marg wrote:The other day I listened to the 2 videos you made Eric which you put up on http://www.mormongulag.com The sense I got, is that it is difficult for you to relate the emotional abuse. Physical is easy but how does one relate poor education, excessive forced prayers, excessive reading of scripture, mindless repetitious physical work as punishment or to keep kids busy for the sake of being busy instead of time spent on quality pursuits which would develop you as responsible mature intellient adults. It seems to me that it would be difficult to relate emotional abuse if that's one's experience and there's little else to compare to or what one's life would have been like had they not gone there. You yourself may not even be able to appreciate the emotional abuse and its effect on you.
Right on. I think this speaks to our societies overall lack of empathy for the mental health issues people face.
Whatever appears to be against the Book of Mormon is going to be overturned at some time in the future. So we can be pretty open minded.-charity 3/7/07
MASH quotes I peeked in the back [of the Bible] Frank, the Devil did it. I avoid church religiously. This isn't one of my sermons, I expect you to listen.
marg wrote:The other day I listened to the 2 videos you made Eric which you put up on http://www.mormongulag.com The sense I got, is that it is difficult for you to relate the emotional abuse. Physical is easy but how does one relate poor education, excessive forced prayers, excessive reading of scripture, mindless repetitious physical work as punishment or to keep kids busy for the sake of being busy instead of time spent on quality pursuits which would develop you as responsible mature intellient adults. It seems to me that it would be difficult to relate emotional abuse if that's one's experience and there's little else to compare to or what one's life would have been like had they not gone there. You yourself may not even be able to appreciate the emotional abuse and its effect on you.
Are you saying I failed to mention the emotional abuse?
I'm confused. Your sentence doesn't really make much sense to me. I thought I mentioned poor education (Orwell) excessive reading of scripture, and praying "more than muslims" ??
And thanks CK, we hope to have a 20 minute short documentary up in a while, I'm really excited about it.
GoodK wrote: Are you saying I failed to mention the emotional abuse?
I'm confused. Your sentence doesn't really make much sense to me. I thought I mentioned poor education (Orwell) excessive reading of scripture, and praying "more than muslims" ??
You did mention poor education reading of scripture but I felt more emphasis was given to physical abuse than emotional. I'll have listen to it again. in my opinion the emotional abuse would be more devastating, greater negative consequences in the long term than physical. I didn't quite follow your Orwellian comment.
Tonight I did listen to 2 of the Westridge you tube promotional videos. One of them perhaps later I'll get the link would be more of a promotion of your site than theirs. It had many students being interviewed one after another for about a minute each, from what appeared to be a prescripted page and/or book with the purpose to tell people how they benefited from going there. They all seemed so sad, so apathetic and it appeared as if they were almost forced or pressured to say things they didn't want to say.
marg wrote: You did mention poor education reading of scripture but I felt more emphasis was given to physical abuse than emotional. I'll have listen to it again. in my opinion the emotional abuse would be more devastating, greater negative consequences in the long term than physical. I didn't quite follow your Orwellian comment.
Tonight I did listen to 2 of the Westridge you tube promotional videos. One of them perhaps later I'll get the link would be more of a promotion of your site than theirs. It had many students being interviewed one after another for about a minute each, from what appeared to be a prescripted page and/or book with the purpose to tell people how they benefited from going there. They all seemed so sad, so apathetic and it appeared as if they were almost forced or pressured to say things they didn't want to say.
I see what you mean. No, I couldn't really mention everything horrible that happened there (nor would I want to on a simple YouTube video I made in an hour). Chris had asked me to give a response to West Ridge Academy after they uploaded their videos. We plan to have a few more kids add their videos this week. My purpose was to set the record straight on some glaring details they had intentionally left out - Work Crew, Blankets, Ropes, Missionaries, Mormon Funding, Etc. I also wanted certain staff members to be clear that I did not fault them for working there and did not harbor any negative feelings towards them despite their choice of an employer. I actually have spent all day today with a former staff member of the Utah Boys Ranch who I developed a close relationship with. I wish I had more time to comment, but I really am under the gun right now. Thanks to everyone who watched our videos, though. I realize that mine was half assed, but then again I wasn't really going for finesse.
I certainly don't want to be critical of your videos, putting them up is better than not. They could be improved upon, as you say they served particular purpose for you. I do find that the abuse you talk about, in general doesn't come through strong. For example when you mention boys had to wear a blanket, you didn't explain why you thought it was very abusive or give much details on it, such as how long were boys made to wear blankets, in front of whom, how uncomfortable was it, did others make fun of those in blankets etc.
Plus your style is low key to begin with. But the more you do this, the more comfortable you will be explaining and the better you'll get at it.
My website more than explains blankets and the other abuse that goes on. I think for a "commercial" it had more than enough details. Probably too many.
(Nevo, Jan 23) And the Melchizedek Priesthood may not have been restored until the summer of 1830, several months after the organization of the Church.
Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father [in Heaven] and how familiar his face is to us
- President Ezra Taft Benson
I am so old that I can remember when most of the people promoting race hate were white.