Question about those who think LDS (mormon) leaders lie?

Question

So I'm wondering how far up people believe the "lies" go. I've seen people write that most Mormons don't know what we believe in and that our leaders cover things up. Which leaders? Local leaders, regional leaders, national leaders, worldwide leaders? how far up do people think this conspiracy goes?

For the record, I'm LDS. I'm just wondering if when my hubby was in the Bishopric he "covered anything up". lol.

Answer 1

I am an ex-mormon, and I think you are thinking in the wrong direction. The question is how far down does the lie go. First of all though, I think it is stupid that people think the church hides it's "true belief's" from people. That is dumb. You can't tell someone they secretly believe something else. There would be no point to that. However, I do not believe the church is true, and I believe the prophet and his apostles know it, but the question is how far down does it go. I don't believe people on a bishopric level necessarily know it. I have had 2 good bishops in my life. They honestly tried to do what they felt was right. But I could tell they were frustrated because they weren't getting the revelation they thought they were entitled to as a bishop. The rest of my bishops were bad men who pretended to recieve revelation, but were flat out wrong, and only pretended because they thought if they admitted to not having revelation, people would know what kind of people they really were. I had to go through a sealing cancellation process which goes all the way to the prophet. I had my doubts about local leaders, but I thought, surely the prophet would be able to see through my ex-'s load of crap. If there were anyone on the Earth with the revelation to know she was evil, it would be him. Afterall she was a cunning con artist, and was very good and convincing people she was innocent. But I and her other ex-husbands knew the truth. Unfortunately, she was even able to pull one over on the prophet. Where's the revelation? It isn't there, and that is the lie that the church is telling people, and that is why I left. The question is how far down does it go?

Answer 2

Ok.. almost everyone answering is saying Joseph Smith.. well, HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!! HE'S DEAD!!!!!! He can't lie anymore. Don't you think if everything he said was lies the church would have died out a long time ago?? A lie can't continue for hundreds of years. If there wasn't some truth, it wouldn't survive.

Conspiracy theory? How can there be one, since none of our members are paid, they do it on their own time, and there is no chance of advancement. Here's an example: My FIL has been a mission president, a bishop, a stake president. After the stake president calling, he was called to be the gospel doctrine teacher. Now, he is a high counsel member who goes to the student wards at a local college to speak once a month. Does that sound like advancement to you? So what is the conspiracy? Oh.. I know!!! We'll put him in a high position, then knock him down just to see how much he'll take before he blows up!! That would be so fun!! Not likely. People are called to positions that God wants them in. It doesn't matter who you are. Remember the scripture "the low will be made high, and the high will be made low". it's the way it goes. No one is exempt from that, except the prophet and the members of the twelve and seventies, unless they do something that would mean they can't hold that position. By that time in life, they have earned a little stay-puttedness, don't you think?

Oh yeah.. forgot to mention that us "Mormons" are trying to take over the world. That's the conspiracy. It goes all the way to the top, or will if we have anything to say about it. Hilary, watch your pants!! They are about to be blown clean off by Mitt!!!!

Answer 3

We need to tell the truth, but we as normal people make mistakes, I think if you husband was in a bishopric, he wouldn't tell you what is going on in the ward simply to not embarrass those who are having problems. There is no 'cover up' of things or lies, the leaders are honest and you need to be careful you aren't leading others astray....

Answer 4

Just a note to iwannaknow (I would have sent it to you privately, but...--

Whether you're LDS or not, I really appreciate your answer- it is probably the most "Christian" answer I've seen yet!!! *hug*



Actual Answer--
I find it amazing that Mormon leaders lie, but the whole membership is used to fill leadership roles. Men who do their home teaching are more likely to be called to serve as bishop, stake president, etc.... but that home teaching is about ministering to your fellow man. One of the songs in our hymnal really captures idea this for me. Read it all, and notice the fourth verse, third line....... "Make us thy true undershepherds..."
http://www.lds.org/churchmusic/detailmusicPlayer/index.html?searchlanguage=1&searchcollection=1&searchseqstart=221&searchsubseqstart=%20&searchseqend=221&searchsubseqend=ZZZ





Maybe the conspiracy is about the description of a "true" duck.

Answer 5

some examples I even have seen on right here and someplace else are: • We worship Joseph Smith • We have confidence God had actual intercourse with Mary to beget Jesus • We have confidence in "yet another Jesus" (i'm basically conscious that there became into ever one) • We have confidence in salvation by utilising works, somewhat than faith those are basically the main person-friendly ones. I even have seen some quite loopy stuff; one person even stated that Mormons are not allowed to go water. I in basic terms looked at Sandra Tanner's internet site, and indexed right here are the a million/2-truths I even have stumbled on in basic terms on the FAQ website. element 3 says we have confidence that celestial marriage is mandatory to income eternal life. not so. We have confidence that celestial marriage is mandatory for exaltation, yet absolutely everyone could have eternal life. element 4 says: "Mormonism teaches that the God to whom they pray is yet one among an finished sequence of gods who at one time have been mortal then better to godhood. The LDS Church teaches that their Heavenly Father became into as quickly as born as a spirit infant of a god and spouse who ruled a diverse international. After maturing as a spirit being he became into sent to a diverse international the place he became into born as a human. There he grew to adulthood, married, died, became into resurrected, went to heaven, better and at last grew to advance into the God of our international." nicely, that could nicely be doctrine someplace, yet I even have been a member for sixteen years and that i've got in no way been taught that.

