from the papyrus? Mormons are not told about the Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar. They are told to pray about the Book of Abraham, and if it feels right to them, then it is true. If it feels wrong, as mentioned above, they should keep praying, indefinitely, until they reach the conclusion of Church leaders.

"Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s)."

• Children in the Mormon Church are required to publicly "bear testimony" and to give doctrinal speeches from the time they are 3 years old. Psychology has shown that repeatedly saying something aloud is a very effective way to make yourself believe that something. Children are put in situations where they are required to bear testimony and declare Church doctrine on a regular basis at such a young age that they don't have a chance at independent thought. This is nothing less than brainwashing.
• Prayer (what psychologists categorize as a form of meditation) is required several times a day for Mormons: First thing in the morning, at every meal, and before making any decision. In addition, Mormons have a lot of praying to do before going to bed: they are supposed to pray together as a family, then each person prays individually, and married couples also must say an additional prayer together.
• Mormon youth are exposed to constant indoctrination: In addition to 3 hours of Sunday meetings, there are seminary classes to attend every weekday, church activities at least one evening per week, Family Home Evening every Monday, and scripture study every day. They don't get a chance to think about anything else.
• If a Mormon family is having problems, such as struggling with a teenager or having marital problems, they are told that the problems will go away if they will just read their scriptures together, pray together, have Family Home Evening together, go to the temple more often, or do some other church activity more fervently.
• As for the debilitating work routines, see the section below about devoting inordinate amounts of time to the religion.

"The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth)."

• The Church has a book of guidelines for teenagers and young adults prescribing the way they should dress, whom they should date, what they should eat, and all manner of other lifestyle advice. The church has a rule that women may not have multiple ear piercings, men may have no ear piercings. Other body parts may not be pierced or tattooed.
• Mormons are not allowed to date until they are 16 years old, and, of course, premarital sex is forbidden. In fact, premarital making-out is forbidden.
• All Church members are forbidden to drink coffee, tea, and alcohol, and some bishops will not allow caffeinated sodas. Tobacco is also forbidden. Gambling and pornography are forbidden. Buying a lottery ticket is forbidden. Church members are counseled to eat meat sparingly, among other dietary recommendations. Mormons are not allowed to watch R-rated movies. Movies shown on BYU campus are edited for language and content to bring everything up to a PG level.
• Church members must “keep the Sabbath,” which means no television or movies on Sunday. Mormons are to avoid working on Sunday as much as possible, and are to consider this when choosing a career. No homework on Sunday. No playing sports on Sunday (even if your team has a practice or game), and no watching televised sports on Sunday. Thou shalt not watch the Super Bowl. There is to be no shopping, eating out, or other commercial activity on Sunday (not even Amazon.com). Also, no play dates on Sunday. And no elaborate cooking. Basically, the only things allowed on Sunday are attending Church meetings and reading scriptures. The Church leaders once blamed a drought in Utah on Mormons who were working or shopping on Sundays.
• The Church condemns married couples who do not have children. If they are incapable of conceiving, they are expected to adopt through the Church-run adoption agency. Birth control is okay in certain circumstances, provided that the couple does eventually have as many children as they can possibly care for. Often couples are counseled to have children as early as possible, even before they feel financially ready to care for them, as they are to exercise faith that God will miraculously help them to provide for the children. Pregnant single women are strongly encouraged to give their child up for adoption, as they cannot possibly provide a proper home for the child without a father in the home. Single women intentionally having children on their own (such as through artificial insemination) is beyond deplorable.
• The Church dictates emotions, not allowing members to protest or disagree with leaders. The Church doctrine dictates feelings: Members are not supposed to harbor bad feelings about other members (even those who may have abused or defrauded them), promise never to criticize leaders, and are even told how to feel when grieving a deceased loved one—the bereaved should not despair, lest they show a lack of faith in the resurrection.

"The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity)."

