The LDS Church teaches-- or at least pays lip service to -- the concept of personal agency. The church's official doctrine is that it was Satan's plan to have everyone be perfectly obedient, and therefore everyone would make it back to the Celestial Kingdom. So far, so good.
The church also teaches blind obedience to the prophet as God's voice on Earth. For you endowed Mormons, perhaps you will recall the part of the Endowment where Adam is worhiping at his alter and when asked why, replies, "I know not, save that it was commanded."
I will save a discussion of the inherent contradiction in these two bits of doctrine for another day. For now, I want to discuss the responsibilities of the Prophet and the Church when promulgating policy and doctrine that are to be blindly obeyed.
(Yes, I know that doctrine also says you're supposed to "study it out in your mind" and then pray for confirmation. Another subject for another day. For now, let me just ask, how many of you that have opinions on the subject matter of my last post have actually done the studying part?)
LDS Church leaders are men, and they are fallible. They have to be, if the leaders of the primitive church had not been fallible, we'd all be Roman Catholic, and the gospel would not have been lost. The whole of Mormon mythology would vanish. And, if they weren't fallible, then God would have to have created some sort of system to cause them to behave in total obedience to His will, which, by LDS definition, is Satan's plan. Tom Monson and crew must have the ability to err, and they must have the ability to sin, else they would be Satan's minions.
But, being placed in positions of high ecelesiatical authority, these fallible men must expound doctrine and promulgate policy. Policy that we're supposed to study and pray about, but that we usually just take on faith that "The Lord would never allow [the prophet] to steer the church wrong, but would remove [him] from [his] place." How do we know this? Well, the prophet said so. ... Um, that's a bit self serving, isn't it?
Since adoption is a Greco-Roman invention, that was rejected by Judaism, I suppose that it would not be too ironic to say that the leaders of the church should be like Ceasar's wife, "above reproach." They should ensure that every word of policy or doctrine they speak or write is 100% God's will. They should always err on the side of caution; if there is any possibility that a policy or doctrine could be harmful to anyone, especially the innocent and weak, they should make double damned sure that it is correct doctrine, and that it is promulgated in such a way that damage is minimized. Every effort should be taken by these fallible men to ensure that every i is dotted and every t is crossed. Every fact that they assert is true, and that they are not obfuscating contrary truth. They must ensure that they speak for God, and not their own personal biases and prejudices. Finally, they must ensure that anything they support and give their stamp of approval to as a part of the church is held to the same standards of integrity that I've just described.
Why? Because people will follow it without critically thinking about what the ramifications are. They will follow because they have been taught by these same church leaders to follow blindly, and to trust that these same church leaders are wise and would never steer them wrong. They testify of themselves as infallible. They lie.
Now, let us look at how well they've done their duty. Here is a story that appeared in the February 2002 Ensign magazine that talks about adoption outcomes. Here is the research study cited in that article as support for the article's claims. I will leave it to you to read both to ensure that I am telling the truth when I say that the research study doesn't even discuss outcomes, let alone support the outcomes claimed. Whether this is an error or a lie isn't relevant, because the LDS faithful will believe it without question. Their leaders would never steer them wrong.
The church's leaders failed in their duty to ensure that accurate information was being sent to the church's members. They're men, they do that. When an honest man makes an error and become aware of it, he apologizes and corrects the error, and makes amends if someone has been damaged. For the benefit of the LDS Leaders that may be unfamiliar with the concept, it's called repentance. I've made the church's leaders aware of this "error" three times now. They not only haven't corrected it, they haven't even replied to my letters. Uncorrected, the mistake becomes a lie.
When a religious leader teaches 'agency' at the same time he teaches "follow me, I will never steer you wrong" and the young and naive trust him as a prophet of God, they are exercizing their agency in choosing to trust the religious leader's counsel, but that leader has breached his trust. If they choose to follow the leader, they are led down a false path and suffer for it. If they choose not to follow the leader, they are scorned and condemned by the other members of the church for not following the prophet. Damned if they do, and damned if they don't.
In this case, I have discussed only two lies told by the LDS leadership. The first being that LDS Leaders could never steer the faithful wrong, and the second publishing false information that, in fact, has steered many young birth mother wrong and resulted in abuse to their babies. There are many more.
Is Jesus the father of lies? No. Satan is.
To blindly follow without critical evaluation of such important questions is more than just a fallacy or a false principle; it is how Hitler managed to exterminate 6,000,000 Jews in World War II. The LDS Leadership has a lot of blood on its hands. Blindly following a fallible individual, whether venerated as a prophet or not, is, by Mormon definition and doctrine, Satan's plan.
