23. Church History of Hiding/Suppressing Evidence

Before the internet age, the church had an established history of hiding and suppressing evidence while telling members that any conflicting stories were simply anti-Mormon literature. I remember being told once that the people handing out pamphlets outside the temple were spreading anti-Mormon lies, only to find out later that the pamphlets about the multiple First Vision accounts and polygamy/polyandry were actually true. In 2017, Elder Ballard boldly declared during a pre-screened question and answer session that the church does not hide anything from their members. A few quick examples of where the church did exactly that:

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1. Elder Ballard says: "And some are saying that the church has been hiding the fact that there is more than one version of the First Vision." The reason why people say this is really quite simple: The church hid Joseph Smith's first account of the First Vision (now known as the 1832 version) for decades. Joseph Fielding Smith was the church historian when the journal was discovered, and he carefully cut out the pages of the journal and hid them in the historian's vault. The only reason this version was ever released was that the Tanners found out about it through a vague comment that a member of the media had been told. The church quietly gave the account to a BYU student to write a paper about, and then taped the pages back in the letterbook. You can actually see the tape marks on the Joseph Smith Papers project. There is a huge reason this account was suppressed for decades, which as noted in our LDS First Vision annotated essay and is due to Joseph Smith's changing theology at the time.

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2. The LDS essays: If you read our annotated LDS essays, you can see areas where the church is still hiding/suppressing information. FAIR also does this when they give apologetic spin to difficult subjects by gaslighting those with doubts. It is also worth noting that while the church has made some progress with these essays, they do not promote them nor have them ever discussed them in General Conference talks. They are not even easy to find - you have to go three clicks into the site to find them, and even then you have to know what "Gospel Topics Essays" means or else you'd never know to click there. One super clear example of the church lying in these essays is the Kirtland/Nauvoo one, where they say Joseph issued “carefully worded denials” about polygamy. Joseph Smith was lying. They know he was lying. His polygamous wives that signed the document swearing they were not implementing polygamy were lying. Those are some seriously insulting phrases to try and avoid calling a lie a lie.

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3. Faith promoting stories: We have covered this above and on our Faith Promoting Stories page, but bottom line is that these stories (Transfiguration of Brigham Young, Woodruff's Vision of the Founding Fathers, Miracle of the Gulls, etc) are easily debunked and yet remain in the church manuals. We now know that the gold plates were never used to translate the Book of Mormon, yet the church continually commissions artwork to show otherwise. These are examples of the church being dishonest and they are obviously well aware of this considering they have a robust Church Educational System, yet they continue to push a false narrative both to prospective members and lifelong members.

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4. Pretending that now disavowed doctrines weren't doctrine: In 1976, Prophet Spencer Kimball denied at General Conference that Brigham Young taught the Adam-God doctrine. Above we have the exact quotes to show otherwise. Even more recently with the celebration of 40 years since the church stopped banning blacks from the priesthood/temples, church leaders claim it was not a doctrinal issue. Yet if you read our LDS annotated essay, you will see that not only was it considered to be doctrinal from God, the scriptures that Joseph Smith brought to us are the reason for it. Gordon B Hinkley even declared on Larry King that polygamy wasn't doctrine, even as it sits in the Doctrine and Covenants TO THIS DAY as doctrine. On all of these they are knowingly lying about their history, and I don't think that is too harsh of a term.

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5. Boyd K Packer's 'The Mantle is Far, Far Greater than the Intellect' talk: During this talk, Packer gives a literal blue print for how to 'inoculate' members from an early age to avoid the dirty history of the church. CES instructors were only to talk about faith promoting stories that were whitewashed and correlated by the church. Elder Oaks took this mantle and ran with it four years later when said: “I have chosen to speak on how church history should be read, especially the so-called history.” By "so-called history" he means the history as it is written in LDS documents/sources, but that contradicts the legitimacy of the church. In other words, "so-called history" is the uncorrelated history that he wants members to avoid. This worked out well until the internet made the information too readily available, and absolutely holds a smoking gun to the idea that the church does not try to hide and suppress the history of the church.

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6. The September Six: In 1993, six people were excommunicated from the church in a coordinated attack against scholars and historians who would discuss and publish information detrimental to the church. One of the great ironies in the excommunications is that a lot of the work done by these historians (especially Michael D Quinn) has been used in the LDS essays we have discussed on our pages. But at the time, the church was still able to control information better, and excommunicated these six members to send a signal that the only history that mattered was the faith promoting kind. In addition, during this time it leaked out that Boyd K Packer was in contact with a Stake President about one of the excommunication, which would confirm this was a coordinated effort from the top. Elder Oaks then confirmed that this was not coordinated and Packer never made contact. Unfortunately, Elder Oaks made the mistake of telling Steve Benson (Ezra Benson's grandson) about this meeting, and Steve Benson faxed a reminder of this to Elder Oaks. This forced Elder Oaks to admit he had "misspoken," which is another word for lying.