• Any religion other than the Mormon religion is false and will not get its followers into Heaven. According to Mormon doctrine, everyone must join the Mormon religion in order to get to Heaven. This poses a problem since the Mormon religion is less than 200 years old....what about all the other people who lived on the planet before then? These people also must join the Mormon Church and accept its temple rites, even after they are dead. But since ghosts cannot be baptized and swear oaths, the Mormons do this for them vicariously in the Mormon temples. Many people are aware that Mormons are big on genealogy. The Mormon Church collects names from every historical record they can get their hands on, and gives the names to Mormon temple patrons to perform vicarious ordinances on behalf of the dead. While Mormons are encouraged to research their genealogy and do vicarious ordinances for their own ancestors, there just aren't enough ancestors to support monthly temple attendance (which is in addition to weekly church meetings). So, most rites performed in the temple are done for deceased people by complete strangers, without the consent of living descendants. The Jewish community resents that Mormons are baptizing Holocaust victims in order to save their souls, and has asked the Mormon Church on multiple occasions to stop this practice.
• The Mormons believe they have a special mission to save humanity from eternal damnation. Missionary work ("proclaiming the gospel") is one of the three main goals of the Church (along with "perfecting the Saints," a.k.a. Church members, and "redeeming the dead" through vicarious temple rites). Missionary work is constantly encouraged, and an oft-repeated slogan is "Every member a missionary." Most members of the Church have been declared by Mormon Patriarchs (a special priesthood office in the Church) to belong to the tribe of Ephraim, one of the twelve tribes of Israel. This tribe is bestowed with the greatest blessing of all the tribes, and the responsibility to convert everyone else to Mormonism because it is through Ephraim that "all the nations of the earth will be blessed." In deed, Mormons believe that they are a "chosen people" who have the responsibility to bring salvation to everyone else on the planet.

"The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society."

• If you belong to the Mormon Church, there are two kinds of people in the world: Mormons and Non-Mormons, also referred to as Members and Non-Members.
• Recently, Church leaders told members to stop using terms such as "Non-Mormon" and "Non-Member." While they may try to linguistically dance around the issue, the us-vs.-them mentality is still as strong as ever. How could it not be that way, when everyone must join the Mormon Church, either in this life or the next, in order to avoid eternal damnation?
• Mormon scriptures teach that "there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth." (First Nephi 14:10)  So, if you belong to any religion or school of thought other than Mormonism, you are part of the "whore of all the earth" church.
• Mormons are expected to be missionaries in everything they do and in every interaction they have with non-Mormons, and they must be extra vigilant around non-Mormons lest they be corrupted, so they must be constantly on the look-out for "them."
• Mormons are assigned to visit 3 to 4 other Mormons in their neighborhood at least once a month in their homes. Mormons must travel in pairs when they go on these “teaching visits” to prevent them from being corrupted from the person they are visiting, who is often an inactive Mormon who they are trying to re-activate.
• Mormons are encouraged to socialize with other Mormons as much as possible, especially when they are young. The Mormon Church holds it’s own dances and activities so teenagers can meet and date only other Mormon teenagers.

"The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations)."

• The Mormon President's word is the word of God and there is no questioning it. Period.
• Interestingly, when Mormon Presidents say something that later turns out to be patently false, members are told that the President was not speaking as President at that time. This is easy to say in retrospect, but Church members are never given a way to tell the difference on a prospective basis. 
• A great example is Joseph Smith's assertion that people who dressed like Quakers and lived to be 1000-years-old inhabited the moon. This was included in official Church publications and said to be corroborated by new telescopes in the 1890's, several decades after Smith's death. Brigham Young, who succeeded Smith as leader of the Church, claimed that "there is no question" that the sun is also inhabited. Of course, if you ask any Mormon leader today about these alien stories, they will say that the "prophets" at the time were just speculating and not speaking as leaders of the Church.

"The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities)."

