On February 9th, 2010 (a day that will live in infamy) an internet user by the name of FancyLad uploaded a set of instructions on how to take an image that is not technically explicit and cover up just the right parts in a way that tricks your brain into thinking that the image is something that it is not. He called this technique a way to make “Mormon P0rn.” (knowyourmeme.com)

The technique was posted to other area on the internet with the story of a lonely Mormon boy who could not look at pictures of nekkid ladies because of his faiths restrictions on media use, but found a way to sort of trick his brain into thinking he was and thereby achieve that teenage fantasy while still being able to say he was ‘worthy’ The method involved putting a color overlay over an image of a figure who is wearing clothes and cutting out bubbles from the overlay that expose only the exposed flesh of the figure, while keeping the clothed portions covered. The human brain, having the remarkable ability to fill in the gaps with what it desires to see when presented with partial data, created the illusion of a nood figure.

Mormon Bubble-Pr0n

And thus, Mormon “Bubble-P0rn” was born. It’s not technically pr0nography, and so not technically against the restrictions set by the church – but it may as well be because the human mind will fill in the gaps with what it wants to see. Here is an example of how it works – take an image that you would not be immediately considered unworthy to view and then bubble it:

I suppose I should mention that it works on both genders though when I was growing up, the warnings against pr0nography were only drilled into the boys, so I assume that women are either immune to this stuff or don’t have an imagination (obviously not true). Here is a male equivalent:

Repent

Now after exposing you so such lurid images, I have some repenting to do. I really hesitated to include the above images, but they were necessary to understand the rest of this article. As a way of restitution I provide the following image to bleach your eyes and mind from what I just exposed you to:

There. The effects of those prior images should be wearing away. If your mind ever starts to wander back to the images you saw above – just come back to the cute fwuffy, lil cuddly bunny wunny above.

Is it mormon kosher?

Any mormon who has gone through the temple is familiar with this phenomenon. Adam and Eve are nekkid in the garden of eden while they are depicted in the film, however strategic foliage, fauna and camera angles cover up the inappropriate bits. enough is shown to demonstrate that they are nekkid. presumably the actor and actress were not really nood and so those obscuring features were simply covering up clothed body parts – just like the bubble examples above (look at the bunny again if you need to).

Despite this example from the temple, however, I can confidently say without hesitation that the bubble-pr0n demonstrated above is absolutely not mormon Kosher. You see, according to mormon theology sins start with your thoughts.

“But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not.”
(Mosiah 4:30 lds.org)

This is reinforced by the mormon interpretation of Jesus’ sermon on the mount. See Matthew 5:27-28

“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.“
(KJV Matthew 5:27-28 lds.org)

To mormons, this verse shows that sin starts in your heart or mind and is a call for people to work harder on self control and to overcome those things that reflect the natural tendencies of man. By doing so they will become more godly and obedient to God’s commands. This explains why it is not uncommon for mormons to warn against pornography as a sort of gateway sin to other more serious iniquity, such as adultery or homosexuality. In the recent April 2014 General Conference Linda Reeves, 2nd Counsellor in the Relief Society, warned that pornography “overtakes lives, causing loss of the Spirit, distorted feelings, deceit, damaged relationships, loss of self-control, and nearly total consumption of time, thought, and energy.” (lds.org).

These are all accepted teachings among mormons and even among many non-mormons.

Theological P0rnography

LDS leaders have invoked the title “P0rnography” to describe another evil which may threaten the minds of curious members – unflattering accounts of LDS history and theology. Vaughn J. Featherstone of the first quorum of the seventy warned of ex-mormons who continue to study and write about problems they find in LDS history and theology:

“They publish theological p0rnography that is damaging to the spirit. None of it is worth casting an eye upon. Do not read the anti-Mormon materials.”
– Seventy Vaughn J. Featherstone (“Last Drop in the Chalice” byu.edu)

This is just one of many warnings given to members to avoid so “anti-mormon” material. As a member, I was very careful not to entertain any anti-mormon literature. While in college, a well meaning friend gave me an anti-mormon book purporting to tell me all about what mormons really believe – I returned the book with a simple “I’m not interested – I already know what I believe.”

