The other day I was having a discussion with a friend I’ve known since high school. We were talking about why people leave the church, and how some feel lied to about the messy parts of church history once they find out the truth. He said when he found out about all the history of the church, he didn’t feel lied to, and he said it was probably because of his profession as a criminal defense attorney.



He said with his clients, it is his job to put their case in the best light possible, and if his client has warts, figuratively speaking, he is not going to actively publicize those warts. If he is asked about them, he will tell the truth, but even then he is going to cast them in the best light possible. He told me this is what the church tried to do with its “warts”.



So, what do you think of this analogy? Does it break down if we find instances of Apostles and Prophets that outright lied about certain parts of our history, to cover the warts? Does this help us understand Elder Packer saying that “Some things that are true are not very useful”?