The church and race (part 1,000,000,008)

[Tex]

Originally Posted by Cali Coug

Really? Do you care to cite an instance where you believe the prophet was wrong?

There are no men on the moon.

[ERCougar]

Originally Posted by Adam

This is a great post. And the membership cannot abide it. They believe it and disregard the prophet's counsel when they deem it prudent, but they will stone the one who gives honest voice to it. It is easier to be a hypocrite themselves than to admit the failability of the leaders of the church and watch the whole structure of their lives begin to crumble. Too many cannot allow for failings and stay faithful to the imperfect. So they lie about it.

There are a few who will go all the way and have integrity. ETB and JFieldingSmith were certainly this way. They honestly will look back at any historical abomination and explain it as God's will. Brigham sent saints to Iron County Utah to make iron saying it was God's will? There was no good quality iron in the soil and no power source for the bellows and no iron has been or ever will be made there? No problem. God's will must have been to test the people's obedience and that is just fine. And so forth and so on. These people scare me.

Just have to interject with a hijack...
Actually, iron has been produced in Iron county. The initial settlement was fairly poor (I think only 20 tons total were produced) but in a second settlement 20 miles to the west, iron production was actually fairly vigorous for about a decade (1870's--still under BY).

As for the rest of your post, I completely agree--particularly with the part that most members know that the prophet is fallible on a guttoral, subconscious level, as evidenced by their actions. When someone dares vocalize this, they panic.