THEOLOGICAL ISSUES
Including Harmful Doctrines

Binary theology – The Book of Mormon presents a binary view of theology and the world. Black and white, righteous and wicked, church of God or church of the devil, good vs evil, eternal damnation or everlasting life, man and woman. While there is an allure to simplify everything down to the doctrine of two ways and dualistic outcomes, reality is more complex than that. Creation is more complex than day and night, land and water. There are sunsets and moving beach lines. Complexity, diversity, and greater agency emerge from a theology that allows for more than simple binaries. Binaries is famously addressed in 2 Nephi chapter 2. Binaries can be initial primary building blocks, but unfortunately, the book never really builds upon binaries to achieve more complex theological structures such as the three degrees of glory which came later in Mormonism. Most of the church has failed to move beyond the binaries in the Book of Mormon except in a few cases. The binary theology of the Book of Mormon stunts church theology and bleeds into the church culture, social structures, obedience to church leaders rather than to principles, Prophets can only be wrong after they are dead, an inability to even discuss what may be false in the current church because it threatens binary thinking (the church can’t have some false doctrines in it and also be God’s church), and so on.

Cultural appropriation –

Ends Justify the Means – The Book of Mormon advocates that the ends-justify-the-means. It’s ok to be passive in suffering and watch as women and children to die in fire, if it seals the the fate of the wicked to everlasting torment and the sacrificed people are received to eternal life. If we pay our tithing we did our part and don’t need to worry about the rest of the world. It’s ok for Nephi to behead Laban rather than tie him up or for the Lord to simply keep him sleeping. It was ok for Ammon to kill and chop off arms to provide a sign to the King that he had God’s power rather than try diplomacy first. Sheep are more valuable than the lives of thieves anyway. Ammon wasn’t sent to preach to the wicked theives. Adam and Eve needed to break the commandment to eat the fruit so that the world could come into existence. God set up the world so that commandments had to be broken because the ends justify the means. Jesus needed to destroy all the wicked with fire and ash so that he could create a righteous Nephite society when he visited the peopel. The ends-justify-the-means, leads to concepts like lying for the Lord is ok, lying about polygamy is ok, marrying teenagers is ok, and lying to people about the church is ok, if in the end it helps to convert them or save their souls. Milk before meat, where the milk contains white lies is good medicine if it gets them in the church. In the extreme it leads to atrocities like the Mountain Meadows massacre and the killing of native peoples from Utah to clear the way for the Saints to inherit the land, or the Indian Student Placement program to separate children from native parents in order to educate them and save them into whiteness, or the Bishop’s hotline with its advice to exercise priest privilege to not report sexual abuse if it may damage the reputation of the church. The ends-justify-the-means enables all sorts of wickedness. This may also be why Mormons are susceptible to Trumpism with all of his lies and law breaking if in the end it produces a Nation with the laws that they want. “Behold the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is better than one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle in unbelief.” This teaches that murder may be justified to prevent a loss of faith. So it is with the old death penalties that used to be in the temple endowment ceremonies should anyone betray the church and the prayers of vengeance on the mob that killed Joseph Smith. The ends-justify-the-means was Satan’s plan… and also sometimes the Mormon Trickster God’s plan. It’s ok if God lies to us if he can trick us or scare us into doing the right thing. “Again, it is written eternal damnation; wherefore it is more express than other scriptures, that it might work upon the hearts of the children of men, altogether for my glory.” “Nevertheless, it is not written that there shall be no end to this torment, but it is written endless torment.” Doctrine and Covenants 19: 6 & 7. This mentality may have been why my local church leaders lied to me and also pretended to be sympathetic to various issues affecting my family so that I could be persuaded to not leave the fold. A better, more righteous, principled, and healthy way is to be honest, sincere, speak the truth, and advocate for righteous means to the greatest extent humanly possible, and then let the consequences follow what they may.

God – The Book of Mormon advances a modalism concept where God appears in different forms. The spirit of Jesus is God the Father and when he comes down to earth he becomes the Son of God because of the flesh. This singular God, is born of Mary, pays the price for sin with his death, and then ascends back to heaven. This single person plays three different parts as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, sometimes simultaneously through projection. The Book of Mormon states that Jesus is God the Eternal Father and that there is only one God. The concept of God later evolved with Sidney Rigdon after the Book of Mormon was published. Along the way God became two persons in a vision to Joseph and Sydney and in the Lectures on Faith. Eventually the three person Godhead emerged. Versions of the first vision also evolved from Jesus alone appearing, to Jesus and God appearing as two distinct persons.

Hierarchies – The Book of Mormon is built on a foundation of various hierarchies. Joseph Smith’s concept of hierarchies was also extended beyond social systems in the Doctrine and Covenants (hierarchy of foods) and the Pearl of Great Price (hierarchy of intelligences).

