Discerning the Signs and Anti-Signs: Part 8

10/26/2023

Part 1: Discerning the Signs and Anti-Signs
Part 2: Discerning the Signs and Anti-Signs
Part 3: Discerning the Signs and Anti-Signs
Part 4: Discerning the Signs and Anti-Signs
Part 5: Discerning the Signs and Anti-Signs
Part 6: Discerning the Signs and Anti-Signs
Part 7: Discerning the Signs and Anti-Signs

Welcome to Auditing 101

I find Scientology fascinating, from an anthropological point of view. The founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, wrote a therapy book in 1950 called Dianetics. But two years later he lost the rights to the book, so he recast his ideas into a religion he named Scientology. Yes, a new American religion founded upon a book ― the rest is history.

The similarities and differences between Scientology and the LDS Church are too numerous to list here, but to me the three most interesting aspects of Scientology are (1) their interpersonal politics / power dynamics, (2) their theology, and (3) their practice of Fair Game.

Look, having been raised in the LDS Church on a healthy diet of teachings about Kolob and Adam being transplanted here from another world (Brigham Young, JD 3:319), I am in no position to judge another religion's space opera.

But from what I understand, Scientologists believe that 75 million years ago ― (the LDS Church has them beat, per Bruce R. McConkie, who said that God "has presided in our universe for almost 2.5 billion years") ― there was a Galactic Confederacy ruled by a person called Xenu, whose solution to galactic overpopulation was to send tons of citizens to earth and then nuke them.

The souls of the dead who had been consigned to earth (they're called thetans) were traumatized by Xenu's genocide, and humans today (the bodies that house the thetans) need to undergo "auditing" to clear themselves of the trauma.

This is accomplished through a process of holding metal rods hooked up to a device that measures a person's electrical resistance while another person (the auditor) determines what bad energy (engrams) needs to be cleared.

Scientologists consider auditing a sacred ritual (and an expensive one, to be sure ― but then, having been raised on Tithing and Storehouses, who am I to judge?).

Aye Aye, Captain

Sea Org is Scientology's core governing body, currently led by David Miscavige who holds the rank of Captain.

Apparently in 1967 Ron Hubbard had the idea to take the Church's operations off-shore on ships, away from government oversight and meddling ― much as Brigham Young led the saints West in 1847 out of the United States (ironically, the Mexican-American War soon brought Deseret back into the borders of America).

By the way, David O. McKay briefly entertained the idea of retrofitting a cruise ship into a floating temple to travel around the world and make temple ordinances more easily accessible to the members, so don't knock it!

Anyway, to join Sea Org you have to sign a Billion Year Contract promising your soul to serve Scientology for this life and future ones (consider it the Covenant Path on steroids). If you think 8-year-olds don't know what they're signing up for when they're baptized, imagine a 13-year-old signing a Billion Year Contract to Scientology.

Once you're a member of Sea Org, you can marry (but only another Sea Org member, sound familiar?) but you can't have children. Or, I should say, you can have children, but you'll have to leave Sea Org until they are 6 years old ― after which your child will be raised communally and allowed to visit you on weekends.

And finally, Scientology has the famous Rehabilitation Project Force, created in 1974. RPF is a work camp that wayward members get sent to. So if a person, for example, fails an auditing session, they're sent to RPF (located within Sea Org facilities) to be rehabilitated (but hey, I served a two-year mission and had to abide by the White Handbook, so who am I to judge?).

"Think Sea Org!"

Belief systems provide the framework for understanding the world around us.

However, I think we severely underestimate how influential our beliefs are to the choices we make. Being rational creatures, our decisions grow inexorably from the soil-bed of our beliefs.

Most of us who are outsiders to Scientology cannot relate to their lifestyle, anymore than the President of the Church can relate to the non-normative, non 1950s-era standards of behavior today. "Cap those sleeves, girls!"

