Elder Holland withdraws story

What’s the TL;DR version of this? (Feeling lazy). I haven’t heard anything about it.

I love President Holland, and admire his response to the situation. I do wish that the Church would more often take this stance. As it stands, there are many instances where rumors, falsehoods, and misinformation remain uncorrected, and it has greatly “diminished my trust”, and “twarted transparency and humility”. One of the biggest doctrines of the Church I disagree with, is from Moroni, Chapter 7.

For every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.

According to LDS doctrine, the LDS Church is the only church led, accepted by, and approved of by Christ. It is “the only true and living Church upon the face of the earth.” By this, it stands to reason that any faith inspiring story which builds up faith and brings people unto the LDS Church is inspired of God, and must therefore be true. But it is obvious it is not. You cannot bring people to believe in something that is “true” by distorting, altering, omitting, or concealing the truth. What troubles me most, is when people are converted to mormonism through mis-information, as I have.

What can we do to correct this? Exactly what President Holland did. When new information arises that goes against our original beliefs and testimony, correct them. Admit when we are wrong, and take steps to ensure any falsehoods are not prepetuated. As Abraham Lincoln put it,

“It is better to be only sometimes right, than at all times wrong; so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.”

And again, from John Maynard Keynes,

“When the facts change, I alter my conclusions. What do you do, sir?”

In our ward the original version was recently read in Sacrament Meeting. Not retold but read. While I was listening to it I almost gagged because it was way over the top.

The baby brother who was born after the rebellious son left home in a rage, just happens to be sent on a mission to the very location where this prodigal son lived. The story even begins on this dramatic note of two drooling Doberman Pincers guarding the house and how the two young missionaries just kept praying as they walked past the gated yard. Even the mean dogs backed down. Like a miracle. The young elder steps up and says to the tattooed wild man on the porch are you so and so. Mom and Dad have been praying for you and I am here to bring you home. And the prodigal is found, heart softened, and all rejoiced. David and Goliath, Moses and the Red Sea, had nothing on this most amazing account.

Where the choking really took off for me, Elder Holland then went on to equate that every person in the story had been led by the Holy Ghost to help find this one man. The young Elders, small and unprotected in this terrible world. The parents who trusted God and had another child. The Brethren who assigned this baby brother to that area. And on and on and on. I didn’t even want to share it here because I didn’t want to spread the message. It reminded me of that fake quote missionaries used to read about “Living in Gordon B. Hinckley’s day. Arriving at the final judgement. Angels bowing and crying before us for our valiance, etc, etc.”

Yesterday the ward got an email with the retraction. I cried tears of joy. I pray the retraction never gets lost. I salute the family for stopping it in it’s tracks and for Elder Holland to respect the family and publish a formal retraction. That story could have gone on to kill millions.

We as a church aren’t the only ones who do this. Build a story to meteoric proportions and retell them as faith promoting gospel. I heard one the other on the Catholic Radio Network. I won’t drag out all the details but the synopsis was the Pope healed a young woman’s infertility.

It was a long winding road of barreness, the miscarriage, and grief (none of which I believe are exaggerated). She and her husband (the man telling the story) were closing out their mission from some far off region of the world. Burdened with sorrow because of their inability to conceive a child. They happened to being passing through Rome on a day when the Pope was out greeting the people. He happened to stop, bless them and pray for them. 18 months later, to the the day of that prayer, a baby boy joined the family. They realized the irony of the date as they held their infant son. It seemed only fitting then, that they name him after Pope Whomever.

This is a story that will wind it’s way through Catholicism for decades. The young man will tell it, his parents will tell it, the radio DJ’s will tell it. Likely he has a cover story in a magazine.

We yearn for these. They bolster hope. Religion becomes alive through them. So once again, bless Elder Holland and the family for stepping up and closing the door on the Saturday’s Warrior Mission Tale.

A few years ago my daughter was assigned a talk in primary on temples. My wife has an ancestor that did work on the nauvoo temple even after they knew that they would abandon it to the mob.

I wrote a talk where he comes to SLC and does work on the SLC temple. This temple they would keep. More than 100 years later my daughter’s parents (yup that is DW and me) were married for time and eternity in that same temple. Share testimony of gratitude for the sacrifices and perseverance of our pioneer ancestors and how thankful to know that our family can be together forever.

It was a great and short talk. Unfortunately it wasn’t completely true. DW’s ancestor was sent to colonize the Ogden area and did not personally work on the SLC temple. DW made me change that part to read that the ancestor indirectly contributed to the SLC temple through tithes and offerings.

Anyway – Let’s just say that, as a storyteller, I understand how to deviate from strict historicity for dramatic effect.

I understand religion to be humanity’s attempt to tell its own story – a story that is better than cold reality. A little embellishment is part of the magic.

I share things Inleaned from my father all the time – inside and outside church.

The issue is that I quote him a lot (“My dad used to say, ‘…'”) – when, in reality, the quotes are just my summary of what I learned from him. It simply is MUCH easier than trying to explain every time the entire learning process.

Third-party stories are tricky. I hope fewer are told, and more are researched better before being told.

I love that he retracted this. I commend his integrity.

The problem with these types exaggerated stories is that people cling to them as proof that God’s hand is guiding things, that coincidences are God’s actions in our lives. So if they aren’t accurate, then it’s a false witness of that, one that undermines the credibility of the idea that God is guiding things in people’s lives.