• In the past, these reprehensible activities have included: Marrying a woman who is already married to someone else, allowing your 14-year-old daughter to get married to a man much older than her, killing people because they have committed adultery or because they are from the same town as a sinner, discriminating against blacks, campaigning zealously against the Equal Rights Amendment, and condemning mentally ill people as sinners.
• Current reprehensible activities include campaigning (vehemently) against same-sex marriage laws, treating women like second-class citizens who must "obey" and be "dominated" by their husbands, indoctrinating children into a cult where they are not allowed to question or develop critical thinking skills, forcing 8-year-olds to make covenants, encouraging women to stay in abusive marriages, telling single parents that their children would be better off being adopted by a married Mormon couple, and shaming anyone who does not fit the Church's cookie-cutter prototype.
• Here are some quotes from Brigham Young, the second President of the Mormon Church, regarding blacks. You would think, since Young made these declarations "in the name of Jesus Christ" that he was speaking as a leader of the Church at the time. But, as mentioned above, the Mormon history is conveniently revised when it no longer fits with current facts:
•    "The Lord cursed Cain's seed and prohibited them from the Priesthood." --Brigham Young, 1849
•    "Any man having one drop of the seed of Cane [sic] in him cannot hold the priesthood ... I will say it now in the name of Jesus Christ. I know it is true & they know it. The Negro cannot hold one particle of government ... if any man mingles his seed with the seed of Cane [sic] the only way he could get rid of it or have salvation would be to come forward & have his head cut off & spill his blood upon the ground. It would also take the life of his children." --Brigham Young, 1852
•    "We consider [slavery] of divine institution and not to be abolished until the curse pronounced on Ham shall have been removed from his descendants." --Brigham Young, 1859 
•    Young said that God marked the descendants of Cain and Ham with "the flat nose and black skin" that is bestowed upon blacks, who Young described as a class of people who are "uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind." --Brigham Young, 1859
•    "Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so.” --Brigham Young, 1863
• Mormons also believe that Native Americans were similarly cursed with dark skin. Mormon scriptures say, "And the skins of the Lamanites [who Mormons believe are the ancestors of Native Americans] were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them because of their transgression and their rebellion against their brethren." (Alma 3:6) "And he had caused the cursing to come upon them [the Lamanites], yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity...that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them. And thus saith the Lord God: I will cause that they shall be loathsome unto thy people, save they shall repent of their iniquities. And cursed shall be the seed of him that mixeth with their seed; for they shall be cursed even with the same cursing. And the Lord spake it, and it was done. And because of their cursing which was upon them they did become an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey." (Second Nephi 5:21-24)
• Slave ownership was legal in the Utah Territory per the Act in Relation to Service of 1852, and at least one Mormon Apostle was a slave owner.
• In 1942 Washington D.C., when white Mormon women were offended that black women were sitting too close to them at church, the Mormon First Presdiency (the President and his two counselors) ordered that the black women be asked to "sit at one side in the rear or somewhere where they would not wound the sensibilities of the complaining sisters." This was a very generous offer to allow the black women to attend Church at the same time as the white women (provided that they agreed to segregated seating), rather than telling the black women that they could not attend at all, which is what the white women had requested. Mormon leadership felt that this magnanimous gesture was appropriate given that, "Of course, probably each one of the sisters who can afford it, has a colored maid in her house to do the work and to do the cooking for her, and it would seem that under these circumstances they should be willing to let them sit in Church and worship with them."
• As recently as 1949, the Mormon First Presidency declared, "The attitude of the Church with reference to Negroes remains as it has always stood. It is not a matter of the declaration of a policy but of direct commandment from the Lord, on which is founded the doctrine of the Church from the days of its organization, to the effect that Negroes may become members of the Church but that they are not entitled to the priesthood at the present time." The declaration goes on to state the blacks earned their "handicap" because of their disobedience to God before they were born. It is important to note that the Mormon Priesthood is not something given only to bishops and other leaders. It is given to all men and boys beginning at age 12, even schizophrenic and mentally retarded ones. So, to be denied the Priesthood is to be denied equal standing with even the most mentally-challenged, white 12-year-old boy in the Mormon Church.
• Mormon Apostle Mark E. Petersen stated in a 1954 address at BYU, "I think the Lord segregated the Negro and who is man to change that segregation?"
• In 1969, the First Presidency issued a letter to all Church leaders stating, "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."
• Of course, today's Mormons are not told about the above quotes from Church Presidents. When the issue is raised, Church members are told that blacks were denied the Priesthood because Church members at the time were not ready, or some other apologetic excuse. In a 60 Minutes interview with Mike Wallace in 1996, Mormon President Gordon B. Hinckley said of the issue, "It's behind us. Look, that's behind us. Don't worry about those little flicks of history." Apparently slavery and segregation was nothing more than a little flick of history to Hinckley. However, reviewing the above statements, it is clear that Church leaders declared the discrimination to be God-ordained. The Mormon Church has never apologized for their treatment of blacks, and have never promised that it would not be repeated.
• Any human with a ounce of common sense would see the hypocrisy in the above statements. However, Mormons are expected to condone the Church's history as God-ordained and even defend it. In true cult fashion, Mormons are expected to follow the Church President's commands no matter how reprehensible they may seem. (Think slavery, segregation, polygamy, and Church-organized opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, none of which the Church has ever apologized for or declared to be wrong.) Mormon leaders like to quote Joseph Smith's teaching that "A religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation." This is interpreted to mean that Mormons must follow the Church's policies, no matter how repulsive they might be, because God expects them to sacrifice "all things." Apparently conscience and common sense are included among the things God wants Mormons to sacrifice. Even if a Mormon feels that following Church directives is unethical, for example, participating in the successful Mormon Church-run campaign to ban same-sex marriage in California, that member is counseled to do it anyway and keep praying indefinitely until the Church policy seems correct. If the member still does not feel good about it, he or she is accused of a lack of faith. A Church member's own sense of ethics is always superseded by the Church's policy, because, as mentioned above, the Church leaders have been instructed by God and have authority to dictate members' lives.
• Clearly, the Mormon Church requires members to participate "in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group."

