Growing Up in the Modern Mormon Church

SUMMARY

Johnny Harris recounts his upbringing in the Mormon Church, from childhood indoctrination to mission service, exploring how centralized control, rebranding, and financial strategies transformed it into a global, wealthy institution with 17 million members and $300 billion in assets.

STATEMENTS

Johnny Harris shares his personal journey growing up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, starting from birth and early blessings that teach core beliefs about origins, purpose, and afterlife.
At age five, Harris learns to study the Book of Mormon as the most perfect book, singing songs about its stories of ancient Lamanites.
By age eight, Harris is baptized, becoming a full member responsible for repenting sins, emphasizing cleanliness in a filthy world.
From childhood, Harris is taught to pay 10% tithing on any income, even without earnings, as obedience to the Lord.
At 12, Harris receives the priesthood, granting him God's authority to perform ordinances like passing sacrament, while girls learn complementary skills for future marriage.
High school involves early morning seminary, family home evenings, youth activities, and strict Sunday observance, including no work, movies, or purchases.
Weekends focus on volunteering, setting Harris apart from peers, yet he engages in school dances, sports, and social events as a Church ambassador.
Non-Mormon friends admire the Harris family's closeness, happiness, and work ethic, attributing it to Church teachings.
Harris's first job at Dairy Queen leads to immediate tithing payments, reinforced by summer youth camps with songs and activities building spiritual feelings.
After high school, Harris receives a mission assignment to Tijuana, Mexico, committing two years to volunteer service spreading the gospel.
Before the mission, Harris undergoes temple rituals, including special clothing and promises of loyalty, not to be discussed outside.
In Mexico, Harris follows a strict schedule: door-knocking, studying doctrine, and teaching in Spanish, with no free time, media, or relationships.
Mission life pushes Harris to collect data on contacts, lessons, and baptisms, leading a group of 20 missionaries by age 20.
Doubts arise during the mission but are suppressed to build testimony and faith in building God's kingdom.
Post-mission, Harris attends BYU, surrounded by like-minded Mormons, with subsidized tuition and rules against beards, tank tops, drinking, or premarital sex.
At BYU, Harris studies international relations, travels globally, and finds the Church's uniform teachings and buildings everywhere.
Every six months, members gather in Salt Lake City for general conference, listening to prophets emphasize family as eternal and central.
At 21, Harris marries a fellow devout Mormon in the temple, graduating college with a newborn, ready for high-paying jobs and Church leadership.
Many members follow this path of devotion, tithing, and productivity, but Harris eventually leaves, seeking to understand the Church's transformation.
The Church evolved from 19th-century polygamist rebels to a clean-cut, global institution through burying difficult truths and unifying beliefs.
In the early 1900s, the Church hyper-Americanized, abandoning polygamy, embracing nuclear family, prohibition, and patriotism to assimilate.
World War I saw tens of thousands of Mormons fighting and donating, shifting from viewing July 4th as democracy's death to celebrating American founding.
By the 1930s, scientific scrutiny challenges the Book of Mormon's literal historicity, threatening the keystone of Mormon claims.
BYU's push for accreditation hires PhDs who question the Book of Mormon, leading to lax beliefs, reduced attendance, and tithing among students.
Church leaders like J. Reuben Clark intervene at BYU, demanding literal scripture teaching, obedience, and no private interpretations to preserve core doctrine.
Early Mormonism featured debate, symbolism, and mystical ideas like multiple gods and heavenly mother, but centralization ended this flexibility.
David O. McKay's clean-shaven image and emphasis on white shirts symbolized assimilation, codified in BYU's honor code banning beards.
Teenage Mormon girls face strict modesty rules on clothing to avoid attention to the body, reinforcing gender roles.
Post-WWII missionary growth surges, with clean-cut volunteers driving membership increases in Central America, Europe, and Pacific Islands.
Correlation in the 1960s standardizes manuals, policies, and hierarchy under Salt Lake prophets, unifying global teachings against cultural variations.
Women's Relief Society loses autonomy, shifting from social outreach to teaching wife-and-mother roles, with magazines consolidated.
Correlation embeds J. Reuben Clark's literalist theology, centering Jesus's atonement through exclusive LDS rituals and priesthood.
The modern Church uses identical buildings, songs, lexicon, and synchronized global lessons to foster belonging.
High-quality films, music, videos, posters, and patriarchal blessings reinforce approved narratives and future prophecies.
General conference broadcasts unite millions, creating a powerful sense of specialness and preparation for Christ's second coming.
Church operations involve extensive paperwork, data collection, and volunteer administration, building skills and devotion.
Missionaries use object lessons like dyed water and bleach to illustrate sin and baptism, aiming for conversions.
1970s rebranding emphasizes family values in ads and inserts, downplaying doctrines to improve public image.
Anti-intellectualism demonizes "anti-Mormon literature" as theological pornography, excommunicating dissenters like historians and feminists.
Temple recommends require affirming loyalty through 15 questions on testimony, tithing, and worthiness, barring the unworthy from rituals.
Tithing settlement verifies full 10% payments annually, essential for temple access and eternal family sealing.
Under leaders like N. Eldon Tanner, the Church professionalizes finances, investing in stocks, real estate, and subsidies like BYU tuition.
BYU graduates, trained through the pipeline, become loyal tithe-payers, fueling wealth growth to over $200 billion in cash reserves.
The Church spends minimally on humanitarian aid (top budget item but small percentage), prioritizing reinvestment to sustain missionary and preparatory missions.
Modern challenges include membership decline in the West but growth in Africa and South America, with slight softening on history and local practices.

