Suppressing History

In recent years, the church has determined through extensive surveys that unfiltered church history available online is a driving force in the loss of members in the tithing-crucial first world, particularly among younger members, who tend to be tech savvy.¹ In response, the church recently quickly built a sophisticated search engine optimization (SEO) program. Search engines are designed to show users the websites most likely to contain what they are searching for. SEO is a business strategy to manipulate the search engine results from what the user wants to see to what the business wants them to see. From the church’s point of view, a search on “LDS finances” should link to LDS-owned websites that offer only church-positive information, not to Wikipedia or other objective discussions. The church has exerted great effort on ensuring that the first few results of a Google search return church-owned websites that contain only a church-positive relation of events.³⁴⁴

SEO is only the most recent tool in a long-standing effort to withhold true history that challenges present traditions or suggests that church leaders past or present have made mistakes.

Elder Oaks has taught that facts that portray church leaders in a negative light should be omitted from church materials.² He also taught:

My duty as a member of the Council of the Twelve is to protect what is most unique about the LDS church, namely the authority of priesthood, testimony regarding the restoration of the gospel, and the divine mission of the Savior. Everything may be sacrificed in order to maintain the integrity of those essential facts. Thus, if Mormon Enigma reveals information that is detrimental to the reputation of Joseph Smith, then it is necessary to try to limit its influence and that of its authors. (Dallin Oaks, footnote 28, Inside the Mind of Joseph Smith: Psychobiography and the Book of Mormon, Introduction p. xliii.)

On another occasion, Elder Oaks taught that:

Truth surely exists as an absolute, but our use of truth should be disciplined by other values....When truth is constrained by other virtues, the outcome is not falsehood but silence for a season. As the scriptures say, there is “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.” (Apostle Dallin H. Oaks, “Criticism,” Ensign, Feb. 1987, page 68.)

Elder Oaks is not alone in his views. Elder Nelson has taught: “Indeed, in some instances, the merciful companion to truth is silence. Some truths are best left unsaid.”³⁴⁶ President Boyd K. Packer was an outspoken critic of objective history. He wrote,

There is a temptation for the writer or the teacher of Church history to want to tell everything, whether it is worthy or faith promoting or not. Some things that are true are not very useful. (Apostle Boyd K. Packer, “The Mantle is Far,Far Greater Than the Intellect,” 1981 CES Talk.)

The policy of intentionally withholding history that contradicts church tradition has led to many examples of actively suppressed true history. For example, by the time correlation took over church curricula, plural marriage was something for which the church received only negative attention. You will not find mention of anything regarding Joseph Smith’s polygamy in church materials during the decades between correlation’s inception and the recent admissions in the church topics essays on LDS.org. In every location where you would expect some mention of topic, it is omitted. This blackout continued even into recent years. The D&C manual covers only verses 4-33 of D&C 132, conveniently skipping over the many verses that describe the polygamy of Abraham, David, Solomon, and Moses, Joseph’s authority to give women to other men, and the command for Joseph to practice polygamy. The manual never mentions Joseph’s polygamy, and only mentions plural marriage at all as a minor bullet point at the end of the lesson, with the instructions, “The following information is provided to help you if class members have questions about the practice of plural marriage. It should not be the focus of the lesson.” Similarly, the “Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith” manual’s introduction states:

This book also does not discuss plural marriage. The doctrines and principles relating to plural marriage were revealed to Joseph Smith as early as 1831. The Prophet taught the doctrine of plural marriage, and a number of such marriages were performed during his lifetime.

Surely, even if the manual does not include quotes on plural marriage, this disclosure should say “taught and practiced” plural marriage? The perpetual avoidance of this topic has led to a condition where a surprising number of fully active, lifelong members were broadsided by the recent LDS.org essays that discussed Joseph Smith’s polygamy. These are members who attended seminary, attended BYU, served a mission, and still had never been told that Joseph Smith practiced plural marriage.

Another example of hiding history is found in the suppression of research identifying changes to scripture. The open archives of the 1970s provided ample historical research material for graduate students at BYU. This period produced two works analyzing changes to the text of canonized scripture: “Study of Some Textual Variations in the Book of Mormon, Comparing the Original and Printer’s MSS., and Comparing the 1830, 1837, and 1840 Editions,” and “Historical Development of the Doctrine and Covenants.”³ The church authorized both theses on condition that they remain unpublished and inaccessible to all except those cleared by church leadership. This policy was lifted after a threat to accreditation some years later over the access restrictions.⁴ “Historical Development of the Doctrine and Covenants” was briefly available by purchase on CD-ROM, but continues today to be accessible only in person at the BYU library, where 2 copies of the set are available for public view. It includes thousands of modifications to the text of the D&C—enough to occupy 3 massive volumes. Among these changes were a modification to the wording of the baptismal prayer, which originally took the form found in the Book of Mormon.⁵ This is a significant change that might impact every baptized member of the church, yet there is no mention of this change in any official publication of the church.

As detailed elsewhere in this book, the LDS temple garment has been dramatically modified multiple times since it was revealed to Joseph. The church has had Hyrum Smith’s temple garment in possession since Joseph Fielding Smith was president, yet no access to or reports of the original pattern or symbols have been given. We know from accounts given that nearly everything about the garment has been changed, and any sort of access to the original would reveal that immediately. Likewise, the temple ceremony itself is vastly different from the 1877 transcript,⁶ purportedly the first time the ceremony was recorded. The original transcript survived an attempted purge in the 1920s by apostle George Richards, thanks to a defiant St. George Temple President. The church still has this copy, yet it is not accessible to any outside of top leadership.

The policy of withholding history is not just a part of traditions among the brethren. It is codified in the “Handbook of Instructions.” The handbook’s definition of apostasy means that anyone who teaches church history without withholding history that incriminates current church practices or past or present leaders is considered an apostate and will be excommunicated. This was illustrated recently when Denver Snuffer was excommunicated for refusing to remove “Passing the Heavenly Gift” from publication. The book contains scriptures and quotes from church leaders that suggest a version of history that differs from LDS claims. The stake president who charged Snuffer with apostasy did not attempt to outline or correct any errors in the book, but merely maintained that the history presented was “in direct conflict with church doctrine” and “placed the church in a negative light.”⁷ Denver Snuffer was not the first member to be excommunicated for publishing true history, and he will not be the last.

As George Orwell said, “The most powerful form of lie is the omission.” Withholding true information assists only the perpetuation of disinformation, not the cause of truth. As the church historian that oversaw the window of open church archives put it:

My own impression is that an intensive study of church history, while it will dispel certain myths or half-myths sometimes perpetuated in Sunday school (and other) classes, builds faith rather than weakens it.8

Only truth can lead us closer to Christ. Faith cannot be had on false principles. Therefore, as Joseph stated “we should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness, wherein we know them;” (D&C 123:13.)