Gave a HPG lesson on "knowing the essays"

[Anonymous]

Being that I am in kind of a “what hell, go for it” kind of mood, I saw that the December Ensign actually reprinted the talk by Elder M. Russell Balard to CES folks about knowing the essays and stop teaching false stories (my phrasing of a recap). So I tried to wrap as much of a positive spin on this and gave a 45 minute lesson (with some discussion) on this. Essentially I said that we as fathers and grandfathers had better know this stuff or our kids/grandkids are going to think we don’t even know what the church is teaching now and we will not be there to help them.

The bit of discussion went well. It was not well attended for that day and I wish others could have been there to hear it.

If you want to read it, I have included it here, but it is long.

Quote:

I read in the December Ensign the article taken from Elder M. Russell Ballard. It was given to CES teachers, including even seminary teachers. We all will have chances to be teachers now and then, but I would like to think about his advice as it deals with us being teachers as fathers and grandfathers. Let me read a bit before we get into that. And this is not just for me to lecture. As a father I have had some really interesting questions asked by my kids. I need some of your help on how you might do this.

By Study and by Faith

By Elder M. Russell Ballard

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2016/12/by-study-and-by-faith?lang=eng

Had the class listen to the audio (not MRB, but a narrator) up to 13:47 if you read listen or up to the end of this paragraph if reading it:

Quote:

As you teachers pay the price to better understand our history, doctrine, and practices—better than you do now—you will be prepared to provide thoughtful, careful, and inspired answers to your students’ questions.

=========================================================

(also read the following from later in the talk)

Quote:

As you teach your students and respond to their questions, let me warn you not to pass along faith-promoting or unsubstantiated rumors or outdated understandings and explanations of our doctrine and practices from the past. It is always wise to make it a practice to study the words of the living prophets and apostles; keep updated on current Church issues, policies, and statements through mormonnewsroom.org and LDS.org; and consult the works of recognized, thoughtful, and faithful LDS scholars to ensure you do not teach things that are untrue, out of date, or odd and quirky.

Avoid the temptation to question the motives of your co-laborers. Instead, look deeply into your own heart and search your own desires and motives. Only then can the Savior change your heart and align your desires and motives with His.

Teachers of the gospel today need to accept the opportunity and the responsibility to teach the 21st century’s young people correct principles about the plan.”

========================================================

So, like I said – how does this apply to us as fathers and even grandfathers?

Well I think we all can agree that most of our kids live on their phone more than we do.

So he talks on several items, but if I could summarize some of them I heard:

• Don’t get off course, don’t teach faith promoting stories that are untrue.

• Need to be teaching a bit different than we have in the past.

• Gone are they days to blow off a question or only give testimony for sincere questions and “I don’t know” is a valid answer.

• We need to study up a bit or we won’t even know what our kids are talking about.

• Don’t use Dr. Google

• We should introduce topics first, not wait for others with other motives.

• We should study the 11 gospel topics on LDS.org, know them, share them.

• Be sure not to pass on untrue faith promoting stories.

Let me go through these again and I would like for us to discuss them.

Don’t get off course, don’t teach faith promoting stories that are untrue. This can be a bit hard as some of these have become where many members feel they are true. Some have even been in our official church manuals.

One example. After the death of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, the Church was left leaderless. A meeting was called where Sidney Rigdon got up first and campaigned for himself to be the next leader. Then it was Brigham Young’s turn, and as he spoke, the members witnessed a miracle. It looked to them as if Brigham Young transformed into Joseph Smith before their very eyes. Young looked like Joseph, he sounded like Joseph, and his mannerisms were like Joseph. Clearly this was a miracle to show the members who the next prophet should be.

The only problem is that no one talked about this amazing transformation when it happened. There are no journals, letters, or newspaper accounts written at the time of the meeting that would back up this amazing story. It is true that such a meeting took place. And it is true that both Sidney Rigdon and Brigham Young spoke at the meeting. But no account of the transformation was recorded at that time.

Historians have searched diaries, journals, newspapers, and church records written shortly after the meeting and has found no evidence to verify the “miracle transformation” story.

Brigham’s speech was reported on in detail in both Nauvoo newspapers and recorded by scribes for the official church records. Hundreds of members present wrote about Brigham’s persuasive argument in great detail in their private journals. Nowhere was there a mention of the miraculous or divine.

