Are the Sudweeks Running a Cult?
I wouldn't know. But I do agree Mormonism is a cult. And the more I read, the more I feel it is a dangerous one.
I am currently reading a book: Under the Banner of Heaven, that goes a long way toward explaining the Mormon mind set.
It is primarily about FLDS; polygamy and Blood Atonement; however, there is a great deal of Mormon history explained; and thus a great deal of the attitudes and teaching of Joseph and Bingham; which of corse, Are the very bed rock of the LDS faith.
It seems they have from the very beginning, felt it was quite acceptable to lie and cheat and steal if it would benefit the "saints" to do so.
For example, the Mormons of Nauvoo were notorious for printing fake money. The town was built by Joseph and his "saints". He and Bingham ran the place with absolute power and authority. They didn't see the counterfeiters as criminals in the least; and in fact, felt they were helping advance the cause of the saints by bilking the Gentiles (Gentiles being everyone, even Jews, who are not Mormon)to enrich the Saints; and so deserved protection from arrest and prosecution.
Sound familiar?
Similarly, today, the polygamous FLDS see it as fine and dandy to commit welfare fraud to support their many wives, and the children they produce, and refer to it as, Bleeding the Beast.
The idea seems to be, you bleed the beast to death, so you can take over and usher in the Mormon idea of the New Age.
And then you have the deeply ingrained teaching that god shows favor by bestowing riches on the saints. So, if one is getting rich, then god must approve. So HOW one gets rich matters very little. This, along with the idea anyone who isn't a Saint, is deserving of what ever disaster and calamity befalls them, and you begin to get an idea of how they can be so cold and callous to bankrupting and destroying people, in the many varied ways so many of these programs do.
I personally feel there is a connection, anyway.
I also feel there is a very strong correlation to the way the LDS church controls its members, and the way some of these programs control their parents and "students". The similarity struck me while reading: The God Makers.
I've often been rebuffed for making issue of "the Mormon thing" but I really do believe understanding Mormonism is vital to understanding the Mormon programs. I do not think the two can be separated.
I understand very well good people will disagree. But for those who want to gain a deeper understanding of the mind behind the programs, I feel you can do it best by reading up on the "Saints"