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7. The seer stone: In 2000, Joseph F McConkie wrongly declared: "Thus, everything we have in the Book of Mormon, according to Mr. Whitmer, was translated by placing the chocolate-colored stone in a hat into which Joseph would bury his head so as to close out the light. While doing so he could see "an oblong piece of parchment, on which the hieroglyphics would appear," and below the ancient writing, the translation would be given in English. Joseph would then read this to Oliver Cowdery, who in turn would write it. If he did so correctly, the characters and the interpretation would disappear and be replaced by other characters with their interpretation (Cook, David Whitmer Interviews, 115, 157-58). Such an explanation is, in our judgment, simply fiction created for the purpose of demeaning Joseph Smith and to undermine the validity of the revelations he received after translating the Book of Mormon." (BYU)

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8. Financial transparency: The LDS church has not released financial records since 1959. For a church that claims to be 'as transparent as we know how to be,' this seems like a very obvious place where they could be transparent. Everyone speculates as to why they do not release their records, but the recent leak that the church owned $32 billion in stocks alone in 2015 would indicate the church is incredibly wealthy between their stock and real estate ventures. In addition, it becomes more difficult to ask members to pay the full 10% tithing on income (before taxes) if members knew just how much money was in the reserve of the church. It would also make the recent story of President Nelson telling the people of Africa that tithing would break the cycle of poverty seem even more out of touch than many took it to be at the time. Again, for a non-profit church, financial transparency is not too much to ask at all, so why hide it?

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There's also a great article from the Improvement Era in August 1946 where Apostle John A Widtsoe says the following: "Honest historians cannot safely make the charge that Joseph Smith was a professional money digger. Likewise, no credence can be placed upon the charge that Joseph was a peepstone user. Anti-Mormon writers are prone to suggest that the Prophet spent his time in leading people into many a fruitless chase for lost money supposed to be revealed by peepstones... there is no acceptable evidence to support them, only gossip, and deliberate misrepresentation." We now know that Joseph Smith use a stone (call it a peepstone or seer stone) for money, he also used that stone to translate the entire Book of Mormon, and that the people being labeled anti-Mormon for over a century were actually the only ones telling the truth.

 

Joseph Fielding Smith also denied the seer stone, saying: "While the statement has been made by some writers that the Prophet Joseph Smith used a seer stone part of the time in his translating of the record, and information points to the fact that he did have in his possession such a stone, yet there is no authentic statement in the history of the Church which states that the use of such a stone was made in that translation. The information is all hearsay, and personally, I do not believe that this stone was used for this purpose. The reason I give for this conclusion is found in the statement of the Lord to the Brother of Jared as recorded in Ether 3:22-24" (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, edited by Bruce R. McConkie, 3:, p.225)

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We now know that this is exactly what happened. McConkie's paper was written just 18 years ago -- and they knew about the seer stone long before that, but most members did not. Joseph Fielding Smith not only knew about the seer stone, but was the person who hid the 1832 First Vision account. That is the very definition of hiding/suppressing key information.

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We can go on, but for purposes of this page we want to keep it short. The fact is that the church has a history of lying and suppressing the truth about Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and so many key elements of its doctrine. And the answer as to why is obvious - they know that potential converts wouldn't join if they knew this, and that many current members would leave if they knew what Joseph Smith did to the Doctrine and Covenants, misuse of Deutero-Isaiah, or using a stone to translate the Book of Mormon instead of the narrative of the gold plates. There is a reason they have to do this, but it is very sad to learn that I was lied to in the mission discussions. And I don't blame the missionaries for that, but I do feel betrayed by a church that feels they have to lie about their history in order to get/keep members in.

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24. Lack of Modern Day Revelations

When I took the missionary discussions, one of the central themes was that the Mormon church has a true and living prophet to guide us through these times. The idea told to me was that the prophets have a direct line to God and thus could get answers on the problems that are happening during our times, unlike the other churches that Joseph Smith declared that God considered an abomination.

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But the reality is that the prophets haven't really given any revelation since the early days of the church. That's what you'd expect with a church that was created by Joseph Smith - that as time goes on, the leaders treat their role more as the CEO of a corporation than a prophet who would risk their credibility by making predictions about what is to come.

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The three most recent revelations that are most known by members are the ending of polygamy, the ending of the ban on blacks for the priesthood, and A Proclamation to the World. But the problem is that none of them are revelations in the way they have been presented, which begs the question as to exactly what revelations prophets have had over the last ~150 years.

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The Ending of Polygamy (Manifesto/Declaration 1): Wilford Woodruff claimed a vision that led to the end of polygamy. As he told General Conference: "The Lord showed me by vision and revelation exactly what would take place if we did not stop this practice. If we had not stopped it, you would have had no use for. . . any of the men in this temple at Logan; for all ordinances would be stopped throughout the land of Zion. Confusion would reign throughout Israel, and many men would be made prisoners. This trouble would have come upon the whole Church, and we should have been compelled to stop the practice."

