Mormon Indoctrination

[Seeking ET]

  It's a key ingredient to any major religious belief.  For any church to maintain members those members have to adherently believe that that is in fact the religion that speaks of the most truth.  Therefore much of what might be said here might also apply to other religions, because the tool does work in them all.  But Mormons have something of a unique style when it comes to indoctrinating their youth.  One which amounts to little more than brainwashing. 
  It is most unfortunate that this applies directly to the youngest and most innocent of Mormons, those children born to devoutly Mormon parents.  Every first Sunday of each month the LDS practice a "fast Sunday".  On this Sunday, rather than the typical service in which members have been chosen the prior week to speak, the entire "ward" is open to standing in front of the congregation and spending a few minutes "revealing their testimony" about the truth of the church.  The typical testimony is something like: "I'd like to bare my testimony that I know this church is true.  I know that Joseph Smith was the true prophet of the church, and that the Book of Mormon is a true revelation of Jesus Christ".  Then there's a bit of "I love my family" and "my faith has blessed me", then "in the name of Jesus Christ, amen", and another is free to go up and say something of similar nature. 
  In any one of these meetings you're also likely to witness very, VERY young children also revealing their testimony.  They are, of course, accompanied by their parents, sometimes because they're too small to walk up themselves.  The child's mommy will then lean down, and whisper in their ear what to say.  It's the same generic speech.  "I know the church is true.  I know Joseph Smith was the true prophet", etc.  But it's this proclamation of "knowledge" that makes it so difficult to convince older members of the fallacies in their beliefs.
  In these instances, we see children that are far too young to read, some even having difficulty pronouncing basic words because of their age, but they are being forced, by those they love and trust, to profess, in front of a full audience, that they already possess the knowledge that the church they are all there for is true.  There are at the very least some credentials for requirement to be able to profess this certainty.  Knowing precisely who Joseph Smith is, and what he has done, for starters.  Many of these children in fact can tell you nothing about the prophet they just confessed belief in.  Having read the Book of Mormon might help validate actual knowledge about your church.  Many of these children are quite far from being able to read the Book of Mormon, let alone question the theology behind its teachings.  None the less, their parents make them tell peers and strangers that they possess just such knowledge though lacking any true UNDERSTANDING of what that entails. 
  It becomes truly tragic when children are then so early on so confused about what it really is to have justifiable "knowledge" about something.  Ultimately this forced testifying causes great denial about most other things they will come to learn in the future.  As they grow into young adults, and eventually adults, they continue to maintain this testimony about "knowing" the church is true, even though they can't justifiably reconcile the evidence against it.  Our understanding of DNA can no longer be trusted, because it contradicts the first thing you "knew".  Archeology becomes obsolete, for we can not depend on what we ACTUALLY discover about the cultures alleged in the book of Mormon.  Even their very own much needed "testimony" loses its own validity, for there are a significant number of testimonies against their sacred prophet from men and women who knew him, which must of course be denied. 
  If all these "tests" are passed, and you are able to maintain your faith amidst a mountain of counter evidence, then you'll find yourself a fully indoctrinated Mormon.  One who, after only a short conversation with an educated theologian, or even another Christian familiar with the Bible, is only able to rely on the testimony that they "know" that their church is true, and they shall find no other foundation to rest their footing.  In a last act of desperation, when, say, a missionary is so torn down, they will simply rest on the first, root indoctrination that they were taught: that they "know" something they cannot validate or vindicate.  Then, when the mission is over, they will run home, marry the first woman that will say yes, and have young children that they can "teach" the same cyclical nonsense they were also force fed in their own youth.