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Orson Scott Card: Nothing to fear from the truth [Mormon - Open]
Mormon Times ^ | July 15, 2010 | Orson Scott Card

Posted on 07/15/2010 7:01:35 AM PDT by Colofornian

When I got home from my mission back in 1973, I discovered that my family had become close with the family of James B. Allen, who was then serving as assistant church historian. (I would bring the families even closer — in 1977 I married his oldest daughter.)

During the winter of 1974, with my future wife off on a BYU semester abroad in Paris, I occupied my time by working on writing a play about Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail. Sections 121 and 122 of the Doctrine and Covenants had become very important to me on my mission, and I wanted to know the whole story behind them.

So my future father-in-law took me up to the Church Historical Department and helped me find a lot of excellent information — including photocopies of letters written in the Prophet's own hand to his wife.

I also read books and monographs that Professor Allen steered me to, detailing key events during the Saints' time in Missouri. That was when I found out for the first time that the Saints, including many of their leaders, had not been exactly wise in their dealings with each other and with their non-Mormon neighbors.

No actions of the Saints justified the way they were treated by their enemies, but some of their words and actions, magnified and spread as rumors, made many of the non-Mormon settlers feel justified in fearing the Saints and wanting to drive them out.

It was a time of turmoil, with some of the most prominent church leaders turning against the Prophet and getting excommunicated in the process. Some of them signed affidavits that appeared to justify criminal charges against Joseph Smith.

These things certainly explained what the Lord was talking about when he said, "If thou art accused with all manner of false accusations …," and comforted the Prophet with the words, "Thy people shall never be turned against thee by the testimony of traitors" (D&C 122:6, 3).

I found out for the first time about the "Danite band," a group of Mormons who, outraged by the offenses against the Saints, undertook to defend the Saints by force of arms — including "retaliations" against non-Mormons who may or may not have had anything to do with persecutions of the church.

With all the lies and accusations being hurled during that time, I found it very difficult to know just how much, if anything, Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wight and other Mormon leaders knew about the Danites.

I took these problems to Professor Allen. Instead of telling me what was false and what was factual — which, under the circumstances, was almost impossible to ascertain — he instead taught me a principle much deeper and truer, which I could apply to all of LDS history.

I don't remember now whether he actually said it, or whether I extrapolated it from his testimony and his calmness about the conflicting information from the Missouri era, but this is the principle I came away with:

Whatever happened or didn't happen, Joseph Smith was the Prophet of God, and the gospel is true.

Without realizing it, I had been letting my testimony slip into a dangerous condition of contingency. That is, I had been letting the accusations of traitors and anti-Mormons raise doubts in my own heart about whether the actions of church leaders had always been wise or good — and then I had been letting those doubts reach into the deeper place where my faith in the gospel resided.

So, with Professor Allen's example before me, I leaned back and took a deep breath and thought about things.

From years of study before and during my mission, as well as personal experiences, I knew that God lived and this church was the chief organ of his work in the world.

Just because I was now finding out details about church history that had not been taught to me in Sunday School or in some of the official histories did not mean that the things I had been taught were not true.

In short, why should I let my own previous ignorance make me doubt things about the gospel that I had ample reason to be certain of?

I learned to approach church history, right up to the present, with this attitude: This happened … and the church is true.

Mistakes, misjudgments, speculations about doctrine and some indefensible actions were done by members of the church. But the imperfections of those called to the service of the Lord never imply that God's hand is not in the church.

Instead, they affirm the true principle that the Lord does not turn his followers into sock puppets or ventriloquists' dummies. People are always free to make their choices — even bad ones — and to hold on to their misunderstandings.

Knowing ourselves, how can we be surprised to discover that Saints were also imperfect in the past?

Shortly after my research on Liberty Jail, I began to write the scripts for the Living Scriptures series of dramatized LDS Church history audiotapes. With the knowledge and support of all the leaders of the project, I set out to bring up all the little-known events in church history that anti-Mormons love to use to "disillusion" church members.

I used the principle that these things happened and the church is true. As a result, anyone who grew up listening to those tapes can hear the "shocking revelations" of anti-Mormons with complete equanimity. "Yes, I knew about that," these Saints can answer, "but here's why it has nothing to do with whether the church is true."

