Is Mormonism "mostly" good?

 "Why can't you focus on the good things?" is a legitimate question, and there are legitimate answers:

  • The church insists that it's true when it's not. The church actively teaches a number of controversial ideas as if they were God's absolute truth, when they have no authority to do so.

  • The church insists on exact obedience. Members are subjected to regular loyalty tests, such as worthiness interviews, interviews for callings, tithing settlement, personal priesthood interviews, ministering interviews, and so on.

  • The church takes all the time and money they can squeeze out of people. The church has no respect for its members' time or resources.

  • The church's racist teachings and practices toward Black people exacerbated terrible racial injustices in the United States and around the world. Even now, the echos of those toxic teachings continue to do harm.

  • The church's pernicious lies about the heritage of Native Americans have fostered an entirely different flavor of racism. The church would rob indigenous peoples of their true heritage in exchange for a stupid, offensive, colonial fabrication rooted in 19th century prejudices. The church has never denounced their racist teachings regarding Native Americans. Millions of little children continue to be brainwashed with repugnant falsehoods about these people and their history.

  • The church has gone out of its way to lobby against women's rights, LGBTQ rights, and a host of other issues. The church's lobbying efforts have harmed a lot of innocent people who have never been Mormon. Active, tithe-paying members of the church are complicit in this harm.

  • The church harms adolescents with their misguided teachings on sexuality, modesty, and the role of priesthood authority.

  • The church puts abusers in positions of authority where they are enabled to harm vulnerable members. The church has not done enough to put safeguards in place, and abuse enabled by the church continues to happen.

  • The church's teachings and practices are inimical to the development of critical thinking. Starting with very young children, the church discourages people from examining all the facts, considering the motives of all the parties, and determining which information should carry the most weight.

  • The church does not have its members' best interest at heart. We've seen countless examples of faithful people in need being denied basic assistance from the church because a priesthood leader had a premonition (or a subconscious bias). We've seen the church hoard excess donations to build up a tremendous war chest, while wasting funds on new temples in places that are already very close to operational and underutilized temples. The church builds shopping malls and runs expensive propaganda campaigns but does very little to care for the poor and needy.

  • The church teaches that warm feelings are a manifestation of the Holy Ghost. That's not true. The church is quite good at engineering warm feelings and then conditioning people to believe that those warm feelings should compel them to be faithful to the church. In reality, all the warm feelings in the world can't right the wrongs the church has caused.

I'm sure the KKK was great place for like-minded individuals to socialize. I'm sure the Nazi party was highly prized among its members for the unity it created among them. We cannot, should not, must not "just focus on the good things". Because real harm has been and continues to be done, and all the warm feelings in the world can't and won't right those wrongs.

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