🥓 Curated Information¶
Estimated time to read: 15 minutes
I don't really know what to title this page. The intent is "don't look outside of our ecosystem for information." Does that make internal information curated? Not necessarily, but it was an excuse to use that bacon emoji, which is always a win in my book. Get it? Curated sources, cured bacon... yeah, I guess it was funnier in my head
In today’s world, information is easy to access and share. This can be a great blessing for those seeking to be educated and informed. However, many sources of information are unreliable and do not edify. Some sources seek to promote anger, contention, fear, or baseless conspiracy theories (see 3 Nephi 11:30; Mosiah 2:32). Therefore, it is important that Church members be wise as they seek truth.
Members of the Church should seek out and share only credible, reliable, and factual sources of information. They should avoid sources that are speculative or founded on rumor. The guidance of the Holy Ghost, along with careful study, can help members discern between truth and error (see Doctrine and Covenants 11:12; 45:57). In matters of doctrine and Church policy, the authoritative sources are the scriptures, the teachings of the living prophets, and the General Handbook.
— Seeking Information from Reliable Sources, Section 38.8.41, General Handbook: Serving in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Yeah. Many sources of information are unreliable. I don't want anyone to consider that the LDS church has always been a reliable source, though. It's been known to obscure information.
Outside Sources¶
I feel that it's reasonable for the LDS church to want to maintain some control over its narrative. Deferring to any outsiders' opinion as valid would undermine their claim to authority. I don't find that disagreeable. Its own documents should be treated as the officially sanctioned answers for the church claiming to represent God.
So, in the infrequent case where the church does point readers to an outside source, what does it have to say about them?
Recognizing that today so much information about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can be obtained from questionable and often inaccurate sources, officials of the Church began in 2013 to publish straightforward, in-depth essays on a number of topics. The purpose of these essays, which have been approved by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, has been to gather accurate information from many different sources and publications and place it in the Gospel Topics section of ChurchofJesusChrist.org, where the material can more easily be accessed and studied by Church members and other interested parties.
Not sure how much more clear we can be.
Check the footnotes in any entry found in under the Gospel Topics Essays. It sure sounds to me like the sources used for what we read in these essays are "accurate information" signed off by the top leadership of the LDS church.
Remarks¶
Truly educated¶
With the abundance of books available today, it is a mark of a truly educated man to know what not to read.
— In His Steps, President Ezra Taft Benson, First Presidency Message, Ensign 1988 September
There's a link to the source. Hop in and tell me if there's some context I'm missing, because it sure looks to me like he's redefining "education," conflating it to mean "obedient to church leadership."
Truth be told, I encountered this not because I was flipping through a printed Ensign from '88, but it was quoted in a 2015 BYU devotional speech. Here's the quote that led me here:
As we humbly search the scriptures, we will come to know both Jesus Christ and his servant, Joseph Smith. In this connection, may I offer a suggestion to all of us? If we truly desire to know the Prophet, we must go to the right source—and that is not a Google search. As President Ezra Taft Benson taught, “Today, with the abundance of books available, it is the mark of a truly educated man to know what not to read.” The Lord gave us the key to knowing Joseph Smith when he said, “seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom.” And what are the best books? They are the scriptures. The Savior taught that we “shall know them by their fruits.” We will come to know the Prophet by daily partaking of his fruit—the scriptures—more than any other writings.
— Millions Shall Know Brother Joseph Again, Jayson Kunzler, BYU Devotionals, 20 October 2015
Hey, uh... Mr Kunzler? I... I can't think of a more polite way to remind you of this, but you're speaking at an accredited university, telling people that education means just reading scriptures, not researching independently. If I had heard this being proliferated at Virginia Tech, UCLA, or Berkley, I would lose respect for those institutions. BYU is a university, and students are being told to not read.
"abandon all hope critical thinking, ye who enter here"
While we're in proximity to this devotional and quote, I'll advise readers to follow the cited link and read (or listen) for yourselves. An opening remark is Bruce McConkie panicking that missionaries in the '80's didn't rank Joseph Smith as being comparably important as God. Go check for yourself. No, we're not a cult.
An educated person can read things and determine whether or not it's bullshit. I will argue that knowing how to interpret information is one "mark of a truly educated man." Being able to differentiate misinformation takes both intuition and experience. Knowing what is credible, what to rely on, what to take at face value. This sounds to me like Benson, president of the church, was suggesting that an educated person should only read scriptures. ... But not the Bible, since that's conveniently not "translated correctly" whenever we decide that it is. So just the Book of Mormon, D&C, and Pearl of Great Price. Except for the Book of Abraham, which might not have anything to do with Abraham. Doctrine & Covenants... eh, maybe. Not section 132, for sure. You know what, just read the Book of Mormon. Just that one. That's what will make you educated. Reading only one book with its myriad anachronisms and lack of historical quality is all you need. That will make you smarter than all those dorks with their "degrees" and "certificates."
For what it's worth, one demonstration of untrustworthy information today is AI-generated texts, or summaries of searches. Those are a fairly recent breakthrough, and they aren't always reliable. How much education do you need to understand that when Google tells you that eating rocks is good for your health, it is not reliable information? What I'm hearing instead is that an educated person simply never reads anything that isn't a specific religious text. I can get behind Kunzler's admonition to not take Google's top results as objective truth. However, I also wish to point out that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) from the LDS church ensures that their curated pages are at the top of online searches. SEO isn't something to really delve into as a side note, but suffice it to say that SEO is both arranging and organizing one's webpage for webcrawlers to index, and the other part of SEO is "paying Google lots of money to put these results before others." After all, you can buy anything in this world with money.
