NOWmormon wrote:Maksutov wrote:Lying for the Lord was the first and last doctrine of Joseph Smith. It is what guides the church today.
The 13th article of faith (that I memorized in Primary) begins with “We believe in being honest, true”.
One of the Ten Commandments includes “Thou shalt not bear false witness” (and lds.org adds: “Bearing false witness is another form of dishonesty.”)
Even Temple Recommend interviews include a question regarding honesty. Only with a signed recommend may I enter the temple and complete savings ordinances for others and myself.
-May I hide the truth during my multiple temple recommend interviews? No.
-May I skip some of the questions? No.
-May I mislead my Priesthood leaders during the interviews? No.
I must state the complete truth, with consistency, to all involved.
Shouldn’t the only “true and living church upon the face of the whole earth” have the same standard? Yes.
It should state the complete truth, with consistency, to all involved.
But in regards to plural marriage, the leadership of the church has misled me to understand that all I have been taught, and all that I have learned, was all that there was to know, and that it was the complete truth.
Prophet Gordon B Hinckley said:
“Half truths are used to mislead under the representation that they are whole truths.”
Elder Dallin H Oaks said:
“A lie is not always told in so many words. It may be a creature of concealment or a misrepresentation by action or a half-truth.”
Never in my imagination did I think the restored church of Jesus Christ would purposefully hide things from me.
I trusted and believed that the church would live by its beliefs and teachings; and would be honest; and never mislead me.
Which brings me to an important quote from our Prophet Thomas S. Monson:
“Remember that the power to lead is also the power to mislead;
and the power to mislead is the power to destroy.”
The Church, like essentially all corporate entities, is a sociopath. It acts opportunistically to ensure its own survival, without regard to the social conscience or notions of "integrity" that its human agents claim for it. Those human agents, including the LDS prophets and apostles, set their personal morality aside when they speak and act for the entity. They sometimes vary their terminology by using words like "Jesus Christ" or "the Lord" or "the Priesthood," but they are always referring to the earthly corporate sociopathic entity they serve.
Compare and contrast the notion of "personal integrity" that the Church teaches as part of its line of philosophical self-help products (branded as "The Gospel of Jesus Christ") and the actual behavior of the Church: HERE