Posted by:
Wally Prince
(
)
Date: August 12, 2019 11:52PM
Issue: Have prominent leaders of the church ever urged that facts be intentionally omitted or otherwise intentionally manipulated in order to promote faith (i.e. sell the church), without disclosing to unsuspecting investigators and members that such tactics are being employed to prevent them from having access to factual information that casts the church and its history in an unfavorable light?
Come listen to the words of Boyd K. Packer, an Apostle (one of the highest ranking positions of church leadership):
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/teaching-seminary-preservice-readings-religion-370-471-and-475/the-mantle-is-far-far-greater-than-the-intellect?lang=eng"Some things that are true are not very useful."
"The writer or the teacher who has an exaggerated loyalty to the theory that everything must be told is laying a foundation for his own judgment."
"Teaching some things that are true, prematurely or at the wrong time, can invite sorrow and heartbreak instead of the joy intended to accompany learning."
"What is true with these two subjects is, if anything, doubly true in the field of religion. The scriptures teach emphatically that we must give milk before meat. The Lord made it very clear that some things are to be taught selectively, and some things are to be given only to those who are worthy."
"It matters very much not only what we are told but when we are told it. Be careful that you build faith rather than destroy it."
"Can you imagine that attorney, under contract to protect the company, having fixed in his mind that he must not really take sides, that he must be impartial?" [The implication is that church leaders and historians are taking the side of the institution against ordinary members and investigators who simply want access to a full, accurate and unredacted history.]
"I think you can see the point I am making. Those of you who are employed by the Church have a special responsibility to build faith, not destroy it. If you do not do that, but in fact accommodate the enemy, who is the destroyer of faith, you become in that sense a traitor to the cause you have made covenants to protect." [The implication is that the act of providing a full and accurate history, without manipulative redactions and falsehoods is somehow helping the "enemy".]