The foundation of testimony for the typical Mormon seems to rest on this statement:
"Always keep your eye on the President of the church, and if he ever tells you to do anything, even if it is wrong, and you do it, the lord will bless you for it but you don't need to worry. The lord will never let his mouthpiece lead the people astray." Marion G. Romney (of the first presidency), quoting LDS President Heber J. Grant, Conference Report Oct. 1960 p. 78
Unfortunately, Joseph Smith already warned against this type of doctrine many years previously.
“We have heard men who hold the priesthood remark that they would do anything they were told to do by those who preside over them [even] if they knew it was wrong; but such obedience as this is worse than folly to us; it is slavery in the extreme; and the man who would thus willingly degrade himself, should not claim a rank among intelligent beings, until he turns from his folly. A man of God would despise the idea. Others, in the extreme excercise of their almighty authority have taught that such obedience was necessary, and that no matter what the saints were told do by their Presidents they should do it without any questions. When Elders of Isreal will so far indulge in these extreme notions of obedience as to teach them to the people, it is generally because they have it in their hearts to do wrong themselves.”
- Joseph Smith, Millinnial Star, Vol 14, Number 38, pages 596-595
I've brought this quote up to many of my fellow members but to no avail. I've thought about why that is such a hard idea for them to accept. I think it is answered by the words in the Book of Nephi.
"And it came to pass that after I had received strength I spake unto my brethren, desiring to know of them the cause of their disputations. And they said: Behold, we cannot understand the words which our father hath spoken concerning the natural branches of the olive-tree, and also concerning the Gentiles. And I said unto them: Have ye inquired of the Lord? And they said unto me: We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us."
(1 Ne 15:6-9)
I think it has to do with the ease of the former premise. How much easier is it to just take orders from your leaders? How much easier is it to accept another in a position of authority as capable of receiving revelation, when by and large you know of no significant revelation the Lord has ever given you yourself?
When I talk to fellow members about their communications with God, I usually hear something like this, "I get on my knees and I pray with all my heart. And then I'll listen. And if I don't hear anything, I'll crawl into bed. He'll usually answer somehow in the next few days through something or someone else."
When I ask, "What do you mean, you listen?" They say, "I don't know. Like for a voice or a feeling or something."
If that is how the majority of church members communicate with God then I really can't blame them for resisting a paradigm wherein they are personally responsible to sift through truth and error themselves and can't just place that squarely on the shoulders of the old, official-looking guys that talk to us in Conference.
"Always keep your eye on the President of the church, and if he ever tells you to do anything, even if it is wrong, and you do it, the lord will bless you for it but you don't need to worry. The lord will never let his mouthpiece lead the people astray." Marion G. Romney (of the first presidency), quoting LDS President Heber J. Grant, Conference Report Oct. 1960 p. 78
Unfortunately, Joseph Smith already warned against this type of doctrine many years previously.
“We have heard men who hold the priesthood remark that they would do anything they were told to do by those who preside over them [even] if they knew it was wrong; but such obedience as this is worse than folly to us; it is slavery in the extreme; and the man who would thus willingly degrade himself, should not claim a rank among intelligent beings, until he turns from his folly. A man of God would despise the idea. Others, in the extreme excercise of their almighty authority have taught that such obedience was necessary, and that no matter what the saints were told do by their Presidents they should do it without any questions. When Elders of Isreal will so far indulge in these extreme notions of obedience as to teach them to the people, it is generally because they have it in their hearts to do wrong themselves.”
- Joseph Smith, Millinnial Star, Vol 14, Number 38, pages 596-595
I've brought this quote up to many of my fellow members but to no avail. I've thought about why that is such a hard idea for them to accept. I think it is answered by the words in the Book of Nephi.
"And it came to pass that after I had received strength I spake unto my brethren, desiring to know of them the cause of their disputations. And they said: Behold, we cannot understand the words which our father hath spoken concerning the natural branches of the olive-tree, and also concerning the Gentiles. And I said unto them: Have ye inquired of the Lord? And they said unto me: We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us."
(1 Ne 15:6-9)
I think it has to do with the ease of the former premise. How much easier is it to just take orders from your leaders? How much easier is it to accept another in a position of authority as capable of receiving revelation, when by and large you know of no significant revelation the Lord has ever given you yourself?
When I talk to fellow members about their communications with God, I usually hear something like this, "I get on my knees and I pray with all my heart. And then I'll listen. And if I don't hear anything, I'll crawl into bed. He'll usually answer somehow in the next few days through something or someone else."
When I ask, "What do you mean, you listen?" They say, "I don't know. Like for a voice or a feeling or something."
If that is how the majority of church members communicate with God then I really can't blame them for resisting a paradigm wherein they are personally responsible to sift through truth and error themselves and can't just place that squarely on the shoulders of the old, official-looking guys that talk to us in Conference.
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