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Regarding the new Joseph Smith manual

[The following is an email message to the Curriculum Development department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in response to their request for comments and suggestions on the new Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith manual.]

Greetings,

I am grateful for this opportunity to offer my feedback on the
Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith. I hope that
what I say will be helpful to you.

It seems, from what I’ve read, that this manual follows a pattern
established in the other lesson manuals. The manual portrays Joseph
Smith as monogamous, mentioning only his marriage to Emma Hale. This
one example represents in my mind a general pattern in materials
published by the church: presenting only a selection of the available
historical facts. I imagine that this is to avoid presenting
information that will damage the fragile faith of new members and
those who waver, those who “cannot bear meat now, but milk they must
receive” (D&C 19:22). I had once accepted this rationale with the
expectation that the meat of LDS history was available in official
church materials to those who sought it.

Having graduated from the church’s seminary and institute programs, I
believed that I knew the important facts of LDS history because I had
exhausted official church materials. All the same, I felt that I
should be more familiar with the details of church history, so I set
out to study church history with greater focus. Little by little, I
began to realize that certain materials from the church’s history that
could be seen as unflattering or doctrinally unorthodox were missing
from all official publications. I felt disappointed and a little
ashamed to learn that I was unaware of these facts because I needed to
trust that the church was providing me with all important information.
I also wanted to believe that my faith was founded on good
information. This feeling of disillusionment led ultimately to my
choice to renounce my faith.

I wonder if the leading councils of the church have hoped that the
general membership could avoid coming across bits of troublesome
history. I believe that the increased worldwide attention on the
church and wider availability of information on the internet makes any
such hope unfounded.

I have always valued the pursuit of and loyalty to the truth. I
treasure this as a legacy of my Mormon pioneer forebears. I want my
family who choose to actively participate in the church to have all
the truth. I worry that if I try to present the historical truth to
them that they will either perceive it as an attack or believe that I
am lying because their church tells a different story. I hope instead
that they can come to rely on their church to provide that history
openly and honestly, even when it isn’t flattering to the church’s
public image or doesn’t support its current doctrinal stance. I hope
the church can find a way to openly address the uncomfortable parts of
its past.

I ask that you consider making more of the troublesome historical
facts available through official church publications. Perhaps you feel
that the Melchizedek Priesthood/Relief Society manuals are not the
appropriate place to present troublesome history, but please find a
place somewhere in your curriculum. If you are already considering or
implementing this, please consider this message a voice of
encouragement.

Thank you for asking for comments and for taking the time to read my
message.

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5 Comments

  1. Cliff said,

    October 20, 2007 @ 10:14 am

    Sounds good. I think you were helpful and had a good tone of ‘voice’.

  2. Kullervo said,

    October 21, 2007 @ 7:06 pm

    Sorry, but this is gonna get filed in the circular file.

  3. Jonathan Blake said,

    October 22, 2007 @ 9:56 am

    Kullervo,

    Perhaps it might. Well, probably it will, especially if this is the only message like it that they receive. I still feel the need to do something futile once in a while if only so I can assuage my conscience. I can tell myself I tried. I still hold out a little hope because I see the Mormon church as a human institution. Human institutions are capable of change and adaptation.

  4. Jonathan Blake said,

    October 23, 2007 @ 12:13 pm

    For what it’s worth, this was reply to my message which I received this morning:

    “Dear Jonathan…
    Thank you for your recent e-mail regarding the Teachings of the Presidents of the Church – Joseph Smith. We will keep a copy of your e-mail for consideration by those responsible for changes in our manuals. Your comments are always welcome.

    “Best Regards

    “Curriculum Department”

    At least they promised to “keep a copy”. ;)

  5. Green Oasis » Whitewashed History said,

    October 27, 2007 @ 5:19 pm

    [...] eloquently expressed my frustrations and fears that motivated my letter about the new Joseph Smith manual: It hurts that the church continues to whitewash and doctor its history even [...]

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