Avoiding Doctrinal Deception

(Note, I started this post back in September of 2013 when this article came out)

So, in recent news, the prophet known as LDS Newsroom has published another revelation. The title of this publication is called, "5 ways to detect and avoid doctrinal deception".  Actually, rather than seeming to have the weight and authority of some unnamed, but very powerful, leader of the church, this one is acknowledged as having been written by a staff writer. This was a surprising shift from the usual seemingly authoritative pronouncements that have come out of the LDS Newsroom.

Aside from this avoidance of attributing authorship of official church pronouncements to specific leaders of the church, I found the article amusing. The first thing I realized is that it is written as a summary of a talk by a church educator. The article starts off by saying that the educator received a call from Neal A Maxwell asking about some popular book. The name of the book isn't mentioned, so we can't make any kind of judgment about it on our own, but apparently the educator said it contained, "a lot of doctrinal problems". While we don't get to learn what those are, Millet (the educator) goes on on to explain that Maxwell said that the members of the church can be so gullible. I find it interesting that Maxwell didn't read the book and make a determination on his own.

Besides that, Maxwell also accuses the members of the church, of not only being gullible but, that they (we) lack doctrinal sophistication.

Hmmm, I wonder whose fault that would be?

If members of the church lack doctrinal sophistication - and LDS church members are highly active among church going people - where does the fault lie? Perhaps the leaders should provide a little more of that doctrinal sophistication. This highlights the perpetual behavior of church leaders towards the members. Everything is always the fault of the members! It just reminds me of dealing with a spoiled child. Nothing is ever their fault.

Moving on. The article ends with a quote from Joseph Smith that basically says that anybody who questions the church (or its leaders) is on the road to apostasy and will apostatize if they don't repent.

Yep, it is true. Apostasy is another word for figuring out the leaders of the church are full of it. I have gotten to the point where I don't really care any more. The church is full of it. The people are good people. They work hard and do try really hard to follow the teachings of the church. You can't condemn them for that. They just believe it to varying degrees and try to live accordingly. I can't find fault with the members of the church for the most part. I just have some that I would rather hang out with more than others. Life is short, so I do just that.