Why is the Church so reluctant to provide information regarding the formation of the Church?
Question
Gramps,
Why is the church so reluctant to allow members information regarding the formation of the church? The plural wives of early leaders, the way the translation of the plates was done. It would seem to me that God is going to be pretty busy answering a lot of questions, as I cannot see our present day leaders being forthcoming.
As always my thanks to the team.
Robert
Answer
Robert,
To many, these topics are hot button items only because they make it so. There is no secret. I’m not sure where you got that impression. Nearly every adult member (and many younger ones) of the Church that I know is aware of these topics as part of our history, and it doesn’t seem to change anything. Many anti-Mormons seem to believe that we are not aware of our own history. Well, let’s just say they’ve had limited exposure to how knowledgeable the Saints really are about their own faith.
The reason the Church and its leaders don’t spend a large amount of time on these topics is that it usually doesn’t fulfill the mission of the Church. While plural marriage and the method of translation are historical realities and possibly curiosities, how does teaching them in Sunday School satisfy any of the missions of the Church? We certainly hear inspiring stories from that time. Such stories build our spiritual relationship with the Lord and therefore fulfill the missions of the Church. And we hear such stories from time to time in general conference as well as in our Sunday meetings. But to spend as much time and depth as you seem to be suggesting would take away valuable time from fulfilling the missions of the Church.
What mission is served by spending time in our yearly lessons on how many wives any individual had over 100 years ago? What mission is served by looking at the actual process of translation? The fact that it was “By the Gift and Power of God” is infinitely more important than whether he used the urim and thummim or the seer stone or a Reformed Egyptian-to-English dictionary. And it is not the Church’s responsibility to put to rest every single anti-Mormon tract and claim. Can you imagine the time and effort required? Is that how the Lord would want us to spend the tithes of His Church? Is it of any spiritual benefit of the membership as a whole?
If you wish to study such on your own, you’re more than welcome to. And there is nothing that the Church is doing to stand in your way. In fact, most of what we do know (and what anti-Mormons know) came from sources that were released by the Church. There really wouldn’t be much in the way of anti-Mormon literature if you removed all the resources that the Church itself has provided.
The Church-owned publisher Bookcraft has a plethora of wonderfully informative publications that would satisfy your curiosity and will probably be a major source of great material to help in such studies. And you yourself may just find some of those inspiring stories to share with others. If so, kudos to you. Just remember that it is not the mission of the Church to have formal annual lessons that teach the entire history in a minute-by-minute play-by-play. The Church isn’t “hiding” anything. We just don’t have the time, and it is simply not that important.
It is much more important that the work of the Church continue. It is more important to work on perfecting the saints. It is infinitely more important to serve God by serving our fellow men. It is more important to do our genealogy and temple work for our ancestors. It is more important to learn how to obtain a testimony by witness of the Holy Ghost. It is much more important to teach all the world that Jesus is the Christ and that He speaks to prophets in this dispensation just as he has in dispensations past. It is much more important to preach repentance to all the world and baptize every soul. These efforts are what the Lord wants His servants to spend their time on.
Gramps
You’ve probably never had a Sunday School lesson on plural marriage. You’ve probably also never had a Sunday School lesson on Joshua 10-11, where it talks about how the Israelites utterly destroyed their enemies, taking no prisoners and leaving no survivors. That’s because for many new members and investigators, it is difficult to understand the motives for such instances, and instead of edifying, it simply confuses. The Church doesn’t hide these happenings, but it certainly doesn’t parade them around, because they are confusing for many people.
I don’t think it’s so much that the Church is reluctant as it is that church members aren’t doing their part to learn the information… It’s certainly available, and I knew all of the things addressed in the question prior to baptism.
The Gospel Topics essays are helpful, as is going to Church landmarks such as Nauvoo, Adam-Ondi-Ahman, visitors’ centers, and Temple Square. There are also the Joseph Smith Papers and other documents and writings about the early days of the Restoration. It isn’t the Church’s fault if people choose to not learn.
I think you are exactly right. I was born into the church but left ,due to rampant gossip ,I admit as a teenager I tried to push peoples buttons but all they did was ,well kick me out and be done with it.I wasn’t ex communicated due to the pleadings of my mother ,but my father and I stopped going .Then of course to show all those people that thought i drank and smoked and was with my girlfriend before marriage,I set out to prove them right ,and guess who got hurt ,Me! So,as my son got older he started not wanting to go to church with my mother ,because I knew the church was true ,Joseph Smith is my cousin ,so it is deeply rooted in my Fathers Mothers side.When I came back to church after playing in Heavy metal bands and really doing things I would later regret I git a job in the Film industry and made more money then ever ,but was not happy and still had a son that needed a father to go to church with him,I had all the world could offer yet I felt empty.So I came back and I could not get enough information on everything ,The Savior and what He did for us all and all the history of the church because me ancestors were everywhere.But as I started to come upon those questions about ,well you know them all ,Plural marriage ,the translation and how ,mountain meadows and on and on.And when I asked about these things in church ,here in Calif. ,I was told not to worry about it,they were not important and has nothing to do with my salvation,well that made me really want to know ,so I bought over 4 thousand books ,all the old ,not published anymore books ,but because I Had (i have since been in a car accident and my wife who was sealed to me and still is left me because she thought I would be disabled the rest of my life ,and sold our house when i was in a coma for 4 months) But,one thing that was a true blessing is when I was in then hospital and they were operating I think the second of 6 operations ,I died ,I went up through the ceiling of the hospital and stopped ,waiting for a light to go in to something ,but my Grandfather ,who is the Patriarch of the family holding the priesthood ,he appeared with a bright light behind him and he said I was going back,that I had not completed the covenant I made with the Lord before I came here ,it was in my Patriarchal blessing,he said the covenant 3 times and said that it was very important to complete this before I return to Him ,and back I went ,so here I am ,and now I know why I am really here and that ,even though it satisfied me to find out the truthfulness of all things ,I wasn;t fulfilling one of the most important reasons I am here at this time ,so ,the moral is you can spend years searching out these things and hopefully find the right answer ,but is that why we are really here ?
