To tell or not to tell

[deacon blues]

It has come to my knowledge that certain Church employees are apparently convinced that the BOM, Book of Abraham, and Book of Moses are pseudepigrapha. I'm heartened by that concession to reason, but discouraged that if I tell some of my good TBM friends in the neighborhood, it could mean problems for the church employees. In fact, I'm inclined not to tell, first: because TBM's won't have the background to understand what I'm talking about anyway, and, second: because they might think these employees are heretics, and cause problems. What gives with this crazy situation?
Would withholding this information be considered a greater good by general church leaders, or perhaps a greater bad. In fact, considering it is possible that TBM's reading this might report it up the leadership food chain makes me hesitant to put it out here.

[redjay]

You can talk about without giving names surely? Was there not a conference lately on the translation process where Bushman and other kind of came out with similar notions? Also the BYU paper recently that said Joseph used the biblical commentary to aid his own bible translation. So there are sources you can point to.

But does anyone really want to listen to you, regardless of source?

[felixfabulous]

I really feel for people who work for the Church and/or BYU. Their religious observance and ideology is tied to their paycheck and support for their families. There is a built-in incentive for people to do whatever they can to maintain a TR and not rock the boat. I think your gut instinct is right, may not be worth the risk of these people losing their livelihoods, especially if it won't be appreciated by the people you'd tell or if they could easily identify the people inside the COB. For the people who have done Mormon Stories interviews about how they lost their faith after working at the COB and did interviews after they found a new job, you wonder how many people are in the same boat who still work at the COB.

[wtfluff]

Why would you "tell" on anyone if it could jeopardize their employment?

Is the church employee's belief that the BOM, Book of Abraham, and Book of Moses are pseudepigrapha causing anyone any harm?

Think about it: There are likely millions of people who attend LDS-Inc. meetings each week who know that the church is not what it claims to be, but those people "go along to get along" with family, friends, employers, etc. It's nothing new.

[Palerider]

We have very good friends in a majority Mormon community who came to the same conclusion we did regarding church veracity several years ago. Because they were highly thought of by leadership and the general membership, they receive many referrals from leadership for the services that they provide. It would mean a significant decrease in their ability to make a living were it to be known that they are in essence no longer LDS.

For awhile I thought, "You know, that's a little sly on their part to maintain a façade just for business purposes." But then I thought, they're still rendering the same high quality service they always have and the church really isn't being honest in this game either, and lastly I thought, it really isn't my place to make the information public unless someone is being damaged by keeping it secret. I'll let them make up their own minds when the appropriate time has arrived.

Really interesting news about those church employees though. Love to know their approximate positions with out disclosing their identities....

[slavereeno]

pseudepigrapha (so͞oˌdĭ-pĭgˈrə-fə)
n. Spurious writings, especially writings falsely attributed to biblical characters or times.

Had to look that up...

[moksha]

pseudepigrapha (so͞oˌdĭ-pĭgˈrə-fə)
n. Spurious writings, especially writings falsely attributed to biblical characters or times.

Had to look that up...

Such a big word. Much easier to use the terms sacred allegory or sacred fiction. If you were to claim that children's stories were this so-called "pseudepigrapha" then Mary Poppins would offer you a spoon full of sugar. She knew how best to cope with such words.

[oliver_denom]

Would withholding this information be considered a greater good by general church leaders, or perhaps a greater bad. In fact, considering it is possible that TBM's reading this might report it up the leadership food chain makes me hesitant to put it out here.

I'm not sure what the dilemma is. It sounds like you're trying to decide whether or not certain gossip is permissible. It's clear that saying something could cause harm to people, but what is the harm if you just keep it to yourself? What's missing here?

[deacon blues]

This is no life and death dilemma. I just want some of my TBM family and friends to know that I'm not the only one around with liberal (the L word ) worldview, yet I don't want to say, "you know so and so? they are closet NOM's." I will probably just say I know some NOM's, and if they ask me who it is, "I'll say, "I'll leave it to them to make their views known."

[2bizE]

I would venture hundreds of church employees known the church is a fraud and that the Mormon scriptures are fiction. Like more of us, we struggle with how to reconcile these beliefs with self, family, and society. These poor lds employees also wrestle with losing their jobs if they are found out. Poor saps.