Despite his best efforts, Taylor Kerby is a dedicated and believing member of The Church. He earned two Masters' Degrees from Claremont Graduate University and, egomaniac that he is, feels you should know that.
In October 2013 then President Uchtdorf literally made headlines when he said in General Conference-
“We openly acknowledge that in nearly 200 years of church history — along with an uninterrupted line of inspired, honorable and divine events — there have been some things said and done that could cause people to question.”
“To be perfectly frank, there have been times when members or leaders in the church have simply made mistakes. There may have been things said or done that were not in harmony with our values, principles or doctrine.”
Prophets and Revelation, Part One
Well, I was Wrong, Wasn't I?
In October 2013 then President Uchtdorf literally made headlines when he said in General Conference-
“We openly acknowledge that in nearly 200 years of church history — along with an uninterrupted line of inspired, honorable and divine events — there have been some things said and done that could cause people to question.”
“To be perfectly frank, there have been times when members or leaders in the church have simply made mistakes. There may have been things said or done that were not in harmony with our values, principles or doctrine.”
Stories centered around this quote were published in outlets normally not overly interested in a General Conference of the Church, including The Huffington Post and New York Times.[1]
In the same vein, and to significantly less fanfare, D. Todd Christofferson has noted that not everything a prophet says, “necessarily constitutes doctrine.”[2] One of my favorite stories to illustrate this point comes from Joseph Fielding Smith. In the first edition of Answers to Gospel Questions he stated that man-made flying objects, which he referred to as “man-made planets,” belonged to the earth and “it is doubtful that man will ever be permitted to make any instrument or ship to travel through space and visit the moon or any distant planet.” Later, after accepting a flag from an Apollo astronaut and being asked about this quote, he responded simply, “Well, I was wrong, wasn’t I?”[3] A century before Joseph Fielding Smith’s admission, Brigham Young stated that he feared members would “have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by him” and that he was “fearful that they will settle down in a state of blind self-security, trusting their eternal destiny in the hands of their leaders with a reckless confidence.”[4] In summary, this conviction-that church leader can and do make mistakes- has been reinforced by our leaders, past and present.
With that in mind, one might wonder why then President Uchdorf’s comments were apparently so newsworthy. The Church, as is demonstrated in the above-cited quotations and in many other statements from church leaders, has long held to the doctrine of Prophetic Fallibility- the idea that God’s prophets can, and do, make mistakes. However, we members of the church have tended to not think about our leaders that way. To be sure, we often discuss our leaders as capable of mistake making but seldom do we discuss instances of that mistake making and, more to the point, I do not believe we have not provided ourselves with a theological paradigm in which to comprehend the idea of a fallible prophet. In short, while we might objectively know our prophets are fallible I’m not sure we know how to think about fallible prophets. Often, when we discuss the idea of prophets we leave ourselves without the cognitive space to comprehend their faults.
Please, let me explain what I mean.[5] Let’s take a moment to analyze one of the analogies we often use to explain the idea of prophets. I used this analogy myself on my mission a million times over. Typically, it went something like this: I, or my companion, would stand next to the chalkboard and draw a picture as we spoke.“In the world, we live in we don’t see God” we would say while drawing a stick figure, representing the Everyman. “We can imagine there’s this wall separating us from Him” and we’d draw that wall between the Everyman and “GOD” written in all caps.
“Now, because God loves us, He gave us Prophets. A Prophet” we would say defining the term, “is someone who can stand on the wall; who can see both us and God and then say to us what God says to him.”
Please, let me explain what I mean.[5] Let’s take a moment to analyze one of the analogies we often use to explain the idea of prophets. I used this analogy myself on my mission a million times over. Typically, it went something like this: I, or my companion, would stand next to the chalkboard and draw a picture as we spoke.“In the world, we live in we don’t see God” we would say while drawing a stick figure, representing the Everyman. “We can imagine there’s this wall separating us from Him” and we’d draw that wall between the Everyman and “GOD” written in all caps.
“Now, because God loves us, He gave us Prophets. A Prophet” we would say defining the term, “is someone who can stand on the wall; who can see both us and God and then say to us what God says to him.”
(Sadly, our drawing typically looked something like this)
With that analogy in use, one can see why it might be challenging for us to understand how our leaders can be faulted. After all, if the Prophet is standing on the wall- if they can literally see God- and are just conveyors of a simple message in a divine game of telephone, Prophetic Fallibility doesn’t make much sense at all.
