Me thinks we are in Harmony! as you say:
Mormons are not alone in their belief in the Great God of Obedience. They just take it to a new level.
The sad part is that Mormons claim to have the fulness of Christ's gospel. If we've got the fulness, why do we act like everyone else? Why do we spend billions on shopping malls and millions on humanitarian aid, like everyone else? Why do we spend so much time worrying about what we look like, and so little time worrying about what we act like? We're so concerned with the facade we show people, and so unconcerned with the hearts of our people. Is it because we know in our hearts that we don't really have what we claim to have?
You ask some good questions. To the last one: Could be on some levels, in some minds. However, i tend to think that such 'knowledge' would probably be subconscious, if at all. If in full-knowledge that would suggest absolute fraudulence; there i tend to give them the benefit of doubt. I say that for, as you suggest, they really don't differ TOO much from any other sect that distorts truth to conform to edicts, creeds and THEIR theology...
Yesterday i experienced a F&T meeting in Florida. My first in a long time. Having sat through countless of these, in varying degrees of TBMism, this time i saw them in a different light: Where else could these-folks, at this time of their personal needs, find what they have in Mormonism? Very few places, i suggest...
Take LDSism away from them and what could replaced it--for them. Remember they choose to be there, freely or to a degree cohersed. Non the less their personal pay-back suffices. As it did to many of us at one time and place. We who have chosen to leave--may i suggest, "for the right reasons"--"...need not a physician." According to Jesus' teachings he didn't teach to join any church. He simply taught how to feel good by being smart, and choosing wisely from lifes table. Seems he kicked over tables that had been set to exploit the masses and defame "God".
It would be interesting, and i imagine revealing, to have member retention stats, in various levels of 'activity', compared across NA churches. Especially a category of defection of all respective "Missionary" defections. Just a guess, but i imagine LDS Missionary inactivity would far exceed that of most other Christion sects... Any body up for the research??? Warm regards, Roger