Below is a message I have written to Senator Jeff Flake re criticism of Donald Trump but not of Joseph Smith.

January 17th 2018

Dear Senator Flake,

Thank you very much for your excellent speech today on “Truth”.
In your opening you state “For without truth, and a principled fidelity to truth and to shared facts, Mr. President, our democracy will not last”

Your comments are commendable,” without truth and a principled fidelity to truth”. True facts are indisputable and any denial or cover up is reprehensible. How then do you reconcile those comments with the leadership of your church?

Like President Trump, the leaders have branded everything that is contrary to the church as “anti Mormon lies”, even those those thing that are patently true. How then are they different to President Trump? If you wish I can give examples of hundreds of lies told by Presidents of the church.

For brevity, however, I will share with you examples of behavior on the part of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. In 2012 I wrote to him as a friend, to help me with my family over questions regarding the Book of Mormon. His reply to me was a personal attack on me without addressing one of the many truthful issues I raised.

I chose to address Elder Holland because he was a friend, his Master’s dissertation was on the Book of Mormon, he is an Apostle and because of his talk entitled ‘Safety for the Soul’. To date he has never answered me on the substantive issues, and has often repeated his untrue claims in his talk.

My question to you, Senator Flake, is how you can be so critical of President Trump (and I agree with your criticism), yet not call out the leaders of your church when they tell lies and call any truth that does not support the church ‘fake news’ or ‘anti Mormon lies’?

I would be truly interested in your response Are you critical of President Trump, but not of Elder Holland or even Joseph Smith for all the lies he told (I can enumerate if you wish)?
Thank you once again for your excellent speech.

Yours sincerely,
Tom Phillips
Enc. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9LEVlhAJW4wZEhQVk9LbGM2QU0/view



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2018 02:30PM by Tom Phillips.

I can offer you both a phone number (one of my Google voice numbers) and an address, but first I need to delicately address an issue...

You have truth and righteousness on your side. What you apparently do not have at your side is a proof reader/editor.

Corrections? I would welcome proof reading/editing.

Corrections done. Thank you.

Tom,

I think many of us would like to hear your thoughts on the new church leadership if you feel inspired to comment. No worries if you do not, of course.

I'm not a prophetess, but I feel a prediction coming on. You will hear nothing of substance from Jeff Flake because he is not a man of substance. He is opposing Trump merely on political grounds, not from a sense of integrity. He is retiring because he cannot keep his seat in Congress, but with a little deft positioning, he would run for President in the next election as the man who appeared to take a principled stand. Smoke and mirrors from a man who learned not to have any principles from the church itself.

I think you are right. But I tried anyway.

It never hurts to try. But these guys are so predictable. He's got that holier than thou attitude down.

If I start getting death threats, we'll know you hit a sore spot...

That speech before Congress today sounded like a GC talk.

This is great Tom!

Articulate and to the point. I wouldn't hold my breath on getting an answer though. Most likely your thoughts will be screened by his cronies and Flake will never see them. Even if he does, he will ignore you.

Tom, I agree with your well-expressed message to Jeff Flake, and would like to add one piece of information to Jeff should he chance to read this.

Experts on undue influence or mind control state that when people are in situations where this prevails they are unable to recognize it being the case. I sincerely hope you will look into this subject, deciding for yourself, not what the LDS Church tells you is the "truth", if this could be where you are at.

May truth prevail in every area of our lives.

Kudos!

My guess is that he will see no similarity whatsoever and consider you a crank.

Well done. Standing applause.