IDEAS

The Mormon Church's transformation from polygamist outcasts to all-American institution relied on deliberate rebranding that overcompensated with patriotism and family ideals.
Scientific progress in the 1930s exposed the Book of Mormon's literal claims as unverifiable, forcing leaders to choose between modernism and fundamentalism.
Centralization via correlation created a top-down hierarchy that eliminated doctrinal debate, ensuring global uniformity but stifling progressive theology.
Grooming standards like clean-shaven faces and white shirts served as visual branding, signaling conformity and respectability to outsiders.
Missionary work not only spreads doctrine but trains young members in discipline, leadership, and data management, producing devoted adults.
The temple recommend interview functions as a loyalty test, blending personal confession with organizational control to maintain worthiness.
Patriarchal blessings provide personalized prophecies that align individual lives with Church expectations, fostering long-term commitment.
General conference broadcasts create a ritual of global unity, evoking nostalgia and exclusivity among members.
The Church's financial empire, built on tithing and investments, subsidizes education like BYU to cultivate high-earning, loyal alumni.
Anti-intellectual rhetoric frames critical inquiry as "anti-Mormon literature," protecting the narrative from external and internal threats.
Correlation reshaped women's roles from autonomous leaders to homemakers, consolidating male priesthood authority.
High-production media like films and music immerses youth in the approved story, making abstract beliefs feel vivid and personal.
The Church's wealth accumulation prioritizes a "rainy day fund" for apocalyptic preparation over humanitarian spending, rationalized as divine mandate.
Leaving the Church requires untangling ingrained identity, where positive traits like work ethic coexist with psychological harm from control.
Modern adaptations allow local cultural variations, signaling flexibility, but core doctrines remain rigidly literal and high-demand.
The pipeline from childhood songs to missions instills a sense of chosen purpose, motivating sacrifice despite isolation from worldly norms.
Tithing settlement enforces financial obedience, linking personal salvation to economic contribution without transparency.
BYU's accreditation push inadvertently introduced intellectual challenges, prompting crackdowns to preserve faith over scholarship.
The Church's image consultants advised emphasizing family to downplay "weird" doctrines, effectively humanizing it for broader appeal.
Mission data collection turns evangelism into a quantifiable corporate process, rewarding efficiency in conversions.
Temples' visible locations serve as public relations tools, sparking curiosity while restricting access to the "worthy."
The Relief Society's magazine closure symbolized broader control, replacing diverse voices with unified propaganda.
Excommunications of feminists and historians underscore that dissent threatens the centralized authority structure.
The Church's volunteer-driven administration, from bishops to missionaries, minimizes costs while maximizing member investment.
Rebranding efforts like "I'm a Mormon" ads perpetuate a paradox: acknowledging odd beliefs while highlighting niceness and family focus.
Financial scandals, like shell companies hiding assets, highlight tensions between secrecy and public scrutiny.

