Exiled wrote:MG's behavior can be maddening. He probably will never admit that the LDS church is complete nonsense. We all probably have family members who continue to believe the unbelievable like him and they will probably never admit it is false, too. Maybe we need to endure it, unfortunately? Confrontation leads to retrenchment and passive aggressive behavior in some. Some will forever deny that the sun is shining when it clearly is.
However, it is kind of what I expect from Mormons having grown up in the culture like everyone here. We were told over and over again how noble and great we were for being Mormons and given contrary evidence to this false belief, the answer is to dodge and weave in order to justify the silly beliefs. We are a righteous generation for heaven's sake and so it must be true. I used to do the same thing until I decided to be honest with myself. Mormon apologists teach members to lie to themselves and to change the meaning of words, change paradigms, fight scientific reasoning, move the goal posts, and commit many other logical fallacies in the name of saving the Mormon nonsense from being falsified. It can be maddening dealing with them when the conclusion is so obvious and they refuse to admit it. So, it shouldn't be surprising that MG acts the way he does. He probably thinks he is doing God's work.
That's a very astute summing up, Exiled, thank you. It supports the research found in a fascinating 2013 Sunstione article, "Passive-aggression among the Latter-day Saints, " by Michael Stevens. I ran across Stevens' paper when I was trying to understand why this type of behavior seemed so prevalent. Some excerpts from his research:
...[I] separate[d] out both religion and Wasatch Front regional influences on my students’ preferred conflict resolution styles. When this data was taken into account, the passive-aggressive avoidance scores showed meaningful changes. ....In other words, the Mormon students who grew up along the Wasatch Front overwhelmingly trend toward passive-aggression in their response to conflict resolution.
Passive-aggression is the least common response option to conflict among the U.S. population at large and is typically viewed as an inadequate and unconstructive strategy (at least over the long term).... It is generally used by those who would prefer that the conflict simply go away, ...while simultaneously being uninterested in, dismissive, or contemptuous of the needs or concerns of the other.
....[I]n its more insidious forms, passive-aggression can rise to a level of interpersonal hostility and contempt that embodies a “whatever” response to the views and opinions of others. In this way, the passive-aggression label can be misleading; a more accurate description would be passive-hostility or passive-contempt.
A passive-aggressive person will generally deploy such behavioral tactics as: ...ignoring issues that otherwise should be addressed; resisting change and otherwise championing the status quo; citing rules, policies, procedures, or higher authority as both a defensive and offensive tactic; and providing little meaningful or worthwhile feedback.
https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/passiv ... ay-saints/