Do you feel like the church "duped" you regarding history?

[MikeWaters]

One of the complaints of the aggrieved, or the non-inoculated, is that they were duped by not having every known of the more controversial aspects of Mormon history.

Whatever that may be. Joseph Smith's polygamy, polyandry, destruction of the printing press, Pearl of Great Price papyrus, etc.

I think we can all agree that no one was taught in primary that Joseph Smith looked into a hat with a seer stone....

My question is this however: what is the church's responsibility in this? How should it change, if at all?

Should there be some kind of change to the basic church curricula. Like primary lessons, Sunday school lessons, priesthood lessons.

What should change in seminary and institute?

Or is the current path the right thing? I think we are experiencing a thaw towards historians. The Joseph Smith Papers project. The recent essay on blacks and the priesthood.

What does an LDS church that has "fully matured" on this issue look like?

I get the impression that some apostates feel like if they could *just* get the message out about controversial things, that many thousands would soon exit the church, and the "house of cards" could come tumbling down.

I think that this is a gross misreading of the church and its members.

With the blacks and priesthood essay, there have been some of us that are mystified by the consternation that many dyed-in-the-wool Mormon conservatives have experienced. Is this the demographic that is most at "risk"?

On the other hand, didn't ute4ever or someone else say that a majority of the members of CUF had apostatized? They're probably on the more liberal side of things.

[ChinoCoug]

No, I don't think at all the Church has been dishonest. Maybe it's because I've been well-innoculated.

Stone in Hat: Age 18 (read it in FARMS book The Evidence for Ancient Origins). Kinda weird but didn't faze me.

Polyandry: Age 12 (read about in the public library)

Destruction of Printing Press: Age 15 (seminary). At Age 18 the Deseret Towers RA told me it was legal thing to do.

Book of Abraham: Age 18 (Read about in Stephen E. Robinson's How Wide the Divide?).

Evolution is kosher: Age 13 (Scoutmaster told me)

Not all Natives are Lamanites: Age 13 (Scoutmaster again).

[ChinoCoug]

Inoculation works like magic with me. Once a (Blazer?) teacher brushed off my mention of polygamy, so I felt bad about asking about it for a long time. The I read about it in depth in the manual My Kingdom Shall Roll Forth and then felt relieved.

Because I was reading FARMS when I learned about the stone-in-hat, that didn't bother me either.

You made me look at CUF, and it appears that Colly Wolly (a mullah) has apostasized.

[ChinoCoug]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

What does an LDS church that has "fully matured" on this issue look like?

The Catholic Church.

With the blacks and priesthood essay, there have been some of us that are mystified by the consternation that many dyed-in-the-wool Mormon conservatives have experienced. Is this the demographic that is most at "risk"?

I think most of them have arthritis, like those racists who died right before 1978.

[MikeWaters]

name is vaguely familiar.

fear drives mullah-ism.

[realtall]

I think 'lied to' maybe too strong of a term but I definitely feel as though some of the rougher edges of the early days of the Church were glossed over. I don't think that I heard about 'peeping' into a hat thing until way past my teen age years(keep in mind that I grew up in SW Arkansas and there weren't loads of people to ask about that kind of thing). It certainly wasn't in the seminary manual. THAT I know.

Joseph & Hyrum tried to take off before being talked into surrendering themselves(Kirtland). Not in the manual either but it didn't really bother me that much.

No mention of Joseph Smith in relation to polygamy. He had about 34 wives. Kind of a big omission don't you think? Again, not in the manual but it didn't bother me.

There are a few others but I think of them right now.

[realtall]

Here is a thread that I started some time ago:

http://cougarguard.com/forum/showthr...=7433#poststop


It has some overlap with the subject of this thread and makes for some interesting reading.

[MikeWaters]

I came across this link from FAIR regarding controversial topics being "hidden in plain sight" in church literature.

http://en.fairmormon.org/Mormonism_a...ding_the_facts