What we need now is the greatest generation of young adults in the history of the Church. We need your whole heart and soul.

Pandering. Flattery. And what do they ask in exchange for the flattery, that’s right, he asks for their whole heart and soul. There is no clearer definition of a cult, than the introduction to this talk. Find young people, malleable people, get their trust, and flatter them for exact obedience and giving over of their free will to you.

During the October 2002 general priesthood meeting, I challenged bishops, parents, and prospective missionaries to “raise the bar” for full-time missionary service.

Here’s the problem, this is measurable. Not what the bar was raised to, heaven only knows what that means, but rather whether raising the bar was effective. Similarly there was a pure increase in number of missionaries during the age drop. The impact of both raising the bar and increasing raw numbers is measurable and the measurements aren’t good:

Not exactly stunning is it? That’s a pretty flat graph there at the end. I doubt you could even tell when the “raise the bar” edict was given, or when the surge occurred. Nevertheless, the Deseret news reported a success, because the missionaries themselves were affected. Got that? Again the goal is to “convert” the missionary, or another way of saying that is to “Have members spend a predominant amount of time in conversion activity” and that the primary focus is the convincing of the teacher. These are indicators on the BITE model of defining a cult.

“… We need your whole heart and soul. We need vibrant, thinking, passionate missionaries who know how to listen to and respond to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit.”1

I know this is crazy, but what if the “whisperings of the spirit” are no different than what other cults use to motivate their members? For example

If you jump to 5 m 28s, you’ll hear a woman bear testimony that she is a plural wife, and it is true, then a muslim, and others from other faiths.

In many ways the world today is more challenging than it was 13 years ago. Our young men and young women have many more distractions to sidetrack them in their preparations for both a mission and a future happy life. Technology has expanded, and almost everyone has access to handheld devices that can capture the attention of the human family of God for both great good and unconscionable ill.

Everything Good is of the Church, and everything that could distract you from the Church is evil. We’re back to the BITE model of cults.

In the early days of the Church, missionaries were interviewed by a General Authority before they went on their missions.

This is left ambiguous for a reason. Joseph Smith Jr. did no such thing, nor did Brigham Young. Joseph F. Smith was sent on a mission to avoid the law, for example after he hit a constable. But whatever, “early days” I guess could be 1905.

These days you are interviewed to serve as missionaries by your bishops and stake presidents, and most of you will go through your entire lives without being interviewed by a General Authority.

A gentle reminder of how impersonal the religion has become.

That is simply a reflection of the reality in a worldwide church of more than 15 million members.

The 15 million here is used to brag. Approximately 5 million are active, but the real number that matters is the 80,000 missionaries for only 200 or so General Authorities. For each GA to meet with a missionary, they would need to meet about 1 a day, and that would leave very little time for managing real-estate investments, Elk Ranches, and shopping malls. Or they’d have to pay for more men to be General Authorities. Ya know, have seventies devoted specifically to missionary interviews. Crazy idea, huh?

Your photograph comes up on a computer screen, together with key information provided by your bishop and stake president. When your picture appears, we look into your eyes and review your answers to the missionary recommendation questions. For that brief moment, it seems as if you are present and responding to us directly.

This is partially true. In fact, there is a white list of missionaries who are pre-assigned. They are never reviewed, but assigned by computer. There is a list of missionaries who are flagged as needing a human to review them. These missionaries go through the process outlined above. People with medical conditions, or missions that have a special need, or individuals who have a particular trait are identified and hand selected.

Source: Someone who helped build the computer system.

No, it isn’t the same as a personal, face-to-face interview. But it’s close.

No, it isn’t close. It isn’t even in the same category. Imagine you applied for a job, and when you applied you found out that you were hired as the janitor because the HR person looked at your picture and decided what job was best for you. If you are female you might feel like some sexism could have occurred. If you are black, native american or have a disfigured face, you might think that human prejudice would be sufficient to levee a lawsuit.

I wonder if anyone has looked into if the “Spirit” places non-white people in less desirable missions more frequently than white females who are attractive. I wonder if there is a gender/racial lawsuit waiting to happen by this “near interview” method of selecting people. In the 50’s, this had a name, it was “Discrimination”.

In fact, we see it even on resumes with the exact same qualifications just by the name at the top of the resume. The LDS method, if non-discriminatory, would be something to parade about and really shout from the rooftops. However, if it actually was laden with discrimination, it would be a heavy blow to the idea of inspiration. I wonder if anyone will ever attempt to measure it.

Conclusion

The religion gets a lot more cult-like for missionaries. It is stated that the organisation wants their hearts and souls blatantly. Increases in “the bar” or numbers did not impact conversion rates. Member should understand that when they send their children off on missions, they are sending them into a cult-programming program and the church openly admits that. Nevertheless this machine for turning thinking high-schoolers into devoted salespeople of the corporation doesn’t even warrant having dedicated General Authorities to make it a little more human.

Shameful.