Disturbing Plane Crash Object Lesson..

[_Inconceivable]

Us poor kids hadn't a clue what was to transpire. The fact that we carried on like kids before they cut the lights made the experience just that more shocking and intense.

Shocking/frightening/disturbing, then an information dump.

I guess the term is called anchoring. A person placed in a heightened emotional state of awareness will set values and margins of behavior that can last a lifetime. They can either be positive or negative, real or imagined. Even creating a phobia.


For example, the main reason I've never tried alcohol was because of it's smell. When I was about 17 I pulled a critically injured friend from his vehicle. When I opened the doors to extract him, a pile of empty beer cans fell out. Now obviously, alcohol consumption makes for a great and even healthy release for many that behave responsibly. But between the horrific sight of my friend, the smell and the empty cans, that was enough for me to equate pain with alcohol my entire life.

In the case of the fake plane crash, no wonder older women like Charity will hang on their entire lives to a facade. After hierarchy approved events such as this, I developed that all or nothing attitude that welded me to their iron rod for so many years.

It has made breaking from the church just that more difficult.

[_harmony]

It has made breaking from the church just that more difficult.

That is the point.

[_karl61]

I had somthing done that still blows my mind. It was a stake fireside, I was about twenty, and this guyis giving a talk and he held up a plate and said that this plate came from nauvoo and had been in their family since that time and it was really special to the family and that he was going to pass it around. Well the first six pews in the center were filled and I was on the second row, when it got to the third row and suddenly right behind me you heard the plate break. Everyone was stunned and in silence - part of it was underneath me and I was throwing the parts back towards the guy being so shy and scared. The guy who was giving the talk came down and took the plate and was almost in tears - finally when he came back up to the stand he smiled and said it was'New Testament true it was an old plate but was just a regular plate. People were saying like "what the hell". He asked how we felt when we heard the sound of the plate break and some answered that they felt really bad and then he said that we should feel this way towards non members we should feel sad and sorry for them. As I looked back - this guy and the guy behind me who was in on it, should have been flogged. This is the way they keep people in line so just like the old story of taking the rope off the elephant and it won't wonder very far as it still thinks it's bound to the tree.

[_beastie]

Many religions take part of this obvious ploy to yank people's emotional chains and then connect that reaction to the church's claims. It's quite clever.

I remember hearing a long talk about this homeless man whose only friend was a dog. The man was tortured because he couldn't take care of the dog, so he tried to make the dog leave him. The dog loved him so much he wouldn't leave him. The man went through all these tortuous attempts to make the dog leave him, and finally rowed a boat out to the middle of a large lake to make the dog leave him, and yet the dog swam along with the boat.

It was one of those manipulative tear-jerk stories, and the audience was sniffing when it was over. Then the guy said "as terrible as you feel for this fictional story about a [b]dog/b], you should feel that much more sorrow over the fact that Jesus died for you." (paraphrasing) So then the audience not only is supposed to affix these intense emotions to the religion, but then feel guilty for not previously feeling such sorrow over the Jesus story.

Classic!!!

[_Bond...James Bond]

Many religions take part of this obvious ploy to yank people's emotional chains and then connect that reaction to the church's claims. It's quite clever.

I remember hearing a long talk about this homeless man whose only friend was a dog. The man was tortured because he couldn't take care of the dog, so he tried to make the dog leave him. The dog loved him so much he wouldn't leave him. The man went through all these tortuous attempts to make the dog leave him, and finally rowed a boat out to the middle of a large lake to make the dog leave him, and yet the dog swam along with the boat.

It was one of those manipulative tear-jerk stories, and the audience was sniffing when it was over. Then the guy said "as terrible as you feel for this fictional story about a [b]dog/b], you should feel that much more sorrow over the fact that Jesus died for you." (paraphrasing) So then the audience not only is supposed to affix these intense emotions to the religion, but then feel guilty for not previously feeling such sorrow over the Jesus story.

Classic!!!

When is someone going to drag religion into a court of law and charge it with mental abuse?

[_beastie]

When is someone going to drag religion into a court of law and charge it with mental abuse?

Never.

[_Gadianton]

If there really is a God, and if he is the complete moron that most religions make him out to be, then hell, this is the kind of training that young men and women need. Could there be anything more important than repenting and living all the trivial rules if that indeed is what's required to avoid eternal imprisonment?

They should have scenarios, like, lets say you're a teen with xy list of sins, and you find yourself stranded in the mountains with a Book of Mormon, it's getting cold, and you are likely to freeze to death. Do you a) use your Book of Mormon to get the fire started and save yourself or b) read and pray as you die, crying out in repentence?

Points could be made for either decision. It's the training and personal reflection that it may come down to in the end.

[_Polygamy Porter]

About five years ago the ward we were in did a similar program designed to guilt families into more temple attendance.

A non Mormon family dies in a plane crash, they goto spirit prison, then one day one by one rejoin their parents as their "temple work" on earth was done by faithful members of LDS Inc..

The final scene is the when the 50,000 volt cattle prod of guilt is used on the audience.

The family all dressed in white and holding hands begin their walk up the steps to the CK when they stop and look back at one lone child.

"Why aren't you coming with us?", asks the mother.

"I can't because my temple work HAS NOT BEEN DONE!!!!", the child sobs as her family disappears behind a large hanging veil.

Then the ward has a testiphony meeting where members blather on about how they have felt people on "the other side" watching them do their temple work and then thanking them.

The bishop then blathers on about how it is OUR DUTY to help families stay together.. DEAD FAMILIES, by doing their temple work.

Temple attendance for the ward spiked for two months.

[_beastie]

"I can't because my temple work HAS NOT BEEN DONE!!!!", the child sobs as her family disappears behind a large hanging veil.

Heh. Internet Mormons hate it when I say that the Mormon God punishes people for believing the wrong thing by forcibly divorcing them from their family, but it's true.

[_Polygamy Porter]

"I can't because my temple work HAS NOT BEEN DONE!!!!", the child sobs as her family disappears behind a large hanging veil.

Heh. Internet Mormons hate it when I say that the Mormon God punishes people for believing the wrong thing by forcibly divorcing them from their family, but it's true.

Hey, should we call Internet Mormons iLDS?

Edit to add: Bleech! Never mind, that would offend my cult of mac using the "i" like that..