To a mormon, anti-mormon theological p0rnography is actually worse than conventional p0rn. Pictures of nekkid ladies may set you back a bit and create a need for repentance – but to read anti-mormon literature was likely to strip you of your faith and leave you a godless atheist who would be cast into outer darkness. That is where the real danger lies.

An Apt Metaphor

Does this idea of anti-mormon material being equated to pornography hold up?

I don’t know if Brother featherstone was aware of it – but his analogy is perfect. You see – the material I read that started my own journey out of mormonism wasn’t Anti-mormon material, but the Church history documents now available online at church websites like lds.org, byu.edu and josephsmithpapers.org. Discovering surprising things there that supported some of the ‘anti-mormon’ accusations I had faced during my upbringing really shook me. I decided to take a look at some of the stuff that I was warned was so damaging – could it be true too?

I had faith that the Church was true and I am an intelligent person who was familiar with the basics of Church history and doctrine that comes with almost 40 years of sunday school and seminary and personal study from the standard works. If it was really true – I would see through the lies trying to tear it down. I checked out sites like MormonThink.com and a document called the CES Letter as well as the website of Sandra Tanner UTLM.org. What I found astounded me. 99% of the material out there was simply reproductions of church historical documents, journals, newspapers, prior versions of scriptures,  lesson manuals and letters. Many of these were very difficult to verify before the age of the internet, however now every single document that I found at those sources and then turned to official LDS.org websites to confirm was either absolutely verified or not available due to it being sealed away in the church historical archives.

Anti-mormon literature is simply church history and doctrine which is laid bare and exposed for all to see. It is absolutely theological pornography – because it has not been covered up, concealed or overlaid with distorting obfuscation. The question I had to ask myself was – if this stuff is true and I have never heard of it or in many cases have been taught conflicting things in my religious education, then how has the church managed to hide it from me? (and why?)

Bubble-Modesty

The bubbling technique that I described above is actually a means of covering up the salacious parts of the human body – something which falls into the same category as conventional modesty (though certainly not as effective). As such, you may as well have called this Bubbling technique “Bubble-Modesty” When I reflect on the differences between what I was taught in my religious education and upbringing and what the history actually records if seen in its complete form I can see that the church has engaged in it’s own version of historical and theological bubble modesty. Allow me to demonstrate:

Joseph Smith Polygamy

I was in my thirties before I realized that Joseph Smith was a polygamist. This may be due to my thick skull – but it was literally never taught to me in the hundreds of sunday school lessons that I sat through. Even today, it is minimized. Take the recent manual “The Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith” (lds.org) – it completely avoids the topic of plural marriage and makes no mention of Joseph Smith’s other wives, despite mentioning his first wife Emma 88 times. The timeline of Joseph Smith life at the beginning of the manual mentions his marriage to Emma, but no other wives or marriages or sealings are listed (see here). Furthermore, the fact that some of Joseph’s wives were already married to other worthy Mormon men is not revealed and the fact of Joseph Smith having married girls as young as 14 while he was in his late 30’s is not discussed.

The church knows that these things are part of the historical record because early church documents report it. Even if an instructor knows of those facts or finds that they have been included in prior church published manuals – they are told to avoid teaching them. See the instructions in the most recent Doctrines and Covenants Seminary Instructors manual on Section 132:

“Use approved materials – Seminary and institute curriculum materials are provided as the main resources to help you prepare and teach effective lessons. You may use additional resources, such as Church magazines, as you support students’ understanding of the scripture block. Other resources should not be used to speculate or sensationalize lesson topics or to teach ideas that have not been clearly established by the Church. Even if something has been published before, it may not be appropriate for use in the classroom. Choose lesson materials wisely so lessons can build students’ faith and testimonies.”
(“Lesson 140” D&C Seminary Teachers ?Manual lds.org)

The church only wants people to see those things which will affirm the polished image of the church. Disturbing things such as polyandry or dishonesty about polygamy detract from that image. Those parts have been covered up – just like the bubbled parts in the images above. An apt illustration of the Church’s treatment of Joseph Smith’s polygamy might be depicted as this:

When viewed without the filter of modern correlation of lesson materials, Joseph Smith has numerous wives – but when you apply some Bubble-Modesty Joseph can be seen only with his first wife Emma.