This was all brought to mind by a recently published novel about the Martin and Willie handcart companies, "In the Company of Angels," written by my friend David Farland.

Farland's research was impeccable. He read all the pertinent documents and eyewitness accounts, and then wrote a fictional account that never contradicts the known facts in any way. Furthermore, as a Latter-day Saint he never contradicted his own testimony, and he did his best to be faithful and fair to historical figures that he had come to love.

Unfortunately, Farland's excellent research brought him face to face with the fact that my own great-great grandfather, Apostle Franklin D. Richards, behaved rather badly.

So badly, in fact, that President Brigham Young himself accused Richards of being proud and not listening to the Spirit, while publicly saying that Levi Savage had been in the right to warn the Martin and Willie companies not to cross the plains so late in the season.

We descendants of Franklin D. Richards, who ended his life as president of the Quorum of the Twelve, are rightfully proud of his life's work. But there is no denying that on this occasion he behaved unwisely and, in the view of most of the witnesses, proudly, making false promises and coercive statements that clearly did not turn out to have come from the Lord.

However loyal Richards' descendants might wish to be, we cannot fault Farland for depicting him in his novel exactly the way his own contemporaries saw him!

I'm sad to say that there is a nasty and false whispering campaign going on right now against Farland's novel, claiming it is somehow evil or offensive or even anti-Mormon for him to be truthful about what the Saints at the time said happened!

It's as if showing any Saint having ordinary human weaknesses somehow violates a secret agreement that we will never admit that any of us were ever wrong.

But if you read the book for yourself, you will find it filled with love, faith and truth.

I live in a church that is and always has been made up of fallible human beings, most of whom do their best, most of the time, to serve God and their fellow men according to the teachings of Christ. Yet mistakes — sometimes terrible ones — have been made, and to try to conceal them, or punish someone for speaking of them openly, would make us deceivers, and we know that deception does not serve the Lord.

We can only love and honor our pioneer forebears by trying to know them as they were, and never by depicting them as plastic dashboard saints who could do no wrong. How can false images provide us with examples we can follow?

We, and all the Saints before us, have been imperfect … and the church is true.


TOPICS: History; Other Christian; Religion & Culture; Theology
KEYWORDS: history; imperfection; inman; lds; mormon
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To: Colofornian

21 posted on 07/15/2010 12:28:28 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: T Minus Four
Whatever happened or didn't happen, Joseph Smith was the Prophet of God, and the gospel is true.
 
When the Professor speaks: the thinking has been nullified.
 



 


"SUSTAINING THE GENERAL AUTHORITIES OF THE CHURCH"

Ward Teachers' Message for June, 1945

 

NO Latter-day Saint is compelled to sustain the General Authorities of the Church. When given the opportunity to vote on the proposition in any of the several conferences held throughout the Church, he may indicate his willingness to sustain them by raising his right hand; he may manifest his opposition in like manner; or he may ignore the opportunity entirely. There is no element of coercion or force in this or any other Church procedure.

However, there is the principle of honor involved in the member's choice. When a person raises his hand to sustain Church leaders as "prophets, seers, and revelators," it is the same as a promise and a covenant to follow their leadership and to abide by their counsel as the living oracles of God. Consequently, any subsequent act or word of mouth which is at variance with the will of the Lord as taught by the leaders of the Church places the sincerity of such person in serious doubt. One could scarcely have claim upon complete integrity, if he raises his hand to sustain the Authorities of the Church and then proceeds in opposition to their counsel.

Any Latter-day Saint who denounces or opposes, whether actively or otherwise, any plan or doctrine advocated by the "prophets, seers, and revelators" of the Church is cultivating the spirit of apostasy. One cannot speak evil of the Lord's anointed and retain the Holy Spirit in his heart.

It should be remembered that Lucifer has a very cunning way of convincing unsuspecting souls that the General Authorities of the Church are as likely to be wrong as they are to be right. This sort of game is Satan's favorite pastime, and he has practiced it on believing souls since Adam. He wins a great victory when he can get members of the Church to speak against their leaders and to "do their own thinking." He specializes in suggesting that our leaders are in error while he plays the blinding rays of apostasy in the eyes of those whom he thus beguiles. What cunning! And to think that some of our members are deceived by this trickery.

