Posted by:
just a thought
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Date: January 23, 2012 04:22PM
First off, I have no inside knowledge of the interworkings of church admisnistration. But while listening to recent stories podcasts, I realized there are some leaders inside the church that are advocating for a greater openness and liberalization (see mormonstories "Greg Prince on "Big Tent Mormonism" as well as Marlin Jensen q&a podcasts).
For lack of a better term, the "conservatives" inside the church have made the strategic decisions to suppress real mormon history, globally correlate and dumb-down the gospel, work to restrict gay rights and punish church members who stray too far from the official line (as well as many other bad strategic decisions).
These decisions have led to the largest exodus of church membership since Kirtland. In short, it has been a disaster. I believe these decisions can be traced to the influence of one man: Boyd K. Packer.
Instead, if back in the Leonard Arrington days, they had continue to open up church vaults and encourage historical scholarship, the disturbing problems of church history would not have come as such a shock to so many. Now as people google JS polyandry or Book of Abraham, they feel like they've been lied to. If these issue had been discussed openly by church leadership, I believe most people would have shrugged their shoulders and remained faithful. Boyd K. Packer may turn out to be the biggest anti-mormon in church history.