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Three problems here: 1. We already know from above that Wilford Woodruff's visions aren't exactly reliable. His vision of the Founding Fathers being upset that no one did any temple work for them has the massive problem that they already had baptisms performed for them, some multiple times. 2. This vision is basically what he was already told would happen if they did not stop polygamy - this vision would make a lot more sense before the government threatened to seize property if they did not stop the illegal practice of polygamy. 3. Wilford Woodruff almost certainly took on another wife after the first Declaration (an 1897 marriage to Madame Mountford) and authorized other plural marriages, which makes it pretty clear that the "vision" did not reach him as deeply as he would like you to think. 

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The ending of polygamy then needed a second Declaration, which made clear the polygamy was over (at least in this life), for real this time. None of it reads like a revelation with words from God, and is crafted more like a legal document than the revelation it is regarded as. This, again, makes sense in the context that the church does not have a living prophet, and they were forced to make the change due to government/public pressure and not because God changed his mind for the third time (remember D&C 101 that forbade it before Joseph Smith claimed God reversed His commandment in D&C 132).

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The Ending of the Ban on Blacks (Declaration 2): When the ban on blacks for the priesthood/temple ordinances was lifted, it was hailed as a revelation from God that the church's history of racism had been finally lifted. What church literature doesn't tell you, however, is that the process for this revelation was anything but the way most members think  of revelation. Apostle Legrand Richards, who was involved in the revelation, described the process this way in an interview:

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WALTERS: On this revelation, of the priesthood to the Negro, I’ve heard all kinds of stories: I’ve heard that Christ appeared to the Apostles. I’ve heard that Joseph Smith appeared; and then I heard another story that Spencer Kimball had had a concern about this for some time and simply shared it with the apostles, and they decided that this was the right time to move in that direction. Now are any of those stories true, or are they all…

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RICHARDS: Well, the last one is pretty true, and I might tell you what provoked it in a way. Down in Brazil, there is so much Negro blood in the population there that it’s hard to get leaders that don’t have Negro blood in them. We just built a temple down there. It’s going to be dedicated in October. All those people with Negro blood in them have been raising the money to build that temple. And then, if we don’t change, then they can’t even use it. So Brother Kimball worried about it, and he prayed a lot about it.

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He asked each one of us of the Twelve if we would pray – and we did – that the Lord would give him the inspiration to know what the will of the Lord was. And then he invited each one of us in his office – individually, because you know when you are in a group, you can’t always express everything that’s in your heart. You’re part of the group, you see – so he interviewed each one of us, personally, to see how we felt about it, and he asked us to pray about it. And then he asked each one of us to hand in all the references we had, for, or against that proposal. See, he was thinking favorably toward giving the colored people the priesthood.

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Then we had a meeting where we meet every week in the temple, and we discussed it as a group together, and then we prayed about it in our prayer circle, and then we held another prayer circle after the close of that meeting, and he (President Kimball) lead in the prayer; praying that the Lord would give us the inspiration that we needed to do the thing that would be pleasing to Him and for the blessing of His children. And then the next Thursday – we meet every Thursday – the Presidency came with this little document written out to make the announcement – to see how we’d feel about it – and present it in written form. Well, some of the members of the Twelve suggested a few changes in the announcement, and then in our meeting there we all voted in favor of it – the Twelve and the Presidency. One member of the Twelve, Mark Petersen, was down in South America, but Brother Benson, our President, had arranged to know where he could be reached by phone, and right while we were in that meeting in the temple, Brother Kimball talked with Brother Petersen, and read him this article, and he (Petersen) approved of it.

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WALTERS: Now when President Kimball read this little announcement or paper, was that the same thing that was released to the press?

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RICHARDS: Yeah.

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WALTERS: There wasn’t a special document as a “revelation”, that he had and wrote down?

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RICHARDS: We discussed it in our meeting. What else should we say besides that announcement? And we decided that was sufficient; that no more needed to be said.

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The entire interview can be found here))

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I think that speaks for itself - once again, the church's prophets since the early days run the church like a corporation responding to changing culture, and then make a legalistic approach to embrace change. Which brings us to...

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A Proclamation to the World: Church leaders were concerned about gay marriage (see our above point on treatment towards the LGBT community), and needed to create a document to give themselves legal standing to go against gay marriage as a matter of religious principal. Elder Oaks pretty much admitted that this was a legal document prepared for the First Presidency to grant them this standing in his General Conference talk: "During this revelatory process, a proposed text was presented to the First Presidency, who oversee and promulgate Church teachings and doctrine. After the Presidency made further changes, the proclamation on the family was announced by the President of the Church, Gordon B. Hinckley."

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The proclamation that hangs on so many walls and is thought to be revelation from God for traditional marriage (and against gay marriage) is actually a legal document created to give the church room to spend millions of dollars of tithing money to isolate gays further. That doesn't even include the damage that the church has done to the non-LDS LGBT community after they spent millions of dollars on Prop 8 in California to keep gay people from marrying. That might sound very harsh, but when you consider the damage that legal document has caused gay LDS members and their families, extending all the way to elevated levels of suicide in heavily Mormon states, I don't know that it's harsh enough.

