This is an archived copy of a post written by Conflict Of Justice (conflictofjustice.com). Used with permission: Conflict Of Justice may not agree with any alterations made.
From its beginning, Occultists have reacted to the Catholic church as an “esoteric” and “repressed” alternative. To the extent that the Catholic church suppressed science, Occultists branded their alternatives as scientific answers. But they considered their belief “more than a science to be pursued objectively; it provides also a philosophy of life derived from its experiences, and it is this philosophical, or even religious aspect, that attracts most of those who devote their lives to it.” (Dion Fortune) It comes down to religious opposition. As the Catholic church’s grip on society loosened, it appears that Occultism shifted toward a reaction to Christianity in general, and it has evolved as Christian society evolved. How does Anti-Mormonism compare? You don’t often see Anti-Mormons conducting séances. They react in a modern context–in fact, they join hand in hand with many Evangelicals in condemning the Church of Jesus Christ’s “occult” origins of “magic stones in a hat.” But Antimormon tactics reflect the Occult modus operandi in taking a polar opposite stance to the church and posturing as the “repressed” alternative. By comparing Occultism versus this dark outline cast from Latter-Day Saint society, perhaps we can better understand the church’s relationship with mainstream Christianity as well. This is an implication of all Ex-members of the church, or everyone who disagrees with or opposes the church. It is just a look at many prominent members of the “Anti-Mormon” community.
Countering A Counter-Culture
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is very much a minority counter-culture. Members talk differently, act differently, socialize differently, and even eat differently. Most people who have been friends with a Latter-Day Saint would agree: we are different. Yet Antimormons act as if they are the counterculture by embracing popular Western culture. Their method for countering the church usually is just to embrace mainstream. After all, when you counter a counter-culture, what does that make you? Mainstream culture! “I drink two coffees a day now.” Ooh, edgy. So brave! This illustrates the biggest challenge Antimormons face: unprofound and downright silly attempts to appear esoteric and repressed. The best they can do is complain about Utah’s status as majority Latter-Day Saint and act like hapless victims crying for deliverance. Or they could deny that the church is any different from mainstream Christianity, but then they risk losing mainstream Christian allies in their opposition to the church.
This all requires a difficult balancing act of carefully constructed narratives, which some Antimormons perform really quite well. But all it takes is a small nudge from a defender of the church to make this appearance come crashing down. This is why they usually change the subject when you ask them why they haven’t moved to another state if they are so miserable in Utah. Or ask how they can feel so repressed in a popular culture that celebrates every little apostasy they perform. Those kinds of questions usually lead to a swift block on social media.
This counterculture status is far from new. In the scriptures we find the same situation: Israel in the midst of much larger hostile nations. We read about how Israel struggled to retain their own minority culture amid this pressure. The Babylonian creation myth presented a version of Genesis that was pretty much the opposite of what Israel believed. Instead of Jehovah winning the premortial battle against Lucifer, Lucifer won in the Babylonian version of the story–and Lucifer promptly made humans into his slaves with no moral agency of their own. Babylonians believed this version of Creation and celebrated it. I have to wonder how similar Babylon’s fundamental opposition to Hebrew doctrine is to popular culture today. Strip away the mythical illustration and ask: how similar was Babylon’s structural belief to popular culture’s today? Does popular culture believe humans are born as agents of free will and choice and a destiny to be exalted as gods, or do they believe as the Babylonians did? Of course, they do not portray this opposite version as a bad thing. They make it look like a good thing Lucifer won, a good thing people are born as tools for economic development for the good of an ordered society, right? The next time you watch a comic book movie, really think about the plot: does this mythology resemble the Babylonian version or the Hebrew version? Usually, the comic book movie is about one person or small group taking care of all of humanity, instead of each individual being empowered to take care of themselves. Instead of an infinite atonement for sin, there is usually some implement for social justice that prevents people from sinning in the first place. Do the same two divergent paths which separated Babylon and Israel in ancient times still separate popular culture from the church today? Christians believe in teaching people correct principles and allowing people to govern themselves, and we believe the alternative path eventually leads to Satan’s plan of restricted free will.
We likewise struggle to maintain our beliefs today in the midst of hostile mainstream beliefs. Now, this is a different situation than the Catholic Church and Occultists. The Catholic church was considered the universal authority on matters in society, and Occultists didn’t enjoy the alliance with popular culture which Antimormonism does today. We in the church seem destined to be counter-cultural. Our scripture is ridiculed in one of the most prominent musicals on Broadway. Our culture is mocked and smeared in high-rated TV shows. Top Hollywood celebrities are constantly speaking out against our “hateful” beliefs. How do mainstream cultural groups get away with attacking us? It is truly remarkable that mainstream media can claim to be defenders of “minority groups” when we are a minority group and they attack us all the time. They act like we are the epitome of historic systematic oppression when really our church was born from a state-sponsored “extermination order” and has been systematically oppressed the entire time.
