I don't see the similarity with the club dues at at all. The whole reason this type of legal action seems insane is because we have just completely and totally internalized the idea that religion is an exception or gets a pass in ways nothing else does.
On top of that the club notion contradicts the church's own self understanding.
"I joined, not based on the false information, but for reasons having nothing to do with whether what the club told me was true."
Essentially everyone I know that joined the Mormon church, did so exactly because they came to believe it to be true and that in turn was based in part on the supposed honest testimony of other trusted respected individuals. And tue in what sense? The simple sense that the story is literally true---Gods, plates, angels, Nephites, the vision, and so on.
When one joins a religion, it is normally important that the religion is judged to be true. This is doubly so for Mormonism with its emphasis on testimony and matters of literal historical alleged fact. The very fact that missionaries act to get members to believe (in people, places, prophets, angels, gods, and events), to get a testimony, proves that Mormonism itself (to personify a bit) totally understands that everything depends on the truth of the novel claims. Joining for social reasons is not encouraged at all (and is in any case nuts in my opinion).
"- I have paid my dues only in order to remain a member of the club and enjoy its benefits, not because I believed the incorrect information."
Benefits??? Really?
I paid tithing because I was assured and convinced that the money was required of me by God who ran the only true church on earth. If if wasn't true, I wouldn't pay and I might add that the church acts in such a way as to support that reasoning. Once again, the importance of the truth claim and its connection with tithing is implicitly emphasized by the church itself.
In my mind supposed benefits are only benefits if the whole thing is not based on a lie. One could get similar social/solidarity benefits by being a Bigfoot enthusiast, a Scientologist, or even a member of the Nazi party.
- The club's purpose in not giving me correct information was not to influence my decision to become a member or to remain a member.
The churches purpose in giving or withholding, emphasizing or playing down, information is
exactly to influence both the decision to join and the decision to remain.
We are not asked to be members on the basis of social needs or to join regardless of truth claims. Truth claims are
the offered reason for everything--the whole point as it were. It is alleged to be God's true church restored by a prophet and there is no parsing of words or metaphorical, postmodern or purely pragmatic angle on any of it.
If it were true as explained by missionaries, we would be obliged to pray, attend church and pay tithes even if like Job, we saw no benefits at all. God requires it.
Nothing is left without the truth claims and that is exactly the attitude taken by the leaders themselves and is the underlying assumption at the base of every conversion effort and almost every sermon.
Now, I know that since religion gets a super-pass, there is almost no chance of the legal action being successful. But knowingly getting people to pay money and devote their lives by telling them a substantial, material and relevant falsehood is "fraud" in any other walk of life.
The church isn't a club and it doesn't present itself as one. It makes truth claims on matters of alleged fact and bases all requirements on that premise.
when believers want to give their claims more weight, they dress these claims up in scientific terms. When believers want to belittle atheism or secular humanism, they call it a "religion". -Beastie
yesterday's Mormon doctrine is today's Mormon folklore.-Buffalo
