Beyond Mitt's Underwear: Part 6: My Thoughts
(I've tried to keep the rest of this overview relatively fact-based and editorial-free. In this last section I'm summarizing my personal thoughts and opinions.)
Joseph Smith was an intelligent religious man, understandably bothered by the self-contradictions of the Bible. Without knowing the Bible's true origins, and because God is similar to egocentric personal opinion, his “revelations and prophecies from God” were his own well-intentioned, creative, imaginative, ingenious attempts to reconcile those contradictions. Smith was - at minimum - a gifted storyteller, charismatic leader, and sophistic dissembler capable of convincing his followers to believe and do absolutely crazy things. The broader LDS church history as a cautionary lesson in the value of external peer review. Early Mormon communities were separatist and insular, living far from other groups. Smith’s novel interpretations and revelations could incubate in this isolation, deviating significantly from the beliefs, morals, and practices of mainstream 1800s America. Post-Talmadge Mormons living in pluralistic and information-saturated modern society have a significant challenge to reconciling early Church doctrine with modern mainstream belief.
Lots of people want to know whether Mormons are Christians. I think semantic arguments are dumb and the question is moot, but if you think it matters there’s room for disagreement. Christians are monotheists, and Mormons believe in a hierarchy of multiple Gods, but Elohim is at the top so maybe that’s compatible with “no other gods before me” as long as it was Elohim not Jehovah saying so. All editions of the Books of Mormon (except the 1830 version) reject trinitarianism - God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are completely separate beings. Mormons also reject the Catholic, Protestant, and Lutheran doctrine of original sin. The Articles of Faith say that “men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression”. Christians pray to Christ, while Mormons pray to the Heavenly Father (Elohiem) in the name of Christ. Mormons also believe that Christ cannot forgive their sins which is Elohiem’s jurisdiction only. But they do believe that Christ atoned for our sins (before visiting America) so maybe that makes them Christian. I find it ironic that Mormons ask us to respect their identity as Christians when they don’t respect the self-identity of homosexuals, and want respect and tolerance from Christians who Mormons say are apostates deluded by the lies of Satan himself.
Another common concern is “baptisms for the dead”. I don’t see how a bunch of teenagers saying names while bobbing up and down in a cow bathtub is going to cause any more harm than a web app that turns dead Mormons gay. On the other hand I can also understand how both of those would offend people, and the Church understands too. They’ve apologised for doing this numerous times over the years, and yet they keep doing it, and every time they get caught doing it they offer another lame apology and say “aw shucks you caught us again”. They say they’re going to reprimand members whose “submissions were clearly against the policy of the church”, but the Church runs official name extraction programs, combing through records of churches all over the world, so that “temple work” can be performed on distant strangers. Their doctrine says they have to do this in order to rescue others' souls from “spirit prison”. I think they should own up to what they believe they’re doing, and stop apologising for something they have no intention of stopping and are doctrinally committed to.
If there’s one thing that bothers me about the LDS faith it’s the authoritarian power structure. Following the prophet is a commandment of Mormon doctrine instilled from childhood. The Laws of Obedience, Consecration, and Sacrifice dictate that Mormons must “act in the office in which [they are] appointed” by the General Authorities who receive their revelations directly from God. Lay-Mormons can also receive personal revelation, but revelations that contradict the Church are “counterfeit signals". “Satan is a great deceiver, and he is the source of some of these spurious revelations.” Legitimate personal revelation can only support and confirm the truth of the Church. We were sent to earth and given bodies to test our agency, but it’s not much of a “test” when the correct choice is always to follow the Prophet and General Authorities even when what they say conflicts with your conscience. When John F Kennedy ran for President, some Americans were concerned that he would “take orders from the Vatican”. But most Catholics don't take the Vatican’s edicts too seriously. Compliance with church edict is much higher among Mormons than Catholics. Romney and nearly all other Mormons obediently tithe 10% of their “increase” (stock as well as income) to the Church every year. In 2008 when the Church asked its followers to “donate of your means and time” toward the Proposition 8 campaign, Mormons heard this as a dog whistle directly out of the Law of Consecration. They hopped to it and passed Prop 8. Ever since the first Prophet Joseph Smith, LDS Prophets have made specific requests of specific members, some of which are recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants. It seems fair to ask how his existing oaths to “live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God” and “sacrifice all that we possess, even our own lives if necessary” might conflict with Romney’s Oath of Office.
