{"id":74913,"date":"2019-06-11T21:59:10","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T03:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=74913"},"modified":"2019-06-11T21:59:10","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T03:59:10","slug":"that-the-restoration-stands-up-to-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/06\/that-the-restoration-stands-up-to-history.html","title":{"rendered":"That the Restoration stands up to history"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Los Angeles California Temple \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain) \u00a0The meeting at which Professor Kimball spoke took place while my wife and I were living in West Los Angeles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I think it appropriate to share, again, a column that I first published in the 9 February 2012 edition of the Deseret News<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Decades ago, I attended a gathering where the late Stanley Kimball, a professor of history at Southern Illinois University and president of the Mormon History<\/a> Association, spoke. His remarks have stuck in my mind ever since. (If anybody out there knows where a written version of the speech can be found, I would be delighted to see it.)Kimball explained what he called the \u201cthree levels\u201d of Mormon history, which he termed Levels A, B, and C. (Given my own background in philosophy, I might have chosen Hegel\u2019s terminology instead: \u201cthesis,\u201d \u201cantithesis\u201d and \u201csynthesis.\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n

Level A, he said, is the Sunday School version of the church and its history. Virtually everything connected with the church on Level A is obviously good and true and harmonious. Members occasionally make mistakes, perhaps, but leaders seldom, if ever, do. It\u2019s difficult for somebody on Level A to imagine why everybody out there doesn\u2019t immediately recognize the obvious truth of the gospel, and opposition to the church seems flatly satanic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Level B \u2014 what I call the \u201cantithesis\u201d to Level A\u2019s \u201cthesis\u201d \u2014 is perhaps most clearly seen in anti-Mormon versions of church history. According to many hostile commentators, everything that Level A says is good and true and harmonious turns out actually to be evil and false and chaotic. Leaders are deceitful and evil, the church\u2019s account of its own story is a lie, and, some extreme anti-Mormons say, even the general membership often (typically?) misbehaves very badly.<\/span><\/p>\n

But one doesn\u2019t need to read anti-Mormon propaganda in order to be exposed to elements of Level B that can\u2019t quite be squared with an idealized portrait of the Restoration. Whether new converts or born in the covenant, maturing members of the church will inevitably discover, sooner or later, that other Saints, including leaders, are fallible and sometimes even disappointing mortals. There are areas of ambiguity, even unresolved problems, in church history; there have been disagreements about certain doctrines; some questions don\u2019t have immediately satisfying answers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Eliza Snow sought to caution new converts against starry-eyed naivet\u00e9 back in the 19th century:<\/span><\/p>\n

Think not when you gather to Zion,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Your troubles and trials are through,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

That nothing but comfort and pleasure<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Are waiting in Zion for you:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

No, no, \u2019tis designed as a furnace,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

All substance, all textures to try,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

To burn all the \u201cwood, hay, and stubble,\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The gold from the dross purify.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Think not when you gather to Zion,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

That all will be holy and pure;<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

That fraud and deception are banished,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

And confidence wholly secure:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

No, no, for the Lord our Redeemer<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Has said that the tares with the wheat<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Must grow till the great day of burning<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Shall render the harvest complete.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Kimball remarked that the church isn\u2019t eager to expose its members to such problems. Why? Because souls can be and are lost on Level B. And, anyway, the church isn\u2019t some sort of floating seminar in historiography. Regrettably, perhaps, most Latter-day Saints \u2014 many of them far better people than I \u2014 aren\u2019t deeply interested in history, and, more importantly, many other very important priorities demand attention, including training the youth and giving service. Were he in a leadership position, Kimball said, he would probably make the same decision.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

But he argued that once members of the church have been exposed to Level B, their best hope is to press on to the richer but more complicated version of history (or to the more realistic view of humanity) that is to be found on Level C. Very importantly, he contended (and I agree) that Level C \u2014 what I call the \u201csynthesis\u201d \u2014 turns out to be essentially, and profoundly, like Level A. The gospel is, in fact, true. Church leaders at all levels have, overwhelmingly, been good and sincere people, doing the best that they can with imperfect human materials (including themselves) under often very difficult circumstances.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But charity and context are all-important. Life would be much easier if we could find a church composed of perfect leaders and flawless members. Unfortunately, at least in my case, the glaringly obvious problem is that such a church would never admit me to membership.<\/span><\/p>\n

The claims of the Restoration do, in fact, stand up to historical examination, although (very likely by divine design) their truth is neither so blazingly obvious nor so indisputable as to compel acceptance \u2014 least of all from people disinclined to accept them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 I think it appropriate to share, again, a column that I first published in the 9 February 2012 edition of the Deseret News: \u00a0 Decades ago, I attended a gathering where the late Stanley Kimball, a professor of history at Southern Illinois University and president of the Mormon History Association, spoke. 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