Monday November 25th 2024 Member training, the sixth of a series of trainings on understanding and identifying propaganda. You can watch part 6 here.
You can watch part 8 here.
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TRANSCRIPT
– Yes, we are on part seven of recognizing modern propaganda.
So when I first gave this presentation, I only had a few slides on emotional
manipulation. And I’ve been thinking about this topic for a very long time.
And it concerns me greatly. So I felt impressed to expand upon it.
So it is now, it’s gonna take the full time, just this one tool of the conspiracy,
talking about emotional manipulation and how that’s used weaponized against us our own
emotions, good emotions, not so great emotions. But it’s basically been been turned
on us. And in a very sophisticated way, and I, I worry,
and I, I’m deeply concerned that many good people. Many trusting, loving individuals
are falling prey to this trap that the conspiracy lays.
And it’s very well done. Let’s go to what the scriptures have to say.
So the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy, he says, “For the time will come when they will
not endure sound doctrine.” Thank you for talking about us. But after their own
lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears Meaning according to
me appealing to the carnal feel -good. That’s how I translate that Because it feels
good to have your ear itched, right?
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables
so Dan gave this a couple weeks back and his spiritual thought. And it really
strongly applies to what we’re going to talk about today. So remember this scripture
if you would.
So why do we turn away from truth and towards lies and make -believe, which is what
fables are? Why do we do this?
While Dale Carnegie, famous author and public speaker. He said,
“When dealing with people, remember you’re not dealing with creatures of logic, but
with creatures of emotion.” It’s kind of a terrible way to put it, calling us
creatures and emotional, but that’s how conspirators see us. They see us as creatures
of emotion. Okay, we’ll come back to that. And How do they treat us?
How are they able to emotionally manipulate us? So let’s go to the definitions.
In psychology, manipulation is an action designed to influence or control another
person in an underhanded or unfair manner. For example,
methods such as suggestion, seduction, and coercion can induce submission and
facilitate the manipulator’s personal aims, aims. So they gain by manipulating you,
coercing you to do something that isn’t for your benefit. Okay, so that’s the short
answer. And I like this picture because it’s got the hand kind of tugging at the
heart strings there. We’re going to come back to that, that illustration, that idea
as we go along.
This is a quote from Robert Louis Stevenson. He’s a famous Scottish novelist,
and he was a bohemian club attender. He said, “Everybody lives by selling something.”
So that’s kind of, well, let’s hear from the people that are selling something,
and that’s the people that are blatant about it are marketers and corporations. So
they teach these strategies. They don’t call it emotional manipulation. That’s the
honest answer for it. They use other euphemisms that you’ll catch as you go along.
So this quote is from Forbes .com. It’s from an article called Emotion, the
Superweapon of Marketing and Advertising. And they say that in a good way, like
that’s good for them. Emotional connection plays a significant role in the choices we
make as consumers. As reported by Psychology Today, functional MRI imaging shows that
when evaluating brands, consumers primarily use emotions, personal feelings and
experiences, rather than information. Brand attributes, features,
and facts. So as marketers, why not aim to trigger the right feelings and make an
emotional impression to attract attention to your product or service and boost sales?
Okay, so these are these are well understood strategies that we’re going to go
through.
So going back to this graphic we had before, They’re stimulating your emotions,
triggering you to get a desired response and if you look at this little shape wheel
here of emotions, these desired responses can be the full range of them,
positive and negative. Optimism, love, submission, awe, disapproval, remorse, contempt,
aggressiveness. Now why would they want these negative ones? Well they want you to
feel negative about things that don’t help them.
All right, my back. Can everybody see that? Yeah, updates.
Okay, so full range and they they have it down what they want to do and how and
how to tug at your sharp strings in certain ways, how to play you.
Back to that article, emotional connections in the marketing field are not a secret
strategy anymore, but they can be a real advantage. So they want to take advantage
of you. They admit that. To be successful, find out how your customers feel and
what they need and be able to identify what motivates them. This customer oriented
attitude and strategy can help you inspire customers devotion. Sounds really wonderful,
right? The way they put it. Well, it sounds right in the beginning that first
sentence. It’s not a secret anymore. Yeah. So like they’ve known about it.
