We talked about the
sacrament meeting, my profession, and golf (I don’t golf, but he and the Stake
President did). The conversation
later turned to gospel study. I
inquired whether or not he had heard of a particular author. He replied that he had not, and then felt
it was important to “caution” me against reading things “not written by the
brethren.” I could sense his
honest concern about the matter, and I was grateful for his kindness. Our conversation ended on that note of
counsel, and we exchanged hands and goodbyes.
It seems the brethren
themselves don’t follow that counsel.
If they had, we wouldn’t have Talmage’s Jesus the Christ, which was written by comprehensively studying a
non-Mormon’s writings. We wouldn’t
have many of President Monson’s poems, stories, and anecdotes were it not for
William James, Charles Swindoll, Thomas Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and
William Shakespeare (“Living the Abundant Life,” Ensign Jan. 2o12).
President Benson’s famous “Beware of Pride” address would never have
been produced had not C.S. Lewis first written The Screwtape Letters, and Mere
Christianity.
Church historians Ronald
Walker, Richard Turley, and Glen Leonard recently wrote the most
extensively documented account of the Mountain Meadows Massacre yet. Their work has been applauded by some of the brethren. There are over 1,600 footnotes in the
book. They researched and cited
not only Mormon authors, but excommunicated-Mormon authors, anti-Mormon
authors, and never-Mormon authors from both the 19th and 20th
centuries.
Why would they do
that? Don’t they know better?
They did it because the information they needed in order to put together honest history wasn’t found in church manuals, the writings of the brethren, or LDS.org. They did it because they were interested in finding out the truth of the matter. They exhausted all the resources available to them and decided what was valuable in piecing together a true picture.
They did it because the information they needed in order to put together honest history wasn’t found in church manuals, the writings of the brethren, or LDS.org. They did it because they were interested in finding out the truth of the matter. They exhausted all the resources available to them and decided what was valuable in piecing together a true picture.
On 11 September 2007, before
the book’s publication, President Eyring spoke at the Sesquicentennial of that horrific
event. In his address he said this
about the work of these three historians:
“Although no event in history can fully be known, the work of these three authors has enabled
us to know more than we ever have known about this unspeakable episode. The
truth, as we have come to know it, saddens us deeply. The gospel of Jesus
Christ that we espouse, abhors the cold-blooded killing of men, women, and
children. Indeed, it advocates peace and forgiveness. What was done here long
ago by members of our Church represents a terrible and inexcusable departure
from Christian teaching and conduct. We cannot change what happened, but we can
remember and honor those who were killed here” (see Newsroom).
More and more folks are discovering, at times to their dismay, that if you want to find out the whole truth about matters of Mormon history you're going to have to start traveling and turning over rocks outside city limits. There's not enough information available in Church manuals to satisfy the spiritual needs of those seeking to know the truth about history.