An effective way for them to cover up this glaring hypocrisy is to invent some kind of conflict between minority groups and anoint themselves mediator of minority groups. Suddenly, we are victimizing other minority groups and they need to bring peace and equality to the land. Their intervention becomes an excuse for them to wipe out all distinction in our beliefs; because after all, these beliefs must be the source of our victimizing nature. This is why negative media attention about the church so often has to do with other minority groups and conflicts that are not actually a big problem in the real world. The Babylonian Lucifer needed some reason to conquer Tiamut, whom he considered “chaos.” This is also why there is such a strong effort to revise our history. Wikipedia, mainstream media, academic circles, and culture groups go to great efforts to portray the church as a historical oppressor instead of oppressed. If these conquering culture warriors can make us look like historical oppressors, that gives them further excuse to intervene and change our beliefs.
Many members of the church find themselves caught in the middle. They have a hard time letting go of popular culture, and they buy into the excuses which the conquering cultural groups use to attack us. Like the Antimormons, they pretend that countering our counter-culture is actually counter-cultural. But they are not in full-blown opposition mode like the Antimormons, though they are usually led in that direction. They typically just want to be part of mainstream culture and part of church culture at the same time. Antimormons are different. Antimormons are distinguished by their effort to counter the church in all ways, including ways that fit outside the frame of popular culture. On the other side, many in the church feel ostracized and separate from society in general, and they don’t know how to be part of it. It could be hard to see where normal Western culture starts and where apostate influences start. Perhaps an exploration of Occultism’s historic relationship with mainstream culture can help us figure that out.
1. Inversion
Edward Alexander Aleister Crowley allegedly proposed the “Law of Reversal” in Satanism, which was to make everything backwards from what it really was, “consistently, with intensity, practice talking (reverse speech), walking, thinking.” Do the opposite of everything the church says, like an obstinate child rebelling against his parents. If the church says go left, go right. If the church claims to be nice people, say they are mean. In Occultism, this can be seen with the inverted cross, the Black Mass, the darkness of the devil vs. lightness of God–symbols of the Catholic Church flipped around. But now we see this same obsession with rebellion through inversion among Anti-Mormons. Much of what they claim about the church is the opposite of reality. If Bishops are helping youth through private interviews, they call it destructive. If the Word of Wisdom is healthy, they make it sound unhealthy. If the church’s practices of chastity bring virtue and healthy families, they say chastity is creepy and abusive. If the temple is a place where we build sacred bonds with God and our family, they say it is a horrible place that tears families apart. They cherry-pick evidence to come to a conclusion that is the opposite of what we really are and what our history really is. Antimormon influence can be detected through subtle use of inversion.
This is why the mainstream media so often begin their negative articles about the church with spooky images of a dark temple before a blue sky. It is an inverted symbol of what we stand for. The temple is bright full of light but they portray it as dark. Through repeated use at the beginning of negative articles, they use the Pavlov effect to associate negativity with the church. They are subtely conditioning people to believe the opposite of what is true about the church. Objective journalists do not produce news articles in this fashion.
Antimormon inversion in the mainstream media and popular culture isn’t just about church practices and history. Antimormons also establish practices for themselves that are the opposite or some perverted form of what the church teaches. This follows the strategy of Occultists who played backwards the Catholic Mass for their Black Mass and turned the cross upside down for their symbol. Again, Antimormons simply borrow from mainstream culture, as that is convenient and fortifies their alliance with the mainstream. Again, this resembles the ancient times when the inverted creation story of Israel was mainstream in Babylon. Today, more and more mainstream pursuits are polar opposite of church stances, and they are adopted as primary causes of Antimormon groups. The sacred nature of gender identity becomes inverted as male becomes female and female becomes male, and we are hateful bigots for believing in traditional “gender roles.” Antimormons also often adapt common mainstream practices to establish pointed inversions of the church. For example, instead of taking the sacrament they might drink coffee or alcohol. Instead of praying at night they might rant acrimonious screeds on social media, and instead of reading scripture they might view porn. Other times, Antimormons extend their inversions outside of mainstream culture. Instead of paying tithing to the church they might pay a monthly donation to hateful Antimormon groups. Instead of respecting civil laws–which I think is still the mainstream thing to do–they may deface copies of the Book of Mormon in Marriott hotels, which is Marriot hotel property, or they may graffiti highway walls, or even commit arson to express themselves. It is all about taking the polar opposite stance. At the very least, a “neutral” popular-cultural stance that erases any uniqueness of Latter-Day Saint belief and culture is useful to them.
