Truth was reason, and so need never be feared, for it would always support our position
“Keep quiet. ” These are the frequent instructions given to those who find that there is a more authentic and reasonable version of the past to be found within uncorrelated LDS church history. But how is one expected to keep quiet and remain in good conscience? How may one claim to be honest in one’s dealings, while covering up the facts from friends and neighbours? And how may one indefinitely separate his sugar daddy meaning thoughts from his words and actions, and remain in a state of mental wellbeing? In effect pleas to be silent about newfound knowledge are actually entreaties to learn to think differently, and to suppress our human entitlement to discuss matters of concern with others.
Remember that we British and European converts who have joined the LDS church since the first missionaries arrived on this continent in the 1830s, have always had to give up much of our cultural heritage in order to align ourselves with the requirements of our newly adopted religion. In many cases we have been resilient characters who have been prepared to stand for truth and righteousness despite being ridiculed and rejected by our families and peers. In our struggles, we have drawn strength from the assurances of our leaders and teachers that the LDS official narrative is 100% true, and we have trusted that it would always be underpinned by reason, and by the findings of scientific and historical enquiry. After all, we had been told that no amount of enquiry could ever harm truth. Accordingly we have been prepared to give our all in that belief, not in order to serve a man-made organisation, but to serve our God, who we have held to be the God of all truth.
Why should there be any surprise then, that people like us must eventually speak out, when we stumble upon a greater reality, or when we discover that the claims we have lived by are unsupported by actual history, or when we realise that deliberate cover-ups have been practised all along, in order to keep the ordinary members in line? It was in our character from the first to question and to seek truth. That is what drew us to a church which promised us everything; and now that same need to question and to seek truth is what prompts us to explain to others how our church has failed to deliver on its promises. There should be no surprise in this. Are we not today the same people we were all along, still ready to stand for truth and right, despite ridicule and rejection (in this present era from our LDS peers, and the veiled threats of our leaders)?
So, why is it that strength and resolve may be thought to be noble in one situation, and yet entirely heretical in another, when all the time the light of truth, (rather than idolatrous reverence for fallible leadership), has been our guiding star? You must understand that many of us who question here in Europe, are ‘truth-broke‘ which is a virtue; we will never see any merit in being ‘church-broke‘, as you require us to be, for that to us is a very obvious spiritual impediment, fraught with danger.
Anything, it seems, not fully supportive of the official position, effectively then amounts to ‘thought crime‘, ultimately punishable by excommunication
When a religion presents itself as the overarching ultimate truth, and then cannot accept any discussion among its ranks about its founding claims, then surely it is that religion which has departed from the Truth, not those followers who originally embraced it trusting that all truth would be circumscribable into one whole, and should therefore be our perpetual goal.