"The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt in order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion."

• Mormons are taught through their scriptures, the Book of Mormon, that they are commanded to be perfect. No sin, no matter how small, will be tolerated in heaven. Thus, you must repent on a daily basis and forever strive to be a better person. No complacency is allowed. Mormons are told that if they are not actively striving to become closer to God, then they are moving away from God. There is not middle ground.
• An example is the idea of stealing a penny. This is seen as being just as sinful as stealing a million dollars. Better to steal a million dollars and enjoy it now, than to steal a penny, because either way leads to eternal damnation.
• Mormons are made to feel guilty not just for the typical ten commandments stuff, but for even thinking a bad thought. Every negative thought must be repented for. Serious sins, such as drinking coffee, masturbating, and "making out" with your boy/girlfriend, must be confessed before a male priesthood leader and atoned for via various methods which often include an element of public shame. For example, a sinner might be forbidden for a period of weeks or months from taking the weekly sacrament that every member is expected to take. Mormons watch to see if anyone does not partake. Members who take the sacrament when they are forbidden are, of course, rewarded with eternal damnation.
• In addition, young men (or women) who have sex with more than one person are forbidden to go on missions. Mormon girls are taught to marry a "Returned Missionary," so a young man who does not complete a mission is forever marked as a sinner. In addition, it is considered disgraceful to leave the Mormon mission early, before the usual 2 years are served.  
• In addition to all of the sins the Mormons are supposed to avoid, they are also constantly feeling guilt about all the things they should be doing and are having a hard time keeping up with. (See the section about devoting inordinate amounts of time.)

"Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group."

• If you join the Mormon Church, you are expected to give up whatever aspirations you may have had and exchange them for the goals of the Church, namely, full-time missionary work, Church callings, and having lots of children. Women are expected to leave any career they may have in order to take care of the children. A father who stays home with the kids is nice, but it is to be avoided at all costs if the mother could stay home instead. Taking care of the children is the mother's job, her most important duty, and her responsibility to God. 
• Women of the Church are to obey their husbands and Church leaders, all of whom are male. There are women leaders in the "auxiliaries," the organizations for women and children, but these women answer to a male priesthood holder and must obtain permission from him for any significant decision. Never is a woman higher in the hierarchy than a man. Indeed, the hierarchy of the Priesthood is all male. The Priesthood is the part that matters. The things that the women do are just "auxiliary."
• While not explicitly forced to cut off ties with family and friends, Mormons are discouraged from spending tiem with anyone who doesn't have the Mormon's "high moral standards." This usually means a serious weakening of ties with family and old friends. New members are supposed to replace their old, corrupt friends with  new friends in the Church. Church leaders hate it when new members, finding themselves suddenly isolated, leave the Church. Therefore, existing members are constantly encouraged to "fellowship" new members to help assimilate them into the group. While new members often find family ties strained, they are encouraged to keep working to convert their non-member relatives intot he Church. Even if they cannot convert their living family members, they will be encouraged to perform temple rites for their deceased relatives.