But LDS practices and beliefs are just as bizarre to outsiders as Scientology's are to us. We believe that God forbids coffee and dating before you're sixteen and watching Saving Private Ryan and that a person has to be sealed in the temple to gain exaltation or be damned (sorry Great-Uncle-Billy).

Our beliefs generate a series of cascading, secondary beliefs and actions that flow from the first; we are truly the incarnation of our beliefs, molding our lives into the image of whatever reality we believe in.

Hence, since I am not a Scientologist, I cannot imagine signing a Billion Year Contract to serve the Sea Org ― just as those who are not LDS cannot fathom the fact I have never drank coffee.

So what does belief have to do with discernment?

Evil Fruit?

Dare I say it? We are far-too cavalier with the doctrines we espouse and teach.

Why? Because promulgating false beliefs causes incalculable harm to others who shape their lives around error.

Take, for example, the common teaching in the 19th Century by Prophets who said that, in order to obtain the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom, you had to enter into the new and everlasting covenant of polygamy.

Well, the same thing is taught today (sans polygamy) ― and confusingly, we're told if you aren't lucky enough to get married in the temple, don't worry, because if you're faithful (i.e., pay tithing and follow the leaders) no blessings will be withheld from you in the eternities (which makes me wonder why any of it matters if we can vicariously and/or in a future life iron out the particulars?).

Anyway, is it any wonder that, when the truth is not found "in us" (John 1:8), our choices become corrupted? Not because we are evil, but because we have been taught to believe in falsehood. As Jesus taught:

Laying aside
the commandments of God,
ye hold to the tradition of men.

(Mark 7:8)

Isaiah taught this in his characteristically charming way, whose words always come to mind when members opine from the pulpit or in Sunday School as to the reasons others leave the Church, pointing the finger of blame (i.e. lazy learners or sinful living) like those perched atop the Great and Spacious Building:

Who are you mocking?
At whom do you sneer
and stick out your tongue?
Are you not children
of transgression,
the offspring of falsehood?

(Isaiah 57:4)

So you see the great challenge we face, which is, to learn to discern truth while having inherited "falsehood."

What Is Your Top Value?

Usually what we commonly refer to as "discernment" is nothing more than a reflection of our existing value system. If something falls "outside" of those core values, we sense (discern) it is "wrong" or "bad."

In other words, our belief system shapes our opinions on politics, religion, economics, cultural standards, and so on.

Which presents an interesting question: Are our values mixed up? Are they cross-wired and confusing our discernment?

Well, what is our highest core value? Which belief reigns supreme? Because whatever value we cherish most is likely governing the others.

Put another way, our ability to discern is heavily influenced by (and often thwarted by) the values we hold dear.

So let's hope our value system mirrors Christ's, right? What was the Lord's highest governing value? Which virtue had preeminence in His heart?

I led them
with cords of kindness,
with the bands of love,
and I became to them as one
who eases the yoke
on their jaws,
and I bent down to them
and fed them.

(Hosea 11:4, ESV)

I would argue Christ's governing value was love. Not just any love, but a love condescending from heaven ("I bent down"), giving one's lifeforce to ameliorate the lives of others ("eased the yoke" "fed them").

Unfortunately, most organizations and churches do not place love at the top. Instead, they place obedience ("the first law of heaven") or authoritarianism ("follow the prophet").

Why? Because love serves the individual; it is exchanged between persons one-by-one.

But obedience? Authority? These serve the collective; they serve the institution and those who control it.

10 Comments

David

10/26/2023 05:51:48 pm

Another quote from a prophet that has very serious ramifications....Brigham Young taught in General Conference that if the Church ever abandoned Polygamy, it would lose its Priesthood and fall. He said, “Now if any of you will deny the plurality of wives, and continue to do so, I promise that you will be damned,” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 3, p. 266). Also, “The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy,” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 11, p. 269).

I'm fairly confident that the Church abandoned polygamy, and that President Hinkley said that he condemned polygamy as a practice because he thought that it was not doctrinal.

