Welcome again to everybody. Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
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People will watch mormonism and scientology be literal cults, with the former basically being an organized crime and corruption syndicate, and then wonder why china doesn’t like the falun gong or other such things.
how is mormonism an organized crime and corruption syndicate? were you referring to scientology?
Note: I did mix up the FLDS and LDS churches. [https://apnews.com/article/flds-warren-jeffs-short-creek-hildale-polygamy-d632cd039c55dc895872ce5842a76f52] [https://www.fox13now.com/2016/03/07/jury-finds-flds-towns-violated-constitutional-rights-of-non-members]
It’s more of a de facto thing. The church isn’t technically an organized crime ring.
What there is, is that they have their own version of the “blue wall of silence.”
There is the BYU police department, [https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/editorial/2021/12/17/byus-year-cover-up-its/https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/editorial/2021/12/17/byus-year-cover-up-its/]
There is also the “old boys club” of informal connections at high echalons, like in this case [https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/11/10/FBI-silent-on-allegations-of-Mormon-Mafia/7037500446800/] (yes he was based for passing information to the USSR, that’s besides the point)
And of course the recent incident with the American fork police department [https://www.primetimer.com/news/american-fork-police-department-slammed-as-wildly-corrupt-and-biased-as-video-of-bricks-minifigs-youtuber-ben-schneider-s-arrest-goes-viral]
And their influence over Utah state politics
https://dailyutahchronicle.com/2020/09/19/alexander-church-state/
So maybe organized crime ring is wrong for the LDS. Probably “de facto theocracy” might be better, where members of a church gain benefits and corporeal power over a political and police entity
Also ACAB plays into this, obviously
yes, unfortunately i think the LDS church is just a typical church now, it’s just that being mormon is so overwhelmingly common (and not being mormon is incredibly uncommon) in some places that there’s a lot of overlap between it and the political sphere.
of course, it’s important to note that the LDS church was originally a cult in the same vein as the FLDS church. joseph smith was obviously a cult leader if you look into the history at all. but, i don’t really think the structure of the church mirrors a cult any longer (unlike scientology): people are allowed to leave the church, there isn’t a bunch of separation from families, there’s no extreme wealth/labor extraction from members, etc etc