moksha wrote:I think the true dilemma posed by the internet is exposing members to its accurate history as opposed to legend. This can create a crisis of faith for some members. The official response has been to defend the legends and to minimize this crisis by calling it something like McCogDis or denying its existence. This does not solve the problem for those members who will continue to be surprised by this new information. I hope it never gets to the point where the official retort is that the internet is an instrument of Satan.
I doubt they'll call it the tool of Satan. There are too many Computer Scientists in Mormonism. Computer science is one of the few degrees that offers employment after only 4 years of college. I think the idea of calling the internet evil only really holds water with people over 65. Even a lot of them don't demonstrate a computer phobia that I've sometimes seen.
What they are concerned about with most as has been in the past is "indoctrinating the youth!" Our youth have been asked to give a talk on the following theme. "My testimony of the Savior and how personal prayer adn scripture study have helped me to Know Him, Love Him and desire to Serve Him with all of my mind, heart, and soul." Then the second is, "How family home evening, family prayer, and family scripture study have incereased my Faith in and love for Him. What if you didn't gain this testimony but your parents still force you to go to Church? What if you're family slacks on doing family scripture reading? Practically speaking, they basically have to make something up and get through the talk. I struggled to the point of getting myself sick trying to answer existential questions and understand whether I could really know something without knowing with my earthly senses. Of course I didn't have that figured out in time to give the talk. I simply had to make something up. What it came down to, was get up and say what they want to hear so your parents will be happy and the people in the Church will be happy. Then they'll say that they felt the spirit and you gave such a wonderful talk. If the truth is you still don't really understand what this mystical, "testimony" is or aren't really sure that's not acceptable and they don't want to hear it. If the truth about where you served your mission was that it was a dirty impoverished place or that you never baptized a single person, don't say this. Yes the spirit testifies of truth, but only truths that are faith promoting and positive and leave everybody with a warm fuzzy. It's nothing more than putting pressure on people to get them to say what you want them to say.
The Church must put an element of fear into those who grow up in it. Yet this is more difficult to do as what they say can now be shouted from the housetops with proof and not kept to the secret audiences as they once were. Hence they have to tone down their threats a little bit. The best source of Church members is still to mentally manipluate the youth and use family relationships to force them to stay in the Church.
Part of me thinks that the information has been out there forever, but there are those who listen to reason and those who choose not to do so. Maybe they have hope of religion and the afterlife. Maybe they don't want to upset family relations. These issues seem much bigger than simple information.
And when the confederates saw Jackson standing fearless as a stone wall the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.