"There is a temptation for the writer or the teacher of Church history to want to tell everything, whether it is worthy or faith promoting or not. Some things that are true, are not very useful."
Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (for entire transcript, click here)
While growing up in the Church as a youth, I was warned to never read literature about the Mormon Church that was not approved by the Church. Our leaders taught us that Satan was looking to lead faithful Mormons astray. To maintain my faith, I needed to stay in the warm, cozy confines of Church-sanctioned truth. And I believed the warnings. Whenever I heard the whispers of controversy or contradiction, I immediately dismissed them as "anti-Mormon lies".
Then, after 55 years of dedicated service and devotion, after numberless promises from General Authorities in Conference talks of the blessings I would be entitled to if I remained earnest and steadfast... despite all of those years of adherence, sacrifice, and allegiance, my life began to unravel beneath me and I began to question how this could be so. Overridden with discouragement and depression, I began to question everything. It was then that I learned about Joseph Smith's 33 wives, a truth that directly contradicted the myth of Joseph and Emma's love story. With that came the shocking introduction to polyandry (click here) and Joseph Smith's 14 and 15 year old polygamist brides. I am still learning about Joseph Smith's many contradictory recitals of the First Vision, which is a "not-very-useful truth" that casts an unforgiving light on the true origins of Mormonism. With our increasing modern understanding of anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, and genetics, the pool of potential proof continues to evaporate regarding the possibility that the civilizations described in the Book of Mormon ever existed.
The list of Boyd K. Packer's "not-very-useful truths" about the Mormon Church is a mile long and the majority of these facts remain unbeknownst to the greater part of the general Church population. I'm sure that the subtle, unadvertised and practically hidden-from-view Gospel Topics section (click here) on the Church's website is there, not with the hope or expectation that members will find it and study it out, but rather as a convenient disclaimer to be used when a doubter accuses the Church of covering up the truth. Although their list is only a few inches long, it doesn't take very much reading to establish that there is no question that we, as Mormons, have been deceived. All one has to do is read the essays relating to controversial doctrines to realize that the message there is far different than the message we were raised with, not to mention the lessons we are taught each Sunday in the Gospel Doctrine class. When I read through them, I recognized some of the themes as the same ones I had encountered many years earlier and, by default, had dismissed them as anti-Mormon lies. And here, the Church admits that they were not lies at all.
Someone please explain to me how any truth can possibly be "not very useful". My mother taught me that when someone whitewashes or avoids the truth, they must be guilty of something. She also taught me that when someone only tells part of the truth, it's the same as lying. My mother was wise. Apparently even wiser than Boyd K. Packer who has instructed us to only share as much truth as will support his version of the story. I wonder if what he actually meant was that some truth is not very convenient?
