Preparing for last week’s Sunday School lesson (yes, I’ve actually been preparing and giving a lesson during this time of quarantine), I ran across this quote by President Kimball, explaining how dangerous pride can be.
“To satisfy his own egotism, to feed his pride, to justify vain ambition, a man took a stand against the authorities of the Church. He followed the usual pattern – no apostasy at first, only superiority of knowledge with mild criticism of the brethren. He loved the brethren, he said, but they had failed to see things he saw. He was sure his interpretation was correct. He would still love the Church, he maintained, but his criticism grew and developed into ever-widening areas. He could not yield in good conscience; he had his pride. He spoke of it among his associates; he talked of it at home. His children did not accept his philosophy wholly, but their confidence was shaken in the brethren and the Church. They were frustrated and became inactive. They married out of the Church and he lost them. He later realized the folly of his position and returned to humbleness and activity, but he had lost his children.”
(Kimball, Spencer W. Faith Precedes the Miracle. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1972, p. 306.)
This caught my attention because I have questioned authorities of the church myself on this blog. These remarks by President Kimball raised a couple of questions of my own. He stated that this man’s children’s “confidence was shaken in the brethren and the Church”. The first question to cross my mind was, why is the focus on the “brethren and the Church”? Why not Christ? And where it appears I am guilty of what could be seen as questioning authority myself, my second question is, what is the difference between “taking a stand against the authorities of the Church”, and raising concerns, asking questions, or pointing out what appears to be inconsistencies between teachings in conference and scripture? What if, instead of being seen as antagonistic to authorities, my questions are sincere concerns, rooted in a desire to truly understand what it means to come unto Christ?
In a recent Address to CES Religious Educators, Elder M. Russell Ballard counseled teachers to prepare and teach in ways that will “build unwavering faith in the lives of our precious youth… Gone are the days,” he said, “when a student raised a sincere concern and a teacher bore his or her testimony as a response intended to avoid the issue. Gone are the days when students were protected from people who attacked the Church.” (An Evening with Elder M. Russell Ballard, Salt Lake Tabernacle, February 26, 2016)
Perusing back through my previous blog posts, I took note of some sincere questions that have risen from things general authorities have taught.
- I was confused at Elder Bruce R. McConkie’s teaching that “gaining a special, personal relationship with Christ… is both improper and perilous” in my post, The Emerging Church – To Creed or Not to Creed
- I’ve expressed concern over the prevalent (and what seems to me to be a potentially dangerous) teaching that “the prophet cannot lead us astray” in several posts, including What do Christians think of the Mormon Mantra “The Prophet Can’t Lead Us Astray”?
- I wondered on Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge’s use of the Mormon Mantra “I know the church is true” in my post Why I Don’t Say “I Know the Church is True”
- Elder W. Mark Basset confused me by teaching that “We were never expected ‘to have a perfect knowledge of things’ during this mortal existence.” in my post Why Do We Avoid Delving into Mysteries?
The question isn’t do I think I know something Elder Basset or Elder Corbridge does not. The question is, did Joseph Smith know something they do not? When what the authority of the church teaches differs from what Joseph taught or what scripture teaches, or what Christ taught, how do I reconcile that? President Joseph Fielding Smith put it this way:
“It makes no difference what is written or what anyone has said, if what has been said is in conflict with what the Lord has revealed, we can set it aside. My words, and the teachings of any other member of the Church, high or low, if they do not square with the revelations, we need not accept them. Let us have this matter clear. We have accepted the four standard works as the measuring yardsticks, or balances, by which we measure every man’s doctrine… If Joseph Fielding Smith writes something which is out of harmony with the revelations, then every member of the Church is duty bound to reject it.”
(Doctrines of Salvation, 3 vols., edited by Bruce R. McConkie [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954-1956], 3: 203.)
Lest I be misunderstood, I agree with President Kimball in the opening quote. He is cautioning us against pride. The antidote to which, as President Benson reminded us, is humility.
When the standard curriculum of church meetings and conferences does not go deeper than basic milk, and my craving for deeper life sustaining meat is filled by a personal study, how do I avoid the natural tendency to become prideful because I think I now know more than others? Joseph Smith eluded to this very dilemma in his letter to the church from Liberty Jail (words that belong somewhere between verse 25 and 26 of our Doctrine and Covenants section 121):
“How vain and trifling have been our spirits, our conferences, our councils, our meetings, our private as well as public conversations — too low, too mean, too vulgar, too condescending for the dignified characters of the called and chosen of God, according to the purposes of His will, from before the foundation of the world! We are called to hold the keys of the mysteries of those things that have been kept hid from the foundation of the world until now. Some have tasted a little of these things, many of which are to be poured down from heaven upon the heads of babes; yea, upon the weak, obscure and despised ones of the earth. Therefore we beseech of you, brethren, that you bear with those who do not feel themselves more worthy than yourselves, while we exhort one another to a reformation with one and all both old and young, teachers and taught, both high and low, rich and poor, bond and free, male and female; let honesty and sobriety, and candor, and solemnity, and virtue, and pureness, and meekness, and simplicity crown our heads in every place and in fine, become as little children, without malice, guile or hypocrisy.”
(TPJS, p 137, emphasis mine)
In the end, when it comes to receiving light and truth from God, I don’t believe education is of any real advantage. Humility is the only real, great advantage that any soul ever possesses. On this point, I have to admit, I don’t feel in possession of any great advantage.