The Church under Condemnation: Tips for Those Tempted to Condemn Church Leaders
by Jeff Lindsay
Apostasy
often begins with attacking Church leaders. This is easy to do, and
frankly, there are plenty of targets to go after and many reasons one
can find to be offended.
It's
not just members on the fringe with weak testimonies who are offended
and troubled by the occasional behavior or attitudes of mortal Church
leaders. Maybe we can be more sympathetic with their irritation when
we see that some very credible, trustworthy, and righteous people
stand in the ranks of the offended, chief of whom is ... the Lord
Himself.
No
kidding. This is not empty rhetoric. The Lord Himself has been
troubled with the behavior of Church leaders, as He plainly explains
in LDS scripture, namely, Doctrine
& Covenants 64:8:
My
disciples, in days of old, sought occasion against one another and
forgave not one another in their hearts; and for this evil they were
afflicted and sorely chastened.
They
were chastened and afflicted for the evil in their hearts. This
brought them under condemnation and implicitly limited their ability
to lead the Church in unity, through revelation. Shame!
The
Lord's offense at some of his early leaders was not first expressed
in Joseph Smith's days, but way back in New Testament times. For
example, in what can hardly be taken as a ringing endorsement of the
great Chief Apostle, the Lord said (Matthew
16:23):
Get
thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou
savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
Peter
would continue to offend the Lord when he cut off a man's ear as the
soldiers came to take Christ away, only to be followed hours later
with his tragic triple denial of Christ. Like Joseph Smith and all
mortals who seek to serve and follow the Lord, Peter the Chief
Apostle was a "rough stone rolling" with plenty of flaws
for critics and apostates to reject.
Peter
was not the lone fallible sinner among the Apostles. For example,
that great Apostle, Paul, described himself not as chief among the
godly but as chief among sinners (1
Timothy 1:15).
Fortunately, he was a penitent sinner on the path of following the
Lord. But in his strong-headed contentions with other apostles, he
may well have been one of those whom the Lord referred to in the
previous quote from Doctrine and Covenants 64.
In
our day, the Lord has also expressed his displeasure with the Church
and even stated that it is under condemnation for some of its faults.
See, for example, Doctrine
and Covenants 84:54-58,
where we learn that the Lord is offended with how lightly we have
taken (and probably continue to take) the miraculous gift of the Book
of Mormon:
54
And your minds in times past have been darkened because of unbelief,
and because you have treated lightly the things you have received —
55
Which vanity and unbelief have brought the whole church under
condemnation.
56
And this condemnation resteth upon the children of Zion, even all.
57
And they shall remain under this condemnation until they repent and
remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon and the former
commandments which I have given them, not only to say, but to do
according to that which I have written —
58
That they may bring forth fruit meet for their Father’s
kingdom; otherwise there remaineth a scourge and judgment to be
poured out upon the children of Zion.
This
leads us to a critically important question: In a Church founded by
the Lord but discovered to have fallible leaders that have been known
to offend God with serious gaps in their behavior, in a Church that
stands under condemnation for its lack of faith and failure to do
some of the things the Lord yearns for, what is the proper response
for early and modern Christians?
For
Saints in the Church of Jesus Christ in both Peter's day and ours,
here are three options that come to mind:
Speak
out against their leaders, criticizing and condemning them, while
trying to remain in the Church in order to correct it;
Leave
the Church and perhaps even fight against it; or
Cope
with and even forgive the errors of leaders while recognizing that
they are among the authorized servants of the Lord whom we should
patiently respect as we work to build up the Church, in spite of
human flaws.
I'm
for option #3. But that may not be the preferred option for some,
especially if they want to force change on their own terms or perhaps
gain attention, draw crowds, or sell books. Further, option #3 is a
tough one to defend because we mortals tend to expect prophets and
apostles to be, well, sort of infallible, right? — even though
we ought to know that they aren't.
Those
who want to stand out as progressives and intellectuals as they fight
against the Church have a much easier time because they can draw upon
all the flaws of the past and cast all the barbs that critics have
honed with piercing sharpness, leaving the robes of faith rather
tattered to those unprepared for the assault.
The
mistakes of the Church that Elder
Uchtdorf referred to
in the October 2013 general conference need not be limited to those
of the present dispensation. Moses angered the Lord and had to be
rebuffed several times. Jonah had related issues.
In
addition to Peter's personal shortcomings, contention raged among the
early apostles, and disunity also occurred among the modern apostles
in Joseph's day and occasionally afterwards.
Joseph
Smith himself stood condemned before the Lord for serious sin that
resulted in losing 116 pages of precious scripture. It was a dark and
depressing time, and even his gift of translating the Book of Mormon
was taken away during the period.
There
were other steps he took later in life that may have been too harsh
or unfair to others — numerous actions can be criticized and
some are difficult to defend. Mistakes. Gaps. Puzzles.
Some
of the things that offend us today may be due to limitations in the
historical record and our lack of understanding, but some things from
modern Church history may be genuine offenses to the Lord as well.
But if the Lord did not abandon the Church and give the keys of
authority to someone else, then those errors, if real, are for the
individual leaders to deal with and not an excuse for us to condemn
and abandon the Church.
Condemnation
and judgment is the Lord's role, and He's got that under control.
Accusation, of course, seems to be Satan's role, and he excels at it.
Beware those who steadily point accusing fingers at those whom the
Lord has asked to serve. (see Doctrine
and Covenants 121:16-19).