Now we’re letting everybody in, you know, more people in on the little secret that
they’ve been manipulating us for a long time. Yeah. Yeah, another conspiracy is over
us. It’s mainstream, right? It’s all old hat and everyone’s doing this now It’s very
very common knowledge. It’s not it’s not hard to find this kind of information
Among marketing and products and companies Other people won’t admit that they’re doing
this, but they’re doing it So yeah, okay, so that Now we need to talk about
grooming because that really is like a tiny step from what we’re hearing there.
It’s emotionally manipulated, manipulating in a very specific way.
So what is grooming?
With someone’s making a comment, I couldn’t hear it very well. No, you’re good.
Okay. Grooming is a pattern of behavior where someone is somewhat in a position of
power manipulates another person to exploit them. It can involve building trust and
emotional connections to gain control over someone. The goal is to exploit
vulnerabilities, reduce resistance and desensitize the victim to inappropriate or
unethical behaviors For the groomers benefit Okay, so the word grooming,
you know, this is a picture of what grooming used to me now. We kind of picture
You know drag Queens are reading at that story time to little children,
right? This this out of my supremacy movement of grooming
So why did I choose this picture looks like it’s gone pretty great, Right for that
the horse looks like a nice happy relationship the up going on Is it though like
Do we really know? When we’re in the middle of being groomed do we know where it’s
leading? Do we know they’re trying to lead us to the slaughterhouse and to our
destruction? So when they’re doing it well, it looks like that right she’s smiling
is feeling good, has no idea what’s coming next. Okay, that’s good grooming.
That’s them doing their job well as they see it. It’s pretty insidious.
Okay, so now I want to show you a short clip from the scene in Groundhog Day.
I don’t know if you guys have ever seen that movie,
but It basically reveals, uh,
she, she discovers that she was being groomed. Yeah, about what? How you can start
a day with one kind of expectation and end up so completely different.
Well, do you like the way this day is turning out? I like it very much. It’s a
perfect day. You couldn’t have planned a day like this. Well you can. It just takes
an awful lot of work.
Come on, you know, I want to show you something. I don’t think I should do it.
Oh, I don’t think you should either. That’s why I’m just going to show you this
one thing and kick you right out. Just in one minute.
So this is where he wants to take advantage of her. He’s going to, you know, try
to come on to her and she’s against dead.
Rocky Road. Oh, I love Rocky Road. Yeah, I thought so. You have to stay.
Oh, no, really, Phil. I’m tired. We can see each other tomorrow.
No, tonight. It’s going to be tonight.
No, really.
Just stay for a while. If you like it, stay for a while longer. If you like it,
stay for a while longer. – Let’s not spoil it, okay? – Imagin’ this as you and the
conspiracy. – You know, I can’t stay with you. – Why not?
I love you.
– You love me? – I love you. – You don’t even know me? – Oh, I know you. I know
you.
Oh, no. I can’t believe I fell for this. This whole day has just been one long
set up. No, it hasn’t. And I hate fudge. Yuck. No white chocolate,
no fudge. What are you doing? Are you making some kind of list or something? No.
Did you call up my friends and ask them what I like and what I don’t like? No.
Is this what love is for you? No, this is real. This is love. Stop saying that!
You must be crazy. I could never love someone like you Phil, because you’ll never
love anyone but yourself. That’s not true. I don’t even like myself. Give me another
chance.
That’s for making me care about you. Okay. You can stop it there, Ben. Thank you.
Perfect. So that’s what we need to do to these people that emotionally manipulate
us, and they are everywhere. So, can you guys see why I shared that clip?
Yep. Okay. Is there anything weird on my screen? Can you guys see it all clearly
now? You’re good. Okay.
So, we need to be wise to the emotional manipulation that is happening each and
every day, be it personal relationships, work, or in the media.