The following words of the Prophet Joseph Smith should be memorized by every Latter-day Saint and repeated often enough to insure their never being forgotten:

I will give you one of the Keys of the mysteries of the Kingdom. It is an eternal principle, that has existed with God from all eternity: That man who rises up to condemn others, finding fault with the Church, saying that they are out of the way, while he himself is righteous, then know assuredly, that that man is in the high road to apostasy; and if he does not repent, will apostatize, as God lives. (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 156-157.)

When our leaders speak, the thinking has been done. When they propose a plan--it is God's plan. When they point the way, there is no other which is safe. When they give direction, it should mark the end of controversy. God works in no other way. To think otherwise, without immediate repentance, may cost one his faith, may destroy his testimony, and leave him a stranger to the kingdom of God.

 


22 posted on 07/15/2010 12:30:36 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: CommerceComet
 
 Unfortunately, any objective study of Joseph Smith's life would result in an honest researcher concluding he was a con man his whole life.
 
 
And a mighty poor prophet!
 


 
"Joseph; I advise you not to go to that jail."
 
"Darn gnats!!"
 
 
"Joseph; I'm telling you to not to go to that jail."
 
"Flies are BAD today!!"
 
 
"Joseph; It ain't gonna be pretty if you ignore me and go to that jail!"
 
"Crummy mosquitos are EVERYWHERE!!!"
 
 
"Joseph!  Do NOT go to that jail!"
 
"And those bedbugs really savaged me last night, too!"
 
 
"JOSEPH!!  Wake up boy!   Do Not Go To That JAIL!!!"
 
"All right Sheriff - here I am, so give me a nice room while my Lawyer, my Advocate, my Comforter presents the LAW to the Judge and I am VINDICATED!!!"
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

23 posted on 07/15/2010 12:34:18 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie
 

JESUS: Hey Smith!  Remember that boast you made about doing more than even I had done to hold the 'church' together?

JOSEPH SMITH: Where am I?

JESUS: Don't you remember? A few seconds ago you were in that jail.

JOSEPH SMITH: Oh; yeah; but where am I NOW?

JESUS: Don't you remember? Does bang - bang ring a bell?

JOSEPH SMITH: Oh; yeah - that crummy gun I had was about USELESS!

JESUS: I hope you left instructions on how to hold your church together.

JOSEPH SMITH: Dang! I knew there was SOMETHING I was forgetting!

JESUS: Looks like there's a power struggle going on down there.

JOSEPH SMITH: Yeah; there was always SOMEone who wanted the power that I held - especially over the LADIES - wink wink.

JESUS: No need to worry about that now; remember what my friend Matthew wrote down?

JOSEPH SMITH: This? “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven” (Matthew 22:30)

JESUS: That's it.

JOSEPH SMITH: I thought that was mistranslated.

JESUS: Nah - it was right.

JOSEPH SMITH: Oh well; it was fun while it lasted. My buds will still get it on with the girls.

JESUS: Uh; I'm sorry; in just a few more years; your followers will cavein to the United States government and abandon the 'Eternal Covenant' that you came up with.

JOSEPH SMITH: ME!? YOU are the one that told me to do that!

JESUS: Sorry; but you must have mistranslated what I told you. What part of Do NOT commit ADULTERY did you not understand?

JOSEPH SMITH: mumble....

JESUS: What did you say?

JOSEPH SMITH: Oh, nothing.

JESUS: Well; it was interesting talking to you; but now I must get back to perparing a place for those who believe in Me.

JOSEPH SMITH: Oh, yeah; the Celestial Kingdom.

JESUS: No...

JOSEPH SMITH: The Telestial one?

JESUS: Nope.

JOSEPH SMITH: SUREly not the TERRESTRIAL one!!

JESUS: Nope. Didn't you read that the mind of man had NOT conceived of it? Paul wrote it down in 1 Corinthians 2:9.

JOSEPH SMITH: I thought that was mistranslated.

JESUS: No; it wasn't.

