Tal Bachman, Suicide Terrorists, and Blind Obedience: Silliness Continues to Reign in Anti-Mormon Land

Tal Bachman made the most of ridiculous hyperbole in his comparison of Mormon Missionaries and suicide bombers in the PBS documentary of the Mormons. Utterly inane, but its the effect he wanted to get out, since he hasn't stuck it out with Mormonism. His charicature is ludicrous and insulting.

I simply would not ....

have gone on a suicide bombing if I had been COMMANDED by a mission president and he claimed it was a revelation to him for me. I would have said I shall get my own revelation for my own end of my life, if that bothers you, don't you worry none there pops, I will joyfully buy my own plane ticket home. This claim of critics that the church operates on mindless assertion of mindless obedience is laughable when viewed with the principle of free agency. We Mormons are always told to study things out in our own minds. STUDY the scriptures. Not just accept what is said about them from leaders of the church.

I have already seen on other LDS message boards the example of Abraham as blinding obeying God to sacrifice Isaac. And how wrong he was, and how wrong we Mormons are for blindly following everything in the church without thinking. (we don't, but my what a production critics love to make of this made up criticism) Is this the case though? In all my reading of Genesis, whether in the Hebrew, Greek, German, or English, Abraham's obedience was not blind, but based upon many previous experiences of interactions with God and their outcomes, so that he knew God before he obeyed him, and understood there was something to this command that the rest of us, lacking the interactions with God simply wouldn't get.

Go back and re-read the Genesis account, it's not until chapter 22 that this magnaminous occurrence happened to Abraham. He had been built up to this through amazingly earlier interactions and relations with God in all manner and diverse experiences. This is not an all the sudden bolt out of the blue blind, dumb, ignorant obedience as is always incorrect portrayed by critics.

Abraham had already experienced Melchizedek, Egypt, his own close call for his own demise, God's covenant, the promise of Isaac, his arguing with God about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, etc. No, this was nothing of out of the blue surprise for Abraham whatsoever. There was fundamentally nothing blind here that Abraham was doing.

Bachman is using scare tactics, and very immaturely so. If that's all he has against us, then he's bankrupt. I noticed, though, that he blindly and obediently follows and tows the critics' line of accusing us in this baseless manner. Heh, imagine that.... The documentary was within their limits of allowing Bachman (see? we aren't sending Danites after you you paranoid man) his say, but I am singularly unimpressed with Bachman's thinking. If his music is this bad, no one will bother listening to it either.

Comments

[Floyd the Wonderdog]

I was stunned when I heard him say that he would have strapped a bomb to himself if his Mission President asked him to. Observing my mission president, I learned that our leaders are human and that, as you say, we need to receive our own confirmation. This type of immature person typically has a crisis of faith when they find that the leaders are human too. But it was rather evident at least to me that he had an axe to grind.

[larryco_]

Like everyone else, I was surprised when Tal's "strap on the bomb" statement was included. It seemed out of place. I'm sure that Frontline had plenty of footage of over-the-top comments by others that they disregarded as so much hyperbole.

My conclusion was that it was included, not so much in the context of missionaries risking their lives, but because believing, obedient saints had committed genocidal atrocities at Mountain Meadows.

I can't, for the life of me (both earthly or eternal life) imagine any set of circumstances that would have me strapping on a bomb, but then I can't see me following either the Third Reich or John D. Lee either.

[Bill Hamblin]

Tal's comments tell us a great deal about Tal Bachman, but almost nothing about the LDS Church.

[Kerry Shirts]

I agree withy the sentiments expressed here. Even reading what other cultural Mormons and excommunicated Mormons have already discussed, Bachman is a one man team here in his silly thinking. He certainly has shown his lack of credibility, and I think all the way across the board on this one.

[Sam B]

Kerry,
Mr. Bachman had one hit, in the late 90s, that was relatively lame (unlike his father, who had all sorts of hits that generally rocked). I don't see any reason to get worked up over a one-hit wonder's comments. . .

EXCEPT that we embraced, boasted of, and venerated him when he was a successful musician and a practicing Mormon. I'll grant you he hadn't, at the time, made any suicide-bomber comments, but (short of the pure dumbness of what he said), why, objectively, is he a good role model when he's with us and a fool when he's not? (I will wager he was equally a fool when he was not as he is now.)

[MAC]

Yes, Tal Bachman is an fool for saying what he said.

A bigger deal for me was that particular quote being included in the documentary. Anyone having served a mission would have called that a load of doodoo. Did they have any Mormon input in the editing?

And another thing, why did they use an image of a Navajo Hogan during the polygamy "act?"

[Trevor]

When I heard about Tal's comment, I rolled my eyes. Tal has become so strident and cartoonish in his criticism of the LDS Church as of late that it made me angry he was being given a platform to spew more of his bile.

Then I saw the actual clip, and it came off as rather funny. Indeed, no matter how Tal had intended it, he looked like he was talking more about himself than Mormonism, as he truly was, if unintentionally. I can't find it in me to get too worked up over this one anymore.