It's official: scholars, especially those in the humanities/social sciences, are the whipping boys for the grassroots of the church. I've blogged on this before, but it was a while ago, so hey why not?
I just extend a call to all of my bloggers who have ever been faced with a theoretical, historical, or philosophical question concerning doctrine or church history...FIND THE ANSWERS! I just had an opportunity to talk with a future pastor last night...wonderful experience. Good man and a helping soul...but sure enough, I began talking w/him about politics, religion, and (the good Mormon politico that I am) Mitt Romney. His first response: "I don't THINK Romney's a polygamist" (emphasis his)...
Now I could have said that we don't practice that anymore, such things are things of the past. Next question (even if unspoken): why did you practice it AT ALL? Well, there's answer #1): there were more women than men, etc. etc. blah blah (which is not supported by the evidence but whatever you like...) and #2) well, that's just what was commanded by God. Neither of these answers (even though the latter is correct) make for good discourse...too many atrocities have been justified using similar rationales.
Fortunately, I was equipped for such a question...I knew it would come up at some point so I immersed myself in the more controversial aspects of the practice (though I'm FAR, FAR from knowing everything)...I was equipped to give him a decent answer in language that accurately reflected our morality, our faith in our fathers' morality, and our willingness to stomach how our fathers' viewed marital systems. If I had not immersed myself in this information, I would be left saying: "Well, we just don't do that anymore." And that, I've found, generally leaves more questions than answers...
My friends...it is for this reason that we MUST NOT be afraid of our history...we can have zeal AND knowledge simultaneously. And there are great resources that can provide us with INTELLECTUALLY RESPECTABLE answers to the stickiest of questions. In this age of publicity, we must be willing to engage the public questions of the day--polygamy, the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The Church has even invested a mountain of money in publishing Joseph Smith's papers in their entirety just to demonstrate this spirit of willingness to engage the public. We, as good Latter Day Saints, must do no less.
Final Blog Reflection
13 years ago
2 comments:
When it has come to Polygamy in the church, being a new member I had to figure out the real reason for that and find a good explanation for when people ask me. When I joined the church, I had such a great love for it that I didn't want something as silly as that getting in the way of other people joining.
So what I have decided is the best way is to just tell them. Everything. Obviously if they are asking, they are curious. And what better answer to give them than the actual truth?
So, my answer is this (which can cause some more discussion on revelation...*sigh*): When Joseph Smith was studying the Bible (much emphasis is put on this because most people don't doubt this)he came across the ancient prophets and men who has multiple wives. He knew this wasn't something that was right, so Joseph asked Heavenly Father why they were allowed to do that in those days. Heavenly Father
s response was that He would not understand unless he followed it Himself. The more Joseph tried to find the answer, the more he knew what Heavenly Father said to him was right. He was then commanded to follow the principle so he could understand the prophets.
Joseph Smith followed this commandment, even though it was hard to accept. The main idea of the polygamy was actually followed by simply helping the widowed and supporting the families without fathers. Others sometimes abused the commandment and used it to their advantage. In every church, there will be people to deal with. Overall though, the lesson was learned and many prospered from it.
The commandment finally came years later that it was not the will of God anymore that we follow the practice, and since then, we haven't. Unfortunately, there are still people who follow the practice, and we do NOT support them.
The simple answer: We follow our Heavenly Father's guidance, whether we understand or not. If he tells us we need to practice polygamy, we do. If he told us to do anything, we would. Even if that meant getting shunned by society. It's a hard road to follow God sometimes, but ultimately we are faithful, and if we didn't follow one thing, how could we honestly call ourselves the Church of Jesus Christ? If we refuse to do something that we are told, we cease to be the true church. Therefore, however hard it may be, we know are the true Church of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and we will follow Him.
Russ, I can only agree with you to a point. There are a few problems with this.
I think your opinion is a little skewed because you're skilled in history. You know how to process information somewhat objectively and relate it to others in clear and concise ways that are helpful.
The problem is, not everyone has this set of skills, and a little history in the hands of the unskilled is dangerous.
I know we need to be able to answer questions bilingually. We need to be able to explain to people spiritually as well as secularly the answers to the tougher questions of Church history. However, the emphasis should probable stay on the spiritual side. I've found that if I were to guess, about 90% of the time I have observed someone trying to explain historical context as it relates to Gospel questions, people have succeeded only in making the water more muddy, and tossing out wildly inaccurate information. And this inaccurate information, once studied and proven false, lays bare the only explanation we had.
I know what I'm saying could be construed as, "People are idiots, and when they try to explain history, they fail, so we shouldn't encourage people to learn history." That's only about... hmm... 60% of what I'm trying to say. The other 40% is... well... there's a reason our missionaries aren't taught a Church History course in the MTC.
Look at Bible scholarship and you'll see the result of secular explanations. Watch a History Channel special on "Who Was Jesus?" or "Secrets of the Bible" or something and you'll see that one of the downfalls of the Bible was the fact that everyone's trying to explain/prove their point with historical facts and context. And the resulting... uhh... result... is that it's been reduced to a historical, and not spiritual, document.
Anyway, more on this later but class is starting.
Post a Comment