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After looking at these three "revelations," I have to ask what is left. There are always articles in the Deseret News proclaiming revelations have been fulfilled when a new temple is announced, but that's not revelation - that's telling a city they're going to get a temple and then writing a check for the land. Renaming visiting teaching into ministering isn't revelation - that's an organizational change.

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The bottom line is that if the church is not true, you would expect that the prophets would either give false prophesies or just avoid giving them altogether. The history of the church tells us that they are clearly in the latter category since Brigham Young, and learning about the way these landmark "revelations" took shape was quite shocking to me in comparison to the way they are presented to members. No prophet since Joseph Smith has had the kinds of magical visions and visitations from angels, which makes more sense once your realize that the church was his creation and not from God.

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25. Lack of Modern Day Priesthood Miracles

​We also wanted to note the lack of modern miracles. In the scriptures we read about critics being struck dumb, people healed miraculously, and stories of visions on the water or in the temple. Yet today the only way critics are struck is through excommunication even as church leaders continues to denounce them. With a restored priesthood you would expect to see higher rates of healing among Mormons than non-Mormons, yet there is no increase. And you would certainly expect to have more visions with the one true church, but even in the "Second Annointing" ceremony in the temple, there is no vision of Christ as some church stories have spoken of. I remember being taught in Sunday school about the second annointing leading to a one-on-one meeting with Christ, yet as this Mormon Stories episode reveals, that doesn't actually happen.

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One of the big blessings that members receive is the Patriarchal Blessing, which is meant to be a revelation of their life to come. The problem is that as the internet has become popular, many Mormons have posted their blessings and they are extremely similar. In addition, they can be extremely painful when members are told they would have a temple marriage and children only to not marry for whatever reason, or if they have trouble conceiving children. They are not revelation, they are not inspired, and they cause a lot of members pain when the promises inside do not come true. LDS Living magazine just released an article examining why the promises do not come true. Just as church leaders tend to do when members read about the problems with the church's history and credibility (such as this page), they blame the member. Their three reasons that the promises of the Patriarchal Blessing do not come true: Worthiness (you just weren't living up to the standard), Timing (we can't know if the blessing meant this life or the next - a common argument for all of the problems listed above), and assumptions (the revelations were actually fulfilled, but you just didn't notice because you read the blessing in too literal of a way). The real reason that the promises of a Patriarchal Blessing often do not come true (especially beyond the vague promises in almost every blessing) is that the Patriarchs giving the blessing have no more power of revelation than you or me.

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Furthermore, in a restored church that has long claimed to have the power to give heal through priesthood blessings, you would expect healing to actually take place. Statistically though, there is no increased rate of healing from cancer or other illnesses. It is why the church has moved the goalposts from the faith to be healed to the 'faith to not be healed.' In the most recent General Conference (April 2018), there were 11 stories from the various speakers about people who were dying, and not one of them was healed by those involved in giving the talks. While I realize that it is unreasonable to expect everyone to perform miracles that are leaders of the church, I do expect some increase of healings beyond the overall average of the population as a whole.

 

Last, I want to note that it is quite convenient that as we have better records and documentation, we have fewer miracles and revelations. While more and more of the faith promoting legends have been proven false with time and history, we have almost no revelations or miracles in the age of video and constant documentation. I know this sounds harsh, but after being told by missionaries twenty years ago about the healing power of the priesthood blessing, you can imagine my surprise to read that there is just no evidence to back up the claim. As a BYU article proclaims: "Sometimes faith isn’t found in receiving desired blessings but in accepting the will of the Lord regardless of the outcome." This feels like the end of each LDS essay where they toss aside all of the problems and tell you to focus on your spiritual witness, which brings us to...

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26. Spiritual Witnesses/Where Will You Go?

Every church uses the concept of spiritual witness to attract members to their religion. As we have pointed out in our annotated LDS essay videos, there is a great YouTube video that highlights how every religion has the same feeling of warmth to confirm they are in the right place. If you have not seen it, I highly recommend watching it and especially recommend the LDS splinter group testimony at the 10 minute mark where a woman who just entered into a polygamous marriage talks about how she felt the spirit confirm to her the truthfulness of it even as she is struggling. As a matter of fact, almost every LDS splinter group bears testimony the same way, which again begs the question: If the Holy Spirit can provide personal revelation as the LDS church contends, why would the Holy Ghost inspire anyone to join an incorrect religion that still undertakes polygamy? What kind of God would fool billions of people into confirming their feelings towards churches that we are taught He told Joseph Smith were an abomination? 

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The truth is that the idea of spiritual witnesses are not unique to the LDS church, but they are cultivated from an early age in order to keep members from researching the true history of the church and all of the problems with the scriptures. It is why in their essays that we cover, all of them spend the entire essay tossing out possible excuses for the gaping problems, but then end with summary akin to 'But we can't know for sure, but if you pray honestly you will feel the spirit and know it is OK.'

