Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Mormons don’t brainwash

No! It’s not true. Mormons do not brainwash. Mormons simply apply intense social pressure, repeated missionary visits, social isolation, peer pressure, geographic isolation, and guilt. That’s not brainwashing, that's just a conversion technique. It’s all good. Every religion does it.

Tell it to 14-year-old Shannon Cowan who had the whole conversion process leveled at her during a trip to Utah where she was visiting her half-sister.

Melita Carter was accused of attempting to convince her half-sister Shannon Cowan to stay with her in Utah following a holiday visit last summer, leading to fears in Ireland that she had been abducted by a religious cult.

Desperate for help, their mother Caroline called Ireland's national broadcaster RTE earlier this month to tell radio listeners that she feared for Shannon's safety.

Or it could just be a family fight. What would I do if my 14-year-old daughter did not return from a trip to another country? Answer – anything I could.

"The whole brainwashing thing is crazy," Carter said from her home in Provo, Utah. "I feel Caroline brought my religion into this because she knew people would listen to what she had to say. I feel like what happened between Caroline and I has nothing got to do with religion and that it should not have been brought up."

But then there is my direct experience with this issue where all of the things I mentioned were used, plus the promise of marriage if I would just leave home and move to northern California with the family of the Mormon girl I was dating. But things have changed in 30 years, right?

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Peter · 756 weeks ago

Whether you call it brain washing or teaching depends on which side of the fence you are on. I am politically conservative and am always on the lookout for the liberal teachings that my kids get at school. Younger people tend to be more liberal than older people. Is this because of brainwashing?
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Mojoey 107p · 752 weeks ago

I don't agree with your generalization. I know plenty of old people who are way too liberal. I think it depends on how susceptible the mind is to new ideas and how well developed our sense of self is. When I had something to measure Ideas against, I stopped accepting every new thing that came down the pipe as Gospel. it changed my world. I think kids grow out of it.
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Mojoey 107p · 752 weeks ago

I don't agree with your generalization. I know plenty of old people who are way too liberal. I think it depends on how susceptible the mind is to new ideas and how well developed our sense of self is. When I had something to measure Ideas against, I stopped accepting every new thing that came down the pipe as Gospel. it changed my world. I think kids grow out of it.
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Buffy 83p · 756 weeks ago

It's brainwashing minus the force.
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Seth R. · 756 weeks ago

Mormons don't brainwash any more than your standard high school football camp does.
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tonjia · 756 weeks ago

Mormons are a brainwashing machine. One of their major tactics is isolation. Geographic, social, informational. It's a pretty rock solid form of isolation, in which you are taught that seeking ANY information outside of Mormonism, or from any source other than mormonism, is evil. Seeking, asking, and investigating alternative sources of information is forbidden. Sociallizing with other mormons is encouraged and socializing with outsiders is STRONGLY discouraged, through peer pressure, guilt, visiting teaching visits, home teaching visits, visits from the bishopric, and missionary visits. I would call that intense social pressure. This is one of the reasons mormonism is so hard to leave. You have no outside information. You have no outside contacts. Escape seems impossible because you have been so isolated from every other possibility, and no one you know can help you. I left a child behind to save three others. My sister jumped from a moving vehicle to escape them.
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tonjia · 756 weeks ago

The woman has reason to be concerned. Especially for a 14 year old girl. No young girl is safe in a state that objectifiies women and children through polygamist doctrines, and REFUSES to prosecute the felony of polygamy, which ALWAYS involves underage girls. She could easily end up somebody's wife. She is young and impressionable, and has no defenses against the vast pressures that are most certainly being exercised against her.

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