Tuesday, 13 August 2013

Why 13 essays probably won't answer all the issues

Terryl Givens is apparently leading a program, for the church, to write 13 essays answering the big issues of Mormonism. He is also involved with several others who are working on helping members who have doubts.

The problem is, there are certain issues that simply have no good answers, even if they wrote 130,013 essays. 

FAIR/NAMI do have reasonable answers to some of the big questions and I think Jensen/Turley could have given better answers than were given when they visited the concerned members in Sweden

There remains, for me, questions that I've read all of the FAIR material on and have debated for many 100s of posts on MDDB and there are still no good answers. Two examples that are among the most challenging (for me) are: 

1) Why did BY introduce a ban on blacks having priesthood/temple ordinances (and even auxiliary leadership clings) even though JS had ordained black men and called them to leadership positions? Why is there no evidence this was introduced by even claimed revelation and yet was taught as God's will and doctrine for over 130 years?

2) Why do passages from the KJV of the Bible, that were added in 200AD with no evidence of being original, also appear, identically, in the Book of Mormon (Mark 16/Mormon 9)?

I maintain a belief in God and from that stems a partial solution to my concerns.

I compare this solution to my perspectives on humanity, God's crowning creation: I believe God is the ultimate source of life. But I was created by people (my parents) and as such, came in to being with imperfections and fallibility.

I consider the same to be the case for Mormonism.I believe God, like for many other religions, was the ultimate source of inspiration, but the organisation and scriptures were delivered by people, which leads to imperfections and fallibility. 

Given the clear potential for error and fallibility in our leaders and scripture I don't feel a need to have a total acceptance of everything they teach and expect. I adopt and adapt in a personalised approach. Mormonism remains "my way." But I accept and support those who, like my wife, find approaches that fit and work for them in better way. I believe God does too. 

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