How the Mormon Church Programs Its Youth: Control, Shame, and Surveillance Disguised as Faith

he youth programs of the LDS Church—Mutual nights, Road Shows, worthiness interviews, spiritual checklists—were never neutral. They were never simply about fun or faith.

They were a system. A system built to produce conformity, suppress individuality, and reward obedience through staged social rituals disguised as religious devotion.

From the moment a child entered Primary to the moment they were expected to enter the temple or the mission field, they were subject to a rotating cycle of spiritual grooming, community surveillance, and identity control.