Twelve concerned Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (The Mormons) from the UK recently wrote to the Europe Area Presidency of the Church asking for Full, Open and Honest answers to some deeply troubling questions which threaten to undermine the authority of the Church itself.
The Plea for Honesty comes a few months after two Open Letters detailing the questions were sent to the Europe Area Presidency by Chris Ralph, which to this date remain unanswered.
The concerned Twelve believe Honesty and Integrity is more important than blind Obedience and Loyalty.
Links to the two previous Open Letters:
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EUROPE AREA PRESIDENCY
Porthstrasse 5-7
Frankfurt am Main 60435
Germany
3rd December 2012
Dear Europe Area Presidency,
We, as members of the Church in good conscience, are writing to you pleading for an open, honest and full response to the two recent Open Letters addressed to you by fellow Church member Chris Ralph.
We are sure you will be aware of the Open Letters sent in August and October this year in which Brother Ralph asked some very reasonable and pertinent questions. Many other members are also asking these same questions and it is apparent that bishops and stake presidents do not have the answers. The fact that there has been no official response to the questions posed in the Open Letters concerns us greatly.
When our Church claims to value honesty, knowledge and truth we are left feeling disappointed when we see our genuine concerns being ignored, especially when those concerns are regarding historical facts and discrepancies that call into question the very foundation and truthfulness of the church, a church that we have devoted most if not all of our lives to. We believe that the true Church of Jesus Christ, when led by a living Prophet of God, should be able to answer these fundamental questions.
You will be interested to know that the Open Letters were circulated widely on the internet gaining great interest and approval by LDS and non-LDS readers alike who, like us, are eagerly awaiting proper answers from you. To be frank, we are shocked that we have not heard anything from anyone in authority so far. We honestly hoped the church would help calm the cognitive dissonance many of us are suffering. We hoped to be reassured that our Church leaders could at least attempt to answer our concerns or at least some of them! The fact that there has been no response, appears to us and to many other members as being dismissive of those concerns. It has left us all with the feeling of being ignored and uncared for.
From personal experience we are aware that when members have questions such as these they are sometimes treated like pariahs or enemies to the church instead of the truth seekers that they are. Surely, the church should be grateful for honest seekers after the truth and those who are prepared to stand up and openly question discrepancies.
Some of us are beginning to recognize that maybe our LDS spiritual leaders in Europe do not have the answers we seek, but if you cannot answer, then who can? We look to those in authority for answers to these fundamental questions and when we see the church unwilling or unable to respond it inevitably leads us to doubt the authority of church leaders. This is a crisis which is rapidly becoming more apparent every day. It is not as you may suppose a crisis of faith, but is in a very real sense a crisis of authority; your authority, and the authority of those above you in the LDS hierarchy.
If you do not have the answers then please advise to whom we should next address our concerns in our pursuit of a full, open and honest response. We require a response or at least an acknowledgement to this letter by the 21st December 2012. If this request is also ignored we will have no option but to take the matter further, highlighting your failure to respond. We trust therefore that you will “do what is right”, and pay us the courtesy of answering Brother Chris Ralph’s questions.
Yours faithfully
Martha Bache
David Bloor
Steve Bloor
Jeremy Brown
Lisa Campbell
Pip Chapman
Damian Mitchell
Tim Morgan
Tom Phillips
Sophia Ralph
Ted Ralph
Ken Smith
Steve Bloor's Blog 
Were can we please ad our name (s) ????
Many, many more would love to have their names added to the list 🙂
If 5 million more LDS added their names to the list, the concerns would not be addressed. It’s just not going to happen.
You are never going to get an answer from the Leadership; what can they say? In the absence of a reply from them I have written you two replies they could give. Pick the one you think you will receive.
1. Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God and Thomas S. Monson is his spiritual successor; a Prophet, Seer and RevelaTor. If we have no answers for these questions it is because the Lord does not wish us to have them at this time. We would remind you that we are commanded to live by faith and not by perfect knowledge. We commend you to continue in prayer and Church attendance and desist from questioning the Leadership of the Church.
