GASLIGHTING - ExMormon Song Parody

GASLIGHTING and MORMONISM.  After reading a blog entry on the Post Mormon Mental Health website entitled Mormons, you aren't going crazy - it's called Gaslighting, I started to see that there is a definite connection between the two.  In my opinion, what the Mormons Church does is brainwash its members, and it seems apparent to me now that one of the tactics they use is gaslighting.  After all, also in my opinion, Mormonism is replete with lies, so something has to be done in order to make people buy into it all, and continue to believe it despite volumes of evidence to the contrary.

Some background about GASLIGHTING:  As explained in the noted blog entry, the word gaslighting comes from the 1938 play Gas Light, which was later made into a movie in 1944 starting Ingrid Bergman ("Paula") and Charles Boyer ("Gregory Anton").  The plot of this play/movie is about Gregory Anton who manipulates his wife Paula into thinking she is going crazy in order to hide his criminal activities from her.  When Paula begins to notice missing pictures, strange footsteps in the night, and the gas lights in and around their apartment dimming without being touched, Gregory tells her she is imagining it, insisting that nothing has changed.  Naturally, Paula begins to believe that she is losing her mind.

Today, the term gaslighting is used to refer to a form of psychological abuse in which false information is given to the victim with the intention of making them doubt their own memory and perception of reality.  In order to cause confusion in their victim's mind, the perpetrator uses such tactics as denial, deception, contradiction and blame in order to gain or maintain control in the relationship.

Until I read this blog entry, I hadn't thought of Mormonism as using gaslighting as a tactic, but it makes a lot of sense.  After all, Mormonism is replete with lies, but Mormons are told to simply accept it all by faith - and if they have trouble doing that, then the Mormon Church basically tells them that there is something wrong with them, and not the church or its teachings.  So they must pray more, read their scriptures more, go to more church meetings, and follow the teachings to the letter in order to become more worthy of receiving the personal revelation that the Mormon Church has the ultimate truths and is the ONLY TRUE CHURCH ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH. 

When I was writing my book ("Closing the Door on Mormonism: The AHA! Moments That Triggered my Awakening"), I did a lot of research about cognitive dissonance theory, which suggests that when a person's beliefs and desires conflict, they experience discomfort as they become aware of the inconsistencies; and when these held beliefs collide, a state of tension is experienced.  This tension is defined as cognitive dissonance; and it seems to me that gaslighting and cognitive dissonance go hand-in-hand.

After reading this article about gaslighting and the Mormon Church, my mind immediately started writing lyrics to a song parody - and the tune that popped into my mind was "Moon River."  So here is my latest song parody about GASLIGHTING and MORMONISM.

GASLIGHTING

Sung to the tune of Moon River

Gaslighting, Mormons at the switch,
They say they will enrich your life.
It’s apparent,
And so blatant,
Whatever they’re saying,
They’re twisting the knife.

Non-members, drifting off to Hell,
They’ll save us all from Hell, they say.
They’re trying to prove by and by,
All the reasons why,
You simply must comply,
Just do it their way.

Gaslighting, bending what is true,
They know just what to do and say.
It’s just fiction,
So don’t listen
To what they are saying
Or what they portray.

Those Mormons, shading every fact,
Their grand façade is cracked, for sure.
They whitewash and shade everything,
Pulling every string
As to the lies they cling,
Gaslighting du jour.

© Diane Tingen, 11/7/2018

ONE LAST NOTE:  In examining gaslighting, I began to realize that there is also a definite correlation between gaslighting and our current political situation since it seems to me that the current resident of the White House uses the strategy of gaslighting on a regular basis.  So here is some information that might help us all survive Gaslighting in the Age of Trump.