Other examples

If you do start researching and studying church history you will encounter this phenomenon over and over. I have created some examples to help you see the difference between how the church wants it’s history depicted and how it actually was recorded in a gallery of theological Bubble-Modesty. First read the text in the ‘bubbled’ version on the left and you will likely agree that this matches the image and teachings of the church today. Then read the actual full quote on the right and you may find it differs somewhat.

Monogamy

Adam-God Teaching

Racism

Blood Atonement

Mind Bleach

Okay, once again I have to repent for showing you such explicit images in their unadulterated forms. If you are like many mormons when first exposed to such raw and raunchy theological pornography you feel dirty. There is an uncomfortable feeling that you can’t believe that your revered prophets ever believed, taught or recorded these vile things. You may have clicked on the the images above to see if the quotes were really in church publications and felt sickened inside when you discovered that they were. You may have been incredulous that men who held the same revered priesthood as your leaders today would speak with that authority and teach such illicit things. These thoughts may even had led you to start to questions the reliability of that power or the men who claim to hold that power and authority. To help with your quandary, I will now provide some comforting images to bleach your mind and eyes of the above theological pornography:

If you were alarmed that a Prophet once taught that monogamy caused a man to wither and dry up check out this nice image of a happy monogamous man and woman with an inspiring quote from the recent general conference:

Do you feel that sense of uneasiness dissipating? Just pay attention to how vocal the church is now extolling the virtues of marriage only between 1 man and 1 woman. Focus on the message from the most recent general conference – not general conferences from over 100 years ago. Those old prophets and teachers have absolutely nothing to do with todays church (at least not the parts that are covered up by bubble-modesty)

If you were surprised that a prophet once taught that Adam was God the Father, then put your mind at ease while staring at this image of a majestic air plane and counsel to look to Jesus from the recent conference:

The creator of the meme obviously forgot that Uchdorf is the pilot and Nelson is the heart surgeon, but that shouldn’t detract from the message. Now you have forgotten that Brigham ever taught the whole Adam-God thing. Aren’t airplanes cool?

If you were jarred by the utterly repugnant racist doctrine that early prophets taught – then check out these happy black people who are members. No one who looks at the theological pornography of early church sermons and teachings in their unedited form could look this happy:

look at these memes from general conference that definitely show that blacks are happy in the church and absolutely sustain the prophets – even the ones who carry the same priesthood authority that would have demanded acceptance of the racist teachings that Brigham Young and other early prophets gave before bubble-modesty covered them up:

Were you aghast at the idea that a Prophet once taught that Christ’s atoning blood was not sufficient to forgive all sin, and there there are some sins that someone must literally have their own blood shed for in order to receive forgiveness? Put that theological pornography out of your mind and gaze intently at the following image and quote from general conference:

When members fall into Satans carefully orchestrated trap of reading nekkid and unedited speeches and teachings from early church Prophets, they may start to have questions which would lead them to question church authority, reliability and integrity. The regular general conferences and the PR machine built around them to give members only comforting and safe and modest messages give the members the uquivalent of the fluffy bunny image I used above. A safe, comforting, reassuring and cuddly image to take their minds of the troubling teachings from past prophets. With those troubling images safely bleached from the members eyes and minds – they can focus on what is really important. Obedience:

Obedience to your current church leaders (not to past ones) is what will really keep you in line. They have told you that reading the anti-mormon information, which is really just church history, is pornography and should be avoided at all costs. If you love God, then you will obey these men. That is the message they are sending you. do you believe it?

Conclusion

Bubble-P0rn is a way of covering up certain parts of the body which lets your mind fill in what is missing to see what it wants to see – nekkid ladies and dudes.

Bubble-modesty is a way of covering up certain parts of church history which lets your mind fill in what is missing to see what it wants to see – a consistent and loving church with leaders who can be trusted to discern truth from error.

Truth is not seeing what your want to see, but seeing things for what they actually are. Anyone who tells you to deny truth in order to maintain an illusion is setting you up to be abused and to abuse others. God blessed you with a mind and the faculty of reason so that each of you can search for truth and hold to it in the face of liars and deception.

In the Wizard of Oz, the great voice of the wizard warned Dorothy to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, but to focus on the grand voice and appearance of the great and powerful Oz. Would Dorothy have made it home if she had obeyed?

• MormonThink.com
• CES Letter
• UTLM.org
• MormonBookshelf.com