Answer 6

What I find interesting is that since we have a lay ministry (don't get paid) then how could this conspiracy even work? In order for a conspiracy to work...there needs to be some sort of compensation for those who are involved. We change leaders on a regular basis. There is no "Climbing up the latter" in the Church. You are where you are because God has asked you to be there and you have agreed knowing that it is for a finite time. I just roll my eyes at this conspiracy argument.

Answer 7

The thing is WE are the leaders. People in other religions have leaders/preachers/etc who go into the business of working for a church. They work hard to cover things up so they don't lose their jobs. They judge us with that in mind. The experiences that they have to draw on are leaders in their churches like the gay preacher in Colorado who covered up his visits to gay prostitutes, Catholic priests whose child molestation was covered up by those in higher offices. They don't realize that normal everyday Latter-day Saints ARE the leaders of the church.

After reading a lot of the hateful things that anti's write about us it is obvious that those who dupe them into believing those lies about us are the REAL liars.

Answer 8

Jesus made much use of the word truth. He said that believers should worship God in spirit and in truth. He told us the truth would set us free. He also told us to be as gentle as doves but as wise as serpents. So if the pursuit of truth was important to Jesus it should be importnt to us. The difficult part is sometimes our search for truth entails exposing falsehoods and even more difficult are falsehoods we have believed to be true. The price of truth is sometimes it will mean we are rejected by our peer and even close friends. What we must determine is what is more important to us approval of our friends or the pursuit of truth. Now to address the question: There have been accusations and denials for some time that Jospeh Smith had a criminal conviction for being a money digger. LDS author Francis Kirkham steadfastly declared no such document was ever made. The LDS church owned Deseret News called it a fabrication of unknown authorship and never in the court records at all. Mormon apostle John Widtsoe stated "this alleged court record ...seems to be a literary attempt to ridicule Joseph Smith...There is no existing proof a trial was ever held Reference (John Widtsoe, Joseph Smith seeker after truth salt lake city Bookcraft, 1951), 78. Hugh Nibley wrote that if this court record is authentic it is the most damning evidence in existance against Joseph Smith (Hugh Nibley, The Myth Makers, Salt lake City, Bookcraft 1967) 142. In 1971 concrete evidence for the transcripts validity was unearthed by Wesley P. Waters and Fred Poffarl, two researchers who had been searching court records in the basement of a old county jail in New York, they discovered two cardboard boxes shoved against a wall in a darkened corner. They contained bundles of water damaged court bills dating back to the early 1800's. The 1826 bundle included several bills showing court costs of Justice Albert Neely. One of his cases referred to "Joseph Smith The Glass Looker". For many years Mormons tried in vain to cast aspersions on the legitimacy of the document, but finally in 1992 LDS church historian Leonard J. Arrington conceded that the bill was indeed drawn up by Justice Neely and that it referred to Smith as a "glass looker". (Leonard J. Arrington and david Bitton, The Mormon Experiance, Chaampaign, IL, University of Illinois Press, 1992),10-11 Mormons claim that the Golden Plates were written in reformed Egyption hieroglyphics and that a renowned scholar Charles Athon had proclaimed the characters on the plate authentic however Anthon was incensed when he heard of the deception and in a 1834 letter to E.D. Howe he wrote "The whole story about my having pronounced the Momonite inscription to be reformed Egyption hieroglyphics is perfectly false...the paper contained anything else but Egyption hieroglyphics Howe 270-272 online at www.solomonspalding.com/docs/1834howf.htm#pg270). There are also prominent LDS scholars who have abandoned thier faith in the book of Mormon because the had problems wit the veracity of the book. They are B.H. Roberts and Thomas Stuart Ferguson. Ferguson had dedicated his life to finding objective proof for the book of Mormon . He concluded that with all these great efforts, it cannot be established factually that anyone, from Joseph Smith to the present day, has put his finger on a single point of terrain that was a book of Mormon geographical place. And that the hemisphere has been pretty well checked out by competent people...I must agree with Dee Green, who has told us that to date there is no Book of Mormon geography.I for one would be happy if Dee were wrong". Ferguson's manuscript revealed (Salt Lake City ULM, 1988 Ferguson wrote in a letter that he decided to keep relatively quiet about his findings becasue to do otherwise could destroy the faith of others. He suggested "other likeminded Mormons do the same thing, noting that Mormonism is probably the best conceived myth-fraternity to which one can belong" and that Joseph Smith can be refuted - but why bother...It would be like wiping out placebos in medicine, and that would make no sense when they do lots of good. In another letter he wrote perhaps you and I have been spoofed by Joseph Smith. Now that we have the inside Dope why not spoof a little back and stay aboard the good ship Mormonism. In February 1983, Ferguson told friend and archeolgist Pierre Angrinier Bach that he was working on a project, a manuscript that would expose Joseph Smith as a fraud quoted n Stan Larsons Quest for the Gold plates: Thomas Stuart Ferguson's archaelogcal search for the Book Of Mormon(Salt Lake City Freethinker Press, 1996). Just before publishing his study Ferguson died unexpectedly in 1983 and his manuscript dissapeared and has never been recovered.

Answer 9

If there is a conspiracy in priesthood, I sure am out of the loop.
Maybe they talk when I'm not there or go to someone else's house. LOL!!!!

gw

Answer 10

Ask every baptist in the world about finer points of doctrine, I bet they dont all know the answers.

Theres no lying going on, I have been involved in Church leadership at many levels and have been witness to many spiritually intense situations.

However, the Gospel is perfectly simple and simply perfect. Instead of these people following their own beliefs, they feel they must put their 2 cents in about the LDS church.