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The church's position on various issues is quite often either a reaction against or an adoption of ideas popular at any given time. Because the LDS Church, influenced by the restorationist movement, is so focused on enshrining or really embalming teachings of important leaders as revelation (ignoring for now the heterodox apologetic position that practically nothing counts as revelation), an awful lot of silly, discredited ideas and fads get trapped in the amber of LDS theology. I'll go over a few and invite others to think of more.



Blacks as Cursed Canaanites

Quite a common and widely accepted myth in the 19th century was that blacks were descended from the Biblical Canaanites, and that Canaan, son of Ham, was under a curse - and this is how black slavery was justified. The only problem - the Canaanites weren't black. They were a Semitic people, and everything the Hebrews were - culturally, racially, religiously - they inherited from the Canaanites. A good way to think of it is the Hebrews were to the Canaanites as German Lutherans are to German Catholics. Most Christians abandoned this silly myth when it was discredited, but not the Latter-Day Saints. That's because it's canonized in the Pearl of Great Price. Bad ideas, trapped in the amber of "modern-day revelation."

Hot Drinks and the Temperance Movement

There's a good reason why the original revealed Word of Wisdom mentions hot drinks as something not good for the body - it was a popular, erroneous idea of the early 19th century. Later it was interpreted to mean that coffee and tea were bad for the body, but that also turned out to be an erroneous idea. The WoW is interesting in how it has been radically reinterpreted to suit changing but, again, erroneous ideas. The WoW originally commanded the moderate use of alcohol in the form of beer and wine - an idea that actually holds up today. But because early 20th century leadership was enamored of the Temperance Movement, the WoW's prohibition against "strong drinks" (ie distilled alcohol) suddenly became a prohibition of all alcohol, including mild barley drinks (beer) and wine. It was a great way to help the church build some bridges with a conservative, religious America in preparation for its expansion from Wasatch Front sect to international religion. But most of what's understood as the Word of Wisdom today has no basis in reality as a useful health code, and most of the parts that DO hold up are either ignored or reinterpreted. Bad ideas, trapped in the amber of "modern-day revelation."


The Anti-Masturbation Crusade

Curiously, the Church had no position on masturbation until the middle of the 20th century. While society in general went from viewing it as a treatment for hysteria to a serious social ill responsible for a multitude of physical and mental problems, the church was silent on the issue. It wasn't until medical science began to pick up on the fact that masturbation was an adaptive, healthy behavior that certain zealous church leaders came out against it. Suddenly, masturbation talk was everywhere. Bishops were interrogating twelve year olds about it. MTC and mission presidents were interrogating missionaries about it. Scientifically-iffy (okay, bogus) pamphlets talking about "little factories" were handed out to deacons, teachers and priests from coast to coast. Anti-masturbation hysteria was in full swing, when not too long previously, you could have masturbated thrice daily and held any leadership position in the church your heart desired. Of course, it turns out that masturbation not only prevents prostate cancer and, in couples, miscarriages, but its practice is also essential for a healthy sex life later on, especially for women. And there's not even a single passage of scripture or specifically mentioned modern revelation to justify its prohibition. Bad ideas, trapped in the amber of "modern-day revelation" in the post-revelation era.

Bad thread, trapped in lead?

Thankfully, in my harmonized with LDS doctrine hypothesis, my mosquito trapped in amber actually sucked blood when he was alive.

I think it is a good thread. You are right.



That is why it was so, so hard for the church to overturn the racist practice of barring blacks from the priesthood and the temple.

It is why it will be so hard for them to change their policy on women, gender and sexuality.

bcspace wrote:Thankfully, in my harmonized with LDS doctrine hypothesis, my mosquito trapped in amber actually sucked blood when he was alive.

Kind of hard to square the two though, isn't it, bc?

