Last week I sent my parent, siblings and children my letter explaining my unbelief in the church. I have received nothing but support so far, though I haven't heard from them all. Of course they're all saddened, but they seem to understand and accept.

My son wrote me an e-mail and, in explaining what he's come across during his career in IT, he divulged something interesting, that has been speculated upon in some threads on this board. My son was the lead developer, aka solution architect, for lds.org a few years ago. It turned out he only worked for the church's IT department a few years, but during that time, the essays and other topics were added to the "Gospel Topics" section of lds.org. We all know they were not published in an easily discovered place! Just hidden among the other topics.

In his e-mail he told me this:

"When I was the solution architect for LDS.org, we were given several historical documents as well as modern essays to host. We were given the directive to make their search relevance an artificially low score. The Brethren wanted them to be found, just not the first thing you read on the subject. My best developer, who built lds.org's search engine was curious and read them. He found he had to change jobs and withdraw his name from the church."

Did you get that? Here, again, is the kicker, "We were given the directive to make their search relevance an artificially low score. The Brethren wanted them to be found, just not the first thing you read on the subject."

Word.

It took uncovering the deception to force them to put the essays together, in a collection as they stand today, where they could be easily found AND to have the Church Historian make a video by way of explanation!

The sad part for me came in the last two sentences, "My best developer, who built lds.org's search engine was curious and read them. He found he had to change jobs and withdraw his name from the church." Why is this sad? My son is a councilor in his local Bishopric. Still TBM. The essays didn't phase him.

*sigh*

But you now know the rest of the story.

Bruce A Holt Wrote:
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> essays didn't phase him.

I know a few Mormons that weren't phased by them.

Unfortunately, they are the kinds of people for whom loyalty to kith and kin and ancestor worship drive their testimonies. They see their "church" as a provider for a plan for life. I doubt anything would phase them. There could be a scandal with living prophets and nothing would touch their testimonies.

My TBM FIL is like this. NOTHING brings him more pride than the fact that all lines of their family joined the church in the 1830's. His ancestors are frequently mentioned in conference, SS, etc... He could never admit to himself that ALL of his ancestors were dupes. He sincerely believes that they were some of the greatest people to have ever lived. I think a complete 180 in that thinking would literally kill him.

One of LDS Inc's biggest bogeymen is PRIDE. It's the source of almost all evil in their book...the fall of man all begins and ends with PRIDE.

In reality, pride is what binds many to the organization.

After serving a mission, attending the temple, indoctrinating kids and forking over 10% of gross for years, pride and the thought of that huge investment being for naught keeps many from admitting they have been swindled.

Pride, lack of integrity and lack of courage are well-designed shackles. They work better than any prison wall for keeping the flock gathered up.

100% agree with this. My FIL was a convert to the church, and defended it to his family many, many times through the years. He would rather eat his own arm than have been wrong about it being 'the one true church'.

I have seen this quoted many times here, a Carl Sagan quote about this:

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.


when Sagan uses the word 'charlatan', I think of Joseph Smith.

"We were given the directive to make their search relevance an artificially low score. The Brethren wanted them to be found, just not the first thing you read on the subject."

Does this surprise anyone on this board in the least?

We pretty much expected something like this from the unholy fifteen.

Interesting, Bruce. I've suspected the essays were "out there" before they were "out there."

WOW! Definitely doesn't surprise me! I too have worked in IT for the Church.

I'm impressed your son would share that information with you. Many tbms seem to ignore any negative information about the church, much less share it with an apostate. It's as though to them, it doesn't exist if they don't acknowledge it.

To me, your son's willingness to share that information with you reflects well on his maturity and integrity.

Any idea when they first showed up?

Thanks for the info Bruce.

No revelation goes unnoticed. They may pretend the essays have no affect on them, but their shelf is several pounds heavier. it is a matter of statistical probability whose shelves will collapse, and when.

"We were given the directive to make their search relevance an artificially low score. The Brethren wanted them to be found, just not the first thing you read on the subject."

Of course. The brethren wanted to publish the absolute minimum amount of info they had to in order to head off criticism or legal cases, but they didn't want the info to be so widely known that the average rank-and-file member could easily find it. It was the brethren's version of "the fine print."

It's the equivalent of saying/ asking: "what do you 'know'"; how did you get here and what do you want from us; who are we, and why are we so invisable, insufficient, awkward, insane and incurable; we don't know how much truth to share with you because we don't know how much you know already - all at once.

They bury the things so deep - like Joseph Smith found the bold flakes - that only the TRUTH seeker, or stumbler, would discover them, with the help of Lord knows what LUCK, or Karma - Joy - Blessings...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/22/2016 04:47PM by moremany.

Anyone have a link?