But then, what did you expect to come from the "great and spacious building" on North Temple, with its high places inside for these leaders to stand on to tell us and God how righteous they are.
The church also teaches blind obedience to the prophet as God's voice on Earth. For you endowed Mormons, perhaps you will recall the part of the Endowment where Adam is worhiping at his alter and when asked why, replies, "I know not, save that it was commanded."
I will save a discussion of the inherent contradiction in these two bits of doctrine for another day. For now, I want to discuss the responsibilities of the Prophet and the Church when promulgating policy and doctrine that are to be blindly obeyed.
(Yes, I know that doctrine also says you're supposed to "study it out in your mind" and then pray for confirmation. Another subject for another day. For now, let me just ask, how many of you that have opinions on the subject matter of my last post have actually done the studying part?)
LDS Church leaders are men, and they are fallible. They have to be, if the leaders of the primitive church had not been fallible, we'd all be Roman Catholic, and the gospel would not have been lost. The whole of Mormon mythology would vanish. And, if they weren't fallible, then God would have to have created some sort of system to cause them to behave in total obedience to His will, which, by LDS definition, is Satan's plan. Tom Monson and crew must have the ability to err, and they must have the ability to sin, else they would be Satan's minions.
But, being placed in positions of high ecelesiatical authority, these fallible men must expound doctrine and promulgate policy. Policy that we're supposed to study and pray about, but that we usually just take on faith that "The Lord would never allow [the prophet] to steer the church wrong, but would remove [him] from [his] place." How do we know this? Well, the prophet said so. ... Um, that's a bit self serving, isn't it?
Since adoption is a Greco-Roman invention, that was rejected by Judaism, I suppose that it would not be too ironic to say that the leaders of the church should be like Ceasar's wife, "above reproach." They should ensure that every word of policy or doctrine they speak or write is 100% God's will. They should always err on the side of caution; if there is any possibility that a policy or doctrine could be harmful to anyone, especially the innocent and weak, they should make double damned sure that it is correct doctrine, and that it is promulgated in such a way that damage is minimized. Every effort should be taken by these fallible men to ensure that every i is dotted and every t is crossed. Every fact that they assert is true, and that they are not obfuscating contrary truth. They must ensure that they speak for God, and not their own personal biases and prejudices. Finally, they must ensure that anything they support and give their stamp of approval to as a part of the church is held to the same standards of integrity that I've just described.
Why? Because people will follow it without critically thinking about what the ramifications are. They will follow because they have been taught by these same church leaders to follow blindly, and to trust that these same church leaders are wise and would never steer them wrong. They testify of themselves as infallible. They lie.
Now, let us look at how well they've done their duty. Here is a story that appeared in the February 2002 Ensign magazine that talks about adoption outcomes. Here is the research study cited in that article as support for the article's claims. I will leave it to you to read both to ensure that I am telling the truth when I say that the research study doesn't even discuss outcomes, let alone support the outcomes claimed. Whether this is an error or a lie isn't relevant, because the LDS faithful will believe it without question. Their leaders would never steer them wrong.
The church's leaders failed in their duty to ensure that accurate information was being sent to the church's members. They're men, they do that. When an honest man makes an error and become aware of it, he apologizes and corrects the error, and makes amends if someone has been damaged. For the benefit of the LDS Leaders that may be unfamiliar with the concept, it's called repentance. I've made the church's leaders aware of this "error" three times now. They not only haven't corrected it, they haven't even replied to my letters. Uncorrected, the mistake becomes a lie.
When a religious leader teaches 'agency' at the same time he teaches "follow me, I will never steer you wrong" and the young and naive trust him as a prophet of God, they are exercizing their agency in choosing to trust the religious leader's counsel, but that leader has breached his trust. If they choose to follow the leader, they are led down a false path and suffer for it. If they choose not to follow the leader, they are scorned and condemned by the other members of the church for not following the prophet. Damned if they do, and damned if they don't.
In this case, I have discussed only two lies told by the LDS leadership. The first being that LDS Leaders could never steer the faithful wrong, and the second publishing false information that, in fact, has steered many young birth mother wrong and resulted in abuse to their babies. There are many more.
Is Jesus the father of lies? No. Satan is.
To blindly follow without critical evaluation of such important questions is more than just a fallacy or a false principle; it is how Hitler managed to exterminate 6,000,000 Jews in World War II. The LDS Leadership has a lot of blood on its hands. Blindly following a fallible individual, whether venerated as a prophet or not, is, by Mormon definition and doctrine, Satan's plan.
But then, what did you expect to come from the "great and spacious building" on North Temple, with its high places inside for these leaders to stand on to tell us and God how righteous they are.
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