JOSEPH SMITH: You SURE?

JESUS: Yes. Now I must be going: what did you say your name was again?

JOSEPH SMITH: Joseph Smith.

JESUS: Hmmmm. According to my Heavenly Faithbook, you didn't sign in as one of my friends - sorry, I never knew you.

JOSEPH SMITH: But....


24 posted on 07/15/2010 12:37:47 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie
So just how did Jesus "lose" His Bride ???
25 posted on 07/15/2010 12:41:20 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: Grunthor

Same here. It confuses me to see Card as a Mormon.


26 posted on 07/15/2010 12:45:48 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: TexasRepublic

I visited the big LDS museum in Salt Lake City and scanned all the exhibits about the founders. Rigdon was notably absent.
______________________________________

Rigdon even thought he was going to be the next “phopet” when Joey Smith got himself killed in that shoot out...

If Briggy Young hadnt come rushing beck from NY where he was proslesyzing, and cheated Sidney and drove him off, he would have been...

Young was a loud mouth bully while Rigdon was a bit of a wimp..

Briggy Young gave a speech where he pretended to have Joey Smith “talk” through him (channeling like New Age)

He made the gullible mourning followers of Joey Smith believe that it was Joey’s voice and Joey’s words...

And he was in like Flynn...

Joey Smith had “said” that he wanted Young to take over in his place and so Young it was...

Young was soon king and theocratic dictator of mormondom..

with him own kingdom and private army and country..


27 posted on 07/15/2010 12:55:42 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: Colofornian

the church is true. (Orson Scott Card, July 15, 2010)
___________________________________

Well Orson, that is an unBiblical statement...

and a big fat lie...

“Let God be true and every man a liar...” (Paul, Romans 3:4)

So if your “cdhurch” is true, then God would be a liar...

But since that is impossible, for it is impossible for God to ever lie ...

because He is not nor ever has been a human...

“God is not a man that He should lie...” Numbers 23:19

Then, Orson, you, are a liar...


28 posted on 07/15/2010 1:07:54 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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THX1138


29 posted on 07/15/2010 1:09:33 PM PDT by svcw (True freedom cannot be granted by any man or government, only by Christ.)
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To: Grunthor
I like Orson Scott Card. I like many of his political views and I have read and enjoyed many of his SF novels.

It is a standing reproach to evangelical Christians that the one major writer who glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ in this genre is the Mormon, O. S. Card. See my tag line.

30 posted on 07/15/2010 4:03:07 PM PDT by RJR_fan (Christians need to reclaim and excel in the genre of science fiction.)
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To: Colofornian
I learned to approach church history, right up to the present, with this attitude: This happened … and the church is true.

So he freely admits to presupposing his conclusion, which violates the cardinal rule of critical thinking, as well as science.

31 posted on 07/15/2010 4:13:57 PM PDT by william clark (Ecclesiastes 10:2)
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To: Grunthor

Me too, I hope he finishes Alvin Master soon.


32 posted on 07/15/2010 4:23:12 PM PDT by King Moonracer (Bad lighting and cheap fabric, that's how you sell clothing.....)
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To: RJR_fan
It is a standing reproach to evangelical Christians that the one major writer who glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ in this genre is the Mormon, O. S. Card.

Watch that "glorifies" before using it too much! I like his novels, too, but a lack of anti-Christianity doesn't amount to much glory.

Like many modern sophisticates, Card seems to regard religion as a construct, making his, "I know the Church is true," a statement of very personal 'truthiness' rather than any kind of objective statement. Modern pagans also perform this act of magic: something is true because by saying so, it becomes true for the speaker. Thus this 'personal truth' is non-falsifiable. Mormonism is especially easy to adapt in this way because of its reliance on the "burning in the bosom," or subjective conviction of the member, of the truth of Mormonism's tenets.

Joss Whedon's Firefly glorifies Christ as much as Card's works, in my opinion, simply by having a preacher as one of the characters. (I'd love to know Card's opinions on Firefly and Battlestar Galactica; his take on The Lord of the Rings is just a mind-bender to the non-Mormon.)

