Elder Turley and Elder Oaks gave a talk called “Who’s on the
Lord’s side”, about apostasy in Boise, Idaho.
According to these LDS leaders the purpose of this message
was: 1) to answer questions of the faithful and 2) master disabling doubts
(they pretty much talked about the difference between questions and doubts).
The message lasted approximately 1 ½ hours. The first part
of the message Elder Turley talked about the book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. The
last 40 minutes it was Elder Oaks the one in charge and his main topic was
apostasy in the last days. According to Elder Oaks, to determine if a
person is an apostate, you just have to ask the 2 following questions:
1) How do you feel about Joseph Smith and the
book of Mormon?
2)
How do you feel about present prophetic
leadership?
I was surprised elder Oaks used the word feel instead
of believe to formulate these questions. I thought Mormons are supposed
to “believe”, without any doubt, that the book of Mormon is true and that all
prophets past and present are Gods representatives here on earth, including all
LDS leadership. Sometimes we can have a “feeling” something is not right, but
we cannot be sure of it because of lack of knowledge. Therefore, “feeling” is
not the same as “believe.” When you believe something you are sure of it and
have no doubt. When you “feel” something there is still doubt. Maybe he
meant we should “believe” these things instead of just “having feelings” about
these things.
It is possible that more and more people in the church are
experiencing these “feelings”/doubts that something is wrong with the church
and now leaders have decided to condone “these feelings”/doubts as a sign of
apostasy. Elder Oaks proceeded to affirm that “if those feelings are
negative then you are on the road to apostasy.” This statement gives
apostasy a different definition than the rest of religions. Most religions
define apostasy as “abandoning one faith, beliefs (not feelings which is more
subjective) and practices. This apostasy has nothing to do with religious
leaders (since many religious leaders in history have abused children and committed
other crimes). Therefore, it makes no sense to require loyalty to leaders that
are imperfect, human and sometimes even evil.
The Mormon apostasy taught by our leaders is that if we
have negative feelings about Joseph Smith/current leaders, then you are an
apostate. Going by this rule, many active and faithful members who don’t
feel good about Joseph Smith because of polygamy, are now considered apostates
by these standards. The good news is that as long as they keep these feelings
hidden, they will not be excommunicated from the church. Yeah, what a relief. But
how long can people keep feelings inside, bottled up until they explode? Is
this approach healthy for our mental health? I wonder what a psychologist would
say about this. One thing I know for sure is oppressed feelings are not
healthy. One of the worst feelings you can have is not being able to tell the
truth or express what you feel and believe.
Click to read article called: Are your secrets making you
sick? http://www.ksl.com/index.php?sid=35021051&nid=1010&title=are-your-secrets-keeping-you-sick&s_cid=queue-7
Elder Oaks also mentioned that “members of the church
that say the Spirit told them LDS leaders are wrong in any way, they are
apostates.” I say, what about abuse? Are we supposed to be silent when we
see leaders abusing their position of leadership? It is not correct to speak in
general terms about this subject. The message being sent here is that we cannot
question leaders at all, in any way. The message is that LDS leaders don’t need
our feedback even if what we are telling is true. Elder Oaks would be wise and
humble to consider his words and make sure he explains if there are any exemptions
to this position.
Elder Oaks also said that one of the manifestations of
apostasy is that “the Spirit of darkness persuades false prophets to say LDS
leaders are wrong in some way or in error, and that they are the ones to
correct them.”
I have to agree with Elder Oaks that if someone says they
are sent by God to correct leaders or anyone else for the matter, we are not in
the obligation to believe them and it sounds kind of fishy. When people
disagree with leaders for the sole purpose of taking their authority away from
them, most likely they are being influenced by an evil spirit greedy for power.
But further explanation is necessary to make sure members don’t generalize this
theory and start treating everyone that disagrees with the leadership like they
are possessed by darkness. Because not all who disagree with leaders want
their power and authority. Some of us who disagree with leaders is because we
sincerely look to know the truth of all things. Some of us look for further
light and knowledge. Some of us believe the truth will set us free. That’s all.
We don’t even care about having positions of leadership in the church or power
over people. I have to add that you don’t need to be a prophet to correct
someone that is wrong, be a leaders or a regular member. We are here on earth
to help/correct each other, always with love.
Would you have the kindness of correcting these statements Elder
Oaks? Would you be so kind to make it clear that not everyone that disagrees
with church leaders are inspired by a Spirit of darkness? We hope so, because
with messages like this one, you break the hearts of many that are inactive and
many that are faithful but remain silent.
Next, Elder Oaks explains the difference between questions
and doubts. He says “questions lead to revelation, but doubts lead to
disobedience and darkness.” Why Elder Oaks? Why this persistence in demonizing
people for having doubts? Why do you make things so complicated and confusing?
Are you following the old strategy of “if you cannot explain them the truth
then confuse them?
Elder Oaks, you know very well that not all doubts end in disobedience.
