Rock, meet Hard Place!

Over a year ago I met with my (former) bishop in his office. I warned him the LDS Church was bleeding membership and we needed to respond. “What can we do?” I asked. I noted that tens of thousands of well meaning, obedient, sincere, studious and intelligent people in the Church – as well as countless millions outside of it -- were finding information on the internet that turned them away from the faith.

With revulsion.

Why?

Because the information they found online was true.

I knew this because all of my extended family, many of my closest friends, even most of those I faithfully brought to the waters of baptism by missionary efforts were later “turned off” by what they discovered outside of Sunday School. If they were interested in the LDS message before they got online, they certainly weren’t afterward. Even those who (miraculously) joined the Church anyway left it once they encountered more truth than what the Church was forthrightly disclosing.

What could be so bad?

The Mormon Church has a sordid, sinful past, littered with lies, adultery, even murder. (And that describes only a fraction of the leaders’ sins! Wait ‘til you meet the members!) Such mishaps, mistakes, mischief and mayhem are mixed together with the wonderful, glorious goodness that is God’s revelation to mankind in these latter days. (I’m not being facetious, even if it sounds that way. It is a marvelous work and wonder. I’m still marveling…and wondering!)

Traditionally, the Church has dealt with embarrassing revelations of its past by concealing them. Now the Church pays millions of dollars to insure that its “official”, masterfully-produced websites and media presentations “pop up” first or second on most search engines, “crowding out” other sources of information. I’m sure they do this just to “get the word out”. But that hasn’t altogether hidden other truths or stanched the flow of those leaving the faith. (“It’s never the crime, but the cover-up!”) Hiding the truth just doesn’t “work” in this “information” age.

 2 For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.

 3 Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. – Luke 12:2-3

Even slick PR campaigns just won’t “cut it”. When people find out the whole truth about the Church (good and bad) from outside sources, they feel betrayed. They feel lied to. If they’re tenuous in the faith or ambivalent, they just “walk away”. But if they are devout, faithful members of the Church -- “all in” as it were, having devoted their entire lives to the cause -- quite often they react, first with disbelief, then shock, then anger. Quite often they become enemies of the Church. They commonly abandon belief in anything.

That’s just not a good place to be: between a rock and a hard place.

Those were the people I sought to help. People in our own ward and stake. People who were no longer coming to Church. People like my friends and family, who dismissed the Church out-of-hand. But the bishop disagreed. “Let the Brethren handle it!” he said. “They know what they’re doing! Don’t teach anything [even truthful history] unless and until the Brethren teach it!” he advised. (My failure to comply with that “advice” apparently got me excommunicated, even though I held no “teaching” calling, served in no “leadership” capacity or taught anything “false” that I know of. Everything I have taught is here on this blog, so you decide.)

But I do have a testimony. The “normal” stuff that “freaks” some people out and causes others to leave or reject the LDS faith has no effect on me. My faith isn’t grounded in scientific “facts”. (Though I think science is important. That’s why I teach it! But science is often wrong.) My faith isn’t grounded in men or their testimonies. (Because I have my own!) Things that apparently blow people out of the baptismal font, as it were, to my point of view, seem almost trivial. (But they certainly aren’t trivial to them!) These issues take on even greater importance in the minds of some inasmuch as they appear to be dismissed or ignored by Church leaders. Even a pebble in one’s shoe becomes an immobilizing stumbling block, if not removed.

Many people, apparently, are now losing their faith because of such pebbles. I tried to correct that in Primary, Priesthood, Sunday School, and Sacrament Meeting. Denver Snuffer tried to correct it, too, in many more (and wonderful) ways than I could. He has been able to “rescue” many.

We all make mistakes. Honest people know that. Wise people expect it. And real people who pretend to be “holier than thou” only make “unbelievers” of those who otherwise would be capable of exercising faith. (That’s why confessed sinners and reprobates – like Peter, Paul, Alma and Alma, Jr. – were such effective ministers for Christ. They followed Christ and relied upon His virtues and power, not their own (or those of other men). With that in mind, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf recently made this necessary and refreshing confession.

But it’s not enough. The Church’s official statement supporting the asking of questions about LDS doctrine, history and practice lags behind the leaderships’ ability to answer those questions or their willingness to have those questions answered -- particularly if the answers (however truthful) conflict with modern Church doctrine or practice. If “[s]imply asking questions has never constituted apostasy”, then answering them certainly has -- if the LDS leadership doesn’t like what you have to say!

The LDS Church is now a hard place to find and speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. It’s also a hard place to stand up and bear witness of “uncomfortable” truths. Perhaps this explains why its leadership is currently displeased with the efforts of Rock Waterman. Or John Dehlin. They are certainly “concerned” with the efforts of Tim Malone. Denver Snuffer’s efforts were very displeasing to the Brethren. So were mine. If this continues, we may all be “apostates” eventually.

