Bazooka wrote: ...Yet we find an unwillingness to discuss difficult areas of Church history, with the excuse that some aspects of Church history are not faith promoting.
There should be no truth claim which under the ‘full light of day’ is proven to be otherwise. Yet we find many of the truth claims to be based not on substantive facts, but on an altered narrative crucially lacking in historical accuracy, with uncomfortable, yet context altering details suspiciously ignored, even hidden from the membership.
Yet we find many failed or changed prophetic pronouncements of the past suspiciously declared as “folklore” & just “personal opinion”.
we find that instead of being assisted, they are ignored at best, or at worst ostracized for simply wanting to know the full facts about the origins of their Church. In most cases Stake Presidents & Bishops are ill-equipped to answer their questions.
Brethren your response to these questions will not only show sincere concern, but could potentially resolve the painful religious trauma syndrome many members suffer from as a result of the cognitive dissonance they face as they encounter historical facts completely in contradiction with the story told them by the Church.
Brethren, we DECLARE this day, the 21st December 2012, that without a formal public pronouncement of the answers to these crucial questions in a full, frank & honest manner, that you as leaders of this Church be held responsible for the continued wilful deception of many millions of faithful Church members. The Church membership needs its leaders to show integrity, humility & absolute honesty if this Church is to continue to provide the sense of purpose & security which the faithful members deserve.
We will not go away, and there are thousands of others also ready to speak as we do. Truth will win out in the end, we hope you have the courage to follow that truth no matter where it may lead.
We affirm to you that humility, honesty, integrity & authenticity is a far greater & more rewarding path to follow than blind obedience & meaningless loyalty can ever be.
Yours faithfully
Martha Bache
David Bloor
Steve Bloor
Jeremy Brown
Lisa Campbell
Pip Chapman
Damian Mitchell
Tim Morgan
Tom Phillips
Sophia Ralph
Ted Ralph
Ken Smith
There's nothing to respond to. Just more liberals who have tasted the fruit of the Tree of Life, turned to see the hip, cool people in the Great and Spacious Building sniggering and mocking, and become ashamed of the fruit they'd been holding in their hands. Dropping it, they begin looking for a suitably rationalized and lofty-sounding way out and seeking to take as many with them as possible to justify their own intellectual and spiritual shallowness.
Most of their broad complaints have been responded to plausibly, if not adequately, by the Brethren themselves and by competent LDS scholarship and apologetic critique for decades, and most of their complaints involve, not settled facts, as they so tendentiously imply, but highly contested, disputed, questionable criticisms open to multiple interpretations, not just those of apostates sniffing for a pretext to bolt from the fold and to bolt in the most public, self-serving, and pseudo-principled way possible.
This kind of thing has been going on for a long time. Why should the Church respond to each and every group of cranky recreants who have determined that they do not desire to live the standards and principles of the gospel?
The Church has better things to do.