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Date: September 10, 2018 04:14AM
https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900031172/elder-cook-historians-tackle-tough-questions-about-latter-day-saint-history.htmlLooks like it was just a rehash of previous apologetic arguments.
Some quotes:
- Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles assured young adults that the church is not hiding aspects of its 188-year-old history.
- Church history can be a significant source of faith,” Elder Cook said. But for some, church history “has been misunderstood or overlooked” or “crowded out by larger concerns of the world.”
Some people “have even purposely misrepresented stories of the past to sow doubt,” he said.
- “The church did not hide information from me, but the historical information was not emphasized to me,” she said. In Sunday school and seminary she learned “the main work of the church” — to repent, to bring her life in harmony with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and how to establish a relationship with God. “These are the things in my life that I hold most dear.”
- She acknowledged it is painful for a person to learn of an aspect of church history they thought they should have known, but did not.
The Church History Department is not trying to hide or censor history, but instead trying to make church history “accessible, available and understandable,” said Grow.
- She said Joseph Smith was reluctant to practice plural marriage, but eventually instituted it because he wanted to obey God’s commandment to him.
While scholars do not know the exact number who practiced plural marriage, those who did were in the minority, she said.
Grow said one purpose of polygamy was to raise up “seed or a righteous posterity.” The extensive family history records of the church reveal that “20 percent of living church members descend from those who practiced plural marriage,” he said. “We know that throughout time those families have been a strength to the church.”
- Grow compared the differing version of Joseph Smith's first vision to a story one might tell of meeting their spouse. A person might emphasize different details of the account in the journal entry the day it took place, than he or she does in wedding video, or in a letter written to a 12-year-old daughter, or in a recount told at a 50th wedding anniversary party. So it is with the First Vision accounts, he said.
There seems to be nothing new despite TSCC's claim that they are going to tell the real history in their new book.
In closing, let us turn to hymn 272 "Oh Say, What is Truth" because it won't be found elsewhere in this broadcast.