These were the last 2 I ever did:
The polite face of psychological warfare in mormon chat II
http://imgur.com/gallery/X5CTA
Where I manage to so, so gently work into the conversation that I think their priests should be put in jail for soliciting tithing from people on the breadline aha.
The polite face of psychological warfare in Mormon chat I
http://imgur.com/gallery/Cgd1M
Where I question sin by saying; I struggle with how being forgiven for suffering is at all helpful?
At the time I had a friend writing a zine on how to approach 40 days for life protesters outside abortion clinics, and I thought about writing ones for if your approached by mormon missionairies, but now I think they are just seeped in apologetics and it's easier to let them work it out on their own and invest time in friends you get something back from.
https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/5bf4b7/huffpost_article_how_to_deal_with_mormon/
Anyways here's what I wrote on the whole thing a year or so ago:
New Question Lines on reddit.com/r/mormonorgchats/
https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/5an80x/new_question_lines_on_redditcomrmormonorgchats/
I’ve been coming up with these question lines and testing them on mormon.org chat service to see what works best at encouraging critical thinking, don’t get me wrong it’s for my own entertainment, but I try to always be courteous.
I’d be curious if anyone has suggestions what question lines they’d like answered, or think would be interesting / provoke critical thinking.
You often hit a brick wall with the standard responses, ‘gods the person you should be asking’, ‘reading BOM is the best way to know if its true’, ‘praying the right way’ etc. So I’m trying out different openings like talking about organizing with Quakers who believe in continued revelation (which is true), it’s a softer way to be seen relating to Mormon scripture. Also role-played a specific situation as a Mormon because it was the only angle I could see working.
Results below and on reddit.com/r/mormonorgchats/
Edit: I’ve enjoyed writing these scripts so much I might create a hand drawn pamphlet on conversation starters people can have with Mormon missionaries they meet for free download and sale by post on etsy, expanding on this article [https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/5bf4b7/huffpost_article_how_to_deal_with_mormon/] as an introduction and then a selection of these mormon.org chats as examples. Obviously with a warning to be aware of your emotional state at the time or if a tragic event has occurred recently so as not to get suckered into their totalitarian belief system.
Church Policy:
Using Critical thinking:
- The polite face of psychological warfare in mormon chat II
- Considering how your church goes over and beyond to block itself in China, would it consider doing the same in Germany?
Oppressive doctrines:
- How do you feel about the way modern science has distilled down the original teachings of your church?
- Learning about your History and using Critical Thinking is good! Your God says so!
- The polite face of psychological warfare in Mormon chat I
- Role playing friend of ex-communicated son and gay dad.
- Talking about racist theology and history with Mormons.
HuffPost article - How to deal with Mormon Missionaries - what additions would you make? (self.exmormon)
https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/5bf4b7/huffpost_article_how_to_deal_with_mormon/
How to Manage Mormon Missionaries (HuffPost article)
“Mette Ivie Harrison Mormon in progress, mother of 5, author of ‘The Bishop’s Wife’ and ‘His Right Hand,’ Princeton PhD, All-American triathlete” has written an article on Huffington Post for ‘gentiles’ on how to deal with Mormon missionaries. I had some thoughts of my own, what additions would you make? Please comment below.
A few facts to know about mormon missionaries
No Money
Mette writes openly about how no tithing money is set aside for these kids, and they’re totally skint to the extent they often struggle to eat healthily or “have no money/miles at the end of the month for food.”
No stomach for debate
There’s a line in there about them having “VERY little training in theology or religion” only and will regurgitate lessons taught to them at the Missionairy Training Centre or Siminary. “They’re not interested in sparring with people about religious history or doctrine.” I think this is true though the way it is phrased I think is aimed to take pity on them so as not to challenge their loyalty to church doctrine, though I think that is all the more reason to plant seeds of critical thinking.
Indoctrinated
Then there’s the indoctrination of not being able to call home, “being watched over by a Mission President and his wife, kind of a mission 'Mom' and 'Dad,' who watch over them, call them to talk about problems, and enforce a lot of the strictest rules in hopes of preventing the biggest problems they see happening (the elders and sisters dating, for instance, is a big no-no).”
A lack of individual agency
"Mormon missionaries are supposed to be with their companions. All the time. Every day. They can’t go anywhere without their companion. Yes, I’m serious about this. When my daughter came home, it took her weeks to get used to the idea that she could go places on her own.”
Under a tremendous amount of cultural pressure
Finally she deals with the “Young men who don’t go or go home early suffer stigmas for the rest of their lives… there is a lot of cultural pressure to go, especially for young men. Not every Mormon missionary is gung-ho and some are suffering with real mental illnesses, diagnosed or undiagnosed… This is real and not something I’m particularly proud of when it comes to Mormonism."
In summary
She talks about it being comparable to going away to Boot Camp, would that make mormom membership war? I’m sure you all have your own summary of your time, you can comment below if you like.
Next Mette takes us through how to deal with them in a kind way without offering false hopes
Dont lead them on
So then there is a lot of advice written about being honest and upfront about whether you want to learn about Mormonism, how much you want to know, so they “can decide for themselves then if they have time just trying to build goodwill with non-members rather than trying to find someone who might be more genuinely interested in joining.”
Basically they’re going to be stressed about filling enough quotas that week, help them cheat
“Ask them about genealogy. Even if you’re not interested in hearing about the “gospel,” missionaries can and will show you how to use the Mormon church’s genealogical resources, which are huge. It counts as missionary work even if you’re just researching your family history.”
