Mormon,Mormonism Folklore

In this Part, I explain how I came to understand that folklore may not be true. The lessons I learned in this regard have helped me handle conflicts between LDS Church doctrine and science, as well as to better understand Church doctrine and Church history, and I hope my experiences will be useful to others.

I grew up in a small town in Southern Utah. I believed that everything that was said by a General Authority was true. I also believed that the Book of Mormon was the religious history of the American Indians and that the Lamanites had scattered over the face of the Western hemisphere and were thus the principle ancestors of the Indians.

I served a LDS mission from 1956 to 1958, and I served primarily in West Virginia. As a missionary we spent our time doing door-to-door tracting. While in Clarksburg, West Virginia, we encountered quite a few members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I knew nothing about their religious beliefs, so I studied LDS Church history to better understand why the early leaders of that church hadn't gone west with Brigham Young.

General Authorities May Be In Disagreement

While studying LDS history, I came upon a conflict between Joseph Fielding Smith of the Council of the Twelve and B. H. Roberts of the First Council of the Seventy. Two General Authorities of the LDS Church who disagreed about a point of history. I don't remember the subject of their disagreement, but I realized that both couldn't be right. One had to be right and the other had to be wrong, or they both had to be wrong. This was the first time that I realized that LDS General Authorities might say or publish incorrect statements. That was quite an eye-opener for a young LDS man. While doing this study, I came across a statement by Elder John Taylor that helped me solve the dilemma of two General Authorities being in disagreement (I call him Elder Taylor, because his statement was made before he became President of the Church). Elder Taylor said that the Church can not be held responsible for the statement of any Elder. The Church can only be held responsible for the scriptures. I don't know if Elder Taylor meant his phrase "any Elder" to apply to General Authorities, but I took it that way. I realized that if the Church is not responsible for statements made by General Authorities, then those statements are given as personal opinion not as revelation. This solved my dilemma about two General Authorities being in disagreement. I realized that General Authorities are not infallible and that they have personal opinions about religious and historical matters. This realization has been invaluable to me throughout my life, especially when I've encountered anti-Mormon literature.

Folklore is Common in the Church

Shortly before beginning my mission, I attended a fireside in which a professor at the College of Southern Utah talked about Mormon myths. One of the myths he discussed was the story of the origin of the Mormon Battalion that I discussed in Part 1 of this post. Another myth that he discussed was the common belief among Utah Mormons (maybe non-Utah Mormons too, I don't know) that the Negroes did not hold the Priesthood because in the pre-existence, they were neutral in the war in Heaven. They didn't follow Satan in the war, so they came to earth to experience mortality, but they didn't follow Christ so they were deprived of the Priesthood during their mortality. The speaker explained that even though that story about the Negroes was a common belief, it was not taught in the scriptures. The lesson I learned from that fireside, that not all beliefs that are commonly held by Church members have been substantiated as truth, has been helpful to my understanding of LDS doctrine and history.

Church Leaders are Human

The bottom line to this, as far as I am concerned, is that members and leaders of the LDS Church are not infallible. They are human and have the weaknesses of mortality that we all have. They have personal opinions about religious matters and may express those opinions, as well as make mistakes, in their sermons and writings. This human factor does not detract from their callings as Apostles and Prophets, Stake Presidents, Bishops, etc. It just means they are human like you and me. God has chosen them to be His leaders, but He does not violate their agency by preventing them from being human and from making mistakes as they fulfill their callings.

Compare Statements by Church Leaders With the Scriptures

Elder Taylor said the Church can only be held accountable for the scriptures, so when I hear or read statements from Church Leaders that seem unusual, I compare those statements with the scriptures and with official Church policies. If the statements are not taught in the scriptures or in Church policies, I consider the statements as personal beliefs, and I don't get overly concerned about them. The statements I'm referring to could be in Conference talks, BYU religious talks, talks by visiting authorities at Stake Conferences, books published by individuals, books and manuals published by the Church, and statements published in the Deseret Morning News and the Church News. Many LDS disagree that I include books, manuals, and newspapers published by the Church, because those persons consider such books as official statements by the Church. I include literature published by the Church because of the "human factor" of the committees that create the literature -- mistakes will occur. As an example of this, before my Mission President was called on his mission, his wife had been a member of a committee that approved manuals for use by the Sunday School. She told us about a particular manual that had been approved and had been used in the Sunday School but was later withdrawn because errors were discovered in the book.