INSIGHTS

Centralized control through correlation not only unified global doctrine but entrenched a literalist theology that prioritizes obedience over inquiry, ensuring devotion but limiting evolution.
The Book of Mormon's role as keystone demands literal belief; softening it would dilute uniqueness, reducing the Church to generic Christianity and eroding sacrificial fervor.
Grooming and modesty rules extend beyond aesthetics, functioning as constant reminders of separation from the world, reinforcing insider identity and outsider perception.
Missionary service transforms awkward youth into disciplined leaders, channeling personal growth into organizational loyalty, creating a self-perpetuating talent pipeline.
Temple recommends blend spiritual evaluation with surveillance, making worthiness a public metric that enforces conformity through social shame.
Patriarchal blessings personalize the collective narrative, turning abstract prophecies into intimate guides that align life choices with Church goals.
General conference's spectacle fosters emotional belonging, countering isolation by simulating a worldwide family under prophetic guidance.
Financial professionalization turned tithing into a hedge fund, subsidizing indoctrination via education while amassing wealth for eschatological readiness.
Demonizing critics as "anti-Mormon" insulates members from doubt, preserving the narrative's purity but fostering echo chambers.
Correlation's impact on women illustrates broader power consolidation, subordinating female autonomy to male-led hierarchy under family rhetoric.
Media ecosystem immerses believers in repetition, making the official story feel innate rather than constructed, embedding it psychologically.
Wealth hoarding, justified as prudence, reveals a corporate mindset where spiritual mission aligns with capitalist growth, prioritizing perpetuity over immediate aid.
Ex-Mormon identity struggles highlight how control imprints both virtues and harms, complicating separation from a system that shaped one's core self.
Modern softening on history signals pragmatic adaptation to retention issues, but doctrinal rigidity persists to maintain high-commitment appeal in growing regions.
The Church's success stems from balancing assimilation with distinctiveness, using American ideals to mask radical origins while exporting them globally.
Data-driven missions quantify faith, turning evangelism into metrics that reward compliance, mirroring corporate efficiency in spiritual pursuits.
Tithing's mandatory link to salvation creates economic leverage, ensuring revenue streams without accountability, as members view wealth as divine favor.
BYU's dual role as faith factory and credential mill invests in human capital, yielding lifelong tithe-payers who amplify the Church's influence.
Rebranding's family focus humanizes the institution, allowing tolerance of "weird" elements by emphasizing universal values over controversial theology.
Scandals expose secrecy's limits; increased humanitarian spending post-scrutiny suggests image management trumps transparency in sustaining growth.

QUOTES

"I am a child of God."
"Book of Mormon stories that my teacher tells to me are about the Lamanites in ancient history."
"Be clean. We live in a world that is filled with filth and sleaze. You cannot afford to let that poison touch you."
"It was hard for me to give my tithing to the bishop, but it felt good to be obedient to the Lord."
"Our young people are the nobility of heaven."
"That though we are in the world, we must not be part of it. We must not be influenced by those who would call us peculiar."
"Saturday is a special day. It's the day we get ready for Sunday."
"We are as the army of Helaman."
"If such views become dominant in the Church, then we may as well close up shop and say to the world that Mormonism is a failure."
"We are not so poor that we can't afford clean white shirts."
"Show respect for the Lord and yourself by dressing appropriately for Church meetings and activities."
"Few girls or women ever look well in backless and strapless dresses. Such styles often make the figure look ungainly large and show the bony structures of the body."
"Our outward appearance and behavior give a message."
"Do not read the anti-Mormon materials. None of it is worth casting an eye upon. Theological pornography."
"It is the most correct book of any book on earth, and that it is the keystone of our religion."
"The important lessons in life are learned at home."
"Families grow closer, one conversation at a time."

HABITS

Waking at 5:30 a.m. for pre-school seminary classes to study scriptures before the regular school day.
Holding weekly family home evenings on Monday nights focused on spiritual lessons and bonding.
Attending three-hour Sunday church services with no work, shopping, movies, or music to observe the Sabbath.
Paying 10% tithing immediately upon receiving any income, starting from first paychecks.
Volunteering extensively on weekends for Church activities, distinguishing from peers' leisure.
Following strict dress codes, including ironing white shirts and tying ties for meetings and missions.
Collecting and reporting daily data on missionary contacts, lessons, and baptisms to track progress.
Participating in synchronized global lessons and songs in identical Church buildings for uniformity.
Conducting annual tithing settlements to verify full payments with local bishops.
Receiving patriarchal blessings as teens and rereading them regularly for life guidance.

