I don't see how anyone watching that could come away with feeling that LDS Inc isn't a CULT or Cultish in some fashion.

Wow...did that open up wounds of repressed memories of just how much i hated wasting time and more time on my mission for 2 years for this cruel joke of a CULT!

The audacity of Monson at the podium at the 1-minute mark saying,

"I speak of missionary work. To you young men who are becoming Elders, i repeat what prophets have long taught...that every worthy able young man should prepare to serve a mission. Missionary service is a priesthood duty, an obligation."

Yeah Monson you scumbag...you didn't even serve...too busy playing "hide the salami" with Frances no doubt!

What arrogance and condescension it takes for you to stand up there and tell other youngsters what to do you freakin' jerk!

Now ask me how i really feel.

Or so it seems to me...

WATCH IT HERE...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jORAciyGk4

I had to stop watching after a couple of minutes. Too many bad memories. Too much anger.

That was hard to watch. Poor kid.

I'm stunned that whoever was responsible for allowing this documentary to happen thought it would be a good PR opportunity for TSCC.

Just shows how completely and utterly out of touch they are with reality.

Nobody could possibly watch a wholesome group of youngsters being controlled in the most extreme ways imaginable and not be inspired by them, right?

At the end, when the senior companion is trying to justify the complete lack of privacy saying that they are 'friends' there's a fleeting 'deer trapped in the headlights' expression on Josh's face. So hard to watch.

Also -- the abundance of huggy, touchy-feeling interaction was starting to squick me out, like watching someone who's been trained to accept certain interactions but still doesn't really seem at ease with any of it. Lots of weird body language, particularly from the senior (Swiss) companion - ie, 'perching' on the the couch so that he's higher than the others was unsettling. What is he, a vulture?

And then, after insisting several times that he wouldn't be answering for elder Forbes, the companion ( elder Bouman ? ) then slides down from his perch on the back of the couch next to Josh, puts his arm around his shoulders in an obvious power move, and then proceeds to take over the interview and creepily assert that they are "companions". I found the entire couch segment very disturbing.

My favorite part is where the trainer basically asks "And where does the little white book come from? Yes. The Lord. Embrace the book completely and you'll be successful." Right. The Lords precious words to his most cherished worker bees . . . .wear deodorant and don't touch your naughty bits! Exactly what I would expect as revelation from the most high.

That part was hard for me. Mormons saying, "You can't question this, because it comes from the COB, which means it comes directly from God" is a big trigger for me. Sometimes it makes me intensely angry. But in this case, seeing that room full of young people who have been heavily indoctrinated their whole lives being told that God wants them to be good little missionaries and obey all the rules that he himself has carefully laid out for them... I had to just cry.

I feel sick.

How I wish I had never sent my son on a mission.
How I wish I had known the church was not true back then.

One part that made me cringe was when Josh, this normal, healthy-looking, 19-ish year old man, said something like, "My sex drive is just gone." I found that really sad and... unnatural??

He was most likely telling the truth about the sex drive just being gone.

That is a physical reaction to forcing the mind into an unhealthy state of OCD and obsessing on the dirtiness of normal sexual thinking. Sad.

my heart aches for these kids. they are good people, that are just trying to follow the rules, they are being taken advantage of by a greedy corporation.

My God that was so hard to watch. I got feelings that I wanted to forget.

Once I actually spent 8 to 10 hours a day PESTERING PEOPLE!

How much do you like someone who insists on walking along with you on the sidewalk?

How much do like strangers at your door that keep on talking after you've said a polite "No"?

This show was too honest to stomach. But it is an antidote to all those heroic videos that the church produces. Every 18 year old Mormon kid should watch it!

I'm afraid to watch it… just peoples' descriptions of the video are making me feel nauseated.

You should watch it so you can just wretch and get on with it. It really should be mandatory viewing for all active and inactive (in whatever form) mormons.

It is honest and accurate and removes any question if this is a group of young men looking for the elect or a sales force looking to prey upon the vulnerable.

I think there should be a trigger alert on this video... I saw myself in Elder Fields in that he's very sincere and trying to do the right thing. I was that way too. It actually made me tear up when they showed him feeling homesick, and then seeing the light die in his eyes as time went on. So sad. :(

Funny that the PR guy steps in and complains when the reporter asks about sex before marriage.....funny because Bishops have no qualms about asking this and other personal questions behind closed doors....and you're expected to reveal everything in detail.

I know the PR guy 'Richard'. I felt a bit sorry and disappointed for him. Sorry because he probably had no idea he'd be focused on so much in the edit (served TSCC right for trying to dictate and control), disappointed because he used to be such a fun, crazy guy 20 years ago and now it looks like TSCC has battered him into submission just like any other lacky TBM.

He didn't do himself any favours as well. I mean seriously, he didn't anticipate the reporter asking him about his role? Gee, schoolboy error to not have some sort of semi-plausible answer prepared. He waffles hard when asked and just sputtered out some meaningless nonsense that only exacerbated the discomfort. Oh dear Richard, what has become of you?

You're in a highly controlled environment and the interviewer was watched constantly by a minder. Much of the the soundtrack I recognize as the Church-issued Children's Songbook recording. It definitely intensified the Big Brother feel of the documentary with the inane propagandistic songs.

Because missions are so culty, there is almost no way an outsider is going to view this in a positive light. There's no way you can expect the uninitiated to see this and get it from a Mormon perspective.

I feel for Elder Field. I wasn't really traumatized by my mission experience. My parents split up when I was 13 and I had spent five summers working on a survey crew with some SOBs who verbally abused me. So I was already pretty hardened. I was also a missionary in the 80s which was during an all time peak period of baptisms. It's a lot tougher beat these days.

This excellent and very human of documentaries deserves maximum nationwide publicity in the USA and be shown on as many TV and news channels as possible.
It is educational, informative and very revealing in the respect that it highlights very clearly, the claustrophobic and cultish control mechanism employed by the church in its policy of member indoctrination.
And in its missionary programme, the very oppressive and psychologically damaging nature in the relentless power and control it wields over vulnerable young individuals.
This poor young and impressionable elder, who was so full of natural joy and life, was eventually hounded into abject submission, as the church took control over his mind and thoughts.
This documentary will open many eyes, both in and outside of the church to its obsessive cultish techniques, and quite simply is a public relations disaster for the church.
T

After reviewing the film, I thought that my mission wasn't that bad -- it was much, much worse.

An accurate and unflattering taste of mission life. This will be required viewing for any of my children who think they want to serve a mission for this sick institution.

Thanks for the link.

The big 15 shat cement when they showed temple garments!
Creepy, cultish, crap. If any young person is even slightly wavering on whether or not to go on a mission...show them this and mention that Tommy did serve a mission either.

Hard to watch if you have been there. That oppressive feeling of always being watched, the institutionalized submission. The fake love and syrupy out of context Mormon accent of the Mission pres. It was very well done, she managed to capture the intangible creepiness of it all. I cried like him at one point, not because I missed my family, but because I could feel the direction of my life being carried away by a powerful current of crazy



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/2014 11:22AM by ladell.

What's the deal with living with that couple to prepare for his mission?

Also, they keep repeating that utter bullshit about being one of the fastest growing religions in the world. Some CULT PR clone told them that. I'd love to get a document from the CULT given to the doco producers with that lie on it.

It was difficult to watch. My dh has had a hard time with his self image. If this is what his mission was like, it may be part of that. He is inactive now but still believes.