As anyone who has sat in on an hour of Gospel Doctrine class knows there is a vast dichotomy of belief among members in general, exposed to the internet or not. There has been a great deal of opinion printed about Mormon doctrine since the Church was first organized. Anyone who has read something like Cleon Skousens The First Two Thousand Years knows that people can say just about anything as a member of the Church. There is a vast difference between that book and Bruce R McConkie's Mormon Doctrine.
Many may question why Church Headquarters does not publish manuals that deal with some of the controversial issues that trouble some members of the Church. This is easily explained when one reads the Lord's instructions to his Apostles:
D&C 6
9 Say nothing but repentance unto this generation; keep my commandments, and assist to bring forth my work, according to my commandments, and you shall be blessed.
In addition to this Joseph Smith taught:
“Oh, ye elders of Israel, hearken to my voice; and when you are sent into the world to preach, tell those things you are sent to tell; preach and cry aloud, ‘Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand; repent and believe the Gospel.’ Declare the first principles, and let mysteries alone, lest ye be overthrown. … Preach those things the Lord has told you to preach about—repentance and baptism for the remission of sins.”
“I spoke and explained concerning the uselessness of preaching to the world about great judgments, but rather to preach the simple Gospel.”
“The Elders [should] go forth … in all meekness, in sobriety, and preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified; not to contend with others on account of their faith, or systems of religion, but pursue a steady course. This I delivered by way of commandment; and all who observe it not, will pull down persecution upon their heads, while those who do, shall always be filled with the Holy Ghost; this I pronounced as a prophecy.”
In regards to members of the Church having various views on peripheral doctrines Jospeh F Smith stated :
Our people are given the largest possible latitude for their convictions, and if a man rejects a message that I may give to him but is still moral and believes in the main principles of the gospel and desires to continue in his membership in the church, he is permitted to remain and he is not unchurched. It is only those who on rejecting a revelation rebel against the church and withdraw from the church at their own volition.
I should like to say to the honorable gentlemen that the members of the Mormon Church are among the freest and most independent people of all the Christian denominations. They are not all united on every principle. Every man is entitled to his own opinion and his own views and his own conceptions of right and wrong so long as they do not come in conflict with the standard principles of the church. If a man assumes to deny God and to become an infidel we withdraw fellowship from him. If a man commits adultery we withdraw fellowship from him. If men steal or lie or bear false witness against their neighbors or violate the cardinal principles of the Gospel, we withdraw our fellowship. The church withdraws its fellowship from that man and he ceases to be a member of the church. But so long as a man or a woman is honest and virtuous and believes in God and has a little faith in the church organization, so long we nurture and aid that person to continue faithfully as a member of the church, though he may not believe all that is revealed.
(Source: Reed Smoot Hearings )
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