The LDS First Presidency defines apostasy as "repeatedly acting in clear, open, and deliberate public opposition to the Church or its faithful leaders, or persisting, after receiving counsel, in teaching false doctrine.” I was charged with the latter. Perhaps someone will get around to one day telling me what “false doctrine” I actually taught. You would think that a concerned Church leader – if he really cared about me or my family – would have gotten on my blog and made a timely, corrective comment or two once they discovered I had gone astray. (I have erased nothing of criticism or correction on this blog.) Especially since they used my blog as the “principal witness” against me at my disciplinary hearing! (They obviously had time to read it! They just didn’t have the inclination or ability to respond to it! Apparently, excommunication is preferable to communication.)

The idea that apostasy could potentially amount to openly disagreeing about anything with any priesthood leader or publicly failing to do (or not do) anything they ask shocks the conscience and sensibilities of all who know that men (even Church men) can and (often) do make mistakes and go astray. Do we surrender our agency to men when we come unto Christ? Does holding a leadership calling in the LDS Church render one’s pronouncements and opinions equivalent to those of God? I have known enough good LDS leaders to know that -- while they are generally trustworthy – I would never trust my salvation entirely to any of them! I can’t even get an “official” hometeacher to come to my house! (I wonder if the leaders are worried for the “spiritual safety” of any potential hometeacher they might send our way!)

I don’t want to get too far astray here. I’m “done” with the LDS Church anyway. I will never go back (under the current regime). Not that they would have me. (They have made that abundantly clear.) When I asked for bread, they gave me a stone. ‘Nuff said.

But the gospel is still true.

It is impossible to exercise faith in falsehood. We all believe falsehoods, to some extent, but faith to move mountains must be grounded in truth in order to be efficacious. That’s why knowing the truth is so important. A little leaven of lies leavens the whole lump. What is already an incredible story proclaimed by earnest missionaries is only made less palatable and even more unbelievable when it is corrupted with demonstrable and unnecessary falsehoods. That’s why the LDS Church, in my view, has to “come clean” and is now largely failing in its mission despite its noble efforts to do otherwise. They have tossed Jeremiah into the pit, but that will not silence him or change the truthfulness of his message.

The LDS have disbelieved their own leaders:

“If we have the truth, it cannot be harmed by investigation. If we have not the truth, it ought to be harmed.” – J. Reuben Clark[1]

 “It is better not to have so much faith as to believe all the lies.” -- Hyrum Smith

The LDS Church now claims 15 million members. But less than a third of those, perhaps, occupy the pews on any given Sunday. (The Church counts all those in attendance each week and knows the exact number who show up, but won’t reveal the statistics. Why?) On my mission in Chile, I served in a ward that experienced as many as 20 baptisms per month, year after year! But the size of that ward never changed. Why? Because just as many were going out the back door as were coming in the front! Having served as a ward financial clerk, I have witnessed that only a fraction of those on the membership rolls, even of those attending Church regularly, pay a full tithe. This is true even in our relatively “rich” U.S. ward. The ranks of the “true and faithful” and “fully converted” are truly small, indeed.

I was one of them. I still am. I imagine I always will be.

But not because I’m “converted” to the LDS Church. Or because I’m a “follower” of any man or men. Christians don’t need another reason, motivation, program, or person to tell them to do missionary work or to live the gospel. If they do, they’re not real Christians. Or they have fallen away from Christ.

I am converted to Christ. I am also convinced of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. I am persuaded by the prophetic (however imperfect) ministry of Joseph Smith. I don’t know what that makes me. I’m no longer a “Latter-day Saint”. I’m also certainly not a “Mormon”.

But I am a Christian who seeks after and strives to accept truth wherever he finds it. That’s how I got here.

I can “excuse” the sins of others…because I am aware of my own.  I can believe the testimony of modern prophets…because I have experienced the same for myself.  I can have faith in Jesus Christ…because He has ministered to me, by the power of the Holy Ghost, and I have tasted of His kindness, His gentleness, and His all-consuming love.

It's that knowledge – and my reminding myself of the same – that enables me to erect an impenetrable wall against sin. Any man who says he knows God and intentionally sins is a liar. For our God is a God of all-consuming love. (To know Him is to love Him…and to feel His love.) Who would ever sin against that?

Most skeptics and disbelievers – even those who were once members of the LDS Church and formerly lived the gospel in its fullness -- will admit that the fruits of doing so were real and beneficial. Lives were changed for the better. Faithful family ties were strengthened and improved. Peace and joy were the result of exercising faith in Jesus Christ. These are the “evidence” Alma spoke of.

But are Latter-day Saints the only ones whose lives are changed for the better? Are LDS families the only ones who are strong and happy? Do the LDS alone enjoy peace and joy in this life? Hardly!

But I have known no greater.

Even so, many Latter-day Saints are now choking on sour milk, unable to digest rotten meat.

The Church’s response to all this has been, first, to bury the truth and, second, to kill the messenger. Rock Waterman is high on the “hit list”. A minor footnote, I have already been “scratched off”. (Call me an “investigator”.) Publishing one’s “findings” without mixing in an obsequious measure of adulation and subservience to LDS authority will all but guarantee only censure and expulsion from the fold. The truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly and independent – but it may have to do so outside the LDS Church!

The gospel remains unchanged. Men and women, and even young children, are saved by exercising faith in Jesus Christ, the Eternal God. He manifests Himself unto all nations, even unto as many as will believe.

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[1] D. Michael Quinn: The Church Years. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1983, p. 24.