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Both led long marches – Joseph Smith led the Mormon Battalion, etc and Mao Ze Dong led the “Long March” campaign.

Music is an important propaganda technique – compare the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to the Chinese Communist choirs

Education is controlled – independent thinking is forbidden.

Both were charismatic founders – Joseph Smith was very revolutionary and attracted many followers. Later many top church leaders and his family turned against him due to more eccentric behavior and personal lust for power. Mao Ze Dong attracted followers by the hundreds of thousands and later was betrayed by his wife, close friends etc. One of his leading generals even tried to assassinate him (Lin Biao)

And, in spite of the fact that Joseph Smith was a poor, semi-literate, uneducated farm boy and Mao received an education in the Chinese classics and then went on to complete a modern, comprehensive education, what other irrelevant points of similarity are there? Oh, let's see...

Both followed closely the principle of ‘unite the power of the people’ – Mao Ze Dong made millions of Chinese crazy with communistic revolutionary principles as they destroyed their ancient and precious culture and killed each other during the Culture Revolution. Joseph Smith united both poor and rich alike through his universal, all encompassing, comprehensive religion. More people/members means more power.

I don't recall Joseph ever making any such statement of principle, and even if he had, are you claiming he would have meant by it what Mao meant by it? You say that Mao drove the Chinese crazy with Communist ideology, and yet in your other post you claim that the Chinese are content under Communist rule. Would you like to have this both ways knowlten?
The Chinese didn't "kill each other" during the Cultural Revolution. Clever. The Chinese people were killed by their government and by the Red Guards, a government sponsored gang of politically correct thugs who went throughout the country enforcing correct revolutionary consciousness by force. The Chinese people weren't killing each other in some kind of civil war of all against all.

Both led long marches – Joseph Smith led the Mormon Battalion, etc and Mao Ze Dong led the “Long March” campaign. Later there were long exoduses by BY with the pioneers.

Another utterly irrelevant comparison. I couldn't think of two more divergent historical phenomena than the Long March and the movement of the Saints into the west.

Both were poor farmers who tutored themselves, gained public support and used their devoting masses to bring about their ambitions. Today they are worshipped as Gods. (Mao became a Buddhist God while Joseph Smith is the JC of the Mormons).

This is a flat footed falsehood regarding Joseph Smith. Please go over to Recovery From Mormonism and foist this one off. I don't know about Mao, although I doubt too many Buddhists, who were tormented under Mao's rule, would want to worship him (The Tibetan Buddhists in particular, who saw the Chinese attempt a final solution in their country during the Cultural Revolution, would be, it would seem, hard pressed to revere this monster).

Both had a book which was worshipped as doctrine – Joseph Smith and his Book of Mormon and Book of Commandments (D&D) which were recited constantly and used as a cornerstone of Mormonism. Mao Ze Dong wrote his “Little Book of Quotations (the red book)” and students studied it and only it daily in school (it was the only textbook you could study). If you didn’t carry it properly when in public you could have been shot.

You're right about the Little Red Book, at least in the sense that that is what the Communists of the time would have liked. As far as the scriptures go, where are earth are you getting these whoppers from? Some people lose credibility while they're here knowlten. You're may be one of the only ones to have lost it before you got here.

Both focused on imaginary enemies to put the people in fear and gain their support – Joseph Smith, BY and all the presidents until today have blamed non Mormons and Babylon as evil and devilish. Mao painted Western countries (somewhat accurately) as Imperial Capitalist Monsters (who were really only paper tigers).

I have no idea what you're talking about.

Both Joseph Smith & BY and Mao fought against the current government of their times. Joseph Smith fought against America and Mao fought against the Nationalist Party, which was later beaten and relocated in Taiwan.

The United States government fought against the early Saints, they were not fighting against anybody. Mao fought Chiang Kai Shek for dominance in China after the Japanese had been defeated, in a bid for political supremacy.

How on earth much more irrelevancy can their be? Let's find out, shall we...


Mormonism and Communism

They both offer the answers to all of life’s problems through giving up everything (your self esteem, will, and soul) to a centralized authoritarian regime.

This is sheer nonsense. The LDS Church has no such doctrines, teachings, or philosophy. Communism, absolutely.
There is no centralized, authoritarian regime in the Church. We vote to sustain our leaders and they lead by the consent of the led, unlike Socialism. Nothing is given up to any Church. We give our selves to Christ, and seek to have our wills "swallowed up" in his. The Church has no political, economic, or personal power over me. The worst they can do, if I lapse morally to a great enough extant, is separate me from that organization.

Marriages were decided by centralized authority – the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) decided marriages even until the 1980’s! Local leaders of SOE (State Owned Enterprises) had to give their permission for marriage even until the late 90’s. In Mormonism, church leaders decided on marriages and fought over young women to be their polygamous wife. Now wives are decided by “temple worthiness” or obedience to the rules.

This is incoherent. There are too many apples and oranges here to separate out. Mormons marry precisely who they want to and nobody else. What on earth....



Both Mormonism and Communism controls behavior through open public means. In China before during the Cultural Revolution, every word that you said, the color of your clothes was under scrutiny. Music, art, opinions and your very thoughts were monitored. My University Professor told me when she was a girl she almost got arrested because she was wearing a dress…and it had POLKA DOTS, which of course were a sign of imperial arrogance and she had to run home and change them immediately.