Day to day, Romney and other Mormons probably don’t think much about the magic glasses, Masonic signs and tokens, Daviess County, washing and anointing, or the other tenets of faith that seem a bit weird even to other Mormons. Mormons are taught to focus on “faith promoting” testimony, and “minimize” anything else as either irrelevant or the work of “anti-mormons”. They’ve had a lot to minimize. In the past, “investigators” (converts) only learned from Missionaries’ handbooks and pamphlets. The church makes occasional reference to its “Google problem”. Even apologists end up corroborating embarrassing church history. LDS historians only have to only go back as far as the Civil War to find enough photographs, journals, letters, and other artifacts of church history to recover a warts-and-all history that other religions should be grateful to have lost. Gordon B. Hinckley once said that “either the Church is true, or it is a fraud. There is no middle ground. It is the Church and kingdom of God, or it is nothing”, which seems an overly harsh dichotomy. Some doctrines of the church are humanistically valuable even if not literally true, while others are provably and deliberately false if not laughably ridiculous. Mormons are good people, great neighbors, and they raise smart and well-motivated children. They also seem undeservedly obedient to an organization with a poor track record of leading them astray, and incurious if not willfully ignorant of anything that isn’t faith-promoting. The inconvenient history of the Catholic church allows (most) modern Catholics to take their edicts with a grain of salt, and it will be good for Mormons as well as the rest of us when LDS members can start taking its kooky doctrine and flawed human “prophets” a little less seriously.
This concludes my overview of LDS Church history and doctrine. If you're just starting to read this, it might be worth starting with Part 1. If you haven't read it in a while, I'm planning to update and correct this as I discover new information or people write in with properly cited corrections.
Part 1: Apostasy and Restoration
Part 2: Scriptures
Part 3: Preexistence, Creation, and Plan for Salvation
Part 4: Ordinances
Part 5: Temple Recommend and Splinter Groups
Part 6: My Thoughts
Joseph Smith was an intelligent religious man, understandably bothered by the self-contradictions of the Bible. Without knowing the Bible's true origins, and because God is similar to egocentric personal opinion, his “revelations and prophecies from God” were his own well-intentioned, creative, imaginative, ingenious attempts to reconcile those contradictions. Smith was - at minimum - a gifted storyteller, charismatic leader, and sophistic dissembler capable of convincing his followers to believe and do absolutely crazy things. The broader LDS church history as a cautionary lesson in the value of external peer review. Early Mormon communities were separatist and insular, living far from other groups. Smith’s novel interpretations and revelations could incubate in this isolation, deviating significantly from the beliefs, morals, and practices of mainstream 1800s America. Post-Talmadge Mormons living in pluralistic and information-saturated modern society have a significant challenge to reconciling early Church doctrine with modern mainstream belief.
Lots of people want to know whether Mormons are Christians. I think semantic arguments are dumb and the question is moot, but if you think it matters there’s room for disagreement. Christians are monotheists, and Mormons believe in a hierarchy of multiple Gods, but Elohim is at the top so maybe that’s compatible with “no other gods before me” as long as it was Elohim not Jehovah saying so. All editions of the Books of Mormon (except the 1830 version) reject trinitarianism - God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are completely separate beings. Mormons also reject the Catholic, Protestant, and Lutheran doctrine of original sin. The Articles of Faith say that “men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression”. Christians pray to Christ, while Mormons pray to the Heavenly Father (Elohiem) in the name of Christ. Mormons also believe that Christ cannot forgive their sins which is Elohiem’s jurisdiction only. But they do believe that Christ atoned for our sins (before visiting America) so maybe that makes them Christian. I find it ironic that Mormons ask us to respect their identity as Christians when they don’t respect the self-identity of homosexuals, and want respect and tolerance from Christians who Mormons say are apostates deluded by the lies of Satan himself.