FACTS

The Mormon Church has approximately 17 million members worldwide and controls assets estimated at $300 billion, making it the richest religion per capita.
The Church abandoned polygamy in 1890 under U.S. government pressure, leading to fundamentalist offshoots.
Tens of thousands of Mormons fought in World War I and donated to the war effort as part of assimilation.
BYU achieved accreditation in the mid-20th century, hiring PhD faculty and providing research funds to legitimize it as the "Harvard of the West."
Post-WWII missionary numbers surged, contributing to rapid growth in Central America, Europe, Pacific Islands, and Australia.
Correlation in the 1960s standardized all Church manuals, closing autonomous publications like the Relief Society magazine.
The Church's wealth includes over $200 billion in cash, stocks, and bonds, exceeding Walmart's liquid assets.
Humanitarian spending is the largest budget category but represents a small percentage, with 65% reinvested for growth.
The SEC fined the Church in 2019 for using shell companies to obscure investment assets.
Membership is declining in the West but growing in South America and Africa due to ongoing missionary efforts.

REFERENCES

Book of Mormon, described as the most correct book and keystone of the religion.
Joseph Smith’s translations and claims about ancient American civilizations.
J. Reuben Clark’s 1930s speech to BYU faculty demanding literal teachings.
David O. McKay’s leadership and emphasis on clean-shaven appearance and white shirts.
N. Eldon Tanner’s business strategies for Church finances, including investments in stocks and real estate.
BYU (Brigham Young University) as a subsidized educational institution.
General Conference addresses and broadcasts from Salt Lake City.
"The Testaments" film depicting Book of Mormon stories.
Mormon youth camp songs like "We Are as the Army of Helaman."
For the Strength of Youth handbook on grooming and modesty.
Patriarchal blessings as personalized prophecies.
Church magazines: Ensign for adults, New Era for youth, Friend for kids.
"I'm a Mormon" advertising campaign.
1970s family values commercials and Reader’s Digest inserts.
Boyd K. Packer’s talks against intellectuals and feminists.
Kate Kelly’s excommunication for advocating women’s priesthood.
Marriott School of Business at BYU, named after Mormon donor.

HOW TO APPLY

Begin childhood education with songs and stories teaching divine origins, purpose, and eternal progression to instill core beliefs early.
At age eight, perform baptism as a rite of membership, emphasizing personal responsibility for repentance and cleanliness.
Implement tithing from first earnings by setting aside 10% immediately, teaching obedience as a primary financial priority.
At 12, confer priesthood on boys for authority in ordinances, while guiding girls toward supportive marital roles.
Schedule daily early-morning seminary before school to build scriptural study habits and doctrinal familiarity.
Dedicate Mondays to family home evenings with lessons, activities, and discussions reinforcing unity and values.
Observe Sundays strictly: attend three-hour services, avoid work or commerce, preparing via Saturday routines.
Engage youth in volunteering and social events to develop charisma, positioning them as positive ambassadors.
Assign two-year missions post-high school, enforcing strict schedules for door-knocking, teaching, and data tracking.
Before missions, conduct temple endowments with rituals, special garments, and covenants of loyalty.
During missions, maintain no-media, no-relationships rules, focusing on language mastery and leadership training.
Post-mission, attend subsidized universities like BYU, adhering to honor codes for grooming and behavior.

ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY

The Mormon Church's centralized control and rebranding forged devoted members and vast wealth, but at the cost of intellectual freedom and personal autonomy.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Prioritize family nights weekly to strengthen bonds and instill values, countering modern fragmentation.
Invest in early education with engaging media like songs and films to embed beliefs durably.
Enforce grooming standards for public representation, signaling respectability and unity.
Standardize teachings globally via manuals to maintain doctrinal consistency amid cultural diversity.
Subsidize education for youth to build skills and loyalty, yielding long-term contributors.
Use data tracking in volunteer efforts to measure and optimize impact efficiently.
Emphasize literal scripture interpretation to preserve core claims against scientific doubt.
Conduct regular loyalty assessments like temple interviews to ensure alignment and worthiness.
Reinvest surpluses prudently in diversified assets for organizational sustainability.
Promote anti-intellectual vigilance by labeling critiques as threats to faith.
Highlight family values in public messaging to improve perception and attract members.
Foster volunteer leadership from youth to cultivate administrative skills and devotion.
Broadcast unifying events like conferences to build global community and belonging.
Link financial contributions to spiritual privileges, motivating consistent giving.
Adapt locally in growing regions while safeguarding central doctrines for coherence.
Produce high-quality media to vividly portray history and inspire emotional commitment.
Excommunicate public dissenters to protect narrative integrity and authority.