It’s just rampant. So what are some of the emotions and qualities being leveraged or
used against us that might inspire or groom devotion in you? Okay,
so what are these, what are things that inspire us to act in the way that they
want.
– A clever response against these woke left radicals. – Yeah, that’s it,
that’s my main one.
– So a good way to win people over is humor, right? So you’ll see a lot of humor
in emotional manipulation. – What was the answer to that? What was that as she gave
to what I’m going through the all the all the answers I was I was pointing at
humor and that was the first and you did it see you know it you we know this
stuff you are the one that gave that right you spoke that no no that’s not what’s
important can you not see the the slide
– I was typing something else while you were speaking. – You didn’t need what I was
saying. She put it in the bullets. It’s humor. – It showed up, Carmen. And then
Joyce said, “Oh, that’s me.” – Okay. – Okay. – So humor is a great way to build
connection, right? So you’ll see a lot of humor in the way that they groomed
devotion. A lot of nostalgia is a big one lately in sentiment. So remember when
the, you know, the good old days and, and, and reminiscing about your favorites and
seeing it in commercials, like, Oh, I haven’t seen that since I was 12 years old.
And so you’ll, you’ll see this tactic a lot. Lust, I remember Carl’s Jr.
having really sexual ads to get you to eat hamburger. It made no sense,
but it got attention and I’m sure it got more men and people coming to buy
burgers. Fear, horror, and shock, that’s what you’re into.
Freedom, meaning libertinism, like, you know, get me out here, I want to be free to
do what I want to do. Do what thou wilt. That’s the big one. Pride,
so appealing to your pride and pride can be shown in a lot of ways in your team,
in your tribes or things you identify with or as your like fake families,
pride in those things, right? Sodomite, sodomy, pride,
vanity. So appealing to your vanity, that’s a huge one, especially on women,
but also men, just, just an inordinate amount of energy and propaganda to get you
to worry about what you look like, which is completely useless and destructive.
Here’s a big one lately, the last several years, altruism and charity. So we all
love the underdog story and literally taking care of, you know, the poor underdogs
and with those ASPCA, you know, adopted dog kind of commercials and things that tug
at your heartstrings to be caring and serve one another. And I’m not saying that
these things are based on bad places like some of these are coming from good
places, but they’re manipulated and twisted to suit them, to benefit charity for
incorrect principles and people who don’t deserve it.
Elitism. So for a certain segment, they really want to be those one percenters that,
you know, Grey Poupon and, and, you know, they’re better than others. And maybe they
want the latest, greatest technology. So these are the people that buy, you know,
those, those Tesla, ugly Tesla trucks and that kind of thing.
What’s that? Cyber trucks. Yeah. Those are those abominations. So elitism is a is a
is a way that they get to you Popular trends and following heroes. So that’s your
loyal groupie unity and feeling acceptance kind of tactics that they use and Then
the desire to experience novelty things that are new and and exciting and kind of
you know, just different. These are all ways. So I really want,
hoping that you can kind of discern which one of these,
which areas, and it’s probably more than one, I know for me it is, is how they
get you. Like where, where are your Achilles heels in these, in this list here?
And what’s not on here that maybe is where they, where they get you to motivate
you to follow them. It’s really important that we acknowledge and take inventory of
where our weaknesses are and see how they’re being played against us. It’s such a
big art. There’s a man by the name of Anthony Robbins. And when I was selling
insurance in real estate, I went to a bunch 7 hours. Anthony Robbins would invite a
woman up out of the crowd and claim he could make her fall just terribly in love
with him. And it’s an art in such a way to where now that I’ve been in sales,
I can see it coming sometimes. But going back to your horse thing,
a groom and a horse.
They do it physically when they groom you. The greatest tool in the barn is usually
at the end of your arm being able to stroke a horse. These salesmen stroke you
emotionally, physically. It’s an art and the good ones.
Good ones can manipulate you to where you can just you want to tear down walls to
buy whatever they’re selling. They teach each other how to be really effective at it
and I agree. It’s a science and it’s an art. Some are better at it than others.
