Poor mans scientology - the bishops interview process

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_Mercury
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Poor mans scientology - the bishops interview process

Post by _Mercury »

How do you guilt someone into submission? By interview. With Anonymous in the news again I thought I would make a comparison to the early control methods of Scientology, through a silly GSR-based interview process the kooks call auditing and always dire results from the "personality tests" used to bait suckers.

Why is it that the bishop gives interviews to 8 year olds? Why do you need to instill this childish process at all? Why does the Mormon church require worthiness tests? I believe this is one of the most overlooked aspects of the Mormon church.

I, like the large percentage of males in the Mormon church, decided to see if we could get one past the bishop. It worked and I saw a peek behind the curtain. Mormonism is poor mans scientology because you don't need badly written science fiction and obscenely bad practices in order to instill authority by ritual. What of the loonies who, after becoming "clear" are astounded at the superpowers they are promised by scientology literature. But what of the Mormons who, after going to the temple for the first time, learn that man can become a God. Its the same damn thing.

the more loony the commitment the smaller the group. Cults scale. commitment to scientology is absolute. The sea org nutbags are an example. Mormonism is not as scary as $cientology but it operates on the same principles.
And crawling on the planet's face
Some insects called the human race
Lost in time
And lost in space...and meaning
_Gazelam
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Post by _Gazelam »

Oh the evil intent !

"Are you saying your prayers?"

"Are you reading your scriptures?"

"Do you like sunday school?"

How do these Bishops get away with such things ?
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. - Plato
_Mercury
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Post by _Mercury »

Gazelam wrote:Oh the evil intent !

"Are you saying your prayers?"

"Are you reading your scriptures?"

"Do you like sunday school?"

How do these Bishops get away with such things ?


you missed the point
And crawling on the planet's face
Some insects called the human race
Lost in time
And lost in space...and meaning
_Gazelam
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Post by _Gazelam »

No Mercury, you missed the point.

If you got it at all you wouldent be in the position you are now.
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. - Plato
_Mercury
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Joined: Tue Oct 24, 2006 2:14 pm

Post by _Mercury »

Gazelam wrote:No Mercury, you missed the point.

If you got it at all you wouldent be in the position you are now.


get some sleep and rethink that comment Gaz. Hell...I've got to get some sleep, I've got to fly to Miami tomorrow.
And crawling on the planet's face
Some insects called the human race
Lost in time
And lost in space...and meaning
_SatanWasSetUp
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Re: Poor mans scientology - the bishops interview process

Post by _SatanWasSetUp »

Mercury wrote:How do you guilt someone into submission? By interview. With Anonymous in the news again I thought I would make a comparison to the early control methods of Scientology, through a silly GSR-based interview process the kooks call auditing and always dire results from the "personality tests" used to bait suckers.

Why is it that the bishop gives interviews to 8 year olds? Why do you need to instill this childish process at all? Why does the Mormon church require worthiness tests? I believe this is one of the most overlooked aspects of the Mormon church.

I, like the large percentage of males in the Mormon church, decided to see if we could get one past the bishop. It worked and I saw a peek behind the curtain. Mormonism is poor mans scientology because you don't need badly written science fiction and obscenely bad practices in order to instill authority by ritual. What of the loonies who, after becoming "clear" are astounded at the superpowers they are promised by scientology literature. But what of the Mormons who, after going to the temple for the first time, learn that man can become a God. Its the same damn thing.

the more loony the commitment the smaller the group. Cults scale. commitment to scientology is absolute. The sea org nutbags are an example. Mormonism is not as scary as $cientology but it operates on the same principles.


The bishop's interview process is a joke. The idea that bishops have a special power to discern the truth during these interviews is one of the funnier aspects of Mormonism. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know the correct answer to the bishop's questions. If you tell the bishop what he wants to hear, surprise, you pass the test whether you lied of not. I always loved it as a teen when the bishop interviewed me for the temple. I was a typical teen who sometimes drank on weekends with my friends, liked to hook up with girls and perform some heavy petting, jerked it on a fairly regular basis, etc. But I still believed in the church and put on a good show, attended seminary, white shirt and tie on Sundays, active in scouts, and the bishop never suspected I was lying in the interviews when I answered "no" and pretended to be grossed out when he asked if I had a problem with masturbation, chastity, or the word of wisdom? I always loved it at the end of the interviews when he looked at me with an intense stare for a few minutes, then smiled and said, "I believe you are worthy." I assume he was trying to channel his special discernment powers during the intense stare. In defense of my various bishops, I think they were sincere, and really believed they had special discernment powers, and they simply had no idea that their powers failed them.
"We of this Church do not rely on any man-made statement concerning the nature of Deity. Our knowledge comes directly from the personal experience of Joseph Smith." - Gordon B. Hinckley

"It's wrong to criticize leaders of the Mormon Church even if the criticism is true." - Dallin H. Oaks
_krose
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Post by _krose »

The temple baptism interviews I experienced as a youngster were great. We lived in a tiny town (~145) and my uncle was the bishop. His interview consisted of telling me, "I know you've been a good boy," while he signed the paper. I guess he assumed there were no secrets in the town, especially since he also drove the school bus and knew which kids were the troublemakers.

He probably didn't really want to hear any problems I might have had anyway. That would have been uncomfortable for both of us.
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