I had a personal (albeit phyrric) triumph on Sunday during the Elders’ Quorum lesson about the the “Bitter Fruits of Apostasy”. During the lesson, we began discussing the uprising that Joseph Smith underwent by the church at large during the Kirtland period when the the Kirtland Anti-Banking Society that he created went under. There were meetings in the Kirtland temple to depose Joseph Smith as the head of the church. One of the men in the class mentioned how he couldn’t fathom how people so close to the prophet (and all the glory he encompassed, I suppose) could even think to have held such a meeting.
I have held my tongue for years in these classes. Quite frankly, it was because I simply didn’t have anything intelligent and inoffensive to say. Finally, the drought ended. I held my hand up to comment. I mentioned that these people had serious cause for doubt in Joseph, he was the living prophet of God and he creates a bank that immediately fails due to a national banking crisis. This was his first major failure as a public person. Also it was not as if they chose some stranger to lead them, David Whitmer was one of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon. He claimed visions of the plates and angels and was well-respected in the community.
I was not surprised to see that this led to discussion of Joseph being human and fallible. Another man even quoted the scripture that no prophet is loved in his own country (Mark 6:4). It was nice to see people talk about Joseph Smith as a man, rather than a quasi-deity (Jesus reference aside) and realize he as as human as the rest of us. It was also fun to turn the subject of the lesson away from the “bitterness” of apostasy to a little understanding of why people would doubt their confident, charismatic leader.
What I also wish I had been able to talk about was that the story of the first vision was not highly publicized until after they left Missouri. So his story of angels delivering a message and a call to preach was not all that unique among the many charismatic spiritual leaders of the time. I really wanted to bring up that the bank collapse was one of the main reasons that Joseph Smith left for Missouri in the dead of night in the first place. He had a lot of very angry creditors/depositors who lost a lot of money due to his ineptitude.
Hopefully, I will find the courage to expound on a lot more of the history in the lessons and so establish credibility in my Elders’ Quorum. I don’t know how many people’s minds will change, but maybe, just maybe I can help some of them break through the white-washed veneer they have been taught to impose over anything related to the church!
