What is the most harmful lie the Church has perpetrated?

[deacon blues]

I've been listening to Mormon Discussion's "Getting Your Own Planet" podcast, and it had me thinking- what is the most harmful lie/prevarication/deception that the Church has promoted over the years? For boomers like me the downplaying of "God was once a man doctrine" is pretty brazen, but I think it mostly harms the Church when informed people can use it as an example of the Church being deceitful.
The denial, for decades, of the doctrine of blacks being less valiant in the pre-existence, was very harmful, especially to black people in and out of the Church, not to mention BYU religion teachers like Randy Bott.
Are there other examples of the Church lying that hurts more people, or that comes back to bite the Church in the butt when their deceit is revealed?

[Just This Guy]

If you are asking about harmfulness, I would say: "We are the gold standard for protecting children."

It is getting to the point that there are more lawsuits against Mormon church leaders for child and/or sex abuse than the Roman Catholic church which has over 70 times as many members. This belief that they are encouraging lets them not make any substantive changes to their police and practices while enabling abusers to continue doing the same thing they have always done. They do not stop any abuse and keep allowing predators to groom and be around vulnerable people, inviting more abuse to occur,

[2bizE]

I have a few:
- Blacks and priesthood/ temple ban
- Lamanite Placement Program
- Abuse Hotline is to help the victim
- If you have to choose between feeding your children or paying tithing, pay your tithing.

[wtfluff]

"The Church is True™"

[2bizE]

"The Church is True™"

Yes, especially since nobody really knows what it means….it can mean anything.

[Evil Monkey]

"The Church is True™"

Yes, especially since nobody really knows what it means….it can mean anything.

I thought I would combine this topic with another recent thread regarding the LDS chat bot. Below is the result I received from the LDS Chat bot word for word:

"Is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints the one ond only true church?

That's a great question and one that's often asked by those exploring faith. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that their church is the restoration of the original church established by Jesus Christ during His ministry on Earth. This belief stems from the idea that the fullness of the gospel and priesthood authority were restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Is there something specific that prompted this question, or are you exploring new religious beliefs? "

[moksha]

Not sure where this would rank, but the Church's contention in the tithing lawsuit that fraud is a guaranteed right as part of freedom of religion has to be on some list.

[Angel]

The role of women, and men, is most harmful.

[Hagoth]

That you must obey and sacrifice for some guy in Salt Lake City because he has a direct hotline to God.

[jfro18]

That you must obey and sacrifice for some guy in Salt Lake City because he has a direct hotline to God.

That's the one right there - the unquestioned obedience is to me the most harmful because IMO it leads to all of those other issues mentioned above.

[hiding in plain sight]

I think one of the worst themes of lies they are doing now is that mormon women somehow have priesthood power. While at the same time continuing to marginalize them by taking away even the few crumbs local leadership have tried to put out there to compensate for the corporate blindness.

All of it just smacks of an abusive relationship, IMO.


https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2024/03 ... ing-about/

https://exponentii.org/blog/women-on-the-stand/

[Linked]

Probably not the most harmful, but here are a couple lies that take my breath away when I think about them.

Separating Joseph Smith's murder from polygamy.
Somehow I didn't connect the dots from Joseph Smith's murder to the printing press destruction to polygamy for years after no longer believing. They beat Joseph the martyr into me so hard that I felt like I knew what happened, when I knew so little. I felt no need to learn the actual truth.

Sustaining callings in church.
The sham of sustaining callings flips voting on it's head completely. Instead of private ballots everyone sees each other. Instead of votes meaning something, it doesn't matter if you vote opposed - the only possible action is that the person who voted opposed gets talked to by the bishop to get them to repent for disagreeing. And after it all they can use your pressured non-vote to shame you into compliance because you sustained the people who were called. Gross.

[Red Ryder]

That a layer of cheap polyester with Masonic symbols can act as a protection against harm, the influences of Satan, and represent a commitment to Jesus.

Then to add insult to injury, stand up and shout from the roof tops that you must wear said layer of cheap polyester to be worthy in the eyes of God and able to participate in his church that acts more like a real estate empire than a conduit back to God.

Then in reaction to the younger generation saying “who cares?” and wearing yoga pants, said religious institution acts like real revelation exists by shortening the SLEEVE BY 2 inches in an attempt to placate members that live in a hot climate?

The worst part! That members of said religious church, can’t see the forest from the trees, and are actually EXCITED that their stupid, cheap underwear is now available in a tank top style!

They steal your body.
They still your soul!
They steal your intamcy!
They steal your soul!

They steal your love !
They steal your soul!
They interfere with lust!
They steal your soul!

They don’t fit your bust?
They steal your soul.
They steal your trust!
Why must I report…
To my neighbor the dentist??

Garments are the control mechanism!

[2bizE]

That you must obey and sacrifice for some guy in Salt Lake City because he has a direct hotline to God.

That's the one right there - the unquestioned obedience is to me the most harmful because IMO it leads to all of those other issues mentioned above.

I’ve been thing about this for a few days and I believe one of the biggest lies is the exact obedience crap we got as missionaries. The concept was that if you were exactly obedient, you could manipulate God into requiring him to comply with your “righteous” goals like finding people to baptize. Looking back, this was such a load of crap. Also, the church teaches about the atonement. This seems to contradict those teachings of the atonement.

[Hagoth]

Sustaining callings in church.
The sham of sustaining callings flips voting on it's head completely. Instead of private ballots everyone sees each other. Instead of votes meaning something, it doesn't matter if you vote opposed - the only possible action is that the person who voted opposed gets talked to by the bishop to get them to repent for disagreeing. And after it all they can use your pressured non-vote to shame you into compliance because you sustained the people who were called. Gross.

Sort of like proclaiming that you have done a full accounting of the organization's finances and that everything looks just dandy, while keeping the results of that accounting entirely secret from the people you pretend to be reporting to.

[Hagoth]

Here's another. Substituting the words "God" and "we/us" for "Church."

Listen to just about any conference talk by one of the Q15. Every time they tell you what God wants you to do, or needs you to do, you can do that little word switch to make their statement more accurate. They obviously have absolutely no idea what God wants or needs from you. But somehow reason they always know exactly what the Devil is thinking and doing at every moment, yet they never declare a direct line of revelation from him.

[Linked]

Sustaining callings in church.
The sham of sustaining callings flips voting on it's head completely. Instead of private ballots everyone sees each other. Instead of votes meaning something, it doesn't matter if you vote opposed - the only possible action is that the person who voted opposed gets talked to by the bishop to get them to repent for disagreeing. And after it all they can use your pressured non-vote to shame you into compliance because you sustained the people who were called. Gross.

Sort of like proclaiming that you have done a full accounting of the organization's finances and that everything looks just dandy, while keeping the results of that accounting entirely secret from the people you pretend to be reporting to.

Definitely. It would be one thing for them to act a certain way and be honest about their intentions. Tell everyone that what they do with their money is private and they won't be sharing. Or just tell the people that they don't get a voice in who the Sunday School teachers are. But to have these performances that look like transparency and democracy is deceitful.

[Linked]

Here's another. Substituting the words "God" and "we/us" for "Church."

Listen to just about any conference talk by one of the Q15. Every time they tell you what God wants you to do, or needs you to do, you can do that little word switch to make their statement more accurate. They obviously have absolutely no idea what God wants or needs from you. But somehow reason they always know exactly what the Devil is thinking and doing at every moment, yet they never declare a direct line of revelation from him.

Statements like "The Lord won't let us lead you astray" and "Final Dispensation" do a lot of the heavy lifting to get people to make that substitution.