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When we, as members of the LDS. Church hear the phrase, “turning the hearts of the children to the fathers ...”, we naturally think of genealogy research and temple work for the dead. But, do we think of Leviticus 26:40-46 wherein the Lord promises the Children of Israel that He will remember his covenant with them when they confess their sins and the sins of their fathers? Do we think of the latter-day sins of the saints which caused our ancestors to be scourged from city to city until they had to settle in the Utah Territory. Because we held on to our racist theories our temples could not become houses of prayer for all peoples, as foretold by Isaiah, until 1978 when the priesthood finally became available to men of all races?

When they were finally settling in Utah they found themselves in a situation wherein polygamy seemed to be a solution to some of the challenges they faced and a reason to accept this doctrine which had played a part in the death of our beloved Joseph Smith. Having engaged in a practice which our Book of Mormon referred to as an abomination and a whoredom, it became easier to hear conference speakers talk of Jesus being a polygamist, the Adam/God Theory, an extreme version of blood atonement, various racist doctrines, and etc..

Some of the doctrine originating in Utan eventually became a source of embarrassment to the Saints with denials and spin being used to avoid facing the fact that they fell under the curse found in Jacob 4:14. Jacob 4:14 specifies that when the words of plainness are despised because they prefer things which cannot be understood, God will deliver things which cannot be understood.  When I first became interested in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints my Baptist Minister gave me some literature describing the doctrine of Brigham Young, but my LDS friends lent me commentaries full of the denials and spin which made it appear that the literature passed out by the Baptists were a pack of lies. Twenty years later I obtained the twenty six volume set of the Journal of Discourses and studied every thing which Brigham Young taught in general conferences.

Joseph Fielding Smith did a major job of spinning Brigham Young’s doctrine. Though I did not know how wrong his defense of Brigham Young was at the time he became the leader of the church, there were other things which troubled some of us about his lack of credibility. On the first fast and testimony meeting after his being sustained as the president of the church I stood up and explained that though I was one of those who had doubts about him, I knew that he was the one the Lord wanted to lead the church at that time. It was my way of apologizing for negative things I had said about him. The Lord blessed me with such a strong witness of the spirit that I felt like I was floating when I returned to my seat. Therefore, no matter how embarrassed I may feel for some of our current general authorities because of the doctrine they promote, I cannot hold up my hands against them.

There is purpose for false doctrine in the church. For one thing, the Lord proclaimed that the wheat and tares would grow together until the harvest. Old Testament prophesies must also be fulfilled and one of them says that God will “catch them in snares of their own design.” Out of Utah came a new understanding of God. Jesus was declared to be a polygamist, and instead of looking forward to being in the Celestial Kingdom with him, we were told to look forward to going off to some far corner of the universe with a large harem of wives with whom we would produce spirit children for our own separate kingdom. Doesn’t it fill one’s heart with pride to imagine that? How many of us can tell the difference between a heart swelling with pride and a burning bosom?

In the History of the Church, vol. 3, page 296-297, is a letter written while Joseph was in Liberty Jail and completed on March 25, 1839. Joseph Smith wrote “But I beg leave to say unto you, brethren, that ignorance, superstition and bigotry placing itself where it ought not, is oftentimes in the way of the prosperity of this Church; like the torrent of rain from the mountains, that floods the most pure and crystal stream with mire, and dirt, and filthiness, and obscures everything that was clear before, and all rushes along in one general deluge; but time weathers tide: and notwithstanding we are rolled in the mire of the flood for the time being, the next surge peradventure, as time rolls on, may bring to us the fountain as clear as crystal, and as pure as snow; while the filthiness, floodwood and rubbish is left and purged out by the way.”  

I would like to suggest to you that if we fail to search the scriptures with sufficient diligence to understand the character of the God we worship, we will not recognize that fountain clear as crystal when we find it. Were we to carefully examine everything which passes for scripture in the church we might be surprised at how much did not come to us by way of credible revelation from vision or Urim and Thummim.