33 posted on 07/15/2010 5:59:36 PM PDT by mrreaganaut (Battlestar Galactica: Another Testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)
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To: Utah Binger

Wow! I had such a strong testimony of your post that I had to take two Tums!


34 posted on 07/15/2010 6:01:27 PM PDT by mrreaganaut (View the wild curelom herds at Zion National Park!)
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To: mrreaganaut; Utah Binger; william clark; CommerceComet; T Minus Four
From the column by Card: ...this is the principle I came away with: Whatever happened or didn't happen, Joseph Smith was the Prophet of God, and the gospel is true...I learned to approach church history, right up to the present, with this attitude: This happened … and the church is true. Mistakes, misjudgments, speculations about doctrine and some indefensible actions were done by members of the church...We, and all the Saints before us, have been imperfect … and the church is true.

This is supposed to be a scholar? He has just said that his mind is made up and no evidence will change it. That is the statement of a propagandist, not a scholar. [Commerce Comet]

Yup.

So he freely admits to presupposing his conclusion, which violates the cardinal rule of critical thinking, as well as science. [william clark]

Yup.

Either I have heartburn or I am getting a testimony of your post :-) [T Minus Four]

Wow! I had such a strong testimony of your post that I had to take two Tums! [MrReaganaut]

Yup the difference between Mormon "truth" and Biblical truth. With Biblical truth, we KNOW it -- just like the apostle Paul told Timothy he "hast KNOWN the holy scriptures" even from childhood! (2 Tim. 3:15) Mormons have to guess wildly at what the truth is because they often won't take God at His Word; hence, they rely upon feelings that follow prayers on topics that often have already been settled from eternity! They think if you...
...pray sincerely...
...burn the bosom...
...you'll come up with a "knowledge of the truth."

35 posted on 07/15/2010 8:49:00 PM PDT by Colofornian (If we could "CTR" we wouldn't need a Savior. [See 1 Corinthians 1:30])
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To: Grunthor; Colofornian
I like Orson Scott Card. I like many of his political views and I have read and enjoyed many of his SF novels.

I agree with you, but this article makes me sad.

36 posted on 07/16/2010 11:54:35 AM PDT by zot
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To: zot; Grunthor
I like Orson Scott Card. I like many of his political views and I have read and enjoyed many of his SF novels. [Grunthor]

I agree with you, but this article makes me sad. [Zot]

Well, I haven't read any of Card's novels, but I did hear him fill in one show (some talk radio show at night) last year and was very pleasantly surprised not only at his political views but how he framed them. (Yet isn't Card a Democrat?)

So, indeed. It makes me sad to hear a thinking individual give up his critical thinking skills the Lord has blessed them with in applying them to his own faith.

37 posted on 07/16/2010 2:18:23 PM PDT by Colofornian (If we could "CTR" we wouldn't need a Savior. [See 1 Corinthians 1:30])
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To: Colofornian

(some talk radio show at night)

That would have been http://www.talk2rusty.com/ the Rusty Humphries show. I am a big fan.


38 posted on 07/16/2010 3:46:43 PM PDT by Grunthor (I like you but when the zombies chase us, I'm tripping you.)
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To: Colofornian

I highly recommend his novel “Ender’s Game” — his other novels are very good, but I consider this one a masterpiece.

Yes, Card is a Democrat the same way he is a Mormon: stubbornly.


39 posted on 07/16/2010 6:15:26 PM PDT by zot
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To: svcw

I welcome things like this for it shows the struggles that the LDS had and not always making good ones.

It is easy for the monday morning quater back to think they could do better but one never knows what they will do in the midst of things.

Many times in life one is being tested what we will do should have been decided many years before.

In other words when ones mind has been brought to attention of these things when one reads a passage they will if aleart make note.

Now I know that sounds strange but thoughts are things that can be manifested for good or wrong.

The scriptures tells one they should guard their thoughts carefully so when one encounter a situation they had already made up their mind ages ago how they would handle it.

it is too late tonight to go into them now but there are many examples in the scriptures that counsel or show a teaching moment!

This is the painful part and another reason for the restoration to learn those lessons again that were forgot so one can endure to the end!


40 posted on 07/17/2010 11:22:33 PM PDT by restornu
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