In conversations with Mormons that I have had in which we have
addressed some of the problems with the Church's history, a common
refrain, after the usual realization that they don't know what I am
talking about, is to merely say "how could something so good have come
out of something so bad?" The implication being, of course, that the
Church is so good and righteous that whatever faults with its history
as can be found must be explained away as distortions of evidence or
the work of maligners who just have a grudge against the Church.
But the entire fundamentalist Mormon movement IS a legacy of Joseph
Smith and the Church. The warped mind of Warren Jeffs derives from
Joseph Smith's teachings. Those wackos down in Texas that the Federal
Government is now going after, they profess to be the true followers
of Smith. This would appear to offer evidence that no small degree of
bad came out of that legacy, that, in fact, lots of bad came out of it
because it was bad, or, at least, not truly God-centered, but the
creation of a mere mortal who himself engaged in the practice of
polygamy. As a Church that claims to be the restored church of Jesus
Christ in modern times to correct the abuses of the past, this appears
a major problem.
Curt
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