My decernment tells me that we have prophets condricting each other and being reckless with our eternal salvation.

Tim Merrill

10/30/2023 09:13:04 am

David, the inconsistency you've highlighted made me think of the logic used in game design; if the rules to Monopoly were arbitrary and/or contradictory, it would stink. Why? Because for a game to "work," all of the players have to consent to a standard, uniform set of rules. If someone "breaks" those rules, we say they "cheated."

In the gospel, it is similar; we see the leaders "breaking" the rules of the game as if there were a meta-game at play, in which prophetic purview, or the Handbook, or continuing revelation allowed them to rewrite the rules of the gospel. And yet, those were not the rules we "consented" to when we sat down to play Monopoly.

The result of a game that has no clear, internal logic or consistency, is frustration; it makes losers of us all. Thanks for pointing out how important it is that we remain true to the gospel! Tim

Ben

10/26/2023 10:25:23 pm

Thoroughly enjoying this series, occasionally reading my thoughts (through your words) play out on the pages, words that aren't typically put into the public sphere and yet they are more important than most other discourse out there. When you started this journey I hadn't imagined so much nuance and so many real-world examples, merely considering discernment a largely black and white issue. That is, at least until I realized by personal necessity it is a "top 10" issue. At that point discernment went from holding the mild interest of Sunday-school lesson fervor, to "I'm parched and this water isn't cutting it - I need more!!" I had no idea the Scientology stuff was so whackadoodle but having spent so many hours reading church history and considering the respective LRH's of the LDS church with their copious prognostication. . . from moon Quakers to TK Smoothies, I found myself thinking, "These Scientology lunatics might be onto something here! At least there is official proof of the existence of Grey aliens and space federations." There's always that thought in the back of my mind, "I can't wait to see the look on everyone's faces the moment we all realize that most everything we hold as "truth" is either an outright lie or at the very least a perversion of a once nonnegotiable truth. The more I read the church history, I suppose the less surprised I'll be on that awkward day.

You wrote:
So you see the great challenge we face, which is, to learn to discern truth while having inherited "falsehood."

And:

Put another way, our ability to discern is heavily influenced by (and often thwarted by) the values we hold dear.

It is with these points I am currently most concerned. The brainwashing of decades surely creates collateral damage as the programming is slowly and carefully dismantled. Which points are truth, though unwittingly manifested by an obviously dubious source, and which are still poppycock? I’ve had to lay all points on the table like a detective, and when the reasoning paradigm kicks in, I have to question the mechanism itself to re-evaluate if it’s even sound. It’s not as maddening as I thought it might be though. Just frustrating that all the answers aren’t as easy to pluck as those red-herrings so often glamorously portrayed as “restored truth.”

Alas, I suppose it’s those who are searching who will find. Therefore the more I get my hands dirty digging, the closer I will surely come.

We have this interesting thought-portcullis in the LDS tradition, recently repeated over the international pulpit that is LDS conference. Concepts evolve and solidify like, “You can receive revelation but it is for you only, and only valid if it aligns with narrative” (as if truth is as fickle as individual whimsey) or “If they’re not towing the party line (Follow the Prophet) then they’re obviously deceived” or “A bible, a bible, we have a bible and need no more bible so any ideas that don’t gel with narrative are grounds for expulsion” etc etc. What was the quote from conference, 'don’t listen to those who don’t believe', just Kaa-style, “trust in me, just in me, close your eyes, and trust in me. . .” For how long did I keep my portcullis down because I was under Kaa’s spell? Even with the ridiculous, I wouldn’t allow myself to see what was right in front of me because of the ramparts that kept me secure within my little fantasy castle made of Camembert. (I can smell decades-old troll socks just mentioning the word) And now that I’m awaking, its just like Plato’s cave: you want to tell everyone you love to “Wake up! The next stop is Dark-and Dreary Waste! It's time to get off this leisure cruise!” But alas, we’ve trained ourselves to not allow any logical thoughts in if they don’t sound of sacrament trays and dirge-tempo organ.

