People speculate about the church changing in order to survive as more and more history and doctrine are become known and become unacceptable.

But my question is, what part of the church's foundation is there to hang onto? Can the church continue to revere Joseph Smith as the truth about his true character emerges? Can they maintain literal belief in the Book of Mormon as it becomes more and more clear that there is no evidence to support it and much to refute it? Can they continue to maintain that they are the one true church?

They will find ways to wriggle out of or misdirect from the many errors and contradictions. They have made huge investments of time, money, power, etc.

It's disappointing to realize that, no matter how ridiculous or obviously fraudulent an idea is, someone can be found to believe it and sometimes even die for it. That is the history of religion.

The history of religion - let alone, Mormonism - is filled with stories of belief systems that are bogus. As long as there are people willing to believe and just as unwilling to think critically, religions will survive. Christianity is a veritable monument to absurd beliefs and doctrines, Mormonism is just a variation on a theme.

I think that is a key insight. People continue to believe because family members and friends believe. Most conversions occur due to family ties and friendships, also. Sometimes I think teachers and doctrines are really little more than "reasons" to form relationships.

I think Mormonism will retreat to Utah and the Intermountain West and experience very little change. With all of the temples built in Utah I think this is already happening. They can employ the same old arguments with the members to preserve the old tale. I actually think Mormons have it pretty good and Utah and active Mormons will hunker down there and wait for the second coming.

The first and core thing TSCC will hang onto is the members' mantra, "I Know The Church Is True." Regardless on anything else that changes, so long as members believe in this mantra, they have their first big hook into them.

As for JS and his character flaws, John D Lee wrote before TSCC moved to Utah that he had debates with Protestant ministers about religion while a missionary. These ministers would often bring up Smith's poor character during the debates, but Lee simply compared Smith the David in the Bible. King David had many wives and slept around, arranged to have one of his friends killed in battle so he could marry his wife, etc. If God could choose and love David in the Bible with all his character flaws, then God could choose Joseph Smith with all of his. Lee claimed to comfound his opponents with this argument. I think it would be difficult to predict if such an argument would fly today since the reversal would make liars out of preisthood and SS manuals for the last century or more.

Even at a very simple level I see the Church evolving. Take the age of the earth. My mother still believes it is only 6000 years old. The new generation can somehow believe in a god controlled creation that happened 4.5 billion years ago. The real change, in my opinion, is that today’s members will say that the old people’s beliefs were never doctrine to begin with. This has happened with many subjects like blacks and the priesthood and even “God was once a man.” In a hundred years I’m sure any remaining Mormons will deny that the Book of Mormon was ever considered historical in any way.

My TBM son once said he thought the 1990 temple ceremony changes were something the anti-Mormons dreamed up. He was unfortunate enough to have two parents who went through the temple before those changes.