2. OK so we call ourselves prophets seers and revelators , but let’s face it, would you pay us 10% of your salary if we said, ‘Hey we are a bunch of nice blokes…. really’. Look, getting answers to prayers takes faith, and we are great at getting warm fuzzy feelings, well, at convincing ourselves that what are doing is what the Lord would do, if we received revelation and knew, but come on be realistic, answers to questions like that? Now that would take real faith. Have you tried Wikipedia? Anyway, keep the money coming in and good luck in your search for truth.
PS Once you find the answer could you let us know as one of the cleaning ladies has an interest in theology? Ta, the lads in this nice big office.
The answer to all your questions can be summarized in this Fact: The LDS Church/inc. is NOT the True church of Jesus Christ or the Only True church! Joseph Smith was a liar, fraud and sexual predator as was his successor Brigham Young. The current church leaders have improved the “man made mixed with scripture” doctrine but cannot admit Joseph was a liar, fraud, and sexual predator ——– so give these new liars and money grubbers a break on changing doctrine!
They’ll only change the doctrine when it’s in their best interests to do so. I noticed that some comments made reference to the bigwigs calling themselves “Prophets, etc” but they don’t, actually. It’s the rank-&-file that do. The bigwigs don’t because of the history: JSmith got himself removed for doing so, which is noted in the original (not the JS bastardized “version” of) scriptures. It’s pretty clear that a great many disenfranchised exs would rather ignore the scriptures, understandable due to the twisting that the JS church practices, but there are distinct references to false prophets calling themselves “prophets” and getting killed for it. Man-made+mixed w/scripture is also mentioned, by the way, and not favorably.
Very interesting, I had not realized that. Thanks for pointing this out. I’m going to pay more attention now and see if I can point this out to my family who are still members
Maybe I was a bit rash with my first input. I think your letters to LDS inc. are commendable, honest, and designed to promote Truth which I as a truth seeker appreciate! Actually, I wanted to add that my search for the truth from studying, pondering and praying (to what I believe is my Heavenly Father) provided me the answer that the LDS church was Not True! I have had hundreds of answers to prayers/major spiritual experiences and this by far was the most significant! I wish you all well in your efforts to get LDS inc. to fess up —— there is little doubt in my mind the key leaders know the answers to your questions but can’t sacrifice any $billions in actually telling so many sheep the actual truth when they have been feed “the only thing they need to know” for soo long!
I would like to add my name please.
As I replied to Steve: why only 15(12)? There ought to be hundreds more; but maybe the logistics of getting the many to subscribe would require that the initial letters be handed out to them (who don’t know they existed) and that might take a lot of work. Another thing: I wondered if this movement has come to the States. Once there were The Six, now it might be The Twelve. (More)Martyrs are needed.
Stephen, I thought as you say in your profile on Facebook that you are a ‘secular humanist’, so by your own admission cannot still be a member of the Church,
Hi Richard,
As a friend from Church I’m glad you have read our Plea.
Thank you for your enquiry about my membership.
Yes indeed! I am both a secular humanist & a member of the Church. Having not resigned, out of concern for my parents & extended family, nor being excommunicated, I remain a member of record.
I may have beliefs which are contrary to the mainstream Church, but that is allowed.
I have a friend in the Church who is currently serving as a bishop, and others in various leadership callings who do not believe the Truth Claims of the Church, but unlike me they keep silent about their questions & concerns, preferring instead to live a life of pretense & conformity.
I personally cannot live without honesty & integrity.
Otherwise I feel I would be like the hypocrites Jesus spoke of in the New Testament.
They have their reasons, but I prefer to be true to my principles.
All Twelve of us who wrote this Plea feel similarly.
We sincerely desire that all members, including the First Presidency & Quorum of Twelve, practice what the Church teaches – honesty to the truth.
Kind regards,
Steve
I have been a member of the church for over 25 years and honestly believed the stories the missionaries taught about the Prophet Joseph Smith and the restoration. It is only after scratching at the veneer that I have discovered the inconsistencies and deliberate hiding of the less than faith promoting truth.
As an honest seeker after truth I recognize that sometimes to get to the truth you have to be prepared to sacrifice your beliefs and unfortunately I have had to revise my own. I still consider myself a member of the church though it is hard for me to attend at this moment in time or to take any of its claims seriously.
