When I attended the Doctrine of Christ conference in March
of 2017 held in St. George, Utah a scripture project was announced. I’ve written about that previously under the
title “Accepting an Offered Covenant”; you can see that post here .
At that conference a document was proposed to be added to
the scriptures. It was titled “Governing
Principles” and was drafted in order to instruct people all over the world how
to worship Christ.
When I saw the article and the title, I rebelled. I have just come out of an institutional
church that governed everything I did, down to the minutiae. Immediately, one of Joseph Smith’s teachings
came to mind, “I teach them correct principles and they govern themselves.” (emphasis
added)
As I began reading this document I found several items that
I did not agree with nor did I feel they were scripturally accurate. I took this matter to the Lord. I was deeply concerned and in turmoil over
the idea of accepting a set of scriptures containing a document with which I
did not agree.
I have been waking up in the early morning hours between
3:30 and 4:30 quite often over the past several months. It has been a good time to pray and
write. The house is quiet with no one
needing mom’s attention. It is a time I can converse with the Lord.
The morning after coming home from the conference I awoke
early and was complaining to God about the need to be “governed” by a document
with which I did not agree. He calmly asked me what I would write. When I told
him, he encouraged me to do so. I spent
the next several days drafting my version of a guide for fellowshipping.
It’s difficult to put into words, and keep this post from
becoming enormously wordy, what has transpired with the scripture project over
the past month and a half. Suffice it to
say that the committee printed in the first draft edition some of their own
writings including “Governing Principles” mentioned earlier. This opened the door for a lot of personal
submissions, some that were closer to the crazy end of the meter, a “recipe for
disaster”. This began serious debate: “what
is scripture” and “who is authorized by God to write it”. People were emailing serious concerns to the
scripture committee but feeling dismissed by them. I was one of those people.
We were alternately moved upon by the spirit and our own
consciences to push the committee to tighten their standards of what is scripture
and then felt chastised for “complaining” when Denver would write a blog post
chastising complainers.
Things came to a head April 19, 2017. A small group of us had decided to draft a
petition in order to call for several items of immediate action:
▪Reconstruct the
restoration-era scriptures insofar as is possible;
▪Add contemporary content that few would quibble with (e.g.,
writings by authorized servants: Denver, translation of John, Joseph Smith)
▪Pause before moving forward in adopting other “scripture”
in order to determine the best approach (e.g. writing from others in the
assembly or on the scripture team)
Suggested process for arriving at final set of RE
scriptures:
▪All legitimate concerns or suggestions that are submitted
should be compiled into the list for voting (no selective filtering).
▪Anything that is new to the scriptures (post-Joseph, not
Denver) should be, de facto, put up for comment and vote, not automatically
added to the scriptures as “examples” to the rest of us and definitely not
because the author is on the scripture team.
We were willing and ready to begin our own scripture project
if the current committee continued to dismiss our attempts at common
consent. Denver Snuffer heard about our
efforts and called for an emergency meeting at his law office in Sandy, Utah. A
representative for the committee attended as well as several people involved with
our petition.
The meeting was rough but inspiring. We were all called to
repent. We were all able to understand
each other more fully. We were all taught some true doctrine by Denver. During
the meeting I was asked by Denver to submit the paper I wrote titled “Guiding
Principles” to go up against “Governing Principles” in order for the assembly
of saints to have a choice. I was not sure I wanted to do so and I did not
commit to sending it in at that time.
One of the stories Denver shared a few times was that of the
saints in Joseph Smith’s day complaining about the introduction to the doctrine
and Covenants which the scripture team at that time had been tasked with
writing. The people rejected their document
and called for Joseph to write a new one. Denver pointed out that this began dependence
by the people upon Joseph which darkened their minds. Denver does not want to repeat history.
The following morning I was contacted by a person who had
been in attendance at the meeting. They
were excited because they had realized that morning that we had not repeated
history: the people do not like the document the scripture team wrote
(Governing Principles) and instead of going to Denver to write a new one, I had
gone to the Lord and I had written a new one.
Denver was thrilled that “I did not repeat history” and in addition he
was even more thrilled that the work was done by a woman! They asked me to send in the guiding principles
document I had compiled and they wanted my name on it.
I felt overwhelmed by the prospect. I spent that day and the
morning of the next praying about what to do. I chose to send it in on Friday
the 21st. I attached my name to it with the full realization that
this may result in my excommunication from the LDS Church.
Sending in my document has opened a door to help others see
that they can have a voice in regards to the scripture project.
Things did not change immediately following that
meeting. I have had two phone calls with
a member of the scripture team. These calls were beneficial to both of us, I
was given more light and understanding into the choices, decision and labors
they are doing on our behalf and they were able to better understand the views
of the assembly of saints. Last Sunday,
April 30, I received a phone call asking me how I felt about the team putting
together a new committee that would be responsible for drafting a replacement
document for Governing Principles and my Guiding Principles. This new committee
would be formed out of representatives from any fellowship that felt inspired
to be a part of it. I was elated! This idea felt right.
It has been two weeks since that emergency meeting and there
has been a transformation in the attitude of the scripture team as well as the
body of believers. A lot of personal
revelation has been received, a lot of direction on how to proceed. As well as
much needed guidance on what exactly is scripture and who is authorized by God
to “write” it. The scripture team issued
an apology to the body of saints. It was
beautiful and humble and has given us much needed hope in this process. With that apology they tightened the
parameters of what types of submissions should be considered for inclusion in
the scriptures. They also announced the
formation of a new committee which had been discussed with me that morning on
the phone.
If we are to have any hope of establishing Zion we must
learn to work together, to have common consent, to have charity, love and
compassion for one another, to have equality, long suffering, gentleness and
persuasion, to have love unfeigned; this scripture project has been a wonderful
tool for Christ to begin to teach us how to accomplish these things. There is nothing like offering a covenant to
get us learning and growing in earnest. We have a long way to go, but we have
begun.
