"There Are No Mormons"

"Gaslighting Award is Given to . . . "

Recently I attended an Elders Quorum meeting and someone referred to members as "Mormons" (no, it wasn't me).  One of the presidency corrected him, "There are no Mormons.  We aren't supposed to say that anymore."

I was stunned by that statement.  "There are no Mormons."

Something about the way the speaker said it reminded me of Mao's Cultural Revolution in China (1966-1976).  When Mao seized power, he sought to destroy the Four Olds (old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits).  It was cultural genocide.

As I returned home, I wondered to myself, "Maybe he was right.  Maybe the Mormonism I knew and loved is gone."

'Mormonism' used to refer not only to membership in the church, but more importantly, to our cultural heritage.

And what a heritage it was ― the pioneers and Jell-O potlucks, the laughter at roadshows and Relief Society homemaking; seer stones and doctrinal cottage meetings; the Mormon Battalion and Hawn's Mill and J. Golden Kimball stories.

Then I recalled something my mother told me once, reflecting on the changes she had seen in the Church since she joined as a convert over 50 years ago (when David O. McKay was president), "This is not the same Church I joined."

Perhaps we should have remembered, back when the Lord called the Church "living" in 1831 (D&C 1:30), that all living things are prone to die.

Mingling Money with Salvation

The specter of death has hovered over this Dispensation from the very beginning ― from the moment the angel warned Joseph Smith against using "the plates for the purpose of getting rich" (JS-H 1:46).

Long before the foundations of this world were laid, God decreed eternal laws that prevent us from engaging in spiritual work for improper motives (chief among them personal gain).

It never ceases to amaze me how we kick against the pricks, seeking to profit from our service to God, like the family of General Authority Devin G. Durrant seeking to monetize his "Ponderize" catch-phrase.

To be blunt, selling t-shirts and mugs with "Ponderize" on them is chump-change compared to the more sophisticated forms of priestcraft, like selling Catholic indulgences ― or selling temple tokens for tithing.

The reason we are forbidden from charging money for admittance into the temple, or for performing priesthood ordinances, or for sharing our spiritual gifts, is because it puts what God has given freely behind a paywall; it pollutes the holy church of God (Mormon 8:38).

But why?  Why can't we have our cake and eat it too?  Why can't we build the Kingdom while growing our bank accounts?  I mean, besides the obvious reason that the Lord has forbidden it (Luke 12:13-21)?

Please consider the following:

"Buying or selling certain things changes their nature ― 'corrupts' them into something else.  In a democracy, we cannot allow people to sell their votes.  This is because if we do, most of those votes would be bought by the wealthy.  Similarly, sexual intercourse changes when it is paid for.  Another example is friendship; the very nature of friendship means that it can’t be paid for without fundamentally altering it into something else." (Justin Pack, Meritocracy Mingled with Scripture, BCC Press: 2024, p. 22-23.)

You see, charging money to stay on the Covenant Path fundamentally alters Christ's gift of redemption, which was given freely, "without money and without price" (2 Nephi 26:25).

​The Church's business model is the same as Babylon's; unless we repent and "cleanse the inner vessel," we shall be rejected as a people.  Or, I wonder, maybe we already have been rejected ― and for this reason "there are no more Mormons."

Where Paul Loses It

​There's an interesting story in the New Testament about Paul preaching in Philippi, a bustling city in Macedonia, when he encountered a young slave woman "with a spirit of divination" (Acts 16:16).

This young lady pestered Paul and his companion, following them around the city, day after day, crying out, "These men are the servants of the most high God, which show us the way of salvation" (Acts 16:17).

You'd think they'd be flattered with the attention, with her public witness of their divine calling, testifying they were men of God, but no.  She was a soothsayer, a diviner, who had an evil spirit.

According to the commentaries I've read, the maiden was one of the priestesses of Delphi, having the spirit of Python, a pagan oracle.

The text goes out of its way to mention that the woman was skillful at her craft, for she "brought her masters much gain" through her sorcery.  Her work was profitable; she was raking it in, so-to-speak (at least for her masters).

So after "many days" of Paul being followed by the woman, he had finally had enough.  He "was grieved."  The NIV says:

   Paul became so annoyed
   that he turned around
   and said to the spirit,
   "In the name of Jesus Christ
   I command you to come
   out of her!"

(Acts 16:18)

And the evil spirit immediately exited the young woman.  Good news, right?  Well, it was a matter of perspective.  Good news for Paul and her, but not-so-good for her masters, who had lost their golden goose.  With the evil spirit gone, so had her gift of divination.  So had their gravy-train.

And so we come to the point of the story:

   When her owners realized
   that their hope of making
   money was gone,
   they seized Paul and Silas
   and dragged them . . . 
   before the magistrates . . . 
   [who] ordered them to be
   stripped and beaten
   with rods.
   
   After they had been
   severely flogged,
   they were thrown into prison.

(Acts 16:19-23, NIV)

The reason I bring this up is to point out that her masters didn't care when the young woman testified day after day that Paul and Silas were men of God.  They didn't care when Paul went around preaching his religion and faith in Christ; they didn't care ―
until Paul destroyed their priestcraft by casting out the evil spirit.

It was only when they "realized their hope of making money was gone" that they mobilized, wrathful, by throwing Paul into jail.

   He that exalteth himself
   shall be abased,
   and he that abaseth himself
   shall be exalted.

(D&C 101:42)

So long as General Authorities receive a stipend, salary, benefits, perks, etc., we may safely disregard their words ― for they have disregarded Christ's.