The most famous, most wealthy are very good at it or they have teams of people
that they employ that helps them be really, really good at it. And so individuals
and companies and media,
I’ll use this art, these art tactics. Yeah, thank you for that.
Okay, so I wanted to share this screenshot. This is, it’s been memory hold.
This is from Bonneville International. Bonneville Communications was the Elias Church’s
marketing arm and they’ve since pulled this down and they have,
you know, they’re still around but they’ve changed their names but I thought this
was interesting. We discovered this a few years back and it’ll speak to what we’re
talking about here. At Bonneville Communications, our ability to touch the hearts and
minds of audiences makes us an essential resource for organizations with vital
messages. For more than 30 years and they get into who their clients are, Huntsman
Cancer Institute, Boy Scouts, etc. Our unique strength is the ability to touch the
hearts and minds of our audiences, evoking first feeling, then thought,
and finally action. We call this uniquely powerful brand of creative heart cell,
strategic emotional advertising that stimulates response, our people not only create
effective messages, we get them out effectively. So this is a marketing tactic,
okay? It’s very, this is, this is old news and it is used by even churches.
So back to that article, Forbes article. To get in touch with your customer’s
emotions, identify their critical motivators. We strongly recommend putting more effort
into research to discover the sole critical motivators that are typical for your
niche and target audience. It’s crucial to provide customers with what they genuinely
need, though they may not always be able to say what that is. And when I translate
that, that means appealing to the carnal man and the deepest desires of their
targets. Okay, I like target audience, you like that, that word, their target.
So it’s not, this is not philanthropic, like they’re not doing this to be kind,
like they’re doing this to make money and to gain power.
Try to figure out what your customer, customers care about, whether it’s standing out
from the crowd, well -being, freedom, a sense of belonging, or the environment. And
make sure to leverage that. Their motivators may be secondary to the underlying
emotions that drive them, but take them seriously. They can provide you with a more
in -depth understanding of your customers’ emotions. Does it sound as bad to you guys
as it does to me? Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, it’s it’s awful.
And it’s, it’s, yeah. They even make it simpler than all of those you read.
Many people are scared to death of losing something. The fear of losing something
and being able to retain something is more powerful
than the greedy person who wants to gain more. – Agreed. Fear is a huge motivator.
I used to be ruled by fear, sadly, in my life. And in 2020, I made a decision
that I would not be ruled by fear anymore. And Heavenly Father helped me with that.
But I knew I was being emotionally manipulated my whole life, starting with my
family. And then through the media, TV shows. You know, I was watching shows I
shouldn’t have, that stimulated the fear, triggered me, and I finally had had enough.
So I agree, yeah, fear, and just what works on people, they’ll use it, and fear is
definitely a big one. So they’ll create these, like, so that’s just kind of a
recap. They’ll have a conditioned stimulus, sometimes it’s just a word, sometimes it’s
a symbol, or a person, and then because of that,
you’ll give them the desired response. So there’s just all sorts of ideas and words
that really, and it’s different for different people. You can’t say this is the same
for everyone, but they know their numbers and they know what works, and they’re
constantly
while ballooning, you know, adjusting and honing their craft, okay,
and craft is the right word, and it is a science and it is an art.
So these are just examples of random words that would elicit possible different
emotions that they would count on.
So what are some areas where the conspiracy is grooming you. So these are categories
that we’ve discussed, you know, Tree of Liberty and that just seem to keep coming
up again and again. Hey, Samantha, real quick, Brittany’s got her hand up, sorry.
Well, please, yes, let’s hear it. Okay, so I just finished taking my PLT to finish
getting my licensure so I can actually make money teaching for a little bit until I
can get into private or on my own or something like that. Okay, because I really
hate working for the government. But I just wanted to share that I saw that
condition stimulus stuff. And I’m not joking you that there are 70 questions on this
test that you have to take in most of the states.