Thanks for doing the work Tim. I hope this series goes on for months to come; long enough for me to fully disengage from the chains that bind me to castles of Camembert.

Timothy Merrill

10/30/2023 09:26:17 am

Ben, while I am not sure I understand what castles of Camembert are (for my mind is like baked brie), I can relate to some of the deconstruction you're experiencing.

While my only real experience with faith deconstruction is my own, I will share one lesson that has proved helpful, at least to me: values hold preeminence over beliefs.

In other words, my values have provided stability amidst the uncertainty of beliefs; as I have placed my beliefs under scrutiny and occasionally discarded or exchanged them for new beliefs, I have been "anchored" through charity (which, in my case, is what I choose to make my central, preeminent value).

Think of it this way: is it better for a person to believe in God and NOT be loving; or to NOT believe in God but be loving?

Which highlights an interesting reality: we all carry an assortment of beliefs that are untrue. I don't think it is possible for us to hold all true beliefs, for we as we grow our beliefs which may be correct in one context, loses relevance as we progress to higher levels of understanding. Thus, spiritual growth demands us to constantly be replacing our beliefs-as-believed-yesterday with those purer beliefs we learn today.

A person whose beliefs remain stagnant--whose beliefs mirror those they held a decade ago--does not demonstrate their faith, but unbelief. For becoming "new creatures" in Christ requires a new set of beliefs, just as a man cannot depend on baby food once he is grown.

Thanks for your unique and creative take on this topic! Looking forward to what you have to share next with us. Yours always, Tim

10/27/2023 12:29:48 am

I am enjoying and learning from this series a lot too. Thank you so much Tim. I’m going to try to say something that I’m not sure how to say, but I’ll try.

For the past few years I have been working on separating myself from the false traditions of my upbringing. It’s hard because I’m not ready to make a complete break from the church yet, but I constantly move forward. But last week I wasn’t feeling well and had a phone call from a church friend who would like to help me stay on her version of the correct path (she’s very traditional Mormon upbringing), and when I hung up I experienced the worst panic attack I have ever had. Somehow this phone call filled me anxiety filled guilt beyond my ability to handle.

I only bring this up because our culture is filled with false traditions and it can be very difficult to let go of them. For me, they are born and bred in me. It is taking much soul searching, feelings of guilt, and constantly seeking blessings from heaven to cast them off.

The Book of Mormon mentions false traditions in what seems a casual way to me, but giving them up is anything but casual.

I don’t know if others of you run into the chains of false traditions and the difficulty of giving them up, but thank you Tim for approaching such subjects in such a thoughtful and insightful way.

10/30/2023 09:50:52 am

L, thank you for sharing this experience with your church friend and their insistence on the "correct" path. I am glad you brought this up, because I had a similar experience last week.

My friend had posted on their personal page a short post about the "Covenant Path" that has engulfed the Church. A troll said in the comments section to my friend:

"You are a liar. Nephi taught the necessity of staying in the path of faithfully making and keeping covenants with God. The covenant path is the strait and narrow."

This person proceeded to hurl insults and accused my friend of being mentally ill because of her beliefs. Now, compared to some of the stuff I see online, the troll's comment was fairly benign; we've all seen worse.

But for some reason, when I read their exchange, I brushed up against evil; I sensed something working upon me, even though I had no idea who this commenter was (I went to their personal Facebook page and can confirm they are a card-carrying member of the Church; their page was filled with quotes from the Brethren sprinkled liberally with anti-homosexuality posts that said things like, "They say ‘love is love’, but . . . is stalking love? Is rape love?")

It was unpleasant, sure, but the words themselves didn't account for the pit I felt in my stomach. But the ickiness stayed with me and I had trouble shaking it. Clearly I was over-reacting, I thought; nothing about the exchange involved me; and the troll was just some stranger following the playbook of a long line of LDS apologists.

So why did I feel bad?