What is most remarkable about the similarity of Antimormon inversions and Occultism is how they invert symbols of the church. They take memes about the church and change them to hateful, un-funny messages. These memes aren’t even funny! They are disgusting and bigoted, like poking out the eyes on a photograph of someone you hate. As another example, if you come across an Antimormon website, notice that their styles resemble popular church websites like LDS.org and FairMormon.org. They adopt the same aesthetic to blend in and then flip the narrative to be against the church and destroy people’s faith.
Staying Vs. Leaving – Recently, Elder and Sister Renlund gave an excellent talk about how faith is like staying in a boat at sea. Antimormons quickly noticed the effectiveness of Elder Renlund’s symbolism and were quick to invert the message. Ex-Mormon forums were full of Renlund’s illustration of a fishing boat but with the message flipped. Media journalists inverted Renlund’s message to celebrate doubt instead of faith, and to attack Elder Renlund for “shaming” those who doubt the church. In his talk, Elder Renlund pointed out that the apostle Peter walked on water because of his faith walking toward Jesus. “Peter wasn’t told as he was slipping into the water after having tried to walk on it, ‘Oh Peter, if only you had more doubt!’ No, he was told, ‘Oh thou of little faith, wherefore didn’t thou doubt?'” The story of Peter walking on water is a great illustration of the need for faith in a sea of chaos. But an online writer inverted this example and used the story of Peter walking on water as just another reason to step outside the boat and doubt. This writer complained that Elder Renlund was “blaming” the “victim” and said we need to support those who leave to pursue a different “covenant path.” “Sometimes you have to leave the boat” so you can “learn to walk on water,” the writer concluded.
Think about that. This inverts Elder Renlund’s message and emphasizes the miracle as the pursuit rather than walking to Jesus. Peter did not leave the boat so he could walk on water. He left the boat to get to Jesus. He wouldn’t have gotten to Jesus if he had walked in a different direction than the path that led to Jesus. The point of the story is to be confident along the path that leads to Jesus. The only reason he could walk on water was because he was walking the correct path and not doubting. The point was not to seek a Disney-like miracle by disregarding safety and common sense, but to be strong in your convictions and self-love.
The brethren often compare the gospel to “the old ship Zion.” Antimormons flip this metaphor as just another reason to oppose the church. Suddenly we are “shaming” those who are not in the boat. It is interesting that in Lehi’s vision of the Tree of Life, he saw hosts of people mocking and sneering at the small group of faithful Latter-Day Saints partaking of the godly fruit, yet somehow we are the ones mocking and shaming people if we simply suggest that the fruit tastes good.
2. Suppressing Ego
The second law of Occultism is called self-awareness, often explained as suppressing the ego or finding “one consciousness” within ourselves. Basically it means giving up your personal agency. Now, the church certainly teaches us to deny our carnal human desires and to submit to the will of the Lord. But there is a clear line between accepting the will of the Lord as an active choice and disregarding our ability to choose for ourselves. If we refuse to choose good and evil for ourselves, our spirit will inevitably accept the evil side of our human nature. If we give up all personal responsibility and choice and accept “nature’s will” or whatever, we become empty vessels for the spirits of evil to inhabit. We never hand over our free will to someone else.
This occult “one consciousness” doctrine became formalized by Theosophists in the late 19th century, and preceded the “consciousness” theory of Marxism which soon followed. Marxism disregards individual freedom and responsibility, and seeks to equalize the “consciousness” of social classes. In order for this to work, Marxists have to force people to deny their ego and operate for the sake of a class effort. This “consciousness theory” be seen more and more in modern culture, where people do not operate for the benefit of themselves or their family, but wage social crusades to equalize classes because their school teacher or friend on Facebook told them to. They may not use Marxist or Satanic terms in these moral crusades, but they are basically conditioned to suppress their individuality and follow orders.
This kind of NPC mindset can be seen in Antimormon communities where the entire group quickly adopts the same rhetoric and repeats the same ideas. They use the same slogans, same memes, and basically follow the same script. Now, many Antimormons would say we do the same thing. Latter-Day Saint missionaries are taught to follow the same basic structure for their messages, for example, in order to prevent personal bias from tainting the message of what the gospel is. But for Antimormons, it’s not about a correct portrayal of their beliefs; it is about a mimetic method of communication. Latter-Day Saint missionaries use individualized ways of talking and teaching. Antimormon missionaries mimic each other’s words, thoughts, and actions.
This gets to the root of what makes a church testimony different from the Antimormon basis for knowledge. If there is no God and the Spirit does not teach truth, then what would we base our “truth” on? Whatever society decides is truth, right? Whatever is taught to us by parents, teachers, and media, and what we accept as best for healthy living. A universal method of communication will lead to universal thought and belief, Marxism believes. Occultism teaches people to submit to the strong leader for the good of society, like humans submitted as slaves to Marduk in Babylonian myth. In the church, we emulate the Savior not to be slaves but to grow to be like God ourselves, with our individuality intact.