so I spent years and years reading and praying and reading and praying ,and in the end ,the answer gramps gives is frustratingly correct!I researched everything and drove all over the country to find things out for myself.It all has a purpose ,all those things that people ,some people think should be talked about in church or conference ,either has been,because I have every single conference on book ,tape c.d. and have gone through them all ,the early ones did address those subjects,it’s been done and they move on to bringing Gospel to the people and baptize and so on.As one who has been on both sides of the fence ,but know ,even after going through losing every material thing ,except t of my books and other ,and a few other things ,I lost everything and my Son who I came back to church for ,left the church a week after I ordained him an Elder . The Gospel is all I have ,and believe me ,it still isn’t easy,in fact my life is …..well it ain’t good ,but if I didn’t have the Gospel in my life and the power of the Priesthood to help me and to help others ,which is basically all I do ,SERVE ,I do things now I never thought i would do ,but I am always glad to help others ,do my Family History ,which after 12 years have 4 lines from my son to Adam and EVe ,and Temple work.So,there are answers that do explain everything ,I promise you ,I spent years and years and too much money buying old books ,but one thing I found out ,This is the restored Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints and the only one with the Authority to act in the name of Jesus Christ and bring people unto HIM,and if you can’t find answers ,look,but look in the right places ,don;t go down a path that you know will tell you nothing but plant a seed of doubt that is dangerously co authered by the father of all lies.Seek out good books,if you want a few titles ,let me know.There is not one thing that I have not read about ,but the book that I always do read and find something there I never read before is in The Book of Mormon! Good luck and God bless you.
The subjects mentioned in the inquiry are covered in the articles the church has published on lds.org. Also, I don’t think Bookcraft is around anymore. Wasn’t it swallowed up by Deseret Book some years back?
When I was young (in the 60’s and 70’s) the Church hid many facts. It took years and years for the Church to finally speak about how many wives Joseph Smith had. And I agree dwelling on weaknesses is not a way to build faith, but seriously, Joseph marrying young girls, wives with living husbands, sisters, etc. And a significant number of his wives were unknown initially by his wife, Emma. That was never really explained to me. In fact I was led to believe that Brigham Young was the great polygamist, not Joseph Smith. But the more we learn, the more it becomes apparent that Joseph Smith had somewhere between 30 and 40 wives. Come on, that is an important fact about the founder of the Church. And until recent times, the Church has not been forthcoming about its history in this regard. For me it would have been better to have received the whole story, warts and all rather than a sanitized version. After all, your faith, is for life. It is very difficult to learn and understand that some of the thing you were taught as a child in Church were not really the entire truth. The same is true with the priesthood ban. The Church has denounced the practice as wrong, yet they have never really apologized. It is a simple fact that somehow Brigham Young’s personal racist belief was adopted as revelation that barred black Africans from the Priesthood and essentially made the LDS membership racists for over a 130 years. There are many today that still believe the priesthood ban was of God. Nothing could be further from the truth. And we need embrace the fact that Joseph Smith had many, many wives and that he really did not follow the requirements of plural marriage. That he married other men’s wives. That he married girls as young as 14. That he married a Mother and daughter. That is kind of creepy. So just ignoring all of this because it is not uplifting isn’t really a good idea. We need to embrace it all. Our prophets are not infallible. They make mistakes. Somethings their personal opinions and feelings become doctrine. Sometimes they break the commandments. It is really our fault for believing that a prophet can do no wrong and blindly follow along even though some of it doesn’t actually seem right. I encourage everyone to read the good, the bad and the ugly if you really want to build a strong testimony. Ignoring the bad helps no one.
I’m not sure how your comment got approved as it is full of false information and attacks on the Church… If you dislike it, leave it be.
You have so many poor, hateful arguments here. It’s sad.
As far as the wives of Joseph Smith, the comments are accurate. The Church has references for at least 34 wives. And regarding Brigham Young, he did make several comments regarding black people that were not flattering. Like many people, the time in which he lived influenced some of his personal beliefs. The overall message has a hateful tone, but I fail to see where the content is false.
Upon lookig at this question again, I would recommend the book Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism, by Richard Lyman Bushman. It explores a lot of details, including facts and rumors surrounding Joseph Smith, his family disposition and circumstances, his surroundings and environment, his employment, and the influences and timeline of the early events of the restoration including the first vision, receiving the gold plates, translating the Book of Mormon, receiving the priesthood, and organizing the church.