This post may get a little political in my attempt to share President M. Russell Ballard’s 2016 fireside with the church educational system teachers. I think the Church’s struggle with history are a result of early conflicts with the establishment press and government. It has a comparable narrative with our current political climate and the difficulty of understanding facts an how those facts are interpreted. I appreciated President Ballard’s acknowledgment early in his message on our attempts at church history in the past.

It was only a generation ago that our young people’s access to information about our history, doctrine, and practices was basically limited to materials printed by the Church. Few students came in contact with alternative interpretations. Mostly, our young people lived a sheltered life. Our curriculum at that time, though well-meaning, did not prepare students for today—a day when they have instant access to virtually everything about the Church from every possible point of view. Today

Our narrative was a bit too simple but was partly a reflex to external narrative pressures from the press and other published materials about our history. Instead of pushing at the external narratives we decided to teach ‘faith based’ history. We were also a bit siloed into the Rocky Mountains and were not challenged on our history as well. This climate has some simlarities with our current political tension around the press, facts, and interpretations of the truth.

A political comparison

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has held a unique fascination in American culture over the last 200 years. We do have many teachings and social practices that provide a bright contrast to mainline Christianity to warrant some wonder from outsiders (Historical Polygamy, Prophets, garments, communal gathering). However, we have been the brunt of some outrageous lies and exaggerations. I am not sure any of our atypical beliefs should warrant the Extermination Order, the God Makers, or even this article comparing Brigham Young to Donald Trump. Some of the tension between the press and the early church leaders came about from a biased media (on both sides) in the beginnings of Mormonism. A Deseret News article from 2017 provides a great back story on the press of the 1800s.

One of Joseph Smith’s contemporaries, the writer James Fenimore Cooper, described newspapers in the 1830s as self-interested — many were organs of political parties or existed to support a single agenda. He also said they displayed no tolerance and frequently exhibited no decency.

Which led Joseph Smith to say;

I have been in their mill. I was ground in Ohio and New York states. I was ground in the Presbyterian smut machine, and the last machine was in Missouri, and now I have been through the Illinois smut machine.

A press of this type leads a group of people to be very defensive. It prompted Brigham Young to be suspicious of the entire US government and the whole Eastern press. Until our recent history, it lead The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be wary of anyone that told our story that wasn’t part of the faithful. I think both sides of this information conflict were a little too polarized. We are watching a similar polarization between the press and the Trump portion of the Republican Party. The creation of Donald Trump in our political system has evolved from a return to an 1830s style of journalism. Something like a long game of the boy who cried wolf.

I realize that I am way out of my knowledge space and that I could be wrong on my historical facts. I can only speak as one that has lived through some of our recent political histories. You can read this 1985 New York Times article on Ronald Reagan, 2004 New York Times article about George W. Bush or this 1990 article about the First President Bush (while not as vicious still a bit demeaning) to get a sense that the New York Times was crying wolf so much that President Trump’s argument about the press holds some sway. A chunk of the population seems to have a case that they heard the same thing about the previous republican presidents. Can you feel the story of ’the boy who cried wolf’ in the New York Times? Even they realize what they have done.

Like many conservative Christian churches, there has been tension with science and the press over the last six to eight decades. This has created a bit of mistrust from conservative Christians of academic research in science and history. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ effort to explain how antagonists were wrong in their explanation of our history and doctrine, we seemed to simplify the argument too much over most of the 20th century. However, as we start the 21st century, the church is finding peace in the truth instead of how one side tells the truth. We have done much to embrace scholarship as an institution. Elder Ballard’s 2016 fireside was meant to pull the CES teachers along on this journey of embracing scholarship with faith. To realize that truth is complicated and that we can understand and have faith even with the full complicated story.

Elder M. Russell Ballard’s 2016 Night with CES teachers.

I have pulled two of my favorite quotes from his message. He does a spectacular job of framing the scenarios around our engagement with complexity in our faith. Whether in a religious confrontation or a political confrontation, we can’t just hold our ears and say, ‘don’t listen to those people over there.’ We have to engage the facts presented and make sure the truth is found in those facts. Throwing insults at the other side or over-promoting your team doesn’t negate the facts presented.

Gone are the days …

He said,

Gone are the days when a student asks an honest question and a teacher responded, * “don’t worry about it.”* Gone are the days when a student raised a sincere concern, and a teacher bore his or her testimony as a response - intended to avoid the issue. Gone are the days when students were protected from people who attacked the church.

Overclaiming

Then he shared a clear message about the struggle that all educators (and talking heads in the media) have. I think most want to be the smartest person in the room. This desire is so strong that we will often hide times when we don’t know. He said,

Now a word of caution: Please recognize you may come to believe, like many of your students do, that you are a scriptural, doctrinal, and history expert. A recent study revealed that “the more people think they know about a topic, the more likely they are to allege understanding beyond what they know, even to the point of feigning knowledge of false facts and fabricated information.”

Identified as “overclaiming,” this temptation must be avoided by you CES teachers. It is perfectly all right to say, “I do not know.” However, once that is said, you have a responsibility to find the best answers to thoughtful questions your students ask.

In teaching your students and in responding to their questions, let me warn you not to pass along faith-promoting or unsubstantiated rumors or outdated understanding and explanations of our doctrine and practices of the past. … Consult the works of recognized thoughtful and faithful LDS scholars to ensure you do not teach things that are untrue, out of date, or odd and quirky.

Where do we go from here?

Elder Ballard’s message invites us all to dig into the data. To figure out our understanding of the facts and to make sure we can testify of the truth after we have ‘found the best answers to thoughtful questions’ through our study of the standard works, living prophets, and the ‘recognized thoughtful and faithful LDS scholars.’

In this same talk, Elder Ballard invited us to ‘become lifelong learners.’ That is the key that will move us to testimonies that can be shared based on truth instead of testimonies that avoid uncomfortable truths.

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• history