Mormonism uses “obedience” or outward conformity to many rules as a way to judge inward righteousness and integrity. It is easy to judge and benchmark the “righteous” because everything is based on external superficial behavior. The Word of Wisdom, temples and church attendance, dress, grooming, etc are all easily monitored. How many times have you heard about people being denounced and publicly attacked for failure to conform? It happens all the time in Mormonism (often subtle and spitefully).

Music is an important propaganda technique – compare the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to the Chinese Communist choirs – they both use groups of individuals to arrogantly and melodramatically sing about past triumphs and benevolent leaders who ‘led’ the people and ‘united’ the people.

Songs during the Cultural Revolution include “I’m a Red Soldier of Mao” (the red soldiers murdered millions of Chinese during the revolution) “I love Beijing and Tiananmen” (Tiananmen – where thousands of protesting university students were murdered and run over with tanks).

Communists took traditional Chinese music (very soft and beautiful) and manipulated it into march like blaring songs of the glorious Party. Mormons took traditional European/American classical and spiritual music and rewrote it for themselves. Hymns like “follow the prophet” “I hope they call me on a mission” indoctrinate and manipulate children.

People are used to spy on each other. Even today in China everybody spies on you – as a foreigner you get so annoyed with being daily harassed about what you are doing, where you are going and who you are seeing. The Communists used children, family, friends and strangers during the Revolution to spy on each other – remember, by spying and betraying loved ones you are working for the glory of the party! Mormonism also subtly encourages members to spy and talk behind backs or turn the person it. Missionaries must be followed 24 hours a day by someone to spy on you. You must be married to a fellow Mormon – and spend all of your time with family and friends (all Mormon) who encourage “appropriate” behavior and thinking. As in China before and Mormonism now: you are rarely alone and always surrounded by others who know what’s best for you.

Property was in the hands of leaders – the Communist state during the Cultural Revolution and many years later controlled all private property (now everybody can own property of course) In Mormon history there were things like the United Order and what not that had collective property. If you are bad and disobey you will be punished by having no where to live or getting kicked out.

Extreme birth control is enforced – Mao famously said “more babies equal more power”. The church also enforces mass birth to make more Mormons and train them in the right way. Now the Chinese govt. has wisely (under Deng Xiao Ping in 1979) enforced a one child policy. This is very wise and is good for China’s future. The Mormons have never followed this wise policy and never will.

Education is controlled – independent thinking is forbidden. The Communists even until today strictly control the education – students go to school at the age of 4 until 30 years old. They go 6-7 days a week 14 hours per day. There are constant tests to be taken. There are also mandatory military drills every year for middle school students to college
Mormons have their own indoctrination (every Sunday, Family Home Evening, Seminary, etc that teach only church approved doctrines and limited information). Mormons encourage education but the subjects must be interpreted and understood through accepted Mormon theory.

In Animal Farm it was said “all animals are created equal but some are better than others” –Communist leaders controlled everything before: they had economic, political, and social power. Now they are mostly corrupt businessmen who outwardly “serve” the state while inwardly steal money, get kickbacks and support their own personal companies. If you want to get ahead you must make “guanxi” or have a relationship with a leader. In Mormonism leaders are spiritually superior and holy. They control and micromanage members lives. Everything you say, do, wear, eat, and think are subject to their scrutiny and control. This causes a struggle for leadership as members (of the Party and Mormonism) fight for leadership positions. They must be hypocritical and superficial in order to do this; always appear righteous and good.

In Mormonism, in a way, personal spirituality is considered wrong. Righteousness, commandments, and rules are decided by leaders for you – they tell you what is wrong and you can’t listen to your conscious or follow the natural spiritual desires of your heart. Your spirituality in Mormonism is a predetermined package of rules and rituals. If you have a different opinion then you are evil.

Its funny because China now is pretty safe and stable – people are free to offer their opinions and do their own thing (you wouldn’t know this by watching the news about China in America). People are free to go to church and its very capitalist. It’s sad because even the Communists of today have outdone the Mormon church.

Coggins7 I think you are over reacting a little, calm down! I am simply comparing the ideology and events in a symbolic way. Of course they can't be interpreted literally. Mormonism is a far cry from Communism. I only offer an alternative opinion - one influenced and educated by native Chinese people. I, along with Chinese people, despise Communism as a corrupt political institution.

Have you ever actually been to China?

qknowlton wrote:There is no backtracking. What I wrote is a symbolic representation. I often talked with Chinese students and scholars about the similarities between religions, political institutions, etc. Most Chinese distrust religion and political institutions. This is reflected in my own opinions. As a teacher I am used to honestly and opening comparing different ideas nonjudgementally for an interesting discussion. I believe in respecting other people's opinions and learning from them, which is one of the reasons I lived abroad for many years.

I am interested where you learned about modern Chinese culture and society. Again, have you ever actually been to China?

There is no backtracking. What I wrote is a symbolic representation. I often talked with Chinese students and scholars about the similarities between religions, political institutions, etc. Most Chinese distrust religion and political institutions. This is reflected in my own opinions. As a teacher I am used to honestly and opening comparing different ideas nonjudgementally for an interesting discussion. I believe in respecting other people's opinions and learning from them, which is one of the reasons I lived abroad for many years.

I am interested where you learned about modern Chinese culture and society. Again, have you ever actually been to China?