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The following posted on my personal blog this morning. I thought I would share it with all of you:
Is it the Church’s duty to create a list called “dirty laundry” and then say, “These are troubling issues that some people have, and here is our best take on them”?
No, not “The Church” at the top leadership level. Their duty is to preach Jesus resurrected and His Church restored. If people want academic treatments, they should turn to academicians to provide them; if they want scientific answers, they should turn to scientists to provide them; if they want historical perspective, they should turn to historians to provide it; if they want “witnessing” answers, they should turn to witnesses to provide them.
I don’t want “The Church” to reincarnate Bruce R. McConkie expressing personal opinion on non-Gospel topics as official doctrine. I want Kevin Barney and Ardis Parshall and Armand Mauss and Richard Bushman and Jan Shipps and Bill McKinnon and Henry Eyring and Hugh Nibley and others “explaining” Mormon history and science and scriptural exegesis and other topics. I want the apostles and prophets to preach and minister and administer.
I don’t want “The Church” to spoon-feed me everything I should eat, pureed to a consistency any baby could digest. I have no problem with generic presentations and statements for the general membership, but I want to figure out how to digest the full feast in its complex form – or to put aside some of the food temporarily and not even try to digest it. I don’t mind if others help me decide what to eat raw, what to boil, what to grill, what to puree and what to discard, but I don’t want “The Church” turning everything into a blended shake that someone thinks should go down smoothly and not cause any indigestion. I like the diverse flavors and consistencies of my food too much to want pablum.
I gave this some serious consideration, but I’m not entirely sure about this Ray. I think there is an expectation that someone who is a prophet or Apostle has some kind of superior knowledge than the rest of us. “Surely the Lord God doeth nothing save he revealeth his secret unto to his servants, the prophets” (Amos 3:7, quoted from memory). One one hand, it’s liberating to lower our expectations of the the Prophet and Apostles so they are not expected to have to have all the answers, but at the same time, I’ve always been wary of opinions that exonerate them from accountability. While it’s a different argument, the old “The Church is perfect but the people aren’t” maxim is a case in point.
I read a comment by a gay saint recently that really struck me between the eyes. He said “I find it hard that a Church which claims revelation and the only true Church status has so few answers about why I’m a homosexual”. Personally, I think it’s hard to separate history from science and from counseling and spirituality and from administration on certain issues that are the bedrock of our existence– they are all part of the pie for many people – some more than others.
I understand the expectation, SD – I just think it’s unrealistic and dangerous, so I don’t want it. Remember, the post is about what I want – not what I see in many instances. (It’s all about me, dude!
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