“THESE AREN’T THE DROIDS YOU’RE LOOKING FOR, MOVE ALONG”… LDS HISTORY 101: ANSWERING THE DIFFICULT QUESTIONS

THE FIRST RULE WHEN IT COMES TO LDS CHURCH HISTORY IS, WELL, THERE IS NO CHURCH HISTORY, “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for”, No Need To Look Any Further! THE END...

This tends to be the standard response when it comes to asking difficult questions about historical stories or facts, if only it was that simple.

We’ve likely by now heard from the pulpit in conference “Don’t do your dirty laundry in public”: Well, Pardon me good sir but the laundry’s beginning to stink…

Most parents have experienced it, that moment when you enter your childs room, “what is that ungodly smell?” you say to yourself. You look around, clothes piled everywhere, clothing smashed under the bed with molding pizza stuck to it, an old gym bag stuck in the corner full of smelly socks. It’s been weeks, no, months, this mess has to be cleaned!

Sadly, such is the state of our LDS church, determined to against all odds to ignore the daunting task of “doing & disposing of its dirty laundry (AKA our historical mistakes)”.

For decades the church has altered its stance on how to deal with its mistakes (dirty laundry). Up until the mid 1900’s the church largely considered its “laundry” to be fairly clean and non existent. Fast forward 10–20 years and the laundry policy quickly became “its all a lie, we have no laundry”. The 1990's rolled around and our policy became “don’t talk about the laundry”, and finally we see the current laundry policy, “The laundry isn’t all that bad, just ignore it” mentality.

The past few weeks the church stepped forward renouncing hatred and racism (which I deeply appreciate), that “no person could consider themselves a follower of Christ with such beliefs”. But how are we to expect anyone to treat such a statement seriously when our religions previous policies were (and sometimes still are) built upon demeaning females, treating those with dark skin as being less worthy or inferior, and most recently having promoted and overseen campaigns filled with hate and intolerance towards those with different lifestyles.

To stand tall proclaiming love, tolerance, equality, and respect are all great causes, but to proclaim such while being built upon the same standards we’re condemning makes our proclamations hollow and without authority, just as empty as the pharisees of old. Many have wondered why a certain recent LDS member, accused of promoting radical white supremacy, racism, and very public viewpoints has not been punished or better yet excommunicated? The answer is simple, the church can’t, it’s hands are tied, to condemn her for such crimes would be a condemnation upon itself for the same historical crimes…

SO, WHAT’S A RELIGION TO DO?

Through no fault but our own, our church finds itself in the ultimate predicament.

On one hand it has the option to come clean and start anew, admitting its historical mistakes and cover ups in an attempt to show honesty and transparency, after hundreds of years of suppressing such damaging information publicly. This of course would be met with droves of Latter Day Saints departing from the faith out of disgust, feeling tricked and mislead.

On the other hand it has the option to continue with its current course of action, that being to deny and renounce facts as being false and unimportant. This of course only further pushes those with questions out the door due to trust issues, seeing a religion that can’t tell the truth even to its own members.

What the church in my opinion has failed to understand, is that over the last few years the choice has already been made for them. Due to an inability and unwillingness to act members and former members are choosing for the church.

Between the younger generation of critical thinking young adults who don’t trust those who aren’t transparent and upfront, and the older generation of factual truth seekers who continue to bring to light negative facts, the church has been forced unwillingly into a mixture of both scenarios and choices. We see now a trend of “deny, deny deny, until it is no longer reasonable to deny”, then a transition to “acknowledgment, with an emphasis on it doesn't matter, and there’s no need to check it out for yourself” like statements.

“We don’t do our dirty laundry in public”, OK fine, will you at least do it in private then?

So whats a church to do? We would hope the choice would be obvious, that being to tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may. Our prophets teach us, “we have nothing to hide, our past is an open book”, then maybe now is the time to prove such. We’re taught to “Do what is right, no matter how hard, no matter the consequence”, and if those are words they truly believe in I would hope they would choose to now lead by example and choose the right, by finally speaking the truth about our racist, sexist, and hateful past.

I’m not even talking about the type of honesty where we spill our guts “Goonies” style, spilling all we have. Start simple, man up to the mistakes of old, we preach of truth, we encourage honesty, then maybe its time that as an organization as a whole honesty and truth is shown to the public and to our members.

As a current member I would hope the church would choose to practice what it preaches, to man up for its mistakes and seek to begin the road to making amends. The laundry is here, lets stop pretending that its not, the smell only continues to worsen day by day the pile continues to grow, literally engulfing its members in confusion, sorrow, and despair. If it’s not going to clean its laundry from the pulpit in public, I would hope it has the integrity to do so in private, through its publications and online documents.

So, what do we make of all this?

THESE ARE THE DROIDS WE’RE LOOKING FOR…

The stories are real, the facts are documented, the implications are life altering… OUR HISTORY SPEAKS FOR ITSELF. There’s laundry to be done…The church may continue to tell its members otherwise, that there’s no dirty laundry, or that it isn't a big deal, but doing so only continues to widen the trust gap, sending more and more members out its doors for the last time. THESE ARE THE DROIDS WE’RE LOOKING FOR, please stop telling the world our past is squeaky clean, because its not. Do your laundry please, tell the truth, the bitter smell is unbearable…. Our Church may never apologize for our troubled past, but I certainly will.