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This is not to downplay the concept of a spiritual witness - I once had it too while reading the Book of Mormon and attending as a member. And it did not come right away, but I kept trying and did feel that warmth that this was the right path for me. However, that went away as I thought more about polygamy and thought about how blacks were treated by the church for so long without anyone realizing how terrible that was. My personal opinion is that the spiritual witness is a feeling of your conscious confirming that you are on the right track - it explains why Muslims, Catholics, Mormons, and the polygamous FLDS all receive the same feeling of warmth after thinking about what they're read/studied. Otherwise we have to wonder why the Holy Ghost would lead billions to the wrong church - and we know at least a large portion of those people are sincere in praying for confirmation.

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And the church knows this, which is why they fight so hard to keep members from leaving. "Where will you go," was a popular phrase from Elder M. Russell Ballard, as he proceeded to use fear to keep those with doubts from exploring further. That talk is insulting to those with honest questions that the church has hidden for decades. It is why the church fights so hard to keep members from reading articles like this or the CES Letter or Letter For My Wife -- these articles/websites are sourced with LDS material, and they know in the Internet age they can not keep members from the information as they have in the past.

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The church excommunicated John Dehlin of the Mormon Stories podcast for this very reason - they know that a spiritual witness only goes as far as the member has been properly "inoculated" (Boyd K Packer, 2004) from the very difficult history which tells a much different story than the one the missionaries told me. It is the reason that when I later found out that Joseph Smith never even used the "golden plates" to translate the Book or Mormon and instead used a stone in a hat, that the priesthood revelation did not happen as stated, or that Joseph Smith married the wives of faithful members, taking them from these husbands for eternity, my spiritual witness became crystal clear that this church is not true. My own conscience then led me because I do not believe that God would ever endorse the exclusion of blacks for over 150 years, that women can not be equals with men, and that people born gay deserve to be shunned as outcasts because of who they are attracted to.

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Spirituality is a great thing, but it is not unique to the church. I get a feeling of warmth when my child gives me a giant bear-hug, when I am looking out at the ocean on a beautiful day, or when I hear a song that reminds me of a special time in my life. I've gotten that warm feeling watching a sad TV show like This Is Us, a funny one like the Office, or even hearing music from the show Lost. We've all felt that feeling when seeing a heartwarming story on the news, or when talking to a friend going through a tough time. The church would tell you that these feelings only come as a confirmation of its unique truth, but science has clear studies that show this feeling is a reaction of your body to stimulus that moves you emotionally. Again, I am not trying to diminish the idea of spirituality, I am simply stating that you can find it outside of the church and without the manipulation they use to keep you from researching their claims of truth. And that's what makes it so great - being able to value this life even more because it's our life, and not because we feel like we have to live up to a church that can't even live up to their own history.

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There are so many great resources to help those going through a faith crisis, and I promise you that while learning the truth about this church is painful, it does get better. I know for me it's still pretty raw, but listening to so many others who are now in a better place, it is worth the journey to discover the truth.

 

Please contact me if you would like to be pointed to some great groups that can help, as well as some great podcasts and websites that feature former members that have come out the other side much better than when they were still in the church. That is my testimony to all of you - it does get better, facts do matter, and no matter how much the truth of the church might hurt, the truth is important. You will still feel that great feeling of warmth, but you will know it is coming from within and because of the amazing parts of life like family, nature, music, or doing something great for another person.

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27. Use of Fear to Attack Critics and Those Who Leave

The church has a history of attacking those who criticize the church as anti-Mormon. They have done this throughout history, even as these critics have been proven right over time with our increased resources of both church historical documents as well as our understanding of Egyptian (Book of Abraham problems), DNA (Lamanites aren't who we were told they are), and Joseph Smith's life (polygamy, polyandry, treasure digging, and use of a stone to translate the Book of Mormon and not the gold plates). Now the church is adopting a softer tone towards history because they have been forced to, but they continue to attack critics while creating an atmosphere of fear for any member with doubts or thinking of leaving.

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As we mentioned above, the "Where will go you" talk focused heavily on the idea that if you leave the church, your life will spiral into misery and shame. In 2016, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland told students at BYU that "many who have walked away from faith have found the price higher than they intended to pay, like the man who tore down the fence surrounding his new property only to learn that his next-door neighbor kept a pack of particularly vicious Rottweilers." The idea, of course, is to make sure members know from primary on that life has no meaning without the church. That the very idea of looking at critical material risks your eternal salvation, and that your life is nothing without them.

