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Comment by busterarm | Hacker News Reader

Welcome to the Mormon Mafia.

Mormonism is the original cult that survived the first generation. It has all the hallmarks of a cult, singular charismatic leader, polygamy, child abuse, apocalyptic prophecy etc.

Child abuse is not an official sanctioned thing in Mormonism. And they have officially ended the practice of polygamy (yes there was some coercion on the part of the US govt)

The other three were pretty much traits of every major traditional religion at its founding.

The founder of mormonism married a child and given that mormon doctrine is just whatever he said definitionaly it's an official sanctioned thing.

Some coercion? It was entirely external pressure. Some of the mormons haven't even stopped polygamy today.

> Some of the mormons haven't even stopped polygamy today.

Using the term 'Mormon' to refer to the the entire family tree including splinter sects is just a recipe for confusion. Adherents to splinter sects, excluding RLDS, number in the tens of thousands compared to millions of CoJCoLDS. The problems with CoJCoLDS are damning on their own without needing to conflate facts with fringe groups.

Go on, without looking it up, name the three dominant schools of Islam.

And what? If someone said "some Muslims haven't even stopped slavery today," my statement would apply equally there.

I've heard several LDS adherents talk about these people and I get the impression that they really don't appreciate the practices or the negative media attention that the polygamists bring to their faith. It's rather out of character for each of the people I heard this from to speak ill of anybody at all so I'm pretty sure they feel strongly about it.

As an atheist I don't claim loudmouth internet "GoD iSnT ReAl ShEePlE" edgelords so I understand the frustration.

In the 1800s, when children had mining and factory jobs and didn't go to school past age 12. Trying to position that as Mormonism condones child abuse is bonkers, imo

So because children were forced to work dangerous jobs it's okay for adult religious leaders to have sex with them? I'm not sure I follow that.

You should research polygamy in the mainline (Brighamite) sect if you haven't already. One of the last marriages to the the mormon prophet Lorenzo Snow was to a 15 year old. Snow was 57 at the time. This was not normal despite any assertion about children working.

Source: www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/1c2omo0/the_wives_of_lorenzo_snow/

Who was considered an adult changed over time as our society changed. When there were no schools, most labor was physical, etc. then puberty was often seen as the natural line between children and adults because a 14-15 year old could have all the attributes and adult had: job, income, status, etc. As we moved to a society where school was mandatory till 18 (and now nearly till 22), our attitudes about when people become adults also changed. Now we are at a point where a 20-30 year old adult being with an 18 year old is seen as taboo, even though all are adults, this is largely because as a society we have moved to a point where childhood has extended from 18 now until one is secure in career and finances (mid 20s).

I'd still maintain that marrying with large age gaps isn't child abuse, and when you claim child abuse is condoned by the Mormons you know what people assume vs what it actually is. You are just trying to be inflammatory.

> Child abuse is not an official sanctioned thing in Mormonism.

The purpose of a system is what it does.

Are children more abused by Mormons? I find it highly unlikely just considering on average they are wealthier than other religious groups and poverty and child abuse are highly correlated

It's more like a combination of factors that make child abuse more prevalent: lack of access to the outside world ("we are in the world but not of the world"), a strict patriarchal hierarchy in the home that puts children at the bottom, endorsement by the church of physical punishments, etc.

And your source for this data? Or is this speculation?

Do you just ask questions to waste time or do you actually care about the answer? React to my other comment first.

So you just falsify data to waste people's time? I think you are just guessing. Or protecting your own distate for people who have a different lifestyle than you.

The problem of child sex abuse in Mormonism is magnified by several factors. The community is very tight-knit and insular. Mormons believe that God directly guides their leaders. This leads to mental compartmentalization and slowness to recognize abuse to start with. When it is recognized, there is an extremely strong culture of handling grievances internally through the Priesthood hierarchy. Reports will go to the bishop, not secular authorities. The perspective is a bit skewed to begin with because it is normal and expected for Mormon bishops to ask youth (11 yo and up) explicit questions about their sex lives in private one-on-one "worthiness interviews". The "marching orders" that bishops (the equivalent of priests or pastors) follow (the Church Handbook of Instructions) are primarily designed to protect the church and its reputation. In places where the Mormon church has political power, it can even extend to law. For instance, bishops/clergy are exempted from mandatory reporting in Utah. Bishops are specifically instructed to _not_ report abuse to authorities. Instead they are to "call the hotline" (the Kirton McConkie law firm), where are advised on how to protect the abusers so that the church doesn't incur financial risk or negative publicity. The Mormon church is very centralized and hierarchical compared to many other churches, which means the official policy of cover-up is endemic.