Another common concern is “baptisms for the dead”. I don’t see how a bunch of teenagers saying names while bobbing up and down in a cow bathtub is going to cause any more harm than a web app that turns dead Mormons gay. On the other hand I can also understand how both of those would offend people, and the Church understands too. They’ve apologised for doing this numerous times over the years, and yet they keep doing it, and every time they get caught doing it they offer another lame apology and say “aw shucks you caught us again”. They say they’re going to reprimand members whose “submissions were clearly against the policy of the church”, but the Church runs official name extraction programs, combing through records of churches all over the world, so that “temple work” can be performed on distant strangers. Their doctrine says they have to do this in order to rescue others' souls from “spirit prison”. I think they should own up to what they believe they’re doing, and stop apologising for something they have no intention of stopping and are doctrinally committed to.
If there’s one thing that bothers me about the LDS faith it’s the authoritarian power structure. Following the prophet is a commandment of Mormon doctrine instilled from childhood. The Laws of Obedience, Consecration, and Sacrifice dictate that Mormons must “act in the office in which [they are] appointed” by the General Authorities who receive their revelations directly from God. Lay-Mormons can also receive personal revelation, but revelations that contradict the Church are “counterfeit signals". “Satan is a great deceiver, and he is the source of some of these spurious revelations.” Legitimate personal revelation can only support and confirm the truth of the Church. We were sent to earth and given bodies to test our agency, but it’s not much of a “test” when the correct choice is always to follow the Prophet and General Authorities even when what they say conflicts with your conscience. When John F Kennedy ran for President, some Americans were concerned that he would “take orders from the Vatican”. But most Catholics don't take the Vatican’s edicts too seriously. Compliance with church edict is much higher among Mormons than Catholics. Romney and nearly all other Mormons obediently tithe 10% of their “increase” (stock as well as income) to the Church every year. In 2008 when the Church asked its followers to “donate of your means and time” toward the Proposition 8 campaign, Mormons heard this as a dog whistle directly out of the Law of Consecration. They hopped to it and passed Prop 8. Ever since the first Prophet Joseph Smith, LDS Prophets have made specific requests of specific members, some of which are recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants. It seems fair to ask how his existing oaths to “live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God” and “sacrifice all that we possess, even our own lives if necessary” might conflict with Romney’s Oath of Office.
Day to day, Romney and other Mormons probably don’t think much about the magic glasses, Masonic signs and tokens, Daviess County, washing and anointing, or the other tenets of faith that seem a bit weird even to other Mormons. Mormons are taught to focus on “faith promoting” testimony, and “minimize” anything else as either irrelevant or the work of “anti-mormons”. They’ve had a lot to minimize. In the past, “investigators” (converts) only learned from Missionaries’ handbooks and pamphlets. The church makes occasional reference to its “Google problem”. Even apologists end up corroborating embarrassing church history. LDS historians only have to only go back as far as the Civil War to find enough photographs, journals, letters, and other artifacts of church history to recover a warts-and-all history that other religions should be grateful to have lost. Gordon B. Hinckley once said that “either the Church is true, or it is a fraud. There is no middle ground. It is the Church and kingdom of God, or it is nothing”, which seems an overly harsh dichotomy. Some doctrines of the church are humanistically valuable even if not literally true, while others are provably and deliberately false if not laughably ridiculous. Mormons are good people, great neighbors, and they raise smart and well-motivated children. They also seem undeservedly obedient to an organization with a poor track record of leading them astray, and incurious if not willfully ignorant of anything that isn’t faith-promoting. The inconvenient history of the Catholic church allows (most) modern Catholics to take their edicts with a grain of salt, and it will be good for Mormons as well as the rest of us when LDS members can start taking its kooky doctrine and flawed human “prophets” a little less seriously.
This concludes my overview of LDS Church history and doctrine. If you're just starting to read this, it might be worth starting with Part 1. If you haven't read it in a while, I'm planning to update and correct this as I discover new information or people write in with properly cited corrections.
Part 1: Apostasy and Restoration
Part 2: Scriptures
Part 3: Preexistence, Creation, and Plan for Salvation
Part 4: Ordinances
Part 5: Temple Recommend and Splinter Groups
Part 6: My Thoughts