Faithful Dissent<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"While reading through some of the transcripts of the interviews used for PBS' "The Mormons", some of Elder Holland's comments caught my eye. Dave over at\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithpromotingrumor\/2007\/05\/faithful-dissent\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Faithful Dissent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While reading through some of the transcripts of the interviews used for PBS' "The Mormons", some of Elder Holland's comments caught my eye. 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{"id":405,"date":"2007-05-15T20:57:53","date_gmt":"2007-05-16T01:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/faithpromotingrumor.wordpress.com\/2007\/05\/15\/faithful-dissent\/"},"modified":"2007-05-15T20:57:53","modified_gmt":"2007-05-16T01:57:53","slug":"faithful-dissent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithpromotingrumor\/2007\/05\/faithful-dissent\/","title":{"rendered":"Faithful Dissent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

While reading through some of the transcripts of the interviews used for PBS\u2019 \u201cThe Mormons<\/a>\u201c, some of Elder Holland\u2019s comments caught my eye. Dave over at DMI<\/a>\u00a0also posted about this interview, although he didn\u2019t necessarily pursue the issue I would like to raise here.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

First let me refer to two parts of the interview:<\/p>\n

[You say] there are stark choices in beliefs about the origins of the book. Explain why there\u2019s no middle way.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2026 If someone can find something in the Book of Mormon, anything that they love or respond to or find dear, I applaud that and say more power to you. That\u2019s what I find, too. And that should not in any way discount somebody\u2019s liking a passage here or a passage there or the whole idea of the book, but not agreeing to its origin, its divinity. \u2026<\/p>\n

I think you\u2019d be as aware as I am that that we have many people who are members of the church who do not have some burning conviction as to its origins, who have some other feeling about it that is not as committed to foundational statements and the premises of Mormonism<\/a>. But we\u2019re not going to invite somebody out of the church over that any more than we would anything else about degrees of belief or steps of hope or steps of conviction. \u2026 We would say: \u201cThis is the way I see it, and this is the faith I have; this is the foundation on which I\u2019m going forward. If I can help you work toward that I\u2019d be glad to, but I don\u2019t love you less; I don\u2019t distance you more; I don\u2019t say you\u2019re unacceptable to me as a person or even as a Latter-day Saint if you can\u2019t make that step or move to the beat of that drum.\u201d \u2026 We really don\u2019t want to sound smug. We don\u2019t want to seem uncompromising and insensitive.<\/p>\n

\u2026 There are some things we can\u2019t give away. There are some foundational stones. If you don\u2019t have those, you don\u2019t have anything. So the First Vision, the Book of Mormon, those are pretty basic things. \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

What about people who question the history of the Book of Mormon?<\/em><\/p>\n

There are plenty of people who question the historicity of the Book of Mormon, and they are firmly in this church \u2014 firmly, in their mind, in this church \u2014 and the church isn\u2019t going to take action against that. [The church] probably will be genuinely disappointed, but there isn\u2019t going to be action against that, not until it starts to be advocacy: \u201cNot only do I disbelieve in the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, I want you to disbelieve.\u201d At that point, we\u2019re going to have a conversation. A little of that is more tolerated than I think a lot of people think it should be. But I think we want to be tolerant any way we can. \u2026 \u201cPatient\u201d maybe is a better word than \u201ctolerant.\u201d We want to be patient and charitable to the extent that we can, but there is a degree beyond which we can\u2019t go. \u2026<\/p>\n

[End quote]<\/p>\n

This also relates to our recent discussion here at FPR<\/a> on the role of the scholar in the church. In that post I asserted that the dividing line between the prophet and the scholar was not revelation as the role of the prophet versus interpretation as the role of the scholar; but the control of bodies. The church is open to the scholar in as much as his\/her work does not compete for power over the individual (usually understood as doing things like coming to church, paying tithing, and generally speaking\u2013\u201ckeeping the commandments\u201d).<\/p>\n

The questions to ask, I believe, are: Can \u201cgood\u201d scholarship (as defined by the community of scholars) come from\u00a0this limited sphere? In Elder Holland\u2019s terms, is there such a thing as \u201cnon-advocating\u201d scholarship? Or does all scholarship at least implicitly \u201cadvocate\u201d?<\/p>\n

In particular, without looking too much to the past (because Elder Holland\u2019s comments may or may not represent past policy), do these comments create more room for \u201cfaithful dissent\u201d?\u00a0Does this mean that there is\u00a0more space for a multitude of \u201cfaithful\u201d\u00a0intellectual positions? \u201cFaithful\u201d, here meaning at least no disciplinary action taken against such individuals, or perhaps them even being able to hold recommends. Is it possible to \u201cdissent\u201d from the common voice and still be a member of the church in good-standing?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"