My next few submissions to this blog are going to offer suggestions about how we can, perhaps, think about Prophets a little better. I don’t pretend to have this all figured out, this is after all rather complex theological work, but I do hope to start a productive conversation.
I think its wise to start in the 9th Section of the Doctrine and Covenants. In this section Oliver Cowdery is attempting, unsuccessfully, to translate the Book of Mormon. We often use verses in this section when we teach personal revelation. It’s worth noting however that this section seems to be about prophetic revelation. After all, the point of discussion is the production of scripture.[6]
In this section, the LORD says to Oliver, after his unsuccessful attempts at scripture writing-
“Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it is right.”
These verses teach a few things about the process of prophetic revelation all of which have been helpful for me in my own struggle to theorize Prophetic Fallibility. Looking at the LORD’S words, there seems to be no room for the “Man on the Wall” analogy. God wasn’t going to give His words to Oliver in a game of telephone. It required work from Mr. Cowdery. He was supposed to research, think, pray, ponder, and finally, to ask for approval. In fact, he was actually reproved for just “standing on the wall” as it were by “taking no thought” and waiting for God to speak.
Additionally, this seems to indicate that a Prophet is rather limited as to the revelations they can receive. In my reading of the verses, a Prophet can only receive revelation in response to their study and question asking. It seems (and this holds with our understanding of God who values ruling without “compulsory means” who wouldn’t “force a man to heav’n”) that God does not force revelation on anyone, even His Prophets.[7] This means that the revelations a Prophet receives are contingent on the questions they ask and the study they invest which, I would argue, are in turn contingent on our Prophets’ and Apostles’ life experiences, worldviews, educations, and priorities. This understanding, I think, allows us to better see Prophets in their mistakes. It becomes easier to see how Prophets’ revelatory power could be limited or how they could be off-base altogether. We should note that this very section of Scripture comes, after all, in response to mistakes two Prophets were making.
I want to say in closing that my intention is not to devalue the work of our Prophets. If anything, I am trying to argue, and appreciate, that their ministry is far more complicated than we typically assume, a point that I will be developing in subsequent posts. With that in mind, to all who have struggled with the words of Prophets (perhaps and especially with the words we’ve recently received from Prophets and Apostles) that patience may be required of us when mistakes are made- in large part because their mission is far more complex and demanding than just standing on a wall.
“Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it is right.”
These verses teach a few things about the process of prophetic revelation all of which have been helpful for me in my own struggle to theorize Prophetic Fallibility. Looking at the LORD’S words, there seems to be no room for the “Man on the Wall” analogy. God wasn’t going to give His words to Oliver in a game of telephone. It required work from Mr. Cowdery. He was supposed to research, think, pray, ponder, and finally, to ask for approval. In fact, he was actually reproved for just “standing on the wall” as it were by “taking no thought” and waiting for God to speak.
Additionally, this seems to indicate that a Prophet is rather limited as to the revelations they can receive. In my reading of the verses, a Prophet can only receive revelation in response to their study and question asking. It seems (and this holds with our understanding of God who values ruling without “compulsory means” who wouldn’t “force a man to heav’n”) that God does not force revelation on anyone, even His Prophets.[7] This means that the revelations a Prophet receives are contingent on the questions they ask and the study they invest which, I would argue, are in turn contingent on our Prophets’ and Apostles’ life experiences, worldviews, educations, and priorities. This understanding, I think, allows us to better see Prophets in their mistakes. It becomes easier to see how Prophets’ revelatory power could be limited or how they could be off-base altogether. We should note that this very section of Scripture comes, after all, in response to mistakes two Prophets were making.
I want to say in closing that my intention is not to devalue the work of our Prophets. If anything, I am trying to argue, and appreciate, that their ministry is far more complicated than we typically assume, a point that I will be developing in subsequent posts. With that in mind, to all who have struggled with the words of Prophets (perhaps and especially with the words we’ve recently received from Prophets and Apostles) that patience may be required of us when mistakes are made- in large part because their mission is far more complex and demanding than just standing on a wall.
[1] Tribune, “Top Mormon Leader Speaks Surprisingly Frankly”; Goodstein, “A Top Mormon Leader Acknowledges the Church ‘Made Mistakes.’”