Some members still have doubts about some gospel principles but obey them
anyway. In the temple we are taught Adam offered sacrifices without knowing the
reason, but he wanted to be obedient. Many members follow the example of Adam
and keep the commandments in spite of sincere doubts. Why the
generalization? Do you do this on purpose or because of ignorance? Do you do
this to place the responsibility of doubts on the doubters, instead of
acknowledging that leaders are responsible to teach true doctrine to clarify
these doubts? I myself paid tithing for over 20 years waiting for the windows
of heaven to open and I obeyed this principle for a long, long, long time, even
though I had doubts.
And didn’t you know that every person who has doubts asks
questions? Don’t you know that first comes the doubt and then comes the
question? And if the question is sincere, then how is that possible that the
doubt that originated that “sincere question” came from a Spirit of darkness?
Didn’t Joseph Smith have doubts about which church to join and then revelation
came with the answer? Doesn’t the example of Joseph Smith show us that
revelation comes from having doubts first and asking questions second? It is
not true that doubts only brings disobedience and darkness. When someone
doesn’t have doubts, then he/she doesn’t have any questions. Without doubts
there could be no questions. It is as simple as that. The gospel is beautiful
because it is simple. Why then all this mayhem and time explaining these so
called differences between doubts and questions, making doubts look like they
are evil, when in fact, thanks to doubts we can ask good questions and receive
knowledge? In the end, the purpose of this speech was to answer the
questions of the faithful, as you stated in the beginning, but all you did was
to talk about what questions and doubts are, instead of answering any questions
at all. Maybe this is one of the reasons people complain that leaders are not
answering questions.
And finally, Elder Oaks said “it is not true that the LDS
church focuses too much on following the leaders instead of following God.”
But in fact, the whole message was about Joseph Smith, the book of Mormon, if
you say the leaders are wrong you are an apostate and if you follow the LDS
leaders you are following Christ because LDS leaders are servants of God. Jesus
Christ was barely mentioned on this speech at the end, and only to assure
members that LDS leaders are servants of Christ.
It is very unfortunate that many of us experience that
church focuses more on following the leaders instead of following Christ. If
it was true that the LDS church focuses more on following Christ, then LDS
leaders would not have any problem when their behavior is questioned, because
if we follow Christ, we have to question to make sure the leaders we are
following are in truth servants of Christ and not wolves in sheep clothing. In
order for us to follow Christ, we need to be careful to not put our trust in
the arm of the flesh like the scriptures teach us.
Any good leader and
true servant of Christ would be happy to be evaluated and receive feedback by
the members of their church, and to be found worthy of their support,
friendship, respect and admiration. Because in doing so, leaders show their
willingness to be an example of Christ, being humble to the feedback of others,
being meek to serve better those they love. Nothing was mentioned in this
speech about making sure we support only good leaders that serve Christ.
There have been problems with LDS leaders that abuse and bully others, and
engage in other types of abuse and “unbecoming behavior of a church leader.”
These leaders are not following Christ or his gospel. We should not be
taught that all LDS leaders serve Christ because it is not true. This is the
message people are getting because of omission, because when our leaders don’t
talk about something like this, people get the wrong idea. It is dangerous to
follow leaders that are not true followers of Christ. Elder Oaks pointed out
that “leaders don’t claim to be perfect”, but these same leaders that know they
are not perfect, still require the type of obedience that doesn’t question, the
type of obedience that should be given only to a perfect God, not to imperfect
leaders; even if they serve Christ. If
it is true LDS leaders accept they are not perfect, then why do they insist on
us following them, without questioning, like if they were perfect? Their words
say they are not perfect, but their actions require that we follow them like if
they were infallible, perfect, like God. Is this not taking attention away from
following God? When actions and words don’t match, it is very confusing. No one
has the right to require unquestionable obedience, only God.
Overall, the problem of apostasy in the church in the last
days, according to our leaders, seems to be the sole responsibility of members.
We are the ones that should have only sincere questions. We are the ones that
should not have doubts. We are the ones that should follow them. We are the
ones that should have positive feelings about leaders. We are the only ones
that can be possessed by the Spirit of darkness (because leaders are immune to
the attacks of evil spirits?)We are the ones to do the work, to repent, to
obey, to follow, etc… What are the LDS leaders responsible for in all this
apostasy problem? Are they not accountable to follow Christ or to be good
leaders? Why are their messages always about members not doing what is right?
It is obvious that this problem of apostasy is a problem
that affects us all, active and inactive Mormons. And we are all responsible
for it, including leaders. Because any church or organization needs good
leaders, and leaders need the members as well. Because we need each other. If
we cannot understand this, there is apostasy, division in the church, in our
neighborhoods and in our families. This apostasy problem is not going to be
fixed unless we all do our part. We the members cannot do this alone. LDS
leaders have to do their part and take action, speeches are nice but are not
actions. But any changes have to come from inspired leaders, without inspired
leaders we will have more apostasy and more people leaving the church.
Experience has taught us that being called to a position of leadership doesn’t
give any person automatic inspiration. In the same way “wearing priestly robes
doesn’t make a man into a servant of Christ.” But the first step is always the
hardest, to admit we are imperfect, means to admit even the prophet can err,
and this is something LDS leaders are never going to admit. In the end we all
will harvest what we planted, including LDS leaders.