"The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members."

• I probably don't have to tell you that Mormons are big on preaching and converting. Mormons expect all young men to go on a full-time, two-year mission when they turn 19-years-old. The Church had over 52,000 full-time missionaries at the end of 2010. (Mormon girls are not allowed to go on missions until they are 21-years-old, and then they can only serve for 18 months. This is to make sure that the mission does not interfere with their chances to get married. At 21, single Mormon women are made to feel like old maids.) But every member is expected to be a missionary in their spare time.
• Mormons are supposed to carry a Book of Mormon with them at all times, for example, in the glove compartment of their car, so that they can share it whenever the opportunity might arise. Mormons are frequently called on in their church meetings to publicly report what they have done recently to "share the gospel." As mentioned above, missionary work is one of the three main goals of the Church, and something that all members are expected to be constantly working on.

"The group is preoccupied with making money."

• Mormons are not worthy to enter the temple or to go to Heaven unless they are paying 10% of their income in tithing. This money is NOT used to help out other Church members who are in need. No, the money for that is funded through additional donations that Church members are expected to make on a monthly basis, in addition to the 10% of their income. 
• In 1997, TIME Magazine was able to determine that the Mormon Church had an estimated net worth of over $30 billion. A more recent number is hard to find because the Church, unlike most tax-exempt charitable organizations, has not disclosed its assets publicly since 1959. Back in 1991, the Mormon Church was collecting at least $4.3 billion a year from its members in tithing, plus $400 million from its ecclesiastical enterprises. Another $4 billion annually is generated by the Church's business subsidiaries. This brings the yearly total up to $8.7 billion. If the Mormon Church were a publicly traded company, it would be 54th or 55th place on the Fortune 500 list, above Honeywell, General Mills, and Campbell Soup. 
• The Church is currently building a $4 billion shopping mall in downtown Salt Lake City. In addition, they own much of downtown Salt Lake City, including historical buildings that the Church has lavishly refurbished, as well as real estate in all 50 states and around the world. The $4 billion the Church is spending on the shopping mall project is more than the Church has spent on charitable contributions in the last 30 years combined...in fact, much more. The Church spends less than 1% of its income to help the poor. But it had enough money to build a $100 million hotel/resort in Hawaii last year. The Church also runs a 300,000 acre cattle ranch in Florida that is the largest cow-calf ranch in the United States, according to National Cattlemen's Beef Association statistics.
• While the Church is flush with funds, many of its members have been hit hard by the economy and the housing crisis. Mormons trapped in upside down mortgages and facing foreclosure and bankruptcy receive no assistance from the Church to which they have donated tens of thousands of dollars.

"Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities."