So where does the story come from? There is no recorded account of the transformation until many years later, after the Saints were settled in Utah. In 1857, 13 years after the speech, Albert Carrington is the first to mention the transformation. In a speech before a huge gathering of Saints, he said that he couldn’t tell Brigham from Joseph that day when Brigham was speaking. Soon others were making the same claim – even people that logistically couldn’t have been in attendance. Even one bishop was recorded at that meeting where this was first mentioned claiming that nothing supernatural had occurred on that day and nobody there said anything like that.

Another one you may have heard me mention in the last talk I gave. We have all heard about the Willie and Martin handcart company. It is often repeated that a survivor said, “nobody that was on that trek has ever said anything bad about it.” That isn’t true. There are documented accounts of several people that left the church and Utah after that. I can have some symphathy as they were told by an apostle that they would have no issues and he would eat every snowflake that would fall.

Now this could be written off as just small things, but I think we all come to church to be edified and strengthen our testimonies. Many people have a particular area that they really like though. Some it is service, some it is association with fellow saints, some it is a deeply spiritual even, some it is the temple, and some really like the intellectual breadth of the gospel. Many can write the above examples off with no issue, but if a person grew up in the church, went to church all the time, went to seminary, went on a mission, attended institute and then finds out there are several cases, some more significant than these, were explained in a very incomplete way, it really erodes the trust in the church and leaders. I have heard of several people leaving the church after only 2 days of study and they say it comes down to a violation of trust. I heard of someone saying it is like you found out your parent had kept an important secret from you and after that you can’t trust much of what they say. It sounds to me like the brethren are working to try and keep this from happening.

Don’t use Dr. Google (I don’t agree with that analogy) Even though this is a catchy phrase, I can’t say it is the most effective analogy I have heard. I think President Uchtdorf also said something to this a few conferences ago. Sure I wouldn’t diagnose my cancer and decide on my treatment, but you bet I lean very heavily on the internet often. Of course I stick with reputable sites like WebMD and Mayo Clinic. About 2 years ago I woke up in the middle of the night with intense stomach pains. I tried antacid to no effect. After about 20 minutes I determined I was not having an appendicitis and could go to bed. Sure enough the doctor diagnosed me with Helicobacter Pylori bacteria. But maybe the point is going to reputable places – internet or real life.

This also reminds me of a quote by President Ruben J Clark, “If we have the truth, it cannot be harmed by investigation. If we have not the truth, it ought to be harmed by harmed.”

I will group some of the other items into one group and talk about them:

Need to be teaching a bit different than we have in the past.

Gone are they days to blow off a question or only give testimony for sincere questions and “I don’t know” is a valid answer.

We need to study up a bit or we won’t even know what our kids are talking about.

We should study the 11 gospel topics essays on LDS.org, know them, introduce topics first, not wait for others with other motives.

I remember a bishop I had that always said something to the effect, “We can’t raise our kids the same way our parents raised us as the world is different. I think this is paralleled in the way the church teaches, especially the youth and how we need to teach.

So one of the big items is the 11 gospel topics. These have been approved by the 1st Presidency and Quorum of the 12. They can be found on lds.org, but oddly enough they have not been talked about much. They are even on your LDS library application. So what are they?

• Are Mormons Christian? Good one to read to be ready to respond when confronted.

• Becoming Like God Talks about our belief in, and limitations of knowledge, in this very unique and empowering doctrine.

• Book of Mormon and DNA Studies Talks about how issues with DNA of native Americans not necessarily showing evidence of middle east ancestors.

• Book of Mormon Translation Talks about how Joseph Smith didn’t translate the Book of Mormon via the Urim and Thummin, but instead via the seer stone. There was also an Ensign article about this just a few months ago.

• First Vision Accounts talks about the 4 different 1st vision accounts and some of the discrepancies.

• Joseph Smith’s Teachings about Priesthood, Temple, and Women discusses a few different topics, even including how Joseph Smith encouraged women to give blessings of healings.

• Mother in Heaven Actually seems to me to be more of “we don’t know that much.”

• Peace and Violence among 19th-Century Latter-day Saints Gets into some of the history and causes of some of the violence. I can say that I grew up thinking that for no reason the church was just always persecuted. History paints a much different picture and I can understand why some of the neighbors of the early church were bothered.

• Plural Marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints There are actually 4 in this topic area. It does not shy away from talking about some of the big issues such as Joseph Smith having 30+ wives, including some that were married to other men at the same time and even marriages to 14 year old girls.

• Race and the Priesthood One that everyone should read and understand. States that it appears previous widespread prejudice morphed into a practice/doctrine that disallowed blacks from the priesthood and temple worship and that the reasons supporting it are debunked.

• Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham Discusses the topic of the papyrus that Joseph Smith translated from not clearly being what was originally described.