Yes,
the Church is imperfect and has been far from perfect. It may be
under condemnation from the Lord for its failures, today as in times
of old. We need to do our part to lift that condemnation by paying
more attention to the Book of Mormon, by helping the Church move
forward, and by raising the level of our own righteousness.
And
so, you fans of modern critics of the Church leaders, consider your
ways. That includes fans of seemingly sincere and nice Mormons or
former Mormons, such as one man who claims to have been visited by
Christ and claims to be a supporter of the Church while vocally and
publicly condemning its leaders.
I
don't buy his story. I don't buy the idea that publishing an
anti-Mormon book can be a sincere effort to help Mormons be stronger
in the Church that it condemns. This seems to fall into an old
"fundamentalist" pattern of unauthorized people rising up
and claiming special revelation and privilege in leading people back
to the earlier ways, to the pure ways of Joseph, but ultimately away
from the blessings of the Restoration and the blessings of the Temple
that some of these apostates mock.
Change
happens in Zion and always causes discomfort for some. The old ways
of animal sacrifice and the Law of Moses looked like they were
supposed to be in force "for all generations," until Christ
came and began changing things. The priesthood was supposed to
limited to certain men in the House of Israel only, until Peter
received a revelation that changed things dramatically.
A
revelation in 1978 through Spencer W. Kimball further opened the
ranks of the priesthood — and, as with most modern revelation,
offended a few who felt the old ways were better. Beware
Fundamentalists who claim they are just bringing us back to the pure
old ways in their attacks on the modern Church and its leaders.
Related
to this topic is a marvelous essay by Ardis Parshall over at Keepa.
In "A
Living Faith: What You Know that Harold Bloom Doesn’t,"
Ardis reminds us that those who find fault with constant change in
the Church misunderstand the basic nature of our religion:
When
a people’s religion and faith have as the foundational premise
that God continues to speak to prophets, revealing new truth and
inspiring guidance for changing times, evolution is inevitable. The
surest sign of the death of such a faith would be a static, stubborn
refusal to receive new direction.
While
Bloom — or more properly, someone who believes in continuing
revelation — might legitimately debate whether any specific
change is the will of God, the expectation of change within such a
faith is undebatable: it lies at the heart of the faith.
Mormonism2011 wouldn’t be any kind of Mormonism if it were a
fossilized Mormonism1830.
What
too many observers don’t understand is that they are looking on
the outward forms only, generally missing the point of those forms. A
man like Bloom looks at polygamy, and gathering, and missionaries
traveling without purse or scrip, and the communal life of the United
Order, and building the Kingdom — or whatever his particular
bugbears are — and sees only abandonment, betrayal of the
vision of Joseph Smith, a “dwindling … into just one
more Protestant sect.”
What
we see, though — what you respond to when you read a post on
Keepa — is the reason Latter-day Saints of the past lived as
they did. That internal motivation carries on in our lives in real
ways, even as the outward forms of marriage and missionary work and
interactions with our fellow Saints develops under the guidance of
leaders we sustain as being as inspired as Joseph Smith and Brigham
Young and John Taylor, or whoever was leading the Church at whatever
date an observer considers to be that vanished perfect past.
Keepa’ninnies
[readers of his Keepa blog] — and Mormon readers of Mormon
history in other packages — have no trouble in recognizing a
common commitment with the Saints of the past, living the
commandments, building eternal families, sharing the gospel, caring
for our fellow Saints and others — even while the visible
manifestations of those commitments change. It’s why you enjoy
reading about history: the forms have changed, which attracts our
eyes and ears and imaginations; the spirit is the same, which engages
our affections and sustains our hopes and resonates in our souls.
Beautifully
said. Yes, we are a different Church today in many ways, but the
vision, the eternal purposes, the Spirit, and even the spiritual
gifts and miracles we experience in living the Gospel, are the same,
and unite us with our predecessors among the pioneers and the early
Saints of Joseph's day, not to mention the Saints of New Testament
times, the Saints of Enoch's day, and the Saints throughout history
as well as those who will serve God day and night in the Temple
during the future Millennium.
The
forms will differ, but the core is the same, and we are brothers and
sisters in Jesus Christ.
The
Restoration is real and the authority restored by the Lord in these
modern days, is real, though the vessels that bear it may be flawed.
Even the inspiring and devoutly Christian servant who leads the
Church today, Thomas S. Monson, is fallible and can be criticized by
anyone out to find reasons to accuse.
But
those who do so may find that they are actually the ones who are
offending the Lord and fighting against His work. A painful and
bitter irony that I hope you’ll avoid.
Jeff Lindsay has been defending the Church on the Internet since 1994, when he launched his
LDSFAQ website under JeffLindsay.com. He has also long been blogging about LDS matters on
the blog Mormanity (mormanity.blogspot.com). Jeff is a longtime resident of Appleton,
Wisconsin, who recently moved to Shanghai, China, with his wife, Kendra.
He works for an Asian corporation as head of intellectual property. Jeff and Kendra are the parents of 4 boys, 3 married and the the youngest on a mission.
He is a former innovation and IP consultant, a former professor, and former Corporate Patent
Strategist and Senior Research Fellow for a multinational corporation.
Jeff Lindsay, Cheryl Perkins and Mukund Karanjikar are authors of the book Conquering
Innovation Fatigue (John Wiley & Sons, 2009).
Jeff has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University and is a registered US
patent agent. He has more than 100 granted US patents and is author of numerous publications.
Jeff's hobbies include photography, amateur magic, writing, and Mandarin Chinese.