We are aware. Maybe I’ll just say this: You know what, I often get this question, “Do the brethren really know?” They do.
And I’m not speaking of me; I’m speaking of the fifteen men that are above me in the hierarchy of the Church. They really do know. And they really care. And they realize that, maybe, since Kirtland we’ve never had a period of—I’ll call it apostasy—like we’re having right now, largely over these issues.
So we do have another initiative that we’ve called “Answers to Gospel Questions.” We’re trying to figure out exactly what channels to deliver it in and exactly what format to put it in, but we want to have a place where people can go.
We’ve hired someone that’s in charge of “search engine optimization.” The Church is very tuned in to the world that we’re living in, and we realize that people basically get their information through Googling. They don’t come to LDS.org; if they get there, it’s through Google.The initiative Jensen referred to is by now well known, if not to the membership at large, to members of the fringe Mormon community. The church has published a series of essays to address problematic issues from a believing perspective and posted them on the official church website here. The release of these essays inaugurated a period of optimism among Mormon doubters. I discussed my take on these essays in my previous post, About the Essays.
One segment of the fringe Mormon community consists of unbelievers who still attend church, sometimes hiding their unbelief from believing family members to keep peace. These are known online as New Order Mormons or NOMs. Many NOMs celebrated the publication of these essays. Finally they had a vehicle through which to introduce their issues to believing loved ones without being accused of reading anti-Mormon material. This initial optimism, however, was short lived. Most believing Mormons did not want to delve into the actual contents of these essays, but were content that their mere existence indicated that all was well in Zion. NOMs who at first felt vindicated became frustrated that the essays had little impact on their loved ones.
The essays were not completely without impact among believers. Some, learning of the problematic issues for the first time, became disaffected themselves and joined the ranks of the fringe community. This helped maintain at least a degree of cautious optimism that the church might be forced to enlarge the tent of Mormonism and welcome greater diversity within the ranks of Mormons considered to be in good standing. However, subsequent events beginning on June 23, 2014 have dashed such hopes.
On June 23, 2014 Kate Kelly, founder of the Ordain Women movement, was excommunicated for her role in the movement. She had been informed of the pending court two weeks prior, coincidentally (or by plan as some have speculated) the same week John Dehlin was informed by his stake president that he was under investigation for apostasy for the content of some of his Mormon Stories podcasts, and for his support of gay marriage and Ordain Women. The church PR department has since denied that this action had anything to do with John's support of LGBT rights.
Action against John was postponed, possibly to avoid having two such high profile cases hit the media simultaneously. John's stake president outlined the conditions he would have to meet to maintain membership. This included taking down certain podcast episodes that were critical of the church and discontinuing his support for Ordain Women and gay marriage. The only thing John agreed to do was to work on maintaining a positive respectful tone in his podcast. He did not agree to take down any podcast episodes or withdraw his support of Ordain Women and gay marriage. A transcript of John's initial meeting with his stake president, which he secretly recorded, can be found here. John did not release this transcript until he was finally excommunicated on February 9, 2015. A day after John's excommunication he released this press release.
Not since September 1993, when the church excommunicated six scholars, have such prominent members been excommunicated for apostasy, drawing national media attention. In this case it was more for activism than scholarship, but in both cases members were excommunicated for holding to and publishing the wrong views from the church's perspective. In the case of the 1993 scholars, much of what they published has been subsequently vindicated in the recent essays. In the case of John and Kate, it is quite probably that they too will be vindicated at some point given how much the church is rowing against the current of the larger society.
The church has consistently been about 20-30 years behind positive societal change, owing to probably the most unenlightened leadership succession policy ever devised. The most senior apostle automatically becomes the new president ensuring that the top leader will always be quite elderly, if not, as is frequently the case, incapacitated. This has been consistently followed by tradition and precedent since Brigham Young, rather than being officially spelled out in any document. It is uncertain that church founder Joseph Smith ever intended the current succession policy. The policy virtually ensures that the LDS church will never have dynamic, forward-thinking leadership at the highest levels. It is doubtful that they could ever have their own version of Pope Francis, for example. Catholic Popes are chosen by vote and only Cardinals under 80 are allowed to vote.
Church is at a crossroads. They have opted to retrench rather than modernize. They have made their position known. Doubters are not welcome. Hopes for a broader tent, more compassion, and more understanding as suggested by Marlin K. Jensen have been dashed. At the highest level's of leadership, the church's attitude to those with questions and doubts is better exemplified by Jeffrey Holland's angry tirade starting at minute 50 of this talk. Doubters are left with two alternatives: shut up, or get out.
