The President Packer Postulate (Part I)

This past Sunday, President Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave an amazing discourse in General Conference, entitled Cleansing the Inner Temple. In this talk, President Packer had the audacity to state that—surprise!—sin is bad. A lot of people didn’t like it that he said that, and even many members of the Church are calling for President Packer to apologize for his comments, particularly with respect to homosexuality.

Now, before I continue with this post, I want to emphasize something: I am not a “gay-basher.” I have friends and family who identify themselves as gay. Some of them are probably better people than I am! And while I don’t agree with their decision to live that way, I love them and treat just like I do anyone else. (As I told one such friend: if I stopped being friends with everyone who did something I don’t agree with, I’d be a very lonely man, wallowing in a pit of self-hatred.) ;-) Demonizing others is wrong. Persecuting others is wrong. Hurting others is wrong. Period.

The second thing I’d like to emphasize is that I, like most other Latter-day Saints (or “Mormons,” the slur people seem to insist on calling us), am anything but brainwashed. The Church teaches its members to never take others’ words for granted, not even Church leaders’. President Packer is not perfect. He is absolutely incorrect sometimes. Not even everything he says in General Conference is automatically correct. It would be completely illogical to assume that just because someone says something in a certain place, it somehow goes from being totally wrong to perfectly accurate.

In short, crap happens. People make mistakes. Apostles are people, and they make mistakes, too. If you look at the history of the Church, there have been Apostles reprimanded by the First Presidency—even excommunicated!—for saying things that just weren’t so. Don’t like it? Tough. Deal with it. They’re only human, and they repent of stuff every single day, just like the rest of us.

Now, all that having been said, I’m going to piss some people off now:

In this particular case, President Packer is right.

Period.

So to reiterate before the haters come out:
  • I’m not saying this because he’s an Apostle of the Lord, although that obviously counts for something.
  • I’m not even saying this because President Packer spoke in General Conference, as I also hope you’ve figured out by now.
  • I’m certainly not saying it because I’m brainwashed. Even if Latter-day Saints weren’t generally more learned and/or intelligent than the average Joe, I’m the guy that does stuff like call up the Church office building to complain about a certain Church policy, get transferred to the President of the Church’s office, and actually see the policy get changed. (Yes, I really did that.)
The point is that, once again, I’m saying this because President Packer is actually right!—and unlike some people, I’ve actually got a some things called logic and evidence to back me up on this.

So without any further ado, I’d like to pen an open letter to all those who think otherwise—especially those members of the Church. If you don’t “taketh the truth to be [too] hard,” here’s Part II. :-)

Comments

  1. Haha sin is bad?!?! Jeffery i don't know what to do! This is such a doctrinal change that i don't know if the church is true or not lol. Exactly, the church is not saying that homosexuals are awful people. They're just saying that they have something they need to change just like those who abuse their children, or look at pornography. Prophets and Apostles corrected us in everyday life and this happens to be a more sensitive subject unfortunately. President Packer's words are the word of God. This is Christ's church, not the Church of Boyd K. Packer, or even the Church of Thomas S. Monson. It's the Church of Jesus Christ and we will be told what the will of our Father's is whether we want to hear or not.

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  2. When Packer said "God wouldn't do that" referring to people being born gay I couldn't help but laugh. I mean the logic is horrible. The Mormon church taught that people were born with black skin because they were fence sitters in the pre-existence. Oh but now a days, God wouldn't do that. Or how about babies being born without genitals or something. God wouldn't do that, cause humans need to replenish the earth and give more spirit children a chance to prove their worthiness to become exalted. Hmm?

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  3. php123,

    First of all, I think you need to re-read the part of President Packer’s discourse that you’re citing. I’ve already quoted it in Part III of this treatment, but for simplicity’s sake, I’ll re-quote it here:

    “Some suppose that they were pre-set, and cannot overcome what they feel are inborn tendencies toward the impure and the unnatural. Not so. Why would our Heavenly Father do that to anyone? Remember, He is our Father.”

    It was—and is—extremely obvious to me (and, among those I’ve asked, to most of his audience) that President Packer wasn’t stating that Heavenly Father wouldn’t allow people to be born with homosexual tendencies; we’re all born with aberrant tendencies. That’s just nature, and it would seem beyond setting things in motion, God rarely interferes with the natural process. (And even then, He doesn’t override nature per se; He just uses it to his advantage in ways that we don’t yet understand.)

    Regardless, what President Packer is saying is that God would not give us challenges that we cannot overcome, which is one of the most basic tenets of Christianity. (In case you care, this same concept is also outlined in one of the most oft-quoted verses in the Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 3:7.)

    Now… regarding people being “born with black skin because they were fence sitters in the pre-existence,” that idea was repudiated by Brigham Young in 1869 (see http://tinyurl.com/blacks-neutral). Bruce R. McConkie did make a similar statement in his book Mormon Doctrine, but remember: the First Presidency was “a unit in disapproving of Brother Bruce R. McConkie’s book, Mormon Doctrine”; and “decided that [that] book… is full of errors and misstatements” (Office Journal of President David O. McKay, January 1960). What’s more, McConkie, himself, eventually retracted this particular statement. In other words, it would be pretty difficult to argue that the Church ever taught that.

    Thanks for your comments, though! :-)

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  4. php123,

    Just a brief addition: I don’t know if it wasn’t part of his original text, and he said it on the fly; or if he rethought having said it and deleted it. Either way, though, the sentence you reference actually doesn’t appear in the published version of the discourse. I am reminded of a quote attributed to President Brigham Young:

    “I have never yet preached a sermon, and sent it out to the children of men, that they may not call scripture. Let me have the privilege of correcting a sermon, and it is as good scripture as they deserve” (Journal of Discourses 13:95).

    (Ironically, Brigham Young didn’t have the opportunity to review this statement before it was published, so we can only assume that it’s correct. It certainly makes sense, though!)
    ;-)

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  5. Jeff I couldn't agree more with this blog... I missed the talk (dozed off... oops) but took the time to read or listen to the talks I missed. As I listened to this talk I couldn't help but worry about the possible backlash...

    Like any other Prophet of God he will be subject to ridicule and misinterpretation. Lets not forget that just because something is unpopular that its not wrong - the opposite is also true.

    Its also important to remember that EVERYTHING is a choice. I can't always change my inclinations and desires but I can ALWAYS change and control my actions - or more specifically my reactions to those specific inclinations.

    None of this must be taken at face value and if you disagree you have that right. But please, don't step on my rights to agree with it. If you don't like what the LDS Church teaches then you don't have to be a member... and if we're wrong it really won't matter what we preach.

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  6. Mormons not brainwashed?

    Right....

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  7. Well, perhaps a little—just like everyone on Earth—but certainly not as much as the individuals who have been brainwashed to think we’ve been brainwashed. ;-)

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