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Did you seriously just compare Mormons to Branch Davidians? And North Korea? Mormonism has its problems (excellent article on that at https://longreads.com/2018

Did you seriously just compare Mormons to Branch Davidians? And North Korea? Mormonism has its problems (excellent article on that at https://longreads.com/2018/06/07/meet-the-new-mormons https://longreads.com/2018/06/07/meet-the-new-mormons) but that is totally over the top. If you want to leave North Korea, you risk your life and your family's lives in a terrifying journey over the Chinese border. If you want to leave Mormonism, you write a letter saying "please remove me from your list."

dwaltrip 8y ago
I agree with you that GP's comparison was a bit drastic, to say the least. However, you have gone too far in the other direction. You make it sound like leaving a religion is just as easy as unsubscribing from a newsletter. Visit one of the ex-religion subreddits sometime. I know Mormonism and Christianity both have one. To be fair, those online groups will be selection biased towards the most difficult situations. But I think many of those experiences are not terribly uncommon.
CamperBob2 8y ago
If you want to leave North Korea, you risk your life and your family's lives in a terrifying journey over the Chinese border. If you want to leave Mormonism, you write a letter saying "please remove me from your list." This is exactly like saying, "If he beats you, why don't you just leave him?" But I don't expect the people arguing with me in this thread to understand that, any more than I'd expect you to understand why Zimbardo's participants didn't just blow a whistle on the whole thing and walk out as soon as the experimental ethics went south.
michaelmrose 8y ago
Are we forgetting about the actual founder of the faith. Either he was a crazy old coot and we can safely say that present company has moved past his behavior in which case its hard to credit a religion solely based on his revelations or he was a true prophet and we ought to analyze their nature of the organization based on his words and deeds rather than just present lukewarm implementations. Look up blood atonement whereby killing sinners presumably including heretics was the proscribed solution.
michaelmrose 8y ago
They are taught that this results in infinite torture from birth.
- JackCh 8y ago
  At least in that regard, mormons are not so different from regular christians.
  - PhasmaFelis 8y ago
    Many Christians do not do that, FYI. I know many still do, and I can't speak for all of them.
    - JackCh 8y ago
      I would wager the majority of Christians believe in hell and teach that belief. Perhaps not in San Francisco... but across the country as a whole.

dwaltrip 8y ago

I agree with you that GP's comparison was a bit drastic, to say the least. However, you have gone too far in the other direction. You make it sound like leaving a religion is just as easy as unsubscribing from a newsletter. Visit one of the ex-religion subreddits sometime. I know Mormonism and Christianity both have one. To be fair, those online groups will be selection biased towards the most difficult situations. But I think many of those experiences are not terribly uncommon.

CamperBob2 8y ago

If you want to leave North Korea, you risk your life and your family's lives in a terrifying journey over the Chinese border. If you want to leave Mormonism, you write a letter saying "please remove me from your list." This is exactly like saying, "If he beats you, why don't you just leave him?" But I don't expect the people arguing with me in this thread to understand that, any more than I'd expect you to understand why Zimbardo's participants didn't just blow a whistle on the whole thing and walk out as soon as the experimental ethics went south.

michaelmrose 8y ago

Are we forgetting about the actual founder of the faith. Either he was a crazy old coot and we can safely say that present company has moved past his behavior in which case its hard to credit a religion solely based on his revelations or he was a true prophet and we ought to analyze their nature of the organization based on his words and deeds rather than just present lukewarm implementations. Look up blood atonement whereby killing sinners presumably including heretics was the proscribed solution.

michaelmrose 8y ago

They are taught that this results in infinite torture from birth.

JackCh 8y ago
At least in that regard, mormons are not so different from regular christians.
- PhasmaFelis 8y ago
  Many Christians do not do that, FYI. I know many still do, and I can't speak for all of them.
  - JackCh 8y ago
    I would wager the majority of Christians believe in hell and teach that belief. Perhaps not in San Francisco... but across the country as a whole.