the Seed of Secrecy

[deacon blues]

Joseph Smith was devotee of secrecy. Accounts of his practice of it, from the refusal to disclose BOM translation particulars, to his infatuation with masonry, demonstrate this. This week we see in the financial foopah, more fruit from the the seed of secrecy. Perhaps Church leaders can be forgiven for not seeing the forest for the trees, or maybe it's better to say the can't see the tree for the branches. But the tree sprang from the seed of secrecy, and whether it is a vine entangled in the tree, or the tree itself, the one has become indistinguishable from the other.

[blazerb]

As Joseph Smith said, "The secret of Masonry is to keep a secret."

I am bothered that the church leaders see no duty to the members to keep them informed on the resources that have been amassed. When the EPA fund was first made public, the head of EPA Roger Clarke said, "Paying tithing is more of a sense of commitment than it is the church needing the money. So they never wanted to be in a position where people felt like, you know, they shouldn’t make a contribution." That was from the WSJ. The level of entitlement and need to control expressed here really pisses me off.

[dogbite]

Secrecy is the core of religion.

It's special knowledge that makes you superior, in-the-know, and special above others.Chosen, select, elect. And also milk before meat.

It is also the same way that conspiracy theories work playing into the same human cognitive shortcuts and in/out group thinking humans use as part of those shortcuts.

[Hagoth]

Perhaps Church leaders can be forgiven for not seeing the forest for the trees, or maybe it's better to say the can't see the tree for the branches. But the tree sprang from the seed of secrecy, and whether it is a vine entangled in the tree, or the tree itself, the one has become indistinguishable from the other.

Apparently, they can't tell the wheat from the tares. Jesus said you need to burn down the whole field so you can start fresh.

[deacon blues]

Growing up on a farm in Idaho, that parable didn't quite make sense. Gather up the tares? Maybe they have different weeds in Palestine.
I know wheat and tares [oats, wild grass, etc.] look the same at first at, but when the heads come out you can tell the difference. But by then it's impossible to separate them, especially if you have more than a 1/4 acre or so.
One July morning our dads sent all the cousins (We had a family farm when I was a kid) out to pull wild oats/tares out of a barley patch, and the 8-10 cousins probably worked for two hours and barely cleared 50 feet. Finally our dads, in their mercy plowed the whole patch up.

[moksha]

Secrecy is the core of religion.

And the Mafia.

[deacon blues]

That's right Moksha. the thought occurred to me that those silly temple vows are kind of like what a mafia oath might be like. Google: Mafia oath of silence, or 'omerta' and you'll see a parallel. Or look up Gadianton Robbers.
Or, look up "Do LDS give their Soul to the Church or Jesus" thread.
Or here's a brief description.
What Was The Code of Omertà? Also known as the code of honor or code of silence, the code of Omertà originated from Italy, or more specifically Sicily, and it means that a mobster should avoid talking or informing authorities about any criminal activity, under any circumstances. Even if the mobster had been physically and brutally attacked by ...
What Was The Code of Omertà? - History of the Mafia
www.nationalcrimesyndicate.com/code-of-omerta/
It's really weird that Joseph Smith was so infatuated with secrecy.