• Mormons are expected to attend the temple at least monthly, in addition to weekly 3-hour meetings on Sundays as well as multiple meetings throughout the week.
• The Church is run on a volunteer basis, meaning that no one is paid for their service. It does not mean that people volunteer to do the jobs to which they are assigned. Almost every adult in the church is assigned to one or more "callings"--jobs which they are asked to fill, and seriously discouraged from saying "No." There is plenty of work to keep everyone busy, what with all the classes and activities that must be planned to fill up 3 hours every Sunday, plus many activities during the week. All of this must be taken care of by people who have day jobs, as there are no paid clergy or administrative assistants. The bishop has the most time-consuming job in a Mormon congregation, and often the children of bishops feel that they never see their dads for the duration of their service, which is usually several years. Members are also responsible for janitorial work in their meeting houses. In addition, members are responsible for teaching church doctrine to their children every Monday in what is called "Family Home Evening." This keeps everyone plenty busy.
• In addition, high school and college students are expected to take classes (called "seminary" in high school and "institute" in college) in Mormon religion in order to keep them fully immersed in the doctrine all week long. These classes have tests and grades, and an important requirement is that scriptures be read daily.
• I remember attending seminary as a high school student. We had to keep track of how many days in a row we read our Mormon scriptures. If you missed a day, you had to start over at 0. Many faithful Mormon teens were in the hundreds, so it was soul-crushing to realize that I had to start over at 0 because I was too exhausted to read after getting home from a closing shift at the local McDonald's. But apparently, these are the things that God is tracking.
• In addition to spending large amounts of time at Sunday meetings, weekday meetings, planning the meetings that you are in charge of, attending seminary and institute classes, reading your scriptures daily, and holding Family Home Evenings, Church members are encouraged to have as many children as possible, and to raise them to be faithful to the Church. With the demands of caring for all of those kids and meeting all of the Church obligations, Mormons literally do not have time to think about anything else.

"Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members."

• You are of course encouraged to socialize with other Church Members as much as possible. The Church holds it's own dances and events for teenagers and college students so that they can date only those with "the same high standards." I grew up in a small Utah town where most of the population was active in the Mormon Church, but even there the Church held their own dances and members were discouraged from attending the sinful dances help at the public high school. If you are a college student, you are encouraged to find roommates who are also Mormon.
• The college years are especially important in the life of a Mormon, as this is when any Mormon worth his or her salt will get married. To help college-age Mormons find a Mormon mate, the Church organizes dances, activities, sororities, and fraternities. College students do not attend normal congregations, but special "singles" wards made up entirely of other bachelors and bachelorettes. Even the weekly "Family Home Evening" is turned into a meat-market "singles" activity.
• Of course, a Mormon simply MUST marry another Mormon. While it is theoretically possible to go to Heaven even though you did not marry another Mormon in the Mormon temple ceremony (where you are "commanded to multiply and replenish the earth"), it is considered very, very difficult. Mormons believe that marriage is eternal, but if you marry a non-Mormon, you will not be married to him/her in the next life. Marriage is required for Mormon Heaven, so if a Mormon beat all the odds and made it to Heaven despite not marrying in the Church, that person would have an arranged marriage with a Mormon spouse in the afterlife.
• Mormons still believe in polygamy, despite what they may say to the contrary. The practice was outlawed in 1890, but that was only because Utah wanted to join the union as a state, and the United States would not allow it as long as they practiced polygamy. However, Mormons believe in polygamy in the afterlife, and they would practice it again in this life if the Prophet said it was back in style. Mormons believe that marriage in a Mormon temple lasts through eternity. Mormons will allow a man to be married in the Mormon temple to any number of women (for example, if he is divorced or widowed). The Mormon man can remarry in the temple as many times as he likes. Women, however, can only marry one man in the Mormon temple. If a woman is widowed or divorced and wants to remarry in the temple, she must first get special permission from the highest level of authority of the Church, which will dissolve her first "eternal" marriage so that she can be married to only one man in the afterlife. Polygyny is fine. Polyandry is not tolerated.
• Mormons are encouraged to try to convert Non-Members and reactivate those Members who have stopped coming to Church, but they are always advised to travel in pairs when proselytizing, or doing "Home Teaching" (for the men) or "Visiting Teaching" (for the women), so that they can be sure not to be corrupted by the unfaithful person that they are preaching to.

"The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group." 

• Until relatively recently, Mormons were not allowed to voluntarily withdraw from the Church. Until 23 years ago, the only way you could formally leave the church was to be excommunicated. In 1985, an Arizona man filed an $18 million lawsuit against the Church for not allowing him to officially leave. The suit was settled out of court and a process for voluntary withdrawal was established in 1989. So, while leaving the Mormon Church is now possible, it is still not easy.

