Stopping Time: On Why Some Remain Unconverted

I have a friend who identifies himself as one. Unfortunately, methinks that the term becomes yet another auspice under which one can volley criticisms at the Church..."I'm just being open and transparent." For me, being an "open Mormon" is something quite different.

I had an interesting conversation with a woman today. Missionaries (being as overly-sensitive as they are to any kind of vigorous discussion) would call it a bash. I disagree heartily...I called it posing and answering meaningful questions...and frankly, it prompted her to listen more than she would have. So you can doubt my strategy if you like, but I saw it work (ah the great paradox...I just used the "just bear your testimony" technique to demonstrate how one can do more than "just bear your testimony").

Her stance, while very respectful, was almost tautological in its approach. She had determined that Joseph Smith was a fraud...and therefore could funnel (at least in her own mind) all new information through that lens. I wondered...why? I had a very difficult time believing that she was that closed to the Spirit that she would be unwilling to entertain the possibility. Perhaps it was the "false traditions of her fathers," yet so many overcome such limitations. Why not her? Her agency? Well, that's not very comforting...I'm still left believing that she ultimately chose to fight the spirit of revelation. There must be a different explanation.

Orson F. Whitney portrayed it perfectly:

Perhaps the Lord needs such men on the outside of his Church, to help it along. They are among its auxiliaries, and can do more good for the cause where the Lord has placed them, than anywhere else… Hence, some are drawn into the fold and receive a testimony of Truth, while others remain unconverted…the beauties and glories of the gospel being veiled temporarily from their view, for wise purpose. The Lord will open their eyes in his own due time…God is using more than one people for the accomplishment of his great and marvelous work. The Latter Day Saints cannot do it all. It is too vast, too arduous for any one people…We have no quarrel with the Gentiles. They are our partners in a certain sense.

One might compare these perceptions to a person's reaction to Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity concerning the speed of light and time perception (not a physicist, so if I'm dead wrong, you can correct me--but if I'm right, then you can say: "What a well-rounded person he is"). Basically, if one travels at the speed of light, then the perception of time slows down until time essentially ceases to exist to those outside one's frame of reference. One's length decreases. Poppycock, a simple-minded critic would say. They'll take their regular old 24-hour days, thank you very much.

We must understand that we are asking investigators to do something similar...stop time. It's possible, but it's utterly fantastic, even absurd to the uninitiated. And what if taking such ideas seriously would cause them to lose faith in their families, in everything? I've seen what happens when individuals open themselves up fully to radically different after their worldview has fallen apart...the new paradigm consumes them. They lose balance in life. They become a creature of ideology.

Is it possible, as President Whitney said, that some are kept from the truth not only because they know where to find it but also because the Lord would rather have them elsewhere for the time being? If the Pope joined the Church, there would not likely be massive Mormon baptisms, but charges of scandal, of madness, of intrigue. If Mother Theresa had become a member, could she have retained her credibility? Could it not be the Pope, Mother Theresa and others are/were doing their parts in the vast work of temporal and spiritual salvation? While they might be introducing incorrect doctrines, isn't it possible that the Lord plans on getting that straightened out later...in the meantime, he needed Mother Theresa's humanitarianism, Martin Luther's defiance, and Isaac Newton's mind?