“If a religion is to be based on certain sacred texts, it will inevitably fall into corruption and decay, the further away it moves in time and space from the historical origin of those texts—unless it has a constantly living, internal "interpreter", in the semantic sense of the word."
—Herbert Musurillo,
History and Symbol: A Study of Form in Early Christian Literature,
Theological Studies vol. 18, 1957, 360.
A friend of mine sent me the above quote with the tag line, “If a revelator, translator, prophet, and seer don't exist - a living church is doomed!” ....and I would add, "especially if an anonymous committee of paid individuals is now rewriting what we should now consider "Doctrine" (such as the recently released topics of the First Vision Accounts, Polygamy, and Race and the Priesthood.)
....
The below is some interesting information on the authorship of the LDS Church's newly released essays.
DISCLAIMER: It is second hand, so best to take that under consideration. I can not confirm the source, but certainly worth pondering about.
"I have had a recent, long, direct and informative discussion with a well-placed and highly-credible Mormon Church source, which focused on the question of who, specifically, authored the historically-revisionistic essays that the Mormon Church has now placed on its official website. Just let me say that these essays were not written by members of the Quorum of the Twelve or the First Presidency.
(My source is aware of the fact that I am posting this on the Recovery from Mormonism discussion board, since I told the source I would be doing so).
Per mutual agreement with the source, I will not, at this time, be disclosing the names of those who participated in the writing of the essays--although the identities of certain specific individuals were given to me who, directly or indirectly, assisted in the authorship of the essays.
Just let me say that these essays were not written by members of the Quorum of the Twelve or the First Presidency.
I was told that the directed goal of the essays' authors was to craft statements that would satisfy everyone--an assignment which the source said was their first mistake. These publicly-unidentified-authored efforts, I was further told, ultimately were required to pass what was described as the paranoid approval of the Quorum of the Twelve--a group that was also characterized as being full of egomaniacs who needed to be humbled.
The authors of these essays were said to represent a wide variety of people employed by the Mormon Church in the LDS Historical Department, some of whom are historians themselves. In authoring the essays, these individuals were also given the task of contacting others outside the Mormon Church Historical Department who were considered by the LDS Church's Historical Department to be experts and scholars, and from whom all kinds of input was sought. I was told that the Mormon Church, in present circumstances, was doing the best it could.
The source noted that these essays would not be laying blame at the feet of the Mormon Church's founder, Joseph Smith, because that was simply not possible to do at the present time. From the source's perspective, the decison not to take problematic issues back to Joseph Smith (especially on the issue of race) was understandable, given what were characterized as current complicated realities facing the Mormon Church--although the source said that they (meaning the source) was not pleased with the essay on polygamy.
I was told that employees of the Mormon Church Historical Department were given the assignment of hammering out statements in their essay documents that would:
1) repudiate racism and sexism;
2) create pronouncements that strike a balance; and
3) lay the groundwork for the release of new information in the future.
I told the source that the sooner the Mormon Church quit mischaracterizing the historically-doctrinal (not policy) nature of official Mormon Church positions--(particulary as related to its historically-racist ones that are currently embedded in the LDS Church's canonized scriptures, notably the Book of Mormon and Pearl of Great Price, as well as in the officially-authoritative statements of the First Presidency that have traced Mormon Church doctrine directly back to Joseph Smith)--the better,
During the course of our lively one-on-one discussion, the source and myself did not agree on all points, although our discussion was quite cordial, as it typically is.
So, there you have it:
"Revealed" Mormon Church truth, brought to you by anonymously rolled out, correlated committees."
.............
Below is further information coming out from the inside on a variety of fronts, pertaining to {the new essays, SSM and church finances}:
1) the research, authorship and internal consequences of the Mormon Church's essays on problematic areas of LDS history and doctrine;
2) internal Mormon Church developments relating to the evenaul nation-wide legalization of same-sex marriage and how the Mormon Church may be preparing to accommodate that scenario; and
3) the extent of LDS Inc. financial holdings and who inside the Mormon Church super-structure does and does not have full knowledge of LDS Inc.'s full financial picture
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--The Nature and Effect that the Mormon Church's Anonymously-Authored Essays Aee Having on Those Tasked to Write Them
According to a source of mine who has contacts with Mormon Church correlation committee employees, one of these individuals (whose identity, although known, is being kept confidential here) has direct contact with LDS General Authority/Church Historian and Recorder, Steven Snow. This Mormon Church-committee researcher/writer is regarded by colleagues as respected, informed, forthright and honest when it comes to Mormon Church historical issues--and is one who is seen as being well aware of the problems these issues pose to the Church. My source informs me that some of these Church researchers/writers, including this individual, get together on occasion to compare notes with one another.
