A few months ago, an anonymous reader commented on a post that I wrote about wanting to be more intentional in 2013. They requested that I expand on the reasons why I am fascinated with Mormons. I have had to think hard on the subject, often staying up late to stare at the ceiling and think. I could never find the right words, the least offensive words, and so I dismissed the topic in my head and moved on to counting sheep.
However, this week I read an interesting article about how the LDS church is making revisions to their scriptures, particularly in Doctrine and Covenants, and my interest in Mormonism peaked again.
The significant revisions being made deal with the church’s original ban on “black priesthood ordination and polygamy.”
Terryl Givens, a Mormon co-author of The God Who Weeps: How Mormonism Makes Sense of Life says, "I think that this new introduction to the revelation ending the priesthood ban is a major step forward in many ways because it acknowledges that the practice may have originated — it seems to me, this is how I'm reading it anyhow — as a matter of error or cultural and historical conditioning rather than as the will of God. And that's a fairly significant statement for the church to make."
Givens’ quote surprised me because the LDS church and it’s members maintain the belief that the Book of Mormon is the most accurate book on earth over the Bible, which they only believe in “as far as it is translated correctly.”
My question for my Mormon friends and readers is this: How is the Book of Mormon the most accurate of any book when this significant of changes are being made, and when the church is admitting that the original doctrine was error and not in line with the will of God?
(Open dialogue, please! Also, I hope none of this post came off as offensive. I am honestly interested in the revisions and hearing the thoughts of members of the church towards the revisions.)
I've actually started meeting with mormons in Searcy to learn more about their faith. Thanks for posting this, I am going to talk to them about this next week! Ever since I started blogging and learned more about mormonism, I've become interested myself!
ReplyDeleteour library at school has a lot of books you can read about Mormonism. I've checked them out myself! Ha
DeleteOh man, I wish I would have seen this sooner!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all good job on reading Terryl Givens. By The Hand Of Mormon is def a book of his that you should read if you haven't already. It's gives a very accurate description of the BoM (Book of Mormon) and the historical context in which it came about. It even touches on Mormon culture a little bit. An AWESOME read just about the BoM.
As for other things to read, you should not pass up Jan Shipps. She is THE authority on Mormonism, and she isn't even LDS.
Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition is a must.
My Anthropology professor teaches all his Mormonism classes from these two books alone. He also teaches at the U of U, UVU, and BYU (top 3 universities in Utah), if that doesn't tell you how great these books are. 2 of those 3 universities were founded by the LDS church and one is a public university started by the state with a very, very high percentage of LDS people in the student body.
As for the history of the church and racism, Givens is correct in saying that it was an act of man and not God who established the LDS church "doctrine." Brigham Young was very stealthy in how he pushed his own personal views/agenda into the church. Joseph Smith actually wanted racial equality. It was a BIG part of his platform. Also in the beginning blacks were allowed in the church as well.
Names to look into:
Green Flake, Jane Manning James, and most importantly Elijah Abel and his role in the early LDS church.
Leonard J. Arrington is the official church historian and has spoke against many things the LDS church has done in the past. He gives the accurate information and LDS history that is, well, actually LDS history and not second-hand knowledge as most people have knowledge of. He's the man to read if you have any questions about polygamy or racial issues.
In regards to people considering it being the most accurate, you have to look at the history of the bible and how many hundreds of times it has been revised and rewritten since over the course of Christianity. Most major denominations use different versions of it in their biblical canon. The BoM has undergone changes but if you really wanted to track those changes it is possible
This is a lot of my own opinion, so yeah.
* Just to clarify for those who don't know, the LDS church uses both the Bible and the triple combination in its religious practice. Both are used pretty extensively too. We even have bible study classes :D
Sorry this post is soooooo long but I find it exciting that people look into LDS church history and the huge complex thing that is the LDS church. It is truly a interesting/unique Christian religion!
Hope I'm not all preachy or come off wrong to anyone. I just find the whole Mormon thing absolutely crazy weird and at the same time a little bit awesome. Being someone whose parents weren't LDS until later in their lives, I find it fascinating why they chose Mormonism.
Good luck with the reading!
Joel
thanks for the book recs! while we don't agree on the history of the Bible and it being "rewritten", I do appreciate your insight and opinions. Thank you!
DeleteLet me start by saying I am no authority on Mormonism, and what I may say doesn't perfectly reflect the reasons or history behind these revisions, but I am a member of the LDS Church and believe it with all my heart.
ReplyDeleteThese links help explain at least why the revisions were made and summarizes what they were.
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/adjustments?lang=eng#gallery=
https://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/scriptures/approved-adjustments_eng.pdf
I don't believe there are what one can call "signification revision".
The body and text of both the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants are the same as they were with only a very few minor punctuation and spelling changes. Mostly to ensure fidelity to the original manuscripts.
The bigger changes came in chapter headings and footnotes, which are only there to help people understand better the history of what is going on and to cross reference to similar scriptures.
As far as the topic of race and priesthood, there was a heading added to the 2nd Official Declaration of the Doctrine and Covenants. This is the declaration that talks about all races being eligible to receive the priesthood. As it says in the heading, "Church records offer no clear insights into the origins of this practice."
Because of that statement it is only left up to individual speculation as to why it was that way.
Personal opinion: I believe it was like that to avoid more persecution in the early days of the church, why it took as long as it did to reverse it, I don't know. It seems to me there were two times in history that this could have change. The Civil War, the end of slavery, and also the African-American Civil Right Movement. As we can see it was well after the latter that it actually occurred.
Anything you will ever read on the subject, unfortunately, will just be someone's opinion.
To me, it is up to individuals to receive personal insight and revelation through prayer to come to grips with the decisions made in the past. As unfortunate as it was, I believe there was a significant reason it was like that and we will likely never know that reason behind it.
Well those are my thoughts on the topic, hope you can make some sense of it.
Best Wishes,
Anonymous Blogger....(who has been MIA for far too long.)
I am no authority on Mormonism either, seeing as I'm not LDS, but I would consider changing scripture about who can hold the priesthood to be a significant change for the church, even though it's something they have been practicing since the late 1970's.
DeleteAnyway, I appreciate your comment. Thanks!
For some reason I thought you were saying the recent revisions were significant.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you though, the declaration of who can hold the priesthood was quite significant, and it was a great relief to saints all over the world of all races. I will wonder forever, as will anyone interested in the subject, when and why it happened the way it did.
How do you make a significant change like that to a book that is basically their Bible? I mean you don't see Christians changing the Bible? Hmm.
ReplyDeleteI think it is important to note that there is a difference between actual scripture, and study materials. The change you are talking about was made to a section heading in the Doctrine and Covenants, not to the verses of scripture that the section heading describes.
ReplyDeleteEach chapter in the Doctrine and Covenants is called a section. Chapter and section headings, where the change you are referring to was made, summarize what is written in the following chapter of scripture and provide relevant historical information (such as who was there and where the revelation was received). Chapter and section headings are printed alongside the scriptures to help the reader understand and study the scriptures better. They are published in the same book as our scriptures for convenience. Other study materials printed alongside the scriptures are running headings (listing the first and last verse on each page), indexes, topical guides, dictionaries, pronunciation guides, maps, extensive footnotes, and so on.