The First Presidency and the Twelve have their offices in the Church Administration Building at 47 East South Temple in Salt Lake City. \u00a0(LDS Media Library)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I now want to say something briefly about the approach to the scriptures \u2014 my<\/em> approach to the scriptures \u2014 that disturbed those two or three elderly sisters in the old Mar Vista Ward, decades ago. \u00a0Because it\u2019s also my approach to the history and historiography of the Church and is, thus, relevant to certain very recent controversies here on this blog.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I read the scriptures \u2014 the historical parts, anyway \u2014 pretty much the way I would read any other historical chronicle. \u00a0Among other things, I\u2019m looking for \u00a0the points that the author is attempting to make, at the criteria he applies in choosing what to include and to exclude and what to emphasize or ignore. \u00a0(I found Grant Hardy\u2019s important Understanding the Book of Mormon<\/em> very congenial for precisely that reason.) \u00a0What is the author\u2019s agenda? \u00a0Historiography isn\u2019t, shouldn\u2019t be, and cannot be merely a list of what happened wie es eigentlich gewesen<\/em>. \u00a0It is, necessarily and unavoidably, interpretive.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I also read the scriptures as being about real people, with human limitations and flaws even when they\u2019ve received great revelations or had marvelous experiences with the divine. \u00a0I can\u2019t think of any reason not to do so; I simply can\u2019t assume that ancient prophets were somehow demigods when today\u2019s prophets plainly aren\u2019t. \u00a0The principles of human behavior and the general \u201crules\u201d governing sociology, psychology, anthropology, and history don\u2019t fundamentally change between the world of scripture and the world of non-scripture, nor between antiquity and today. \u00a0\u201cHomo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto,<\/i>\u201d wrote the second century BC Roman playwright Terence. \u00a0\u201cI am human, and I think nothing human is alien to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
That principle holds at the other end of the timeline, too:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I have absolutely no reason, since I don\u2019t expect it of ancient<\/em> apostles and prophets, to expect modern<\/em> prophets and apostles to have transcended the human condition.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Please don\u2019t misunderstand me. \u00a0I regard the modern leadership of the Church as very good men, indeed. \u00a0And I don\u2019t do so merely theoretically. \u00a0I don\u2019t want to exaggerate our closeness \u2014 we don\u2019t meet every evening for gossip and a game of Scrabble over hot chocolate \u2014 but it has been one of my great blessings to have interacted a fair amount, for years, with modern members of the First Presidency and the Twelve. \u00a0With the exception of Ezra Taft Benson, I\u2019ve interacted personally, one on one or in a very small meeting, with every president of the Church since the passing of Joseph Fielding Smith. \u00a0I\u2019ve known some of the Brethren before their calls to serve in the presiding quorums. \u00a0I\u2019ve served on committees with them, traveled with them, joked with them, etc. \u00a0And I\u2019ve seen nothing in their behavior to suggest that they aren\u2019t what I believe them to be: \u00a0good, competent, and sincere men who have been given extraordinary callings and unique authority.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
But they aren\u2019t omniscient. \u00a0They aren\u2019t perfect. \u00a0And they don\u2019t claim to be. \u00a0(They would laugh at the suggestion.) \u00a0So historical treatments of the Church do them an injustice if omniscience and perfection are implied for them. \u00a0Nobody, not even a genuine prophet or apostle, can possibly live up to such a standard.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I now want to say something briefly about the approach to the scriptures \u2014 my approach to the scriptures \u2014 that disturbed those two or three elderly sisters in the old Mar Vista Ward, decades ago. \u00a0Because it\u2019s also my approach to the history and historiography of the Church and is, thus, relevant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>