[2] As quoted in Givens, Terryl and Fiona. The crucible of doubt: Reflections on the quest for faith. Deseret Book, 2014.
[5] And, before I get jumped on in the comments, let me also say that I am sure somewhere in the church someone is having a nuanced discussion in their Sunday School classes about prophets and their mistakes. Please note that I am writing from my experiences and the experiences I have taken from others. While I would be very happy to hear about your different experience, I would ask that you do not use your experience as a tool to delegitimize the experiences of others.
[6] Which is not to say there aren’t valuable lessons relevant to personal revelation also in the section.
[7] See Doctrine and Covenants 121:46 and Know This, That Every Man is Free (Hymn number 240)
But what about, ‘My boy, you always keep your eye on the President of the Church and if he ever tells you to do anything, and it is wrong, and you do it, the Lord will bless you for it.’
ReplyDeleteAnd, 'I say to Israel, the Lord will never permit me or any other man who stands as president of the Church to lead you astray. It is not in the program. It is not in the mind of God.'
And, 'Sometimes there are those who argue about words. They might say the prophet gave us counsel but that we are not obliged to follow it unless he says it is a commandment. But the Lord says of the Prophet, “Thou shalt give heed unto all his words and commandments which he shall give unto you."'
How do we reconcile the "I'm a Mormon" campaign that ran for 6+ years under Monson, and now Nelson says that it's a victory for Satan when people call us Mormons?
https://www.lds.org/liahona/1981/06/fourteen-fundamentals-in-following-the-prophet
The short answer is- They're not right
ReplyDeleteLooking to the first quote, I go back-and-forth as to what I think about it. I certainly think it's possible to have that experience (obeying the prophet when he's wrong and getting blessed for it anyway). I know people who have had similar experiences with local leaders. With that said, I've had the experience of receiving just really bad council from leaders in the church. One example is a church leader who told me I didn't need to talk to a therapist. (spoiler alert- I WAY did.) All in all, I think its just kind of a silly thing to say especially because it takes the work out of it for the members. There's no need to work it out in your own mind and heart if a prophet being right and wrong doesn't matter at all anyway.
ReplyDeleteThe second quote I don't think can ever be divorced from its historical context. Woodruff was attempting to keep the church unified, something that we all know he was unsuccessful at doing. It was a good moment to assert prophetic authority. Furthermore, this quote is given at easily the most transitional moment in Church History. We have never before or since had such a dramatic theological shift as when we gave up polygamy. (More on that can be said) With that in mind, I think Woodruff can certainly be correct- The Prophet will never lead us astray, with something as significant as a complete rethinking of what it means to be a Latter-day Saint.
Looking to the third quote- first, the distinction between "commandment" and whatever else matters very little to me. If it's a good idea I don't care what we call it. But, again, I take issue with the removal of any spiritual work on the part of the members. And, you know, so would Brigham Young.
I can delightfully take issue with all of these quotes while affirming my belief in prophets precisely because prophets can be off-base. This will be developed more fully in posts to follow however, I also think that just as a Prophet is limited by their experience/questioning/worldview they can also mistake their worldview/passions for revelation. Later I will discuss an example of that happening.
The "I'm a Mormon" issue is actually the topic of the forthcoming "Part Two" so I won't go to much into it, mostly because I'm still fleshing out my own thoughts. But I will say that I don't really have a problem with it for two reasons. First, we believe that revelation can be added to, be taken away, and even changed. I think we run into theological trouble when we (unknowingly) attribute Protestant scriptural assumptions to the Mormon (err...Restored Church) experience. Second, because revelations are conditional upon experience and questions and such it doesn't seem unreasonable to me to say Thomas Monson just didn't think about it that much. It also seems reasonable to say Russel Nelson is confusing his passion for a revelation. The Holy Spirit should be able to help us short that out.
Like I said, the last two points will be developed further in posts to follow.
Doesn't, then, the counsel to "follow the prpphep and be blessed" become, in reality, "follow the prophet and you might be blessed, or he might be completely wrong and preaching false doctrine"?
ReplyDeleteTake, for example, homosexuality. The church has a hardline stance against it. What if they're wrong? Right now, in this very moment, the rhetoric is literally killing real, living people. If prophets have no more ability to receive revelation than anybody else, why have prophets at all?