Sin is big business, especially in the Christian world. Look at all the big Mega Churches being built and with full parking lots for an hour or two on Sunday. Look at the TV shows that are TV and asking people to repent and send in money. Now in the USA we have a preacher that has a 24 radio station plus a call in service for "spiritual" help. You know that has to be a money maker!!!!! This guy knows how to go after the market.

My theory is this. There are only so many people that will embrace Christianity. That base is shrinking as people become more aware that spirituality and religion are not the same. You can be deeply spiritual and not pay. Christianity on the other hand works on making people feel guilty for sin. And demand that there is a price to pay because you have not obeyed God.

So lets say the market share for this is 75%. That means that all Christian Churches have to go after people in that 75%. The other 25% is a lost market.

So what you have to do is convince people in that 75% that you have a better product than what they are paying for now. That is how you steal customers away. At the same time, people will be trying to steal your customers away.

A major problem is people decide they don't need the product as it does meet their needs. Hence the LDS survey.

So it is a money game. The larger your share, the more of that 75% of the pool of money you have.

Enter the LDS Church. It is a small market player with a flat line or a dwindling share of the market. In the poorer nations, members may be increasing but they are not money making shares. Problem. How to correct that.

Dumb the teachings of the Church down. make the top leadership not accessible but picture them as concerned about your well being. Have your local leaders take the fall when things do not go right. (Note how that was so embedded in the recent LDS survey) Induce guilt and have them enforce the pay for your sins plan (tithing and tithing settlement and temple recommends) Send out uneducated young people with no social skills so that the only people they can relate is their peer groups. Have local people in your wards work on their peers, all in the name of "repenting off your sins and getting closer to God."

To go after the larger markets, pair up with their top directors and create work groups that have the same interests as your group. (No gay marriages, sexual purity, strong families, etc) This is called stabilizing the market) What is really behind this is for all parties is to keep that 75% share and try and increase their portion of the market shares.

This past conference proves my point. Did members learn anything new? No. Did the leadership teach people how to be more spiritual as defined by the 25% not in the market? No. Let me explain, did you learn how to really prayer deeply during conference? Did you learn how to really become a person who is true to themselves? No. Did you learn how to take time for yourself to ponder, mediate, etc. You see that 25% have learned you can these things without a formal institution. (again this concept was embedded in the recent LDS survey)

No What did you learn? Give a bad prayer and it gets edited. Give a bad talk it gets edited, all in the name of God.The top leaders can't agree or count on which sessions belong to which part of the conference. Continue to study our materials, our talks and forget the history. Follow us as we know the way. We have a testimony but we are not going to tell you how we got it.


So in my world the Mormon Church is about going after more shares of the market and trying to design a way to steal other peoples customers. It's not about revelation. Its not about the will of God. Its not about saving the individual. It's not about saving the dead or all those announced temple over the years would have been built. It's about the bottom line%, the market shares they hold, increase or lose. My figure 75 is just an example. I do not know what the market share is.

Conversion = stealing customers

I like it. That explains why TSCC caters to its conservative base. That's where the money is.

Their current philosophy is: I'm all right, Jack, keep your hands off of my stack.

Thought provoking. Thanks for sharing.

Lds may only have 3 million active members in the US. The others are outside of North America. So can they increase their market share....maybe. But they poach the broken and disaffected from other religions. How long those people stay with lds... Who knows. The demands are higher along with financial obligation.

The church is fighting to stay relevant. The sad thing is knowing how many good people I've met in the church that are just trying to be good people, teach their kids some moral system, surround themselves with parents with same goals, and all without knowing the joke is on them.
These families can only escape by opening the door of critical thinking from within the mind. Until then they reject seeking the truth or have taken any proactive steps to researching the things I've told them. The guilt and shame to possibly be wrong in their beliefs for years is too hard to face. So they reject the friendship and/or decrease spending their time and having the moms/kids hang out. They just would rather avoid the awkwardness because sometimes active LDS do not know how to associate with non family ex mos.