[SeattleUte]

The Mormon and Catholic churches bear the common characteristic that they are monolithic, insular, highly organized and hierarchical institutions. This sets them apart from the crazy quilt of myriad Protestant sects. However, one respect in which they differ is that the Catholic Church takes great pains to clarify doctrinal points, many arcane and obscure, often through encyclicals issued by the Pope to the Bishops. Such communications have covered myriad subjects, everything from de-Latinizing the mass, to abortion, to evolution, to nuclear weapons, to sexual preference, to the shroud of Turin, to Catholic complicty in the Holocaust. The list is endless. These enclyclicals are invariably clear and incisive. I don't believe anyone ever accused the Catholic Church of lack of clarity with respect to its position on any subject.

MikeWaters made an interesting point yesterday when he said the General Authorities never comment on subjects such as Joseph Smith's method in generating the Book of Abraham. I could show you some General Conference talks from the '70's in which apostles claimed that all American aborigines were descendants of Book of Mormon peoples. Some of us remember missionary materials that made that claim. What is the Church's current position on that issue? Who knows? Was the priesthood ban doctrine or policy? What was its purpose? This is precisely the kind of thing a papal encyclical would address firmly, and in detail. What exactly is the Church's position on "grace"? Does it resemble Martin Luther's rigid predestination construct, Catholic self-determination, or something in between? How DID the Book of Abraham come to be?

From what I've seen the Church only clarifies a doctrinal point when it is dealing with a PR disaster, as with Blood Atonement, and then only insofar as it has to. As a result, "Mormon Doctrine" is this pastiche of vague scriptural references, folk lore, Deseret Book published works by General Authorities, FARMS monographs, and Internet traffic. Clearly this opacity is deliberate and institutionalized.