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The truth is that the church can not stand up to its own claims, history, or doctrine. They have called critics liars for decades as noted in this page and our annotated essays, but in the internet age they can no longer hide the truth. Therefore they are doubling down on fear, which is unhealthy and immoral. Church leaders constantly engage in an "us vs them" mentality to keep members from even listening to the ideas presented on this page, and continue to demand that members "doubt their doubts" while hiding the truth about Joseph Smith and the church. I recently had a discussion with the missionaries where I was told that the "adversary had a hold of me" when I brought up the Book of Abraham being proven false by every non-LDS scholar, and that if I was "more in-tune with the spirit" I would not question why Joseph Smith married the wives of faithful LDS members while they were away on missions. It is not my fault that I have doubts, it is not your fault that you have doubts, and it is not wrong to research the church that demands complete obedience in how you dress, eat, drink, and sustain leaders.

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I know this sounds harsh and I know it is blunt, but we have discussed above many areas where the church has been dishonest while knowing the truth. The looks on the missionaries' faces when I talked to them about polyandry, the Book of Abraham, and Deutero-Isaiah made me feel so incredibly sad: they had no idea about these problems because the church refuses to be honest to its members. When I explained the gold plates were never used for the translation they told me I was mistaken, but when I told them it was all confirmed in church sources they were speechless. And this is in the year 2018. If the church can't be honest even with all of the information out there for all to see, what does that tell you about the truthfulness of the church?

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There are many people who are leaving the church every single day, and they go on to live happy, fulfilling lives. When I left years ago I was deeply depressed because I knew it was going to cause so many problems with family, and I wondered what it meant for my belief in God as a whole. But the truth is that in the years since things have never been better. I have had an amazing child, had a nice job where I can work on my own, and still haven't fallen into wicked sin as church leaders tell you that 'apostates' immediately turn to. Learning this info has been painful, but it is unfortunately a part of moving on that we all have to go through. It is reprehensible to teach members from a young age that they will be sad and miserable if they ever leave the church - it is the exact same tactic you see in unhealthy relationships, and if the church could stand up to history there would be no need to ingrain members with this fear from their early years through adulthood.

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28. Lack of (Faith Promoting) Answers to the Tough Questions

If you read through our annotated LDS essays, it becomes clear that there are no faith-promoting answers to the tough questions about the LDS truth claims. Most of the essays propose a number of possible reasons that certain historical problems exist, and then end with telling the reader that we can't possibly know the answers but if you pray about it sincerely you'll know it's still true.

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The problem is that we do have a lot of information. We know that the reasons they give for the Book of Abraham papyrus not matching Joseph Smith's incorrect translation do not stand up to reason, that the reasons for polygamy and Joseph's violation of the rules do not stand up to reason, or that the claims about the Native Americans being the Lamanites has no basis in truth. So it's not that the church doesn't have answers, it's just that the answers we do have all point to the conclusion that their credibility can not hold up to scrutiny.

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If you would like further proof of this, I invite you to watch the recent LDS video on church history with church historian Steven Harper. The video is entitled "How to Answer Questions about Church History," but as you watch you'll notice that there is not one point where Harper gives any answers to specific issues nor does he ever give viewers any places to begin researching church history. Harper even constantly admits that his research has only led to more unanswered questions, but as with the essays tells viewers not to throw it all away over some doubts. His 'Santa Clause' analogy is amazing -- he says we didn't throw Christmas away when we found out Santa Clause wasn't real, so why would we leave the church when we find out that church history isn't what we were all taught from the beginning until now?

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The problem is the internet has provided more and more with this information, and as more members have become open to researching the church they have discovered the truth behind it. The tactics of LDS apologists of the past to declare all disparaging information to be "anti-Mormon" #FakeNews no longer works - we have historical documents that are well sources to tell us that the church has not been truthful with its claims, and that Joseph Smith was not a prophet as we were taught.

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Again, I encourage you to watch the LDS history video here, and then if you're up for it, check out the podcast about this video from Bill Reel and Radio Free Mormon - both LDS members who have discovered the truth over the last few decades. You can find part 1 here, and part 2 here.

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29. Changes to Doctrine/Ordinances Without Explanation

We have covered some of the changes above to the Doctrine and Covenants as well as some of the church doctrines, but it needs to be noted what a problem this is for the truth claims of the church.

 

If the church was "true" and was the one church that could speak for God, you would expect a much more consistent message, yet we have constantly evolving and changing theology and ordinances. We will recap a few here because it is an important point:

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Polygamy: Joseph Smith began extramarital/polygamous relationships with Fanny Alger long before he claimed to have the power to seal or had the revelation on polygamy recorded. From that point Joseph Smith considered it doctrine that the church was not involved in polygamy (D&C 101, now de-canonized) until he then claimed D&C 132 actually did allow for polygamy in the 'New and Evelasting Covenant.' As we know, that revelation was then ended with the two manifesto/declarations even though D&C 132 is still considered canon and the 'New and Everlasting Covenant.' If polygamy was really from God, why did the doctrine change so much? Why would we have all the secrecy?