The particular individual being mentioned here works within the Church's history-committee system and, from that vantage point, has been judiciously and strategically posting information in various venues about what they know about certain historical matters which are described as being sensitive for the Mormon Church.
For instance, it was this individual who publicly noted the following (as quoted earlier on this board):
"The concern going in from the Brethren was how to roll this out without creating a (look-at-all-of-our-problems) page. The Brethren don't want to start faith issues where they don't currently exist, and they are correct that the majority of active and believing Saints don't know or care about this stuff, particularly outside of Utah and the United States.
"The decision was made to incorporate them [the essays] into already-existing areas of the [Mormon Church's official] website and not do a big campaign (outside of the organic interest that will naturally result). From a business perspective, it's probably a wise move. . . . . [I]t's really all about inoculating the next generation. Elder [Steven] Snow has said as much directly to me. They are well aware that skeptics will likely not be satisfied with these answers or their choice of roll-out. It's there for members to see if they are planning lessons, talks, and I know that they are working towards integrating them with curriculum; particularly youth curriculum." . . .
“This much is clear: They [the essays] are not designed to restore people's faith as much as they are designed to lessen future disaffections; Members who come across damning information for the first time and turn to LDS.org to see what the Church says on the matter. The goal is to give them a faithful response while still acknowledging the complexity of the issue.”
("The Debate Over the 13 New Essays?," posted by “epiginosko,” in "New Order Mormon," 10-11 December 2013, at; http://forum.newordermormon.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=33954&)start=20)
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--The Mormon Church is Said to Possibly be Preparing for an Inevitable National Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage and Considering Modifiying Its Temple Wedding Procedures Accordingly
My source has been in contact with what has been described as a well-placed and completely credible senior executive in the Utah corporate world (whose identity is also known but being protected here). This individual is reportedly aware of how the Morrmon Church's legal beagles may be looking at unfolding realites on the same-sex-marriage front.
According to this executive (some of whose posts I have seen), a member of the Mormon Church's legal team (a team that has long been battling marriage equality) is of the view that 50-state legalizion of same-sex marriage is an unavoidable eventuality.
Given that expectation, this Mormon Church legal advisor is reportedly of the view that the Mormon Church may ultimately implement a U.s.-focused policy that not only accepts civil unions, but that combines these constitutionally-lawful unions with LDS temple-performed sealings, in order to prevent the Mormon Church from becoming entangled in legal problems (along the same lines as the Mormon Church is now doing in some European countries).
commenting on these possible developments, the senior executive observed that if the law ends up driving the Mormon Church to adopt a civil-marriage-first policy, it would make it much easier to preserve family cohesiveness when, otherwise, certain famly members would be excluded from celebrating LDS marital events because they are not deemed worthy to participate.
_____.
--Secrecy Within the Mormon Church Hierarchy Regarding the Full Breadth of Its Financial Holdings
Citing the same senior corporate excutive mentioend above, my source reported that only eight indivudals within the Mormon Church's highest functioning bodies are fully ware of LDS Inc.'s financials. These individuals are:
1) the First Presidency;
2) the Presiding Bishopric; and
3) two unnamed LDS finanical leaders (although one of whom is said to be related to the aformentioned senior corporate executive)
Pointed note was made that even the Quorum of the Twelve is not kept in the full fnaancial loop.
According to the senior executive, this small, elite group meets only once annually, at which time the complete financil picture for LDS Inc. is reviewed. The other individual components of the organization are described as being limited in their knowledge to only that part of organizational operations in which they are respectively involved.
I appreciate my source's willingness to share the above credible, insightful and valuable information for the express purpose of public disclosure. As this individual observed, the Mormon Church is in need of experiencing the effects of sunlight on its secrets. To that end, they said they would pass information along as it is received."
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