MG 2.0 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 5:57 pm
Hi Kerry, how would you manage this “dialogue” you’re referring to when at the end of the day the church is a Theocracy and not a Democracy? And a follow up question, if the church was a Democratic institution rather than Theocratic institution wouldn’t we have another Community of Christ?
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Regards,
MG
Once upon a time, the canon of scripture was added to, subtracted from only by vote of the members such as at GC. For example, the canonization of the Article on Marriage, Lectures on Faith, and the Pearl of Great Price. By vote. The Lectures on Faith canonized in 1835 by vote of the assembled. Joseph Smith "During the month of January [1835], I was engaged n the schoold of the Elders, and in preparing the lectures on theology for publication the book of Doctrine and Covenants." HoC 2:180. In the introduction to the 1835 edition, Joseph Smith accepted responsibility for "every principle advanced" and that it was revelations "Carefully Selected From the Revelations of God." But then quietly removal of the Lectures on Faith? In a 2.23.1921 letter to George Albert Smith, James E. Talmage reported that "preliminary steps have already been taken toward a thorough revision of the Doctrine & Coventants, and we all know that the current editions, as printed in this country and in Liverpool, contains [sic] many errors by way of omission. Moreover there are certain improvements by way of Section Headings, amplification of notes, ... ." In the 1921 Doctrine and Covenants introduction, the Lectures on Faith were demoted from among the carefully selected revelations from god to just "Certain lessons, entitled 'Lectures on Faith,' which were bound with the Doctrine and Covenants in some of its former issues, are not included in this edition. Those lessons were prepared for use in the School of the Elders...but they were never presented nor accepted by the Church as being otherwise than theological lectures or lessions." See generally The 'Lectures on Faith': A Case Study in Decanonization by Relief Society Van Wagoner, 1987.
Since the Article on Marriage espoused one man, one wife, it too had to go in light of what Joseph Smith did. (Classic example of preaching one thing while doing another.) It was replaced in the 1860s with Section 132, "the Principle."
Sure, the PoGP is still there, but that stinky turd is ignored. How many times was it quoted by the Brethren in talks this past weekend?
Oh, and let's not forget when voting actually meant something in the Mormon church. In October 1843, general conference was essentially reduced to a 'trial'--Joseph Smith's attempts to get the members to kick Sidney Rigdon out of the First Presidency. Oops, the Theocracy did not get its way--by democratic vote, Sidney was retained.
It has only been since Joseph Smith died that the successors to the movement that migrated to Utah have had people removed from GC if they vote against sustaining everything shoved down their throats. The Mormon church was once not so autocratic; there was a time it did not resemble Putin's Russian Federation.
Isn't it marvelous? Isn't it a wonder?, Or as the Great One used to comment, this has been another installment in Know Your Religion.