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Adam-God Doctrine: As noted above, Brigham Young taught that Adam was our God and that this doctrine from from God. "How much unbelief exists in the minds of the Latter-day Saints in regard to one particular doctrine which I revealed to them, and which God revealed to me – namely that Adam is our father and God." (Deseret News, 1873) We have many church leaders claiming that this was never taught, yet it clearly was. So was Brigham Young a false prophet, or did God change his teachings? This is a massive problem for the church even though they continue to pretend it never happened.

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Ban on Blacks for Priesthood and Temple Ordinances: We have discussed this above as well, but why did so many church leaders claim the ban on blacks was doctrine only to now talk as if they have no good reason for it? This quote from the First Presidency in 1947 makes this very clear: "From the days of the Prophet Joseph even until now, it has been the doctrine of the Church, never questioned by any of the Church leaders, that the Negroes are not entitled to the full blessings of the Gospel."

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Again, why are we to believe that the will of God could be changed by the proclamation in 1978 (not a direct revelation) when they were told it was from God? If we believe that God is unwavering and constant, how is it OK for the church leaders to change due to social pressure and the needs to keep temple attendance high in areas with members that do not have white skin?

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The Temple Ceremonies: Again, I do not want to post scripts of the temple ceremonies out of respect to members, but the changes in the temple have been remarkable for an ordinance that was supposedly given from God and unchanging. Much of the initial ceremony is heavily lifted from the Masonic ceremonies that Joseph Smith learned just months prior to unveiling the temple ceremony, but the penalties that have since been removed are scary. In the original ceremony, members would have to say that they would kill themselves in the most violent manner (with accompanying hand motions) if they ever spoke of the temple to outsiders. All of the quotes/motions are adapted from the early Masonic ceremonies, and were horrifying to read. While we will not post the quotes here, they are out there for the world to see which has been a problem for the LDS church over time.

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There are other changes to the temple ceremonies over the years - in 1990 there were big changes along with 2005. Why would a ceremony given from God need to change as the public became more aware of what was going on? My personal experience with the temple before 2005 was unpleasant, as men rubbed oil on our naked bodies, with only a 'shield' covering us. Thankfully members do not have to go through that today.

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For those that continue to insist that the church never taught the Adam-God doctrine, Brigham Young actually added references to it in the 'Lecture at the Veil' in the temple. It was included in the St. George temple, but we do not have records to know if it expanded to all temples or not. It was removed after Brigham Young's death as many church leaders were uncomfortable with the concept that Brigham Young claimed to be told directly from God.

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The 2018 Mormon vs LDS vs Restored Church of Christ change: Just this year in 2018, new prophet Russell Nelson has unveiled that the was 'impressed' by God that the names Mormon and LDS Church are not in harmony with the will of God. The problem here is that previous leaders spent millions marketing the term Mormon along with using LDS in so much marketing materials. Why would God allow the improper name to not only be used, but to be promoted through movies, advertisements, and marketing campaigns if it was the incorrect name?

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The truth is that Nelson has long disliked the use of Mormon/LDS for the church name, and now that he is prophet wanted to finally make the change official. That illustrates my earlier point that personal revelation is not revelation from God, but confirmation of what we already believe is the right thing to do. That is very important to understand in order to fully grasp why spiritual witness is not a confirmation of the truthfulness of the church when God has confirmed to billions of people across the Earth that other religions are actually the true churches.

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30. Joseph Smith and the Big Picture

At the end of the day, the truthfulness of the LDS church rests with Joseph Smith. The church began with him and for the most part not a lot has changed with doctrines since he died. We have covered most of the problems with Joseph Smith already, but the main reason I believe without a doubt that this church is not true is because Joseph Smith was no prophet of God.

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Joseph Smith was a treasure digger - this is now confirmed by the church after decades of calling it an anti-Mormon lie. He found his "seer stone" while digging for treasure, and used this stone to charge others who hired Joseph to look for treasure. Joseph never once found treasure, and was even arrested for defrauding Josiah Stowell as that man's nephew realized that Joseph was taking advantage of him. He used the very same stone that he charged Josiah Stowell to seek treasure for to 'translate' the entire Book of Mormon. No gold plates were ever used, and often they were not even in the same room as Joseph. These are all facts that are now being reluctantly confirmed by apologetic LDS historians like Richard Bushman in Rough Stone Rolling as well as in the LDS Gospel Topics essays.

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In addition, Joseph Smith lost the life savings of many of the early Saints in his failed Kirtland banking scandal. Joseph Smith was also tarred and feathered because he was engaging in polygamous and polyandrous marriages in secret, and when family members found out they literally sought to castrate him. Todd Compton, Mormon writer of In Sacred Loneliness, had this to say: "The motivation for this mobbing has been debated. Clark Braden…alleged…that Marinda’s brother Eli led a mob against Smith because the prophet had been too intimate with Marinda. This tradition suggests that Smith may have married Marinda at this early time, and some circumstantial factors support such a possibility. The castration attempt might be taken as evidence that the mob felt that Joseph had committed a sexual impropriety; since the attempt is reported by [Marinda's brother who later became an LDS apostle] Luke Johnson, there is no good reason to doubt it. Also, they had planned the operation in advance, as they brought along a doctor to perform it. The first revelations had been received in 1831, by historian Danel Bachman’s dating. Also, Joseph did tend to marry women who had stayed at his house or in whose house he had stayed.” (In Sacred Loneliness, page 231).

