Reading the church's essays on controversial topics has filled my heart with gratitude. Yes, I stand before you today thankful that I no longer have to twist myself into knots to defend such things.

I'm thankful that I don't have to figure out a way to make the Book of Abraham a translation of Egyptian papyri that have nothing to do with Abraham.

My spirit is humbled that I no longer have to explain how it came to be that two large civilizations of Middle Eastern proto-Christians lived in the Americas for thousands of years and then disappeared without a trace.

I feel prompted to express my gratitude that I don't have to explain why the record of this civilization is riddled with anachronisms and reads like a frontier American fantasy mixing Moundbuilder mythology with restorationist Protestant doctine (which is exactly what it is).

And I feel like singing a song of joy that I don't feel obligated to justify a man's sneaking around behind his wife's back and "marrying" (read: having sex) with dozens of women, including teenagers and married women.

I rationalized all these things for many years, and it took a toll on my soul. Nine years ago I put away such things because I knew they weren't true and they weren't right, and I have never regretted it.

I agree. I come here to get educated without the church spin being used on the information.

I'm so pleased to know a weight has been lifted for you and so many. It's been so long, for me, that I can't remember what I knew about Smith's affairs before I left, but I do remember that numbing sense of having to justify and explain things that are/were simply wrong (as in immoral) and senseless.

It's been a long time since that weight was lifted. I was just thinking of Brian Hales and how hard he's tried to make this polygamy thing work. I knew about all the polygamy issues with Joseph Smith for about 10 years, and I honestly have no idea how I managed to rationalize it. Thank heavens I don't have to do that anymore.

On another board where I lurk, there is a poster who is tying himself into knots justifying and/or trying to explain away contradictions between official corporate positions/statements/actions and the historical reality. (Particularly galling is the insistence that TBMs who were unaware of Smith's affairs were simply lazy or incurious, because despite the fact that the church never taught them about it, they should have found out through non-Church sources.)

I have no doubt that the person to whom I refer is utterly sincere and well meaning. But however sincere he is, what comes through along with frustration is unconscious disingenuousness --if that is not an oxymoron. The longer he protests, the more hollow his explanations appear and the more obvious his cognitive dissonance. I feel sorry for him, after a fashion.

Brian Hales, not so much.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/2014 08:52AM by Lorraine aka síóg.

Great comment.

I used to be the one tying the knots, which is why I feel sorry for people like that, too. As you said, I don't feel much empathy for people who know the truth and then shade or distort it to suit their ends. The people who wrote the polygamy essay know they have been dishonest, but it's for the church, so it's all good, right?