Mormophobia
A letter to the Guardian wants us to know that Mormonism IS NOT SILLY.
While it was heartening to read that Lucy Mangan found those featured in the documentary The Mormons Are Coming to be “lovely – gentle, kind, sincere” (TV review, 28 February), her comment that they were “fill[ing] people’s emotional voids with their lies” attempted to perpetuate the derogatory caricature that Mormons are hapless simpletons.
But supernatural religious claims are just that: supernatural.
The review took aim at what Mangan termed “the essential absurdity” of Joseph Smith’s claim to have received ancient records from an angel. I doubt such remarks would be used to describe Moses before the burning bush, or Gabriel’s appearance to the prophet Muhammad.
Sure they would. The ones that mention Mohammed might be scarcer in the Guardian, but there are plenty of unabashed atheists who write for it and say unabashedly atheist things.
Sorry, but essential absurdity is part of the package.
It is doubtful that Moses’s even existed, say done archaeologists? Or that a million people wandered through the desert for 40 years without leaving a trace? So yeah…skepticism, if not ridicule, is appropriate. Plus Mo or Moses were not known scam artists.
As Maryam Namazie once put it (from memory), “if you don’t want your beliefs to be laughed at, stop believing laughable things”.
I once heard it said that the difference between a “religion” and a “cult” is that the founders of religions are all long and safely dead. Smith is only a little too fresh in his grave; he just has to wait a little longer.
When I was about 11 years old I received an invitation from the neighbors to go to the LDS church, so I went (mostly because I had a crush on one of the daughters). When we got home I told them it felt a little uncomfortable, so they explained that it was because it was unfamiliar, but to keep going and the feeling would go away. It only got worse the second time and by the third visit I never went again. I never felt so under scrutiny in my life, it was creepy. Maybe it’s because I felt guilty because God knew the real reason I was there (pre agnostic me), but looking back I think it was just the profound sense of being judged that was uncomfortable.
I heard it called a cult later in life, and learned more about the unique rituals and such, and the enforcement of their (very stringent) morality, which I found kind of bizarre. I suppose I dodged a bullet back then, but I’m going to chalk it up to my formidable intuition at that age. :D
I think the creepiest religion? cult? I see too much in public is Jehovah’s Witnesses. In addition to the odd theology, the creepy crazy old white men ruling council, and the infamous history of shunning* any member who questions the “faith”, the constant presence of cultists doing their mandatory outreach, with folding card table and brochures set up in the oddest random locations and the bizarre, albeit other sad smiles of the poor should force3d to do this.
* families and friends disown and shun any “apostates”. which means the newly liberated lose their entire social network in one fell swoop. I have not heard of any other religions so vicious to their doubters. Except maybe Scientology.
I have literally no idea how the conclusion follows from the comment. I would say that it would be much more logical to say “…her comment that they were “fill[ing] people’s emotional voids with their lies” attempted to perpetuate the derogatory caricature that Mormons are [mendacious predators]”. Perhaps the letter writer was trying to avoid the obvious, sinister, conclusion, and replace it in people’s minds with one which is both less accurate and less favourable to non-Mormons, who are much more likely to view Mormons as liars and bullies than helpless simpletons. Indeed, has the phrase ‘helpless simpletons’ ever before been attributed to Mormons? It’s like attributing ‘most marginalised ever’ to middle-aged, well-off, bullying, narcissistic, males when they want to take everything away from women and trample all the boundaries keeping women and children safe.
I don’t know; it seems to me that Islam putting apostates to death is pretty vicious.
Tigger, I believe the idea is that if the recruiters were “mendacious predators”, then only “hapless simpletons” could fall for their lies. This is a commonly heard trope from cult leaders and another reason why the the myth that only weak, stupid, or crazy people join cults is so destructive. You’re meant to think “If the people who recruited me were mendacious predators only hapless simpleton would believe them. But I’m not a hapless simpleton, and I did believe them. So they can’t be mendacious predators.”
Incidentally, the decisive moment during the deprogramming of Steven Hassan (a leading cult expert and deprogrammer who used to hold a very high position withing the Unification Church of Sun-Myung Moon, better known as the Moonies) occurred when he was exposed to a recording of rev. Moon appearing before some committee to answer charges that he was “brainwashing” people. Moon’s defense went something like “Do you really think all those young Americans are stupid enough to be brainwashed by me? I think my opinion of American youth is just a little higher than that. I have always had the greatest respect for Americans (etc. etc.)”. As it happened Hassan had personally heard Moon talk endlessly about what intellectual cavemen Americans were, and found himself thinking “What a snake!”. And once he had allowed himself to have that thought – Sun-Myung Moon is a liar – there was no way back. The whole web of rationalizations came crashing down like a house of cards right there and then. He has been helping others rech the same “snapping out” experience ever since.
Back in the eighties, before I learned much about religion and atheism, I had a generally positive view of Mormons. The ones I knew, including engineering professors, one of whom was my then-wife’s employer, were intelligent and hardworking individuals who promoted women and who advocated involved parenting. They ran a very nice series of ads on parenting. They advocated healthy diets. Nice people. It was a bit of a shock to learn a more complete and accurate picture twenty years later.
YNNB #3
The pithier version I heard is:
In a cult there is someone at the top who *knows* it is a scam.
In a religion that person is dead.
Sackbut #3
I had a bit of a crisis of non-faith seeing a bunch of Mormons who were nice people & doing OK financially. Noting that the beliefs were BS, & wondering ‘Can be beneficial to believe BS?’.
Are you saying the Catholic church is a cult?
Agreed Sackbut @8 The practicing Mormons I have known were all respectable and nice. The people themselves live in a healthy way, but I think the religion overall is stifling and limits independent thought. I don’t find that part very healthy at all.
WaM @11 I have heard that as well, mostly from Protestants.
twiliter,
Yeah, and the feeling’s probably mutual. But I suspect in his inner recesses Papa Paco knows it’s a scam.
I don’t know; I think it’s actually common. The Inquisition comes to mind. I also think the Amish shun their doubters. And in Christianity as a whole, there are many that are encouraged to have nothing to do with non-believers (defined broadly as non-Christians), and are expected to turn their children out of the house if they don’t believe.
I think the Mormons came late to shunning; they perfected their version of it, perhaps, but it has been around in religions for a very long time.