Offer them encouragment, a drink, a word of advice, a ride
“Smile and give some words of encouragement... Watch out for them or give them some words of warning if you feel that it is necessary and they are, for instance, going into a dangerous neighborhood... You can offer to give them a ride somewhere if you see them walking. Especially if it’s the end of the month and they’re going a long distance, they may not be allowed to use their car if they’ve already gone too many miles in it.”
I live in a very rural area where every group of houses is on a different mountain, maybe I can teach them to hitch-hike, I wonder whether they’d be good cycle exercise partners aha, I could also help them out with bicycle repairs.
Help them get enough to eat!
“Mormon missionaries often eat only at the homes of members or those who invite them over to teach. This means they are often at the whim of other people’s tastes. It can be very difficult for picky eaters or for anyone who wants to eat healthy
The Food not Bombs network serves free meals on the street and all the volunteers are students or refugees who don’t have much if any income, and family can’t support them to eat healthily, so some of the salvaged supermarket food goes in bags back to their houses, maybe we should organize multi-faith nights on the pretence they can teach if they take a bag home at the end of the night to make sure they can fill their cupboards aha.
Befreind them!
"Mormon missionaries aren’t supposed to talk to family and friends basically for the course of their entire mission. For sisters, that’s 18 months; for elders, it’s two years. That’s a long time for kids this age to go without family contact. They can email once a week only. And they get to Skype or make a phone call on Christmas and Mother’s Day. That’s it. They can be very lonely and crave some kind of positive human contact... They really can’t just sit down at a restaurant to go to lunch unless they’re teaching the gospel. They can’t go to movies or other entertainment.”
_______
MY OWN ADDITIONS
Missionaries in the Global South
When it comes to the global south, I think we should stop taking a nicely nicely approach to poor indoctrinated missionaries and say you can't help here, you will only hurt so you're message is not welcome here, and activists should actively attempt to shut down their proseltysing efforts.
1. “Be thoughtful by not eating too much if food is in short supply.” Not really realistic considering the cultural pressure for all men to go on a mission at 18 without any income for 2 years.
2. Preaching abstinence only in HIV hotspots is evil, there are ‘Jack’ Catholic Nuns advocating condom use in Kenya because they’ve seen how much damage it has done and agree with the scientific consensus, for mormon missionairys to go into communities and preach anything that blocks fertility is from the devil is so so wrong.
https://www.ncronline.org/news/global/pro-condom-activists-kenya-push-back-against-churchs-teaching-abstinence
3. "Members should obey, honor, and sustain the laws in any country where they reside or travel" - "Never suggest that people emigrate to another country, even for work or schooling." Going to countries where people are escaping persecusion and gaining automatic asylum, sustaining the churchs relationship to that oppressive government over the refugees international rights is evil. How that worked out in Nazi Germany
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp4WkWp7bVg
Online Missionaries
Facebook and mormon.org chat has become a powerful wing of the church in creating a platform for lonely and vulnerable people to come to them. By each missionary talking to 3-10 people at one time, 24hours a day it’s not hard to imagine they have better results than walking door to door.
- HuffPost article on the Mormon church online mission 1
http://huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/09/mormon-church-online_n_5024251.html- HuffPost article on the Mormon church online mission 2
http://huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/11/mormon-online-missionary_n_5037191.html
If you ever want to remind yourself the mental jumping jacks orthodox Mormons go through to accept certain scripture or church policy, I find it quite funny, I imagine it could be cathartic for ex-members depending on how traumatic your departure was.
If we wanted to go further and create a publicity stunt, I’m sure we could organize a communications blockade for a day, by getting many people to log on at one time (using an IP scrambler like Tor to chat multiple times) with a central message, e.g. to stop their preaching of practicing healthy sexual desires (masturbation, homosexuality) being from the devil.
Phone blockade tactic working for Nottingham solidarity network
https://nottinghamsolidarity.noblogs.org/post/2012/04/09/phone-blockade-of-nads-takeaway/
Recording our encounters so others can replicate question lines
Mormon propaganda has put on a brave face at their missionaries comical place in our culture, arguing ‘no publicity is bad publicity’ they have produced two examples of people who were converted after being drawn into mormon.org chatroom by south park or ‘art of trolling’, glossing over the fact both had lost either their father or sibling at the time, and were very vulnerable.
Nonetheless anytime we make a record of debating Mormons on our doorstep or chat logs from mormon.org we can aim to be informative as well as entertaining. Any jokes we make should appeal to an adult intellect and highlight the institutionally oppressive nature of the church, not just specific absurd teachings, that way if others try to replicate the same results they won’t be drawn in by subterfuge. Think substance - new question lines on reddit.com/mormonorgchats
- The Unbelievable Love Story of an Atheist and a Mormon org Volunteer
https://web.archive.org/web/20160528031839/http://www.ldsliving.com/The-Unbelievable-Love-Story-of-an-Atheist-and-a-Mormon-org-Volunteer/s/77768- from troll to testimony auberts baptism
https://tuckertestimony.blogspot.com/2012/02/from-troll-to-testimony-auberts-baptism.html
https://reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/5an80x/new_question_lines_on_redditcomrmormonorgchats/
- not just cheap laughs - how do magnets work?
https://imgur.com/QHe4L.jpg