The Mormon Stories (John Dehlin) and Radio Free Mormon podcasts have a lot of documentation of this. The first link below is one of the most important and has a lot of written content as well.

Look into Sam Young, whom the church excommunicated because he campaigned for ending the policy of asking teens and preteens sexually explicit questions in personal worthiness interviews.

https://protectldschildren.org/

https://radiofreemormon.org/2026/03/sam-young-protector-of-m...

Example of how the church deals with victims of abuse:

https://www.mormonstories.org/mormon-sa-jared-ashley-jones/

There is extensive documentation that this is the standard operating procedure:

https://radiofreemormon.org/2025/04/child-abuse-in-the-lds-c...

https://radiofreemormon.org/2023/12/rfm-324-how-the-mormon-c...

https://www.mormonstories.org/matt-long-sex-crimes-prosecuto...

https://radiofreemormon.org/2026/02/lds-church-caught-lying-...

The Mormon church was also intimately involved with Boy Scouts, so basically all of the Boy Scout problems overlapped and combined with the issues above.

https://www.mormonstories.org/boy-scout-abuse-tim-kosnoff/

https://www.mormonstories.org/bsa-bankruptcy-update-with-kos...

I agree that CSA exists in the mormon community. just want some kind of evidence that it in any way exceeds any other population. If you point out that any other group, e.g. illegal immigrants, commit crimes, you are labeled as racist. but it's strange there is no <blank>-ist when you do it. why is that?

I make a thorough and well cited post, and get this zero-effort trolling in response? The Mormon central corporation has a dedicated legal hotline specifically for advising clergy how to prevent child sexual abuse from being reported to the police. Since uou can't distinguish this from racism, I'm done here.

I mean that's not data though. Data shows us poverty is highly correlated with child abuse. More so than those factors (which are but less so)

Indeed, but poverty being the most important factor in the general population doesn't mean than some groups exhibit different behaviors.

How do you explain the genocide in Gaza?

Similarly, even if I fail to see the link between my previous comment and your question. Israel is a settler-colonial project whose ultimate goal is the creation of a Jewish ethno-state where Palestine once stood. Logically, it requires the displacement/murder of the current Palestinian population. POSIWID

It can be a religion in its beliefs and a cult in its practices and that's exactly what's going on -- especially since it's Utah that we're talking about...

I have very close Mormon and ex-Mormon friends and have dealt with lots of Scientologists via community involvement in music and science fiction...there is no difference.

A married couple that are friends of mine had minor questions of faith and their entire large extended families with immediate no-contact. It was bitter, brutal and painful even as a bystander seeing it happen in real time. Their young children were cut off as well and their families hounded them and made their lives miserable via institutions (police calls, anonymous complaints to their schools & jobs, etc.). The behavior was beyond the pale and this couple are literally the nicest, most loving and reasonable people that I have ever met.

They switched to a different Christian denomination and raised their kids that way and couldn't be happier about their decision. In hindsight. The family wounds 20 years later are still very visible and real.

The BAM case is certainly instructive, it's not one or two bad mormon apples but a whole rotting orchard. From the owners and their employees to the police.

It's good that you're friends made it out of the cult.

> The other three were pretty much traits of every major traditional religion at its founding.

I think this suggests that all major religions are cults, rather than that Mormonism isn't. The lines are certainly very blurry.

Whichever way you want to slice it, the implication that Mormonism is some exceptionally fiendish religion compared to the others, I don't buy it

Mormonism is a cult.

If it is, it's certainly not because it had a charismatic leader who condoned polygamy. That is basically every major monotheistic religion in the world.

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