Mormon Blues

The Missionary Position

Good day everyone!   I’m taking the time to post today because I have retrieved documentation on the Mormon Church that was pulled from the internet by concerned Mormons yesterday.  It’s an extremely important transcript, documenting the experience of Hans Mattsson and other Swedish critics with Mormon historical apologists (who were apparently airlifted to Sweden in an emergency attempt to quell the “foreign rebellion”).

For the record, I don’t have any special bone to pick with Mormons.  As a devout anti-theist and an American citizen (serendipitously born along the Mormon Trail), I take a special interest in their particular brand of lunacy but don’t wish to imply that they are really any different than all the other invented religions before them or contemporary with them.

First Encounter with Hans Mattson

Yesterday I read a story in the New York Times of a high ranking Swedish Mormon apostate, Hans Mattsson.  I have read many tales of Mormon apostasy, not the least of which is that of the 27th wife of Brigham Young, but I had never heard of Mr. Mattsson before yesterday. The Times piece highlighted his many difficulties in trying to get answers to some of the fundamental questions relating to Mormonism.  I could have saved him a lot of time if he had asked me, but as a good Mormon, he tried to follow the church protocol so he wouldn’t end up like every other outcast from Scientology Mormonism.  He followed the chain of command.

Whocouldanode?

As it turns out, the Mormons aren’t exactly forthcoming on the true history of the Mormon church.  Their brainwashed and gullible youth missionaries aren’t really at fault here since they are left equally in the dark over the deep mysteries of L Ron Hubbard Joseph Smith as well as some of the seedier details of the early church.

As a high ranking member of the Swedish Mormon sect, Mr. Mattsson took it upon himself to try and retrieve the answers to questions concerning not only the early history of his church, but also the many obvious problems in the Book of Mormon itself.

For the uninitiated, there are almost too many to count.  My personal favorite is the description in the Book of Mormon of horses, sheep and certain grains that are described as having been present in the Americas during the (purported) time of Christ and which Joseph Smith obviously was not aware were only brought to the New World by Columbus and later European explorers!

I can’t help but wonder how many fervent Mormons are even aware of such inconsistencies.  It’s been my experience that the deeper one delves into any particular religion, the more inoculated against reality they become.  The most blatant religious example I see infecting Americans today is the denial of the reality of human evolution despite irrefutable mountains of evidence in support thereof.  I’d sit quietly on the sidelines and let them abuse their children with whatever poppycock they felt comfortable with if they weren’t trying to infect the rest of society with their creative nonsense.

Major Issues in Mormonism

There are deeper problems in Mormonism than the recently failed Presidential bid of their favored son Mitt Romney.  According to the New York Times:

A survey of more than 3,300 Mormon disbelievers, released last year, found that more than half of the men and four in 10 of the women had served in leadership positions in the church.

When half the apostates of a church are folks from former leadership positions it doesn’t bode well for the future of your Church.  A very similar thing is going on in the Church of Scientology as well, with many high ranking members “coming out” with stories of abuse and deception.  Mormons, like Scientologists, have deep pockets, but there’s probably a limit as to how far hooey and deception can carry them in the long run.  Mormons may soon see their largest temples as empty as the gaudy facilities Scientology presents to the public as the face of their church.  They’ve also got a “disconnection” problem in Mormonism that’s not unlike that of their blood brothers in creative American religious revelation, the Scientologists.

Many said they had suffered broken relationships with their parents, spouses and children as a result of their disbelief.

Mattsson’s Mistrust of Mormonism

Mattsson was born into Mormonism and like many children sufficiently indoctrinated in any belief system, it took him the greater part of his adult life to see through the smokescreen of apologetics placed in his path by Church leaders to dissuade believers into questioning or straying from the faith.  His story is well documented within the New York Times article so I will skip it for the sake of brevity.

My Mistrust of Mormonism

This post would probably not exist except for the good folks over at mormonstories.org, where I read the PDF in question yesterday (linked from the NYTimes piece) and commented on it, only to return today to see both the PDF in question, (as well as my comments on the blog) “disappeared” into the void.

As it turns out, mormonstories.org is not a neutral observer in these matters.  It is run by a Mormon and as he explains pulling the transcript in his own words:

 Please forgive the inconvenience.  I am walking a difficult line as an active church member, and am trying to do the “right thing” for all parties involved.  This is a difficult balance.

By and large it’s just like any other religious apologetics website, eager to try and control and shape the “debate” to terms that suit their fancy.  I take the issue of this type of religious tomfoolery very seriously these days since religion has decided it’s their mission to invade and debauch our secular governance in lieu of placing their religious dogma ahead of that of our Constitution.

For my part, I am not an active member of any church and am trying to do the “right thing” for the sake of humanity in general.  The link to the full PDF transcript of of the 2010 meeting between the disaffected Swedish saints and Elder Marlin Jensen and Richard Turley, the Mormon “historians” dispatched from Utah to answer the question of the Swedes is below.   I plan to dissect the document more fully in a future blog post as a gift to the blogosphere.

Link to PDF:  Turley_Jensen_Stockholm_2010

Enjoy.