previous: Question 1
"My church leaders say that reading anti-Mormon literature and unsanctioned church history will corrupt my spirit. Why do you want me to corrupt my spirit?"
How can I put this delicately?
Your church leaders are lying to you. That's all there is to it.
Pretend you've developed a rare medical condition. Your doctor suggests a radical course of treatment that will have major effects on the rest of your life. When you say you'd like to get a second opinion, your doctor tells you, "No, it's too dangerous. If you consult another physician, it could cost you your life!"
What would you do? If you're a normal, sensible human being, you'd have to ask yourself what your doctor is afraid of. Is he really concerned with your welfare, or is he just concerned about losing you as a patient if you learn something that contradicts his diagnosis? No doubt you'd consult a second doctor anyway, and maybe a third and a fourth, because your health is just too important an issue for you not to make an informed choice.
It's the same with your church leaders and your spiritual health. The question is simply too important for you not to seek second opinions.
Let's take another example. Pretend you're at a used-car lot. You see a shiny blue Mustang that's just cherry, and you have to know more about it. The salesman is happy to answer all your questions—what year it was made, how many miles it has, who owned it before you. He even lets you take it for a test drive, and it seems to handle beautifully. But when you get back to the lot and for a look at the engine, the salesman puts his foot down. He tells you it's wrong for a customer to go poking around in the engine. He says you might hurt yourself and he can't let you take the risk, but he can show you pictures of the engine if you just step over to the sales office. . . .
If this happened to you in real life, your bullshit detector would go nuts. You'd take the salesman's answer as an evasion. You'd walk away from the used-car lot with your money still in your pocket, asking yourself what's under the hood of that Mustang that the salesman doesn't want you to see. Why then should it be that when your church leaders tell you not to look under the hood of Mormonism—a proposition far more critical to your well-being than any mere automobile purchase could ever be—your impulse is to obey them without question?
It's quite true that when you start delving into writings that contradict orthodox church doctrine and history, you place your faith at risk. But it's equally true that an unexamined, unquestioned faith is not worth keeping. If Mormonism is true, then it should stand up to any degree of scrutiny. The only reason to fear anti-Mormon literature is if you fear Mormonism won't stand up to the scrutiny. This should tip you off that something is rotten in the state of Utah. A religion with full confidence in its own claims has no need to shield its members from competing claims.
Let's face it, it's in the Mormon church's best interest to keep you ignorant of what its critics are saying. "When our leaders speak," the church tells you, "the thinking has been done" (The Improvement Era, June 1945). Forget making any choice; they don't want you to realize there's a choice in the first place, because once you know that, you're one step closer to shrugging off their control over you.
This philosophy of theirs is all the more insidious because canonized Mormon scripture doesn't support the abrogation of thought and personal responsibility in the first place. According to the Doctrine & Covenants, God said this through Joseph Smith: "But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right" (D&C 9:8). An interesting and provocative verse. Why study if the thinking has been done for you? And what is there to study if you refuse to examine both sides of the debate? How can you choose the right if you can't evaluate the right?
In the end, it's not a question of being "corrupted" by anti-Mormon literature at all. It's a question of ignorance versus informed choice, enslavement versus enlightenment. It's a question of taking responsibility for your own decisions rather than letting yourself be spoon-fed the answers, and if that sounds like scary proposition, well, I won't lie to you. It is. But it's also the only way to learn and grow and progress. And even if you examine both sides and still choose to stay with Mormonism, you'll find the decision all the more rewarding because you made it yourself and didn't let someone else do it for you.
If that's a corrupt philosophy, then we may as well all be monkeys, because the brains God gave us are good for nothing but playing Follow the Leader.
next: Question 3