One Dimensional Characterizations – Most of the main characters in the Book of Mormon are one dimensional, except perhaps during a period of transformation. Once they are good, they stay good. It is very difficult for me to think of a place in the Book of Mormon where a prophet actually repented. In contrast, there are many places in the Bible where prophets repented. For the most part, prophets in the Book of Mormon are treated as being almost infallible after they are called to lead the people. An example of a when a prophet erred in the Book of Mormon is when Lehi murmured due to the lack of food (1st Nephi 16:20) revealing a slight character flaw. Another case of self reflection is when Lehi states that he knows that he is a visionary man which doesn’t really seem to be a big character flaw. His son Nephi laments because of his weakness, but does not explain what that weakness might be. The text suggests his weakness might be that he was at times angry with his brothers for trying to murder him several times and for the abuse they did to him. Alma plans to leave a wicked people and never return, but later repents (changes his mind) from that decision after an angel told him to go back (Alma 8:24-25) and declare repentance to the people. Moroni (who is not a prophet) has maybe the biggest blunder in being angry with Pahoran the chief judge for not sending his armies supplies due to internal challenges with the king-men. The text suggests that this was a righteous anger (even if it was misplaced against the chief judge), and the chief judge supports Moroni’s efforts to throw down the king-men. The one dimensional characters in the Book of Mormon support the concept that prophets are almost infallible. In today’s church, Mormon leaders are often treated as almost one-dimensional. If prophets error, it is a small misstep and not really a moral failing or serious issue. To criticize the actions of modern prophets is to also criticize the church or God himself. There is not really any separation between them. The lack of real human flaws and weaknesses in the almost one-dimensional good guys suggests the stories are fictional like early Superman comics raising up an archetype of the good-guy, rather than historical people with moral failings and real challenges. This leads to viewing others around us as one-dimensional which is bad theology. It leads to in-groups and out-groups, mind-guards, border monitoring, us vs the them mentality, and so on.

Racism and Stereotypes – The Book of Mormon states that the descendants of the Lamanites (i.e. the Native Americans) are degenerate, without culture, backwards, and so on. They were cursed with a skin of blackness. Apologists have attempted to reinterpret these verses as indicating that the Lamanites marked themselves with paint or had a spiritually dark countenance. The text is fairly clear that physical skin color is what is intended. The interpretation from the Book of Mormon that a physically dark skin is a curse from God also aligns with racist teachings in the Pearl of Great Price, historical interpretations by church leaders, and the Priesthood Racial Ban that was in place until 1978.

Tribalism – The Book of Mormon advances the concept of tribes and strict social boundaries. There are chosen tribes, chosen peoples, chosen lands, and so on. There are in-groups and out-groups that create boundaries of conflict.

Virtue is virginity as a commodity – The Book of Mormon states that the wicked Nephites raped the Lamanite women who were their captives taking away their virtue which is precious above all. “For behold, many of the daughters of the Lamanites have they taken prisoners; and after depriving them of that which was most dear and precious above all things, which is chastity and virtue” Moroni 9:9. Treating a woman’s virginity as social capital reveals that it is a social rather than a biological construct. Equating virginity as virtue is a Victorian idea. In Victorian society, female virginity was treated as a woman’s highest moral and social virtue, serving as the summation of her social worth and respectability. It creates a harmful purity culture propped up by a form of benevolent patriarchy that places women on a pedestal removing their equality and humanity. Women are viewed as prizes whose worth is maintained so long as they don’t leave the pedestal. Losing virginity outside of marriage meant a near total loss of social capital. It turned a woman into a social outcast. Women who had premarital sex were supposed to feel immense shame, be shamed by others, and overall be considered as tainted goods. This concept also meant that a woman’s virtue and worth could be taken away by a man who raped her, causing her to become damaged goods, literally treating a woman and her virginity as a commodity. This theology is in opposition to the principles that Jesus taught. Jesus interpreted virtue as spiritual power rather than virginity. Jesus felt virtue (or spiritual power) leave him when the hem of his garment was touched by someone of great faith who was healed. The Psalms of the virtuous woman describes a virtuous woman as one who is industrious. She is a business woman with both spiritual power and business acumen enabling her to care for the poor. She is worth more money than rubies because she can make more money than rubies are worth. She is industrious and uses her money to help others. A woman’s virtue is not lost if she has sex. Else what of the virtue of married women? The Book of Mormon’s backwards concept of virtue is to define it as a virginity commodity to be enjoyed by men. In reality, a woman remains chaste if she was raped. An attacker cannot deprive someone of their chastity. Such ideas are backwards and harmful to rape victims. It is harmful to treat women as commodities rather than as equal humans. It is bad doctrine that has resulted in immense suffering and abuse. Throw down the Patriarchy and its unholy hierarchies!