It is because these are real issues that should either be answered or known by all that I have added my name to the letter. I want the first Presidency of the church to if not answer these concerns at least to recognize them as valid.
I have been fortunate to be a member of a ward and a stake where the leadership has at least acknowledged that my concerns may be real even if they are unable to change their own beliefs or able to supply the answers that would restore my faith.
I have also talked to one member of the area presidency for the UK and I’m afraid as well as not recognizing my concerns it was obvious I was seen as some sort of troublemaker that could be dismissed with a scripture and a testimony. I am hoping that the First Presidency will be a little more inspired.
Don’t hold your breath, waiting for an honest reply. I fully expect it won’t come. I wrote to the first presidency a few years ago, while still a true believer ( I was a faithful believer for 48 years), about something I felt very important and of a serious nature. I received absolutely nothing from them. In the meantime the Lord continued to work in my life to lead me to actual truth. Truth can be found when we remove the restrictions that the LDS church uses to bind up (our) the members minds. Once I stopped looking to the church to be true and to validate truth for me, I was freed to begin to develop a relationship with the Savior, and understand His gospel.
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If you haven’t already, you can sign the following petition here in support of the Proclamation to the First Presidency & Quorum of the Twelve:
http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/proclamatiofortruth
Hello, you folks! -Have you followed the authority line of, first, bishop, then stake president and so forth?
Hi Peter, good question, thanks! Yes, I’ve had some long discussions with both my bishop and stake president, two men who I have great respect for as fellow human beings. I’m grateful for their time, and especially for my stake president’s willing ear and open mind. They haven’t thus far been able to answer our questions, but I’m grateful for their time and efforts nonetheless. Others signing here have also held such positions of authority themselves, so the search continues. Hopefully leaders “higher up” (for want of a better phrase) will be able to help. Great question, and key to why we’re approaching the leaders in this way, thank you.
Peter…You misunderstand the purpose of that “authority line”. There was a time when Church leaders were at least interested in the subject of theology, and actually had the balls to own the title of “authorities”. Joseph Fielding Smith used to “field” (couldn’t resist the pun) questions from the general membership on a broad range of topics, and then was even willing to have his authoritative responses published in the Improvement Era so that the entire Church could read his response. These days, that would be a PR and Quality Control nightmare. The line of authority, starting with Bishops and Stake Presidents, is simply a pretentious dodge. It pretentiously “empowers” local leaders to be the “authorities” on these kinds of questions, without actually giving them the authority to “set the record straight”. In short, it is designed to try and appease member requests to have someone to take their concerns too, who can’t actually do anything meaningful to address those concerns beyond rationalizing. Afterall, the Church won’t officially allow these Stake Presidents and Bishops to declare or clarify doctrine to the public, so why should the local member follow a “line” that was simply designed to cut them off from the general leadership?
I recently resigned from my calling as Ward Clerk due to several of the concerns noted here and elsewhere. It’s clear the “Brethren” can’t/won’t answer these questions as they have no good response. My Bishop has been kind and last week called me in to ask me to read a book called “Rough Stone Rolling” – which I am assuming is a Mormon apologists efforts to admit that Joseph may have made mistakes as a man, but tries to present it in a way that makes his actions acceptable. Undoubtedly it is full of assumptions and extrapolations which conclude that Joseph didn’t actually have sex with other men’s wives (that seems to be the apologists position until proven otherwise).
I am just wondering if anyone else has been referred to this book? I am sure my Bishop was referred to this book by someone higher up when he told them about me as he admitted he had never read it. I suspect that is how the “Brethren” are seeking to deal with people like us…try to get the poor Bishops/Stake Presidents on the front lines to deal with us by referring us to some Mormon apologists book hoping we can be appeased – meanwhile they maintain plausible deniability when it turns out 10-20 years from now that more and more of the Apologists assumptions are unfounded or disproven again.
To you a man just like all other men: The questions you ask will always determine the answers you get. If you really want truth you cannot demand that men give you the answers, for they also are only men. You must without animosity toward all others humbly find your own answers. Your critical tone with generate nothing good for those you criticize are fallible and so why attack. It is not up to them to remedy your lack. We are all under our own responsibility to seek out truth. And remember, truth is more than the recalled “facts” in a story.
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