This week’s Come, Follow Me lessons use the revelation addressing the Shakers, and another on spiritual discernment, as a platform to propagandize heteropatriachal marriage as essential to God’s “plan of exaltation.”
Author: The Grand Scoobah
The Spirit of Ecstasy Like a Fire is Burning
In this week’s Come, Follow Me response, we’ll take a look at the expressions of religious enthusiasm that emerged in Kirtland and how Joseph Smith responded to them. Then we’ll look at what lessons the 2021 curriculum has for members today.
Fear and Loathing in the Imminent Mormon Eschaton
This week’s Come, Follow Me lessons focus on the Second Coming of Christ and mix fear-mongering with comfort—fear of the dreadful events to come, and comfort which can only be found in the safety of the church.
The Law of the Church: Authoritarian Roots in Kirtland
The culture of authoritarianism in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is on full display in this week’s Come, Follow Me lessons. Covering Doctrine and Covenants § 41–44, the manuals focus on the revelations comprising “the law of the Church” that Joseph Smith produced shortly after arriving in Kirtland, Ohio.
Excommunication, Apostasy, and Unrighteous Dominion in Church Discipline
The effort to discipline Natasha Helfer for ethically performing her role as a certified sex therapist highlights the spiritually abusive practice of excommunication and how the system is ripe for the exercise of unrighteous dominion.
Going to the Ohio: Building and Gathering Zion
The themes of this week’s Come, Follow Me lessons are the gathering of the saints and the building of the community of Zion in preparation for the impending second coming of Christ, and the way the church wields coercion in their efforts to instill conformity.
Every Member a Missionary to the Lamanites
This week’s lessons focus on the theme of missionary work. In the latter half of 1830, Joseph Smith received a series of revelations calling newly ordained elders to serve a mission to the Lamanites, and today the church says you can too!
A Critical Look at Come, Follow Me – Easter Edition
The Easter lessons in the 2021 Come, Follow Me manuals focus primarily on reinforcing Joseph Smith’s charismatic authority, and secondarily on promoting the penal substitution model of atonement characteristic of Christian fundamentalism.
A Critical Look at “Come, Follow Me” | March 2021
This month’s Come, Follow Me lessons cover such topics as exclusive priesthood authority, patriarchal gender roles, personal revelation, and Christian fundamentalism within Mormonism.