I would encourage you all to be familiar with these. None of them are more than a few pages at most.

Our kids, via the internet, have access to nearly all views on topics. And their go-to is the internet.

Quote:

I would add, just like porn – they are going to run aross it even when just dong an innocuous search. And you can’t say, “stay away from Google”. That isn’t going to work.

And in my opinion why this is important is because of the ignorance of being apprised of these topics is causing people to leave. Even President Uchtdorf said in conference a few years ago that not everyone that leaves does so for the “canned” reasons of: lazy, wanting to sin, or never having a testimony. In fact the previous Church Historian, Elder Marlin J. Jensen, said just a few years ago the following when asked if people leaving the church over shock of learning church history was an issue the top church leaders were aware of. His response was:

Quote:

The fifteen men [1st presidency and quorum of the 12] really do know, and they really care. Andy they realize that maybe since Kirtland, we never have had a period of, I’ll call it apostasy, like we’re having right now; largely over these issues.

I see the brethren taking real steps to open up on these issues. The Joseph Smith papers project is a huge undertaking.

And we hear the same call coming from others. I don’t know how many know of Brother Richard Bushman. He is an active LDS member, has been a bishop, stake president, and currently stake patriarch, and an award winning professional historian, and even held the prestigious held the Howard W. Hunter Professor in Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University from 2008 to 2011, a position which the church had a hand in setting up and overseeing who is brought into that position. He not too long ago said:

Quote:

I think that for the Church to remain strong it has to reconstruct its narrative. The dominant narrative is not true; it can’t be sustained. The Church has to absorb all this new information or it will be on very shaky grounds and that’s what it is trying to do and it will be a strain for a lot of people, older people especially. But I think it has to change.

To put it bluntly – are we the old people his is talking about?

Brother Patrick Mason replaced Brother Bushman when he retired from the position of Howard W. Hunter chair of history. Brother Mason has said much the same.

The church announced that the 2017 lessons on Church History will not have an updated printed handbook, but in the next few weeks they will be releasing on the online version many supplemental information/readings on these topics covering some of the information in the lessons. I hope our ward discusses these and I hope each of us keep up with these changes.

So how do we talk about these issues with our kids and maybe even grandkids? Anybody had some experience?

The only way I have framed it from a high level was some words from a friend

Bill Reel said,

Quote:

“My Church’s Narrative is having a truth crisis. It feels as though they are in transition between two stories and are not confident on which one to tell.

They know the simple whitewashed story they told for decades no longer holds up to truth and historical criticism and more importantly it is disruptive to the faith of the younger generation who with information at their fingertips knows it is not true.

On the other hand the new narrative that is developing is certainly historically accurate but the older generation having implemented the old false narrative as part of their foundation will run the risk of a disrupted faith when the paradoxes and contradictions are talked about…. What is a Church to do? …… It is certainly an interesting time to be a Mormon.”

[Anonymous]

Holy awesomeness!

[Anonymous]

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Well done. I’m really happy Elder Ballard’s talk was published in the Ensign. The old schoolers have a hard time dismissing the Ensign because a good chunk of them consider it scripture, especially when written by an apostle.

[Anonymous]

LH – FTW. Best use of lesson time in a long while.

[Anonymous]

mom3 wrote:

LH – FTW. Best use of lesson time in a long while.

Agree!

I kindly showed that issue of the Ensign to a person able to push this to our teachers. We’ll see.

Quote:

Now this could be written off as just small things, but I think we all come to church to be edified and strengthen our testimonies. Many people have a particular area that they really like though. Some it is service, some it is association with fellow saints, some it is a deeply spiritual even, some it is the temple, and some really like the intellectual breadth of the gospel. Many can write the above examples off with no issue, but if a person grew up in the church, went to church all the time, went to seminary, went on a mission, attended institute and then finds out there are several cases, some more significant than these, were explained in a very incomplete way, it really erodes the trust in the church and leaders. I have heard of several people leaving the church after only 2 days of study and they say it comes down to a violation of trust. I heard of someone saying it is like you found out your parent had kept an important secret from you and after that you can’t trust much of what they say. It sounds to me like the brethren are working to try and keep this from happening.

I like how you lay it out. Left the church in 2 days…4 visions…30+ wives…etc. Real life people leaving, real numbers – not “plural marriage.” But you put the positive spin on it and make it clear that we are part of the solution.

[Anonymous]

:thumbup:

[Anonymous]

Excellent.

One of the best lessons I have seen in a long time.

[Anonymous]

Reuben wrote:

Holy awesomeness!

+1

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