And 20 questions are basically about conditioning children,
basically. In so many words, like, they tell you that all of education’s basis is
off of different theorists and most of those guys are behaviorists. And they call it
constructivism now, where you’re letting like student -led classes,
but you’re really conditioning children to come in, follow procedure, do what you’re
told, care about this. That doesn’t matter, you know what I mean? Like all the
things I’m reading, and I had to study for this stupid test just so I could pass
this. I just, the whole time I just kept thinking that this is just like all the
propaganda that they’re teaching in the classroom. Like this is seriously insane. So
I just thought I would share that. – Yeah, thank you. – It starts with the teaching.
– Yeah, and it’s systematic. They come up with these formulas and it’s interesting
how they change the words, right? Because things have get you know, discover it and
it becomes a negative thing and so they have to find a positive word so
constructivism what sounds more positive than that right yeah and it’s interesting
that they’re having you direct direct it so it’s not really coming from you so
nobody can blame you you’re directing you know other people to basically do what you
want anyway um yeah super yeah it’s – Crazy,
yeah. – Okay, thank you for sharing that. So, some areas where the conspiracy grooms
you. These are just categories that just come up over and over and over again. So
through nostalgia, it’s a big trigger of childhood memories, feels good,
oh, my favorites. There’s just this instant connection people have. Like Ready Player
One was this movie that, you know, all these people my age were like,
oh yeah, just reference, just old, old movie after movie and just put it all into
one movie. And it was a terrible, terrible story, but no one cared because it’s
like all their favorites were included. And then kind of like the good old days, so
to have, to stimulate people, the glory days, and the salad days,
and the, you know, oh, things were so much better than. better than. And so there’s
sort of a lolling aspect to that, where you just feel good, and you kind of don’t
worry about your cares or the problems, or, or destroying the conspiracy, because
you’re just content. Another way they get this is fantastic new experiences.
So I mentioned this before, latest, greatest, exciting trends. Info junkie clickbait
is a big one for for people who could call themselves conservatives because they
want to be up on the latest. And if you’re not, you’re missing out. And that’s a
terrible feeling for a lot of people that are into the meta whole whole thing.
I don’t know if you notice commercials now are really meta really weird. And that’s
just progressive like just just always new, always reacting, and something different.
And it’s exciting when you see that. And a big part of how this works is pushing
technology. If they didn’t have technology, none of this would work. And technology
is the way that they will institute their transhumanism. And that’s a whole topic in
of itself, a whole training, what transhumanism This genderism is just the gateway
stepping stone to transhumanism, but it’s all part of that.
It’s the way that you’ll accept it, because you’ll be like, “Oh, that’s new. That
sounds wonderful and exciting. I should try that without thinking if it’s going to
destroy you or not.” Can I share something? Oh, Denise is up there first to share,
I think. Yeah, let’s hear it. Denise, you want to share there’s something there’s
okay this is Carmen and I had an experience probably it’s been 1215 years ago um I
was using my hairdryer and the thing died hopefully I couldn’t make it go and so
um I went to uh I went to Walgreens grocery store
’cause I needed another hairdryer and I had had it for a long time.
So I went to Walgreens, went down their aisle where they sell that kind of stuff
and there was only one hairdryer. And I was in a hurry,
I was tired and I just wanted to grab a cheap little thing and wanted to rush
home. So I did. And like I said,
there was only one hairdryer on the shelf
and it was white. And it set on it new feel exclamation point.
I got it home and it was almost identical to the one that had just died,
only this hairdryer was white and it was fuzzy.
So they had a big exclamation points all over the box and that was their selling
point that this hairdryer had a new feel to it.
Isn’t this awesome? I hated that hair dryer for the rest of the time that I had
it, and I was so glad when it died. So, you know, there it is,
trying to, you know, to me that was like exciting trans clickbait,
almost like. – Yeah, it works. Like it’s, they use it a lot,
if they’re using a lot, it means it’s working. And so you’ll see every form of
that, right? It’s just a huge, huge draw to people and Achilles’ heel.
So yeah, thanks for that, Carmen.
Patriotism, wow, this one got me good for a very long time. So appealing to your
pride in America, make America great again, Land of the free, support our troops,
support NASA, capitalism, anything that’s associated with America voting,
you know, baseball, apple pie, like all these things are just wrapped in and if you
love your country, you also love these things. And that’s very dangerous, right?