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Joseph Smith did a lot of things in secret, changed the word of God freely as outlined above when he needed to make his evolving theology and claims of authority work, and borrowed heavily for both his scriptures and doctrines. He cost the Saints their life savings, took additional wives under the threat of eternal damnation for refusing him, and burned down the Nauvoo Expositor which we now know was factual in the content of their one and only issue. In other words, he torched a printing press that was simply reporting the truth about what Joseph Smith was doing in secret. You can read the text of the Nauvoo Expositor here.

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Many of Joseph Smith's most miraculous stories were only told years after they supposedly happened, and his original First Vision account was based on his original trinitarian view and much less grand than his later accounts. He only claimed to see John the Baptist to restore the priesthood 6 years after he claimed it happened, and four years after he was actually ordained a 'High Priest' by Lyman Wright. Joseph's version of events just does not hold up to history, and his practices of polygamy were an abomination that ultimately led to his death.

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Joseph Smith's work on the Book of Abraham is wrong in almost every possible way, and the church has been forced to completely change their story behind its translation. DNA studies have proven that the Lamanites are not who Joseph told us they were, and the church has again been forced to pretend that there were huge populations in the Americas that were never once mentioned in the Book of Mormon. The Hill Cumorah was not the site of large battles, and the church has since been forced to claim there's another Hill Cumorah... somewhere. The Kinderhook Plates were a hoax and not the record of "a descendant of Ham." Joseph Smith was wrong at almost every single claim that can be proven over time, and the obvious reason for that is because Joseph Smith was intentionally deceiving people into giving their money and property to the church while some were even commanded to hand their wives/daughters over to him for time and eternity. Facts still matter, and while they are difficult to hear - these are facts.

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Since Joseph's death there has been very little in the way of prophesy or true doctrine (and much of what Brigham Young introduced has been disavowed since- Adam-God, blood atonement, and ban on blacks), which means this church is Joseph Smith's. That we are still learning about Joseph Smith's problems with scriptures (the recent BYU study that he heavily lifted his Joseph Smith Translation from Adam Clarke's Bible commentaries), only further shows that Joseph Smith was not who the church tells us he was.

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Again, I realize how difficult this page is to read. Most of this is unknown to readers, and our LDS annotated essays have even more in-depth info on each topic. But the truth matters and facts do not have a bias. They do not care about feelings, they can not be changed by apologists, and they all point to a simple conclusion: this church is simply not true.

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As has been mentioned before, apologists tend to take one issue at a time, conflate the reasons why there is some history that backs up their claims, and then reset before taking on another topic. But the problem is that you can not take all of these problems at once and make them work - we have even given the common apologetic responses from FAIR, the LDS essays, and other sources like LDS Answers or LDS Living, while giving reasons why their apologetic responses just can not work. It's not that there are no answers to these problems - it's that there are no answers that promote faith in the LDS church.

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I encourage all of you to continue to study our pages, and to compare them to the church manuals, missionary discussions, and other materials that paint an entirely different picture than the history tells us. As someone who went through the missionary discussions and joined the church, I can not explain how betrayed I feel from not being told the truth, and the pain caused during times when I was looking into the church as well as when I started to discover the truth. It is very difficult to understand any of that until you see the truth of the church for what it is, which is why I hope that I can help others who are now in the position I was in when I first started having doubts.

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It does get better and it is a much better feeling to do something good because you want to and not because you are told to, to make choices about what to eat and drink because you are being responsible for your own choices, and to be able to dress the way you want because you know what is grossly immodest without needing a constant reminder.

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Last - I want to note that while this summary, in my opinion, does prove why the Mormon church is not true, it does not mean there is no truth to God, Christianity, or spirituality. As the LDS historian Steven Harper pointed out in the church video highlighted above - you don't throw out Christmas because you find out about Santa Claus. He is right in that regard - you don't have to throw out the idea of a higher power just because you discover that Joseph Smith was not a prophet of God. This world has so much to offer and there is reason to feel a spirituality with it whether you believe in God, nature, or any type of higher power. I am still trying to figure out exactly what that means for me, but I think there are a lot of religions that leave room for Christianity that doesn't require the literalness of the Bible. Faith transitions are not easy, but they are not an "all or nothing" proposition either, and I think this is important when you think about what is true and what happens if you do walk away from the LDS church.

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Please contact me if you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns. I truly hope you will continue to research and engage with the supportive communities to know that things not only get better, but they get better than when you were still in the church. Thank you for reading, and I hope this helped in some way. Again - if you are struggling please contact me - I will be happy to help as I know how difficult learning all of this stuff can be, and I want to make sure you have people you can talk to or talks to listen to so you can transition away in a healthy, happy way.