In my introduction, I talked about how I was not really given a genuine choice but was indoctrinated into accepting the identity of a saintly Priest (or "preisthood holder"), starting when I was just 12 years old!
In my blog post on pro-creatorhood, I discuss how after one begins their new journey post-sainthood, one can now grow toward their authentic selves and add style to their character as a creative artist.
I then ran across the following that sunstantiates what I wrote in those posts.
From Book of Mormon: DNA and the Lamanites:
Until DNA science confirmed what scientists had long believed about how the Americas were populated, the prophets of this church were clear that Native Americans were the direct descendents of the Lamanites. The video we highlighted above, People of Destiny, was released in 1988 and is literally released to who the church calls “Lamanites.”
At the end of the video they have testimonies from members, and here is one quote that makes me feel uncomfortable to hear:
"We have learned about a man named Lehi, about his son Nephi, and Jacob. We have grown to love these men very much and learn from the Book of Mormon that we are their descendents. That we come from them. And because we loved them so much we have named our sons after them.”
This is simply untrue, and the Book of Mormon is taking the identity of both Native Americans and Polynesians and replacing it with a story that is not true or real. Imagine being told that your ancestors were so wicked that their skin turned a darker color, and that’s how you know that you’re descended from them. Then imagine that this is used to get your to join a church that takes our time, money, and identity from you only to find out that the very basic premise of the Book of Mormon is not true.
The same website here then makes this excellent point:
Stealing Our Identities and Selling Them Back To Us
In the overview about race and the scriptures of Mormonism [see link above] I included a video of a Polynesian woman who talked about how their identities were now tied to being the descendants of the Book of Mormon people, which is a horrible teaching from the church that steals their true history and cultural identity.
The reality is that while the church directly steals the true history of the ancestors of Native Americans and Polynesians with the Book of Mormon, they also take our identities away from us as well. We are taught that we were the chosen elect in the pre-existence that fought the adversary’s plan and as such were able to obtain a mortal body to experience this life before we return to the Celestial Kingdom… if we do everything the church requires in the meantime.
When we go to the temple we are given a series of handshakes that we will need to return back to the Celestial Kingdom along with a “new name” that I was taught was the name I was called in that pre-existence. These teachings absolutely strip our real history and identity from us in order to sell the promise of exaltation back through obedience to the church.
My experience in the temple was a horrible one which I’ve detailed elsewhere, but I did not know when I received my “new name” that every other man in the temple that day received the same one. I was led to believe this was a name given by revelation only to find out years later that it was literally a name pulled off an index card and that every other man that day was apparently also called that name before receiving these mortal bodies.
It’s just one of the many ways that the church chips away at our identity so that we willingly give it to the church, and the church then holds the promise of exaltation over head by using that very identity that they’ve created. This would be OK if the church was true, but it’s not.
The idea of the pre-existence was created with the Book of Abraham, which as we’ve shown in the Book of Abraham overviews was a completely incorrect translation by Joseph Smith and used outside sources to provide a vehicle for Joseph Smith’s evolving theology including the idea of a pre-existence.
All of these ways that the church tries to provide us an identity that they can then use against us can be very harmful whenever you begin to question the central truth claims of the church, and the moment that we give our identity to the church it becomes that much more difficult to get it back once we start to see that the church is not what it claims to be.
Patriarchal blessings are another area where the church attempts to shape your identity by revealing what tribe you're from, but as I covered in the overview on revelations these patriarchal blessings have been proven false over and over again. Yet how many members will refer back to these blessings throughout their lives even though they are often cookie-cutter blessings that will be almost identical to anyone else who receives one from the same patriarch? It is a very easy way for the church to take our identity and replace it with one that is completely tied to the church.
As I said above, before I joined the Mormon church I never for a second thought I would not be with my family upon death, yet in Mormonism Joseph Smith created that problem to sell you the solution. The same can be shown with the church as a whole, where they create this new version of heaven (Celestial Kingdom) in order to sell you the solution which is complete obedience to church leaders until we die.
In selling us the solution, they are asking for us to do the following:
- Covenant to full obedience to the church, including a promise to give everything to the church (not God) in the temple
- 10% of your income for life to a church with a $140 billion investment fund
- Wearing church-required underwear with Masonic symbols on them every day for the rest of your life
- Following the Word of Wisdom which forbids healthy drinks such as coffee and tea while allowing energy drinks, soda, and sugary drinks
- Telling leaders about our private, intimate details in order to be declared worthy or unworthy
- Following prophets even when they are proven wrong by science, society, or their own revelations just years later
I know I sound flippant here, but the reality is that the church uses Joseph Smith’s treasure digging techniques in that they are constantly telling you that the reward is just around the corner if only you’ll continue to fund and obey their commands, except instead of buried treasure it’s eternal rewards that can never be proven false unlike Joseph’s treasure digs.
I could not have said it better. Today, I realize that despite any good intentions on the part of Joseph Smith as a pious fraud (as Dan Vogel describes Smith, as basically a sincere deciever); I cannot escape the most logical conclusion, which is that Joseph Smith was seeking to replace people's authentic identities. For example, through alleged revealed scripture, Smith tried to replace the real ethnic identity of Native Americans with a fake one by falsely calling them all Lamanites based on the obviously make-believe characters in the Book of Mormon. This was/is a tragedy given they have their own ethnic identity which he affectively stole from them.
Even if Joseph genuinely believed he was channeling divine revelation with the Book of Mormon, that makes him at best delusional and it still makes him responsible for being the deliverer of a false ethnic history to an entire group of people. Thus his credibility as a "prophet, seer, and revelator," is ruined right there.
Smith also sought to replace the identity of his other non-Lamanite converts with still a new "Mormon" identify by calling them "Latter Day Saints." Thus they were now given a new worldview of it is the ladder days, which was obviously untrue. This feeling of urgency with an expected return of Christ in their lifetimes led the early Mormon Saints to accept more and more control over their lives and losing their genuine selfhood more and more. Just two of the controlling aspects of their lives was wearing garments and bearing testimony constantly, which subconsciously programmed them mentally to embrace their new saintly identity.
I think Smith was a person who was ultimately seeking power and control over others. So that even if he had some good intentions in this process of creating a utopian Zion; I can't help but see as well an attempt on his part to control others which I think boosted his own ego by giving him a feeling of power over others.
I now want nothing to do with any attempt by others to control me through a false identity and controlling "covenant path" to sainthood.
I have taken control of my own life and my own identity.
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