As I pondered my reaction throughout the evening (checking to make sure it wasn't a case of indigestion from my lunch of canned chili and Fritos), I confirmed my spirit was, in fact, repulsed and sickened.

I scoured my heart for any traces of fear. Nope, none. It wasn't fear, then, I was feeling, but something else.

Just to be sure, I prayed for the troll and asked the Lord to help me love them and for peace to abound among those those of good-will. A thought came to my mind: I was experiencing the Lord’s anger.

Wait, what?

The Lord isn’t an angry person; He told us to love our enemies and to bless those that curse us. The Lord I have come to know is someone who is patient and kind and loving and long-suffering and merciful and optimistic and hopeful and a lot other wonderful things.

But angry?

While still pondering, I rode the train to work and read the following words in a new light: I sensed a wisdom in them that has eluded me until now:

These six things
doth the Lord hate:
yea, seven are an abomination
unto him:

(1) a proud look,
(2) a lying tongue,
(3) hands that shed
innocent blood,
(4) an heart that deviseth
wicked imaginations,
(5) feet that be swift
in running to mischief,
(6) a false witness
that speaketh lies, and
(7) he that soweth discord.

(Proverbs 6:16-19)

Anyway, I find it more than coincidental that those of us who are genuinely seeking the Lord are being attacked from both sides of the veil. God bless you, and keep you. Much love, Tim

10/27/2023 05:30:41 am

As I read through your post for a third time I can't help but think of the Church as a cult just as much as Scientology, or the Moonles. And, coincidencedentaly read a satirical blog post on this very matter just yesterday.

https://stakepresident.blogspot.com/2011/06/is-mormonism-cult-stake-president.html?m=1

As Ben said, its not until we step back, and pull the IV of false traditions from our arm, that we are able to sober up and start decerning things for what they are. And it is amazing to discover all the cognitive dissonance that I subjected myself to as I deconstruct my life as a former member of a cult.

Thanks for your courage and hard work to put your thoughts into words in this blog.

10/30/2023 09:55:14 am

Thanks David; your metaphor of the IV is very apt; how many of us are being kept in a spiritually (medically) induced coma? It gives new meaning to the admonition we read in the scriptures to "Awake!" In college I used to sell plasma for a little extra candy money; IVs can both inject and extract.

Clark Burt

10/28/2023 07:25:31 am

One major difference I see between the church and Scientology is that Scientology was a man made religion, while the Church of Jesus Christ was organized to foster and take care of the truth, the ordinances, but has become, as you pointed out, inundated with man-made teachings and so called doctrines. But this has always been the case with the Lord's people, so when you say 'our beliefs' you have correctly stated the problem. And you said this best when you wrote: "Anyway, is it any wonder that, when the truth is not found 'in us' (John 1:8), our choices become corrupted?" This part of your quote I agree with, but when you 'we have been taught to believe falsehood' I remind you that God has always pointed us to His Son and said "Hear, ye Him." Members are at fault, and those members become ecclesiastical leaders, and the blind follow the blind.

And so again you nailed it with this quote from Isaiah:

"Who are you mocking? At whom do you sneer and stick out your tongue? Are you not children of transgression, the offspring of falsehood?" We are the offspring of falsehood so long as we do not feast upon and search His words, which are truth, light and the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

10/30/2023 10:11:31 am

Clark, I wholeheartedly agree; thank you for reminding us that even when things become corrupted, they oftentimes still possess a kernel of the divine. As for Scientology, I cannot think of a more works-based, humanistic system of beliefs. Which was my intent in showing the irony in the way we sometimes take the gospel and overlay man-made, works-based, humanistic beliefs on top of it. I continue to search God's words, His truth, hoping to persuade some few of the goodness of Christ's grace in a dispensation of doubt and dreariness, and so appreciate the light you shine on His love. Tim

Discerning the Signs and Anti-Signs: Part 8

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Discerning the Signs and Anti-Signs: Part 8

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