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Follow the prophet! Sometimes? The contradiction of LDS leadership
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Joseph Smith Jr. claimed to be a prophet of God.
The LDS prophets are "inspired men called to speak for the Lord" and the current prophet is "the only person on the earth who receives revelation to guide the entire Church," according to the LDS Church website.
This does not mean that everything the prophet says comes straight from God, however. Some LDS members believe the prophet largely operates with autonomy and that he is mostly expressing his own, sometimes incorrect, opinions. So while what the prophet says may be useful or uplifting, "we don't need a lot of continuing revelation."
In 2007, the church released a public statement that says that individual statements made by church leaders are not meant to be "officially binding" doctrine, and are instead their personal views and opinions.
FAIR, an LDS apologetic website, says:
The prophets are not perfect, but they are called of God. They may speak as men, but may speak scripture as well. Every person may know for themselves whether they speak the truth through the same power that their revelation is given: the power of the Holy Ghost.
The difficulty here is that if the prophet can be wrong about divine matters, members in the pews can't really be expected to do any better. If the power of the Holy Ghost couldn't correct the only person on earth with the authority to speak for God, it probably can't be relied upon by lay members to determine if he's right or not.
History confirms that membership can't always distinguish between a prophet's opinion from a prophet's revelation. For example, the racism of Brigham Young could be excused as being his dated, personal views. But if it was only his opinion that blacks should be denied the priesthood because they are the cursed descendants of Cain, then this opinion extended through multiple leaders for over a century. The priesthood ban was sustained by the entire Presidency as doctrinal and direct from God in both 1949 and 1969. Opinion and revelation were indistinguishable.
To clarify between what is opinion and what is doctrine, a statement must be sustained by the First Presidency and the General Authorities before it can be regarded as official doctrine. Anything else is opinion.
If this is the case, it can be said that God has only spoken officially once in the 30 years since the priesthood ban on blacks was lifted. It was a brief letter called The Family: A Proclamation to the World, and it outlined the church's position on family, sex, and marriage. Even in an era of living prophets, it seems, God has little to say.
Even worse, it means that an opinion can become official doctrine simply because a group of men share that opinion and are willing to stand behind it.
"For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth"
The church begins to define "Prophet" by saying "We can always trust the living prophets"
Their teachings reflect the will of the Lord, who declared: "What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself...whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same" (D&C 1:38).
Our greatest safety lies in strictly following the word of the Lord given through His prophets, particularly the current President of the Church. The Lord warns that those who ignore the words of the living prophets will fall (see D&C 1:14–16). He promises great blessings to those who follow the President of the Church:
"Thou shalt give heed unto all his words and commandments which he shall give unto you as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me;
"For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith.
"For by doing these things the gates of hell shall not prevail against you; yea, and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name's glory" (D&C 21:4–6).
Searching the LDS website for anything related to "prophets" produces a long list of talks that emphasize obedience and faith in their inspired, God-given words. Few, if any, care to make the point that prophets are just men expressing thier personal opinions about divine matters. In his talk "Hear the Prophet’s Voice and Obey", for example, Elder Hales says that a living prophet "will speak the mind and will of God in showing the way to spiritual safety." Elder Watson in "His Servants, The Prophets" quotes Harold B. Lee who said that following the prophet might contradict our social or political views, but that "if [we] listen to these things, as if from the mouth of the Lord himself, with patience and faith, the promise is that … ‘the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name’s glory." He quotes Lee again when he asked "Are you too close to the Brethren [so that you] think of them not as prophets but as men just guessing [such counsel] might be a good thing?” He finally concludes that "in a very real sense, the Master speaks to us through His prophet."
Searching official church lesson materials yields similar results. Lesson 12 in the Aaronic Priesthood Manual, "Following the Living Prophet", emphases that the prophet gives "inspired instructions" that "reveal or unlock the will of the Lord." It suggests reading D&C 68:4:
And whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by the Holy Ghost shall be scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation.
Lesson 13 in The Latter-day Saint Woman: Basic Manual for Women, Part B, "Follow the Brethren", says that the prophet is "the mouthpiece" for God. The lesson includes a quote from George Q. Cannon which, to be fair, does mention that men who hold the priesthood are fallible. But it then goes on to say that:
“Nevertheless, God has chosen these men. He has singled them out. They have not done it themselves; but He has selected them, and He has placed upon them the authority of the Holy Priesthood, and they have become His representatives in the earth. …
“And those who lift their voices … against the authority of the Holy Priesthood … will go down to hell, unless they repent.
The lesson concludes by saying that the prophet "will never lead us astray."
Under the definition of "Prophet" the church links to some talks to provide more information. One of the most informative is titled "Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet" by Ezra Taft Benson.
When some Mormons say that doctrine is limited to what is found in the "Standard Works" of scripture, Ezra Taft Benson says that "the living prophet is more vital to us than the "Standard Works." Benson also said that "the most important reading we can do is any of the words of the prophet contained each month in our Church Magazines. Our instructions about what we should do for each six months are found in the General Conference addresses which are printed in the Church magazine."
When apologists like Jeff Lindsay say that prophets can have "a wrong opinion on a matter of science," Benson says that "if there is ever a conflict between earthly knowledge and the words of the prophet, you stand with the prophet and you’ll be blessed and time will show you have done the right thing." The prophet will always be right because, according to Benson, "the Prophet is not limited by men’s reasoning." He quotes from the Bible:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isa. 55:8–9.
Benson cautioned against picking and choosing from the prophets words.
The learned may feel the prophet is only inspired when he agrees with them, otherwise the prophet is just giving his opinion—speaking as a man.
Sometimes there are those who argue about words. They might say the prophet gave us counsel but that we are not obliged to follow it unless he says it is a commandment. But the Lord says of the Prophet, “Thou shalt give heed unto all his words and commandments which he shall give unto you.” (D&C 21:4.)
Benson agrees with Brigham Young, who once said
I have never yet preached a sermon and sent it out to the children of men, that they may not call Scripture.
FAIR offers additional information on what Brigham Young meant here, and explains that this quote is taken out of context. They say that critics "abuse" this quote from Brigham Young and use it to set up a false expectation that everything a prophet says is true.
If FAIR is correct, then Ezra Taft Benson made the same mistake in his talk about following the prophet. It was that exact line that he, the future prophet, used to help make his point about the importance of following the prophet.
Conclusion
We can agree that the prophet is a man, and can have his own opinions. But church lesson manuals, hymns, scripture, and conference talks all tell a clear and direct message - the prophet speaks for God. Follow him.
There are no qualifiers like "except when" or "only if." These are only presented when there is a need to slice away troubling history, odd teachings, or ideas now debunked by science.
The end result is a prophet who speaks for God... except for when he doesn't. The opinions and speculations of prophets have created a fuzzy line between what is truly gospel, and what is man-made. This uncertainty has led many members to accept Mormon "culture" as true doctrine.
We shouldn't be surprised by this when church leaders continually emphasize the importance of obedience, even if it means breaking up a relationship because a young woman won't take out an extra pair of earrings at the prophets request.
If it is possible for members, leaders, and even prophets themselves to sincerely believe in things that are not true, then there is nothing to prevent the possibility that the entire religion is false. We have no real reason to suspect that the temple ceremony or that polygamy was genuine revelation and not man-made, for example. Saying that these were revealed by God seems too much like special pleading.
But this is the utility of faith: a crutch for maintaining that something is true when nothing else will.
Email Jonathan: slcfreethinking@gmail.com
Read more of Jonathan's articles about science and religion
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