•  While Mormons afford some leeway to Non-Mormons (they may not be Mormon now, but they might join the Church after they die, so there is still hope), there is no salvation for those who leave the Mormon Church. While Mormon missionaries work hard to convert heathens to the truth, most of the growth in the Church population is due to the high fertility rate. This means that the vast majority of Mormons were raised in the Church and never got a chance to know any other life. The indoctrination is so thorough that leaving the Church is unthinkable. At 8 years of age, children are deemed to be "of the age of accountability" and are baptized into the Church. These children are asked if they want to be baptized and thereby become an official member of the Church. Since all of their family and friends are members of the Church, these 8-year-olds always say yes. After all, they have been indoctrinated in children's classes beginning at the age of 18-months-old to believe that Church membership is the only way to Heaven. So, these 8-year-olds, many of whom still believe in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy, are deemed to have voluntarily entered into a covenant with God. Before they know it, these young people (usually at age 19 for boys) are making even more covenants and blood oaths in the Mormon temple ritual. Mormons feel that there is no life outside of the Church becasue they have never been allowed to know any other way of life. By the time they have a chance to look around and smell the coffee, they are deeply entwined in Mormon covenants, which if they break will ensure their eternal damnation.  While blood oaths from the Mormon temple ceremony are not currently enforced by Church officials (who would certainly go to prison for assault and murder), "blood atonement" was practiced by Church officials in the past. Members and non-members who were deemed to have committed a sin (such as adultery, or such as taking your wife back from a Mormon polygamist who "married" her) were killed to "help" them repent of their sin. Church members who find this bit of Church history to be disturbing are reassured that it is not practiced anymore, even though the blood oaths were included in the temple ceremony until 1990. In other words, when Mitt Romney took the temple oaths, they included the penalties of having your throat slit from ear to ear, having your belly cut open and your intestines removed, etc.  
• Some people say, "Oh, but do the Mormons really take it that seriously? For example, many Catholics are confident in telling their children that the Pope doesn't REALLY mean what he says about birth control." Yes, the Mormons take this very seriously. Even the few brave ones who manage to leave the Church are still afraid of the mortal and eternal punishment that might befall them if they stop wearing their Satan-deflecting Mormon underwear, or if they tell about the Mormon temple rites. Mormons have sworn that they would die before revealing the temple secrets. So, Mormons are hesitant to get counseling from a psychologist (as you might imagine is usually needed to recover from Mormonism) because they are sworn not to talk about the disturbing experiences. Conveniently, the Mormon Church has its own social services department, where members can pay to see a Mormon therapist who will make sure that the person does not question the faith during therapy. 
• Mormons who stop going to Church are presumed to either be hiding from their sins or to have been offended by something trivial. They are encouraged to overcome their pride and return to activity. It is not considered that someone might leave the Church because they have decided that it is simply not true. In fact, Mormons who express a desire to leave the Church because of doctrinal issues are often told that they are like Korihor, a Book of Mormon antichrist. 
• A Mormon who leaves the Church finds that he/she has alienated himself/herself from almost all friends and family members. Mormons who leave the Church usually face social stigmatization and feel ostracized and pressured to return to the faith. Mormons who leave the Church are not allowed to attend temple weddings or other temple ceremonies, even of immediate family members. Mormons who want to leave but who are married to an active Mormon are often pressured to either stay in the religion or get a divorce. 
• The psychological cost of leaving the Mormon Church is substantial, leaving the person with intense feelings of self-doubt, depression, betrayal and loneliness.
• Having been raised in a community where members are assigned to look after and befriend particular other members, these ex-members find themselves lacking in real-world social skills, making it even more difficult to establish a new social support network. The barriers to leaving the Church are so high that most Mormons do not consider it to be an option, even if they have doubts about the doctrine.

Now that you know a little bit more about cults and Mormonism, don't you agree that Mitt Romney's devotion to the Mormon faith is a salient factor in his ability to lead the  United States of America? What would happen if Mitt Romney had to make an important decision, say, about nuclear war. How do you think he would decide? He would decide the same way that the Book of Mormon commanders-in-chief decided: He would ask the Mormon Prophet/President what God wanted him to do. The U.S. President will be following the orders of the Mormon President. After all, Romney has already sworn on his life to obey his Priesthood leaders, especially the Mormon President, who supposedly holds God-given authority over the entire population of the Earth. Is that who you want in charge of pushing the red button?