Re: The Tactics of Anti-Mormons

A fellow by the name of Greg West who runs SPAMLDS, has recently left a comment on a post of mine and from there, I found his website. Greg responded to my recent post about whether or not Mormons are happy. In his comment, he left a URL to an article he recently wrote asking if ex-Mormons are happy. This article paints a dark and untrue picture of ex-Mormons. He practically makes us out to be evil, mindless zombies who are so enraged at the church and the world that we are completely out of control.

Further browsing on his website revealed another offensive article. The Tactics of Anti-Mormons. I have also noticed that his website only allows members of his little group to leave comments. Here it is in it's entirety:

Anti-Mormons have a small bag of tricks they use repeatedly to derail discussions about Mormon beliefs. Here are the main ones. If you encounter anti-Mormons, see how many of their arguments fit into one of the following.

1..Use of non-authoritative sources and out-of-context quotations
2. Attack the story of the Book of Mormon's origin, not its contents
3. Distort Mormon doctrines by comparing them to the unscriptural teachings of Christian creeds
4. When all else fails, lie!
5. Use slander, personal attacks, and character assassination
6. Accuse your opponent of doing the very thing you are doing

And since comments are disabled there, I am forced to reply here.

First I will discuss each of his points and then I will make my own list of pro-Mormon tactics.

1. We use non-authoritative sources? 99% of anti-Mormon material comes directly from LDS church approved sources. It comes from court records and news papers. It comes from journals and eye-witness accounts. Out of context quotations? First of all, why would I use a quotation out of context? If I supply the reference, then the reader can see the full context and know that I am full of shit. That only discredits myself. In fact, whenever I use a quote, I always supply a link to the entire source. That way my reader can see the context from which the quote was derived.

2. They attack the origin of the Book of Mormon and not it's content. Okay, Greg, this one is a no brainer but since you brought it up, I must reply. If it can be shown that the origin of something is false, then that something itself, must be false, no matter what it says. To attack the content of the Book of Mormon is like trying to kill a tree by cutting off the branches. No, if you want the problem to go away, you kill the root; you disprove the origin. That automatically disproves the content by default.

3. Distort Mormon doctrines by comparing them to the unscriptural teachings of Christian creeds. I have no idea what you're even talking about, Greg. First of all, Mormonism itself has many teachings that are unscriptural. Show me anywhere in any of the scriptures, where it says anything about temple work and endowments. Secondly, comparing apples to oranges is a waste of time. I've never tried to disprove Mormonism by comparing it to other Christian faiths.

4. When all else fails, lie! Yes, since I am an ex-Mormon that is all I can do. I've got nothing better to do than just sit here and make up all the lies I can think of. Why? Just because I'm angry at the world. At least that is they way our friend, Greg, thinks it is. Why lie when there is so much good truth to talk about? I don't need to lie. I don't need to make things up. There is so much damning stuff in church history that I don't need to lie. I just talk about the REAL Mormon history and they call me a liar.

5. Use slander, personal attacks, and character assassination. Can you give an example? Oh, you mean like calling Joseph Smith an adulterer, child molester, con-artist, and fraud. Those aren't character assinations... that's actually what he was. Besides, Greg, if I sit here, right now and call you a bigoted lying asshole, does that do anything to further my cause? No, it doesn't. Reading real church history and then calling the characters by their appropriate titles is not slander... it's the truth.

6. Accuse your opponent of doing the very thing you are doing. It's funny because the LDS church and it's defenders are either lying or just ignorant. Question for you... have you ever actually read our arguments or do you just pass them off as lies before you even study what they have to say?

Greg has an extremely perverted view of what ex-Mormons are and what we are trying to do. He has bought into the churches propaganda that all those who leave the church are bitter and angry. We are so consumed with anger that we will do ANYTHING to bring down the truth. And even though we all feel horribly guilty inside, we just can't control the anger and it consumes us. We cry ourselves to sleep each night, in pure agony for our sins, and then the next morning we wake up and sin more to try and escape the guilt.

Greg, your view of ex-Mormons is so wrong that I can't even put it into words. You are nothing but another sheep of LDS, Inc., just regurgitating what the "bretheren" have said. You are just another victim of their lies. You are like a Nazi who is a supposed expert on the "angry Jews".

When I read your first comment to me, Greg, I thought that we would be able to have a nice discussion. But from reading the crap that you post on your blog, I can see that you are nothing but a bigot and that debating with you will accomplish nothing. You are the expert on ex-Mormons, even though you have never been one and have never been in our shoes. You are completely clueless. All you are good for is to spew the entirely false propaganda of the church. You are nothing but a sheep. You are just a self-righteous bigot. There, hows that for your #5?

Pro-Mormon Tactics:

1. Just tell the stuff that sounds good. If anything is negative, make sure you hide it. This is known as the "milk before meat" principle; just never share the meat.

2. Encourage your investigators to ONLY hear your side. Discourage them from reading or asking any outside sources. Make sure that they only hear your biased version of things.

3. Eliminate the competition by labeling them as evil and angry. Anything they say that disagrees with you is obviously a lie.

4. Share your truth all you want, but attack others who do it. Our truth must be spread. Anyone who opposes us must be silenced!

5. Sensor! If you have a pro-Mormon website, only allow comments to be posted that agree with you.

6. If argument and rationalization fails, play the persecution card. I'm just harassing you BECAUSE you are Mormon.

7. If all else fails, play the testimony card. When there is no evidence to back up your claim and the opponent has you backed into a corner, you can rely on the fail-proof testimony. Ignore all evidence and rational thought... just keep testifying!

8. Don't even pretend that you believe ex-Mormons are good people. Just stereotype them all and label them as the evil and angry SOB's that they are!

9. Discourage free thought. Everything I tell you must be taken on complete blind faith.

P.S. I have included a link to SPAMLDS in my side bar just to show that I have not stated anything from his website out of context. Now go visit his website and see if he doesn't use every single tactic that I have listed here.

Greg, in your article that you referred me to, you state how you often receive "hate-mail" from angry ex-Mormons. Let me fill you in with a little clue... ex-Mormons respond to you angrily because you post some very offensive things on your blog. Stop stereotyping. Stop spewing the churches hate propaganda. Instead, try to form a bridge between Mormons and ex-Mormons. You might be surprised at how many of us will respond positively. I mean, you represent the lords only true church, right? Maybe you should set the proper example of what being Christ-like really means. Jesus sat and ate with sinners; the Pharisees condemned the sinners to hell...

Which one are you?