We’re not supposed to have standing armies. And yet my whole life, I was so proud
that soldiers were helping me stay free at home in America, not even thinking that
they’re fighting unconstitutional wars. And it’s immoral what our government is doing
and sending these young men to their deaths for not for freedom,
but to build a new world order. I didn’t know that for years, but this idea of
patriotism worked on me. I would bawl at, you know, the pledge of not pledging,
just our spangled banner when that would be sung before any event. And so I’ve had
to really, really recognize for me that I was on principle because I was so
patriotic. And that’s a really hard thing to point out to someone, by the away.
It’s just, it’s just a terrible feeling. Okay,
another big one, huge, huge one, holidays and false traditions. So they’re playing
upon family memories that you’ve had your whole life, like ingrained in you, joyful
memories that are in it, just connected deeply with, you know,
Easter, Halloween, Christmas, birthdays, just whatever things that aren’t necessarily
scriptural. But it’s big on togetherness, and there’s always childhood rites of
passage associated with various things, like dating at 16,
or getting your first card at 16, like all sorts of things are pushed under this
guise of tradition. And really a lot of traditions, especially nowadays,
have become so hedonistic, so gluttonous, like Thanksgiving used to be wonderful.
I still think it is, but it’s just been altered and distorted in such an ugly
thing. And so it’s about
You know, like if you’ve watched Becky’s presentations on Easter and Christmas these
these are not Holy days these these things are offensive to God So if you don’t
haven’t studied that or learned about that, I highly recommend you go check out
those trainings that that are available because It’s hard to quit like when our
family’s but we’ve talked about this before, you you are ostracized and you are
looks like you have three eyes on your face when you you say you don’t do certain
traditions these days. Okay, moving on, right along with that sports,
if you don’t participate in sports, you’re missing out on all the pride and
competition and fate rivalry and, And again, more societal and family unity all
wrapped up in, “Are you red or are you blue?” And it’s not principled.
It’s a colossal waste of time and money, and it’s not building the kingdom of God
in any way, shape, or form, but it’s distracting all these wonderful men from
putting their energy and their God -given natures towards ridiculous fighting each
other in in fake contests like it’s just it’s just I just am not I used to play
out a lot all the sports and I’m not not a fan anymore no pun intended and I
found this scripture I thought was kind of any interesting in 1st Timothy 4 8 it
says for bodily exercise profiteth little but godliness is profitable unto all things
having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.
So I’m a big believer in being healthy but we take these things to ridiculous
extremes and not not what what it’s supposed to be.
Okay next idea is shows, theater, and music. A huge problem I would say in
religious communities because You’re accepting really Babylonian concepts and lyrics and
ideas and because it’s well done or beautiful music,
you really fall for it. And music is spellbinding.
These movies, these high budget Marvel movies, they’re captivating and immersive.
And in them is all sorts of immorality that you accept. And there’s this,
going back with the novelty in newness, right? You love this, we love to escape and
we love to escape into these worlds that could be or would never be because, you
know, they deny Christ. But isn’t it fun to pretend and kind of set aside our
religion for a little bit? And this is totally anti -religion. It’s fine. It’s not
fine. And It really is a useful tool for the conspiracy to separate us from what
is godly and scriptural. Does anyone have any comments on either sports or film and
music? We’re all working on this,
I hope. It’s a really important thing that we separate ourselves from and it’s it’s
hard to especially I do yes just a small comment you talk about sports it’s
interesting how feelings become heated emotions run into things you have you’re
rooting for different teams and as we have been taught, if you are not one,
you are not mine. And you could not have a more divisive thing than sports where
it just divides people. It’s amazing how it separates, divides, creates hard feelings.