Another bad idea, trapped in amber, is the Tower of Babel story. For a long time, people thought of the Tower of Babel story as explaining why there are so many different languages on Earth. Now that we know better, literal belief in the Tower of Babel story is increasingly hard to maintain. The teaching is locked in amber, however, because it shows up as a plotline in the Book of Mormon, in the story of Jared, his brother, their family and friends, who made their tight-like-a-dish barges and traveled to America immediately following the Tower of Babel incident, and who didn't have their language confounded like everyone else did.

I should add the idea of a literal flood. Some religious folks have found ways to re-interpret the story as a metaphore, or as a local flood, or whatever. But Mormon prophets have used the Flood as an example of baptism, ie: the baptism of the Earth itself, and as we know from Mormonism, baptism means immersion, not sprinkling. Not to mention, Joseph Smith set the Garden of Eden in Missouri, but following the Flood folks ended up over in the Middle East. All of which is hard to do without the global Flood, unless you bring in even sillier concepts like the idea that the continents were separated into their present locations all at once during some catastrophic event like the local flood. Anyhow, the Global Flood, which we know through modern revelation to be a true and literal event, is really a bad idea trapped in amber.

I will be merely the latest to link to the Donald Perry article from the Jan. 1998 edition of "The Ensign" which not only reconfirms the Church's stance on the Global Flood, but hits up the Tower of Babel as well. Double-tap!

Sethbag wrote:Another bad idea, trapped in amber, is the Tower of Babel story. For a long time, people thought of the Tower of Babel story as explaining why there are so many different languages on Earth. Now that we know better, literal belief in the Tower of Babel story is increasingly hard to maintain. The teaching is locked in amber, however, because it shows up as a plotline in the Book of Mormon, in the story of Jared, his brother, their family and friends, who made their tight-like-a-dish barges and traveled to America immediately following the Tower of Babel incident, and who didn't have their language confounded like everyone else did.

I should add the idea of a literal flood. Some religious folks have found ways to re-interpret the story as a metaphore, or as a local flood, or whatever. But Mormon prophets have used the Flood as an example of baptism, ie: the baptism of the Earth itself, and as we know from Mormonism, baptism means immersion, not sprinkling. Not to mention, Joseph Smith set the Garden of Eden in Missouri, but following the Flood folks ended up over in the Middle East. All of which is hard to do without the global Flood, unless you bring in even sillier concepts like the idea that the continents were separated into their present locations all at once during some catastrophic event like the local flood. Anyhow, the Global Flood, which we know through modern revelation to be a true and literal event, is really a bad idea trapped in amber.

I will be merely the latest to link to the Donald Perry article from the Jan. 1998 edition of "The Ensign" which not only reconfirms the Church's stance on the Global Flood, but hits up the Tower of Babel as well. Double-tap!

Both great points. The church is stuck with them now, even as more and more people reject that sort of literalism.

One that isn't unique to the church because the New Testament also traps it in amber - the story of Moses and the exodus out of Egypt. There's no evidence that anything like that ever happened, but now Christians and Mormons alike are stuck with it.

It seems that at times the brethren would like to change the doctrine, but they know that it looks bad. So they just stop teaching it, and then hope they can ignore it out of existence. For example President Hinckley's quote on how man can become like God.

"I don't know that we teach it. I don't know that we emphasize it. I haven't heard it discussed for a long time in public discourse. I don't know. I don't know all the circumstances under which that statement was made. I understand the philosophical background behind it, but I don't know a lot about it, and I don't think others know a lot about it." - Hinckley

But ignoring doctrine out of existence is a long, awkward process. In the information age, it may now be impossible.

Amber is like glass. Its shape slowly changes.

What I'm looking to do is extract Mormonism from the amber, and then, through the miracle of cloning, bring the hokey, Disney-esque Mormonism of the 1970's and 80's back to life.

Sure, it may have been selected for extinction, and thus not be able to survive on its own in the modern world. But it would still be a wonder to see the old Mormonism walk the Earth once again.