MEMO

Johnny Harris opens with a vivid recounting of his Mormon upbringing, from infant blessings singing "I am a child of God" to baptism at eight, where he learns repentance amid warnings of a filthy world. By 12, priesthood ordination grants boys divine authority, while girls prepare for supportive roles, all underscored by mandatory 10% tithing from any earnings. High school blends rigorous seminary at dawn, family home evenings, and Sabbath observance—no work, media, or shopping on Sundays—with weekend volunteering that sets him apart yet allows social integration as a charismatic ambassador.

In Tijuana for his two-year mission, Harris endures 110-degree heat in suits, knocking doors, teaching in Spanish, and tracking baptisms meticulously, leading 20 peers by 20. Doubts are shelved to build testimony, fostering discipline and leadership amid isolation from worldly discoveries. Returning to BYU's subsidized campus, surrounded by rule-bound peers—no beards, no premarital sex—he marries at 21, graduates with a newborn, embodying the Church's pipeline to devoted, productive lives. Yet Harris diverges, leaving to unpack how this system shaped him.

The Church's arc from 19th-century polygamist rebels in Utah to global powerhouse began with 1890's abandonment of plural marriage under federal pressure, spawning fundamentalist splinters. Early 1900s hyper-Americanization embraced nuclear families, Prohibition, and World War I service, celebrating patriotism after once decrying it. By the 1930s, BYU's academic push invites PhDs who scientifically debunk the Book of Mormon's literal historicity—Joseph Smith's keystone claiming ancient American Jews—sparking existential crisis as beliefs laxen and tithing dips.

Leaders like J. Reuben Clark halt this at BYU, mandating literal teachings and obedience to prophets as sole truth-bearers, rejecting early Mormonism's mystical debates on multiple gods and heavenly mothers. David O. McKay's clean-shaven image and white-shirt edict codify assimilation, with BYU's honor code banning beards and enforcing girls' modesty to avoid bodily attention. Post-WWII, missionary surges drive growth abroad, their clean-cut anti-communist vibe resonating in Europe and Latin America.

The 1960s correlation revolution centralizes everything under Salt Lake's priesthood hierarchy: rewritten manuals unify lessons worldwide, subsuming women's Relief Society into homemaking curricula and consolidating magazines. This embeds literalist theology—Jesus's atonement via exclusive LDS rituals—ending progressive debate and public leader disagreements. Identical buildings, synchronized songs, and lexicon create belonging; films like "The Testaments," youth videos, and patriarchal blessings personalize the narrative, while general conferences broadcast prophetic words to millions, evoking chosen purpose.

Control extends to demonizing "anti-Mormon literature" as pornography, excommunicating historians and feminists like Kate Kelly. Temple recommends demand affirming restoration, prophetic authority, full tithing, and worthiness via 15 questions, barring sinners from eternal family sealings and shaming them publicly. Tithing settlements verify 10% compliance, fueling wealth under business titans like N. Eldon Tanner, who professionalized investments in stocks, real estate, and BYU subsidies.

This yields $300 billion assets, over $200 billion liquid, making Mormons richest per capita, outpacing centralized Catholics. Spending favors reinvestment (65%) over humanitarian aid, rationalized for second-coming prep, though scandals like hidden shell companies prompt fines and increased charity. BYU alumni, pipeline-trained, become high-earning tithe-payers, amplifying the cycle.

Today, Western exodus contrasts African and South American growth, with softened history publications and local adaptations, yet core high-demand doctrines persist. Harris reflects on control's double edge: imprinting work ethic and kindness alongside psychological scars, demanding a decade to reclaim self-worth from loyalty to Salt Lake's men.