It’s amazing the effect it has on people. Yeah, great. And it’s not about good or
evil. It’s just this fake drama. It’s like wrestling, You know, it’s just the
silliest thing. It’s just bread and circuses of the Roman gladiator era Like what
are we doing? Like are we really using our time wisely and
constructively and like you said in Christ It’s sold it’s sold as Unstringing your
bow and think you know things like that. So, you know, we all need time to unwind
and, you know, which, you know, there are, if you’re always strong, you know, you,
you, you can burn out, but if we’re, it’s never,
if you look at like you’re on your devices where it says like how much time you’re
spending on different apps, right? Your entertainment or your games or your movies,
and it’s always going to be more than the time that you spent on Your scripture
app or you know studying something
Sad yes And that’s if nothing else. I mean there are other things if nothing else.
That’s horrible Alone, right? He’s has her hand up. Yep. Yeah um I’ve made in the
comment I’m in the chat, but then when
You were talking about the movies and, you know, that I decided I want to share
because Brittany had said in her schooling,
manipulating of this student led and that caught my ear because I within the young
women program. I’m Currently a activities leader, and so I was going to the Sunday
lessons and that and they really are pushing that it’s youth led.
Everything is youth led. We have to look to the youth. What do they want? What is
what are their needs where they want? They want them to teach the lessons. They
want them to plan the activities and within our presidency,
the president, like whenever we’ll kind of chat about such, she always goes,
says, we always refer back to what do the girls need and want, you know?
And so looking to this youth, which they’re not developed yet, and I understand,
like, it’s good in theory because it’s a way for them to develop and they get
opportunities to share and to do these things right but I still feel like the
lessons are very in -depth and all this and then half of our time we do and I
feel like it’s because there’s not depth in our lessons.
And I’m not the greatest teacher by any means, but a lot of our time is taken up
by, “Oh, let’s go around and we share a quick moment of a highlight from our
previous week.” And I think that’s okay as well, but this last week we had a
fireside and so I ask the girls to share if they remember.
One quick thing from the fireside, and they did that a little bit,
that then after that, nearly every one of them said, “Oh, we went to Wicked,” and
how great it was. Then you had that little clip art of Wicked up there.
That’s what reminded me. So there’s no substance. We have
Shorten that even to now it’s the two hours. So we have like 50 minutes and then
15 minutes of it is us talking about our day or, you know, are we. And again,
I feel like that’s giving us community or like in connection with each other,
but there’s no substance like within that hour. I feel like it’s very minimal and
and like oh like every one of them talked about how I went to see Wicked. Oh it
was so great and it’s just shallow and I would rather and and one of the other
leaders because she’s a little more over the lessons but it’s always like okay let’s
end early we don’t have a lot of time left so let’s just end here And it’s like,
for me, I personally would rather us all read one scripture in a row and get,
like, some substance from just reading the scriptures together for a few minutes.
Like, do I mean it off short and in the way that it’s like,
you can tell that on everyone else’s mind. It’s that shallow. I saw wicked.
That was my best part of my week. So yeah, we’re really good at killing time and
pandering. Right? And yeah, my daughter would attest to every single thing you just
said she experienced. So I don’t think it’s just in the churches. I know it is in
certain ones because we experienced it. But it is pervasive,
it is everywhere to just be shallow and grooming people by giving them what they
want. And giving us what we want is not good for us. Right? That’s, that’s like
appealing to our base needs and not need in quotes,
and not what is godly and higher and maybe require sacrifice. So I appreciate that
example. And yes, I totally saw that. We saw that at our home. Which would you
lead into religious devotion? Yes, Alan?
I’m an old geezer. I remember when you had to go to church all day long before
the block system. In the 70s, I remember the priesthood manual was real close to an
inch thick. This man who was close to an inch thick. And I’d moved into the stake
Sunday School Presidency and all of a sudden there was a big move to teach more by
the spirit. And they blamed it on poor Gordon K. Packer. He said he wanted the
manuals cut down to a quarter of what they were. And that’s thinking just backwards.
If you’ve got a whole bunch of material then you can adapt to the needs or what’s
brought up in class.
Nowadays they think that the spirit and yet everyone’s not everybody,
but the majority of the people in like the priesthood class, They’re not,
they’re not reading their scriptures daily, they’re not having family prayers,
they’re not having family homie.
