The Week in Mormonism, 2/