Maybe I'm being too harsh, and the intended context is seeking information about a church leader instead of education on a broader perspective. I could imagine that being a fair defense.
I'm willing to concede that I'm just some grump, but Alma's war chapters, Ether's barges and holocaust-scale deaths, Teancum throwing a javelin through enemy military leaders, nor Nephite women being violated are going to help me understand one Russel Marion Nelson better. Actually, if those tales did help me understand Nelson better, I think that connection would warrant further examination and scrutiny. I'll be real, not all parts of the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, turn my thoughts toward Jesus Christ. Similarly, they won't all remind me of Jesus' mortal representative in Salt Lake City.
Be like the prophet¶
Russell M. Nelson is obedient to the president of the Church, and he is baffled when he hears people ask questions like, “Is it really the will of the Lord that we do everything that President Kimball says?”
“The Lord said, ‘Whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same,’” Dr. Nelson reminds us. “My experience is that once you stop putting question marks behind the prophet’s statements and put exclamation points instead, and do it, the blessings just pour.
“I never ask myself, ‘When does the prophet speak as a prophet and when does he not?’ My interest has been, ‘How can I be more like him?”
— Russell M. Nelson: A Study in Obedience, Lane Johnson, Liahona 1983 January
A more recent iteration of this was quoted in The Prophet of God, Elder Neil L. Andersen, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, General Conference 2018 April; having that passage here was redundant, as it's practically a direct quote of the above.
Where to start?
"I'm not worried if what he's saying is reliable or accurate. I just want to 'be more like him' because of the warm fuzzy feelings in my tummy. No critical evaluation needed! What? No, we're not a cult."
If you blindly obey what the acting president of the church says, "blessings just pour." What blessings? Also, what are blessings? Blessings aren't quantifiable in the first place, and hearing that they "just pour" isn't really assuring either. How can anyone demonstrate that obedience leads to vague improvements?
OBEY ME¶
Declared President Joseph F. Smith in October 1873, “Obedience is the first law of heaven.”
... It is also the first law of North Korea. I don't think that's a selling point. In fact, in the Mormon belief of the pre-mortal war in heaven, Satan got kicked out for his plan where obedience was the first law. But when a prophet declares that here on earth, it's fine.
Why would God endow us with free will and capacity for critical thinking if He simply wanted us to abandon it and simply obey leadership? What the hell, God? If Joseph Smith Jr. was blindly obedient, we would not have the restored gospel today.
Fortunately for us, this quote from 1873 was just a one-off remark that definitely didn't get used to establish credibility in later years. Nope, later church leaders never used this to justify preaching obedience. Well... I dunno, maybe just once or twice. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
You guys say you represent Jesus, right? Right.
doubt ur doubts¶
My dear friends—please, first doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. We must never allow doubt to hold us prisoner and keep us from the divine love, peace, and gifts that come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
— Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Come, Join with Us,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2013
I've mentioned this on another page, but what I find disagreeable here is it actively encourages Cognitive Bias— if you heard something good about LDS teachings before you heard something bad, just disregard the new (bad) information. You already know the "correct" answer. This means that if you were raised in the church like I was, you should just doubt anything negative you encounter. It'll be fine.
Manuals¶
"Avoid Speculation"¶
Enter that search term into the church site's search form to find what topics are vague enough to warrant speculation, and a stern warning against talking about anything that leadership hasn't explicitly approved of.
Avoid speculation Do not speculate about whether plural marriage is a requirement for the celestial kingdom. We have no knowledge that plural marriage will be a requirement for exaltation.
— Lesson 140: Doctrine and Covenants 132:1–2, 34–66,Doctrine and Covenants and Church History Seminary Teacher Manual
I'm not sure I believe that, ngl
I will also observe that the manual specifically highlights verses 1 & 2, then 34 - 66. I wonder why they'd leave out such a big gap in D&C 132?
Caution: Exercise caution while discussing the doctrine of having our calling and election made sure. Avoid speculation. Use only the sources given here and in the student manual. Do not attempt in any way to discuss or answer questions about the second anointing.
— Chapter 19: Eternal Life, Doctrines of the Gospel Teacher Manual
Much like the church's responses to Blood Atonement, this sounds like a case of Streisand Effect. There must be some spicy sources to warrant such a stern warning against them.
Use Doctrinal Outline H and Supporting Statements H, on pages 91 and 93 of the student manual, to help explain what we know about the sons of perdition. Since little is said or known about the fate of the sons of perdition, stay with what is suggested in the student manual. Remember that the emphasis in this chapter is on the celestial kingdom.
— Chapter 33: Kingdoms of Glory and Perdition, Doctrines of the Gospel Teacher Manual
Avoid speculation There are many things the Lord has not yet revealed. For example, He has not yet revealed all of the details of the Creation. Teach students to trust the Lord and His prophets. If the Lord has not provided a reason for His revelation, do not speculate about why the revelation was given.
— Lesson 37: The Plan of Salvation (Part 4), Old Testament Seminary Teacher Material
Avoid speculation. Refrain from discussing with students doctrinal topics that the prophets and apostles have not chosen to teach or about which they have not made an official statement. For example, Church leaders have cautioned against speculating about how the Savior was conceived.
— Lesson 9 Teacher Material: Rejoicing in the Divine Birth of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ and His Everlasting Gospel Teacher Material (Religion 250)
There's more to be found, and I might copy more here in the future.