Social Justice – A recent article by Daily Mail talks about the “rise of Satanism in America,” where nowadays it’s not so much about the worship of deity as it is about “activism” and “social diversity.” Satanism today is about “advocating social justice and compassion and nobody has the right to tell you what to do with your body and everything,” according to a quote by “Professor Chestnut” in this article.
Professor Chestnut is right, it is all about advocating social justice today. Social Justice is a modern iteration of the plan of Satan that started with apostate Christianity and replaced basic understanding of Christ’s gospel in the apostate mainstream church. It is a philosophy that works toward universal salvation and obsesses with “equality” over merit. It gets in the way of mankind’s communication with God, to alter our concept of justice and mercy, and to shift prayer and faith towards collective conscious for society.
Many in the church are hesitant to confront the doctrine of social justice because it is so mainstream, it is so associated with politics, and it leads to so much hostility. But it is time we do, because Antimormonism and Occultism in general is quickly coalescing around this Marxist replacement of gospel doctrine. It already is the dominant philosophy in mainstream Western institutions–public schools, universities, TV, etc. Social justice has become the Satanic alternative to divine justice, which is the first element in any religious belief system.
Perverting Ordinances – In the Book of Mormon we read of conspiring groups called “secret combinations” that show up time and time again in history reeking havoc. We are told there will be secret combinations in our times that likewise use secret symbols to recognize each other and do anything to enrich their own power. The nature of these secret combinations is something to look out for, we are told, as God does not operate in darkness. This has led to conspiracy theories of the illuminati and whatever, and I don’t know what to think about all that.
But I do find it interesting to see popular culture’s current poster boy in criticizing the church, Dan Reynolds, covering one of his eyes in a recent photo. Holding a hand over one of the eyes is a theme among Hollywood celebrities, and some say it is a symbol of secret Satanic association, one who “sells his soul” to the devil. I don’t know if this is true or not, but I find it interesting that Dan Reynolds appares to adopt a gesture with this kind of well-known controversy. What does this tell us? I also find it interesting that Dan Reynold’s recent album cover could be interpreted as an inversion of Lehi’s tree of life vision. We see a tree opposite a great and spacious building with a stream separating them, but instead of walking to the tree a man walks to the great and spacious building. In the water reflection we see a further inversion of the scene, a mirror image, and the walking man appears to be dark black.
Latter-Day Saints understand the importance of ordinances as a physical manifestation of one’s faith, as a token of covenants with diety, and this is something secret combinations understand as well. As the polar opposite of the true church, it should be no surprise to see them perform the same kind of ordinances and make the same kind of covenants with Satan, exactly as Cain did. This deal with the devil could be as simple as a teenager alone in his room thinking to himself that he will follow Satan because he is mad at his parents about something. It could be a popular music singer attacking the church for the sake of achieving fame. This Satanic covenant will often manifest in a ritualistic fashion which has the appearance of a perverted form of God’s ordinances, because this kind of polar opposition is the whole point.
Elphas Levi in 1856 drew a famous image of Baphomet in his book on “doctrine and ritual” of Occultism, which showed “solve” (separate) and “coagula” (join together) on the demon’s arms, representing “the powers of ‘binding and loosing’ usurped from God.” This refers to Satanism’s effort to break people’s godly covenants and bind covenants that destine a person for hell. But remember, there are two parts to the inversion agenda: inversion of one’s behavior and inversion of the church’s image. This separation and joining also is used to make the church appear the opposite of what it really is by shifting boundaries of church culture. Mainstream news media frequently utilize this strategy of separation and joining, creating divisions and blurring the true separation line between the church and popular culture. It goes back to Marduk battling Tiamut for the sake of order over chaos. If social order becomes chaotic, then it is time for them to use “control parameters” in order to submit everything to one particular authority. The media in general introduces “control parameters” to define and change individual beliefs to align with their social prescription. We can see this in the media’s typical agitations about the church: ordaining to the priesthood, getting rid of Bishop interviews, changing the policy about marijuana, etc.
This brings us to the final point of Antimormonism: infiltration. James E. Talmage in “The Great Apostasy” narrowed in on a few issues that toppled the early Christian church: external persecution, alteration of ordinances, elimination of priesthood structure, and infiltration of foreign philosophies. These are the things which destroy the church as a whole, and Antimormons work toward each of these goals. As we seek to live comfortably within our current Western Culture, these are the Satanic influences to watch out for. To the extent which they have been infiltrated by apostasy, mainstream Christian groups are often used toward Antimormon ends. But more and more, we see less of this. I think the fact that Antimormon tactics so closely resemble Occultism is evidence that much of mainstream Christianity and the Catholic Church in particular is being targeted by Satan, and has been for some time, and thus is probably our natural ally. Furthermore, the attacks which are thrown against us also are thrown against them, which means we are in this together.