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i do think that these blood oaths have been mellowed in the last few years, and the touches are now just sort of waves over the area now….not that it’s all that much less weird.
It’s funny cause it’s true. My old roommate was a return Mormon missionary and he used to tell me stories about the (fake) throat slitting rituals. I lived amongst many Mormons almost my entire life, and I am yet to understand them.
I think my favorite part of this video is the ominous, horror movie music in the background.
@3 — No kidding. Showing a little bit of bias there maybe??
Catholicism would come across just as strange to anyone unfamilira with saints, stigmata, extreme unction etc.
I can’t wait to see a similar film on Pentecostals!
This looks like it was made by Jack Chick style evangelical Christians to scare people about Mormonism being a heretical cult. Although the bit about the temple rituals being “masonic” is supported by other sources — it seems pretty likely that Joseph Smith adapted the Masonic initiation rites to his new religion, right down to the architectural metaphors and blood oaths.
People are much more loyal if they think they’re in on a big secret and that this special knowledge grants them some kind of extra status.
This is actually a pretty good representation of what the rituals were up until the 1970’s. They’ve been made much less creepy since then. Also, they’ve removed all that loose piano wire that was screeching in the heating ducts. Much less creepy.
I have a very good friend from Olympia who grew up Mormon. He left the church when he was 27. His sister got married. The after-ceremony preparatory stuff freaked him out and caused him to leave.
He told me what they did. I can’t relate it here, because it’s my entry for HUMP! next year.
No, really.
http://www.exmormon.org
hours of fun reading!
After many hours of Mormon focus groups and customer satisfaction surveys in the early 1990s, the Mormon leaders were inspired to tone down the temple ceremony to make it more acceptable to the American middle class.
Women are no longer made to vow obedience to their husbands, for example. The blood oaths (throat slitting, etc.) are gone and the washing no longer calls for anyone to touch anyone else’s private parts.