It’s the generous trying to teach the generous and how bad it is.
In Estlania I used to run a movie projector in the movie house. There was a movie
called Soldier Blue. I saw it and it affected me for a week.
I had nightmares about it, really shook me up. One of my kids that bought “Soldier
Blue” ’cause I’d told them how it affected me. It was nothing. Nowadays,
compared to the shows that they’ve gone TV, it was, hey, we’ve become so virtually
trusted over by the world that to try to teach by the spirit,
yet you have to beg for the Holy Ghost to be with you,
because we’ve got so much stuff on us that the foot and the grime is so thick
that we have trouble even letting the Lord in.
Yeah, I appreciate that well, I don’t think it’s because the manuals aren’t thick
enough though. Sorry Well, you need information You need correct information and the
thing that we have it is wrong
They had the manual thick so you had more information and for me it was the way
you could pivot off in a different area if someone needed, wanted to move the
lesson over. Now, of course, I’m speaking in the church in ten years.
When I was teaching before
And everyone had a different opinion. So it’s having the material there where you
can say this is what Joseph Smith said, this is what Joseph Smith said.
That packs a whole bunch more power than saying, well, I think so. Who in the
hell’s eye? But it feels good to share your opinion. And so about pandering to what
feels good, like just to bring this back, because those are really good points.
And none of this is by accident. You’ve seen it in a lot of places, these same
concepts are happening, where it’s about appealing to emotions,
not about facts or reality or actual history or heaven forbid in a church setting,
the scriptures and revelations that come from God. So we’re getting away from the
reality and we’re moving towards this feeling area where you are easily manipulated,
but you feel totally valid in your wrongness because it feels right.
And it’s about unity no matter what, even if you’re breaking commandments, that’s
okay, you know, you’re still one of us and don’t judge. And so this idea of
coexisting with other religions and this false unity,
it’s not in Christ because these other religions don’t believe in Christ, is kind of
encapsulated in all these different areas and in the media. And so I want,
before Before we’re gonna wrap up here, we didn’t get all the way through, but I
really wanna encourage everyone to see these pervasive patterns and trends and really
popular ideas, how they’re being, why do these keep coming up and what are they
doing to emotionally manipulate you? What is it about it that appeals
you know natural desires inner desires and with religious devotion it really is to
create this new age one world religion where it’s everything and nothing and includes
everyone but no one really feels like this is the right thing but who cares you
know just love one another no matter what and coexisting is not,
is not a true principle. So I’m going to encourage everyone to make notes on the
areas where you see that you’re being, your heartstrings are being tugged at.
Bring it more into that next time because we didn’t get all the way through. I
love hearing your examples and real world situations with this. It’s really Um,
that we aren’t too cerebral with this, but we really take it personally and,
you know, in the real world right here and now, figure out, okay, what can I do
to not be, um, enslaved and chained to my emotions and these manipulators that are
trying to distract me if nothing else from what God wants me to do. So thank you
everybody for your wonderful comments and for your, you know, just your support with
this and your ideas and we’ll pick it up next time.
We’ll just keep going. – Can I make one last comment on the pressure from outside?
Last week I was in the hospital.
That’s why I didn’t flip on the camera at all, but kids said I was 6 inches in
the grave. And so when I got out of the hospital Thursday, I sat down on my
hollard at St. Peter and I says, “What the heck?
Why didn’t you go ahead and take me up there?” And he says, “We’re not going to
let buddy with all of the cowmen they were on their boots into heaven and I said
if you don’t take your boots off then you can’t come in I said well the hell with
that as soon as I said that Satan opened the basement door and he said well I got
news for you unless you unless you change your boots you can’t come down here
either so it’s the fifth time in my life I’ve been saved from death because of the
BS on my boots.
We have to adapt. There’s no one’s going to, we’re not going to have much influence
on the good or the evil if we’ve got a lot of BS at us.
Well, thank you, Samantha. Appreciate that again. Looking forward to us continuing on
with that. Let’s go ahead and close up before we do our open forum. Denise Croft,
would you be willing to say the closing prayer for us?
