Many former mormons have been waiting with baited breath for a new essay to appear on the Church Official Website. These essays have been regularly appearing in the “Gospel Topics” section of the website since the last quarter of 2013. The reason that the essays have caused such interest is that they have validated many of the concerns that have troubled seeking members – many of whom have now left the church. Furthermore, the essays have actually included admissions that are unprecedented in their inclusion in an official church informational resource.

Now you see them

Here are the most remarkable essays and a few notes on why they are controversial:

• First Vision Accounts (Published on 11/20/2013)
  • Acknowledged and provided possible explanation of differences between various accounts of the First Vision given by Joseph Smith.
  • Paradoxically, the same rationalization used to explain these differences presents a big problem when you compare the accounts of the sermon on the mount given in the Bible and in the Book of Mormon (see track changes here). If different accounts of an event given at different times to different audiences naturally means that the message will be modified and different (as it is with the accounts of the first vision), then why is the sermon on the mount almost exactly verbatim in both the New Testament and the Book of Mormon?
• Race and the Priesthood (Published on 12/6/2013)
  • Identified different explanations which have been provided by prior prophets and apostles about why Blacks could not receive the priesthood. In doing so, the Church today “disavowed” those explanations as false theories and completely condemned all forms of racism. While this is a good message, it is problematic in that the way that prior prophets taught those things is by stating unequivocally that what they were teaching about blacks and the priesthood was doctrine.
  • The essay placed the blame for racist church policies and teachings on Brigham Young. This ignores the fact that Joseph Smith espoused racist views in support of the divine sanction of slavery. Furthermore there is the problem that numerous prophets and apostles following Brigham Young adopted these same views, giving them the full endorsement of their prophetic calling.
  • The essay also completely ignores the fact that some of the ideas that are completely disavowed are part of canonized doctrine in the Book of Mormon and Pearl of Great Price.
  • There are believing members that are disconcerted by the fact that this disavowal, which contradicts prior prophetic statments, was released without a byline, signature block or date. Traditionally it would need to be a current prophet alone who can supersede teachings of prior prophets.
• Plural Marriage and Families in Early Utah (Published on 12/17/2013)
  • This essay describes the institution and practice of polygamy in Utah under Brigham Young through it’s termination under Wilford Woodruff.
  • It is conspicuous in that it avoids the Nauvoo practice of polygamy under Joseph Smith, which was done in secret and concealed by deception, involved 14 year old girls as well as polyandry. It is possible that a forthcoming essay will cover these issues, however.
  • The essay circuitously admits that the leaders of the church continued to perform plural marriages after the prophet publicly proclaimed that the practice had ceased. Another instance of dishonesty around polygamy.
• Book of Mormon Translation (Published on 12/30/2013) 
  • This essay includes more details about the manner of translation of the Book of Mormon than previously included in a single article. It includes the fact that Joseph used a stone that he found in the ground years previously to translate the book of mormon, in addition to the “translators” that were included with the gold plates.
  • The essay agrees with the depiction of translation as seen in southpark where Joseph put his stone in a hat and looked into the hat to receive the translation. It is remarkable in that it contradicts recent official depictions of the translation such as the one at the 6:30 mark in the video for this  2005 General Conference talk given by Monson.
  • The essay doesn’t include the fact that the translators that came with the gold plates were used to translate the first 116 pages, but were taken away along with the plates after those pages were lost. One the plates were restored to resume tranlsation, there is no other record of the translators being used and Joseph’s peep-stone is the only instrument ever described being used for the remainder of the translation. This means that the entirety of the Book of Mormon that we have today was translated using Joseph’s peepstone and not the original translators. The essay does mention that since both of these instruments work by the power of God, which one is used doesn’t really matter.

As you can see there is good reason that the former mormon community is eagerly waiting for the next essay. In many instances, these essays provide an opportunity for disaffected members to demonstrate to their families that their reasons for doubt and concern about the claims of the church are founded in fact. Since many former members have been distanced if not outright shunned by their families after leaving the church – the essays may be a form of concession that can start a conversation of reconciliation.

One problem with this is that the former Mormons, in general, already know this stuff. It is the members who need to know this material so that they can have a more balanced and realistic mindset in understanding why people choose to leave the church. These essays are added without announcement or attribution and are not read over the pulpit or taught in sunday school or seminary. Not a single one of the current members that I have asked about these essays was even aware of them being published.

Now you don’t

I am in the process of assembling some track changes of the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants and text of the Book of Mormon for addition to the MormonBookshelf.com website. On 26 November I reviewed a page on LDS.org in the Gospel Topics section which described the types of changes that have been made to the Book of Mormon since it’s initial publication. I had intended to use this document to categorize the types of changes that are seen as you track the textual modifications. I bookmarked the page for later reference at that time. Yesterday, 27 January 2014 I went to review that page and noticed that it had been removed. Completely. After intensely searching though all official church websites using a custom google search engine as well as the Wayback Machine at the Internet archive I was unable to find this page anywhere.

Was I going mad? I was certain that the page existed. Next, I isolated part of the URL and performed a different search in google and finally! I found a google cache copy of the page. (see the article link and screenshot at the end of this post)

So why would this essay be removed from the official church website? We may never know – or perhaps an upcoming essay will expand the topic in more detail. If you look at the essay that was removed you can see that they identified 6 categories of changes made to the text of “most correct of any book on earth”:

• Transcription
• Spelling
• Grammatical
• Typographical
• Doctrinal Clarification
• Restoration

They provide examples of each. The example that would tend to raise more questions is that of Doctrinal Clarification. The example cited is a change in 1 Nephi 11:18 from:

1830 Edition
“Behold, the virgin which thou seest, is the mother of God.” (see here)

to the next edition:

1837 Edition
“Behold, the virgin which thou seest, is the mother of the Son of God.” (see here)

The explanation is provided that “Joseph Smith added the phrase “the Son of” in this and other verses of the 1837 edition to clarify doctrine” The problem with this is that this change does not clarify doctrine – it absolutely changes the fundamental character of the nature of the Godhead. It is the difference between the notion that Christ, the Son of the virgin Mary is God or that He is the Son of God and God was involved in his siring.

Further evaluation of Joseph Smith’s changing view of God as reflected in the changes to the First Vision account and the Book of Mormon text was covered in depth by Grant Palmer recently.

Conclusion

It is clear that subtractions as well as additions to the Gospel Doctrine Section are being made. It may be that interested parties should look for what is being removed as well as what is being added. From experience in looking at the changes in the revelations of the D&C and text of the Book of Mormon as well as what is considered canonized doctrine – these removals can be just as informative as what is added.

PS

The removed essay can now be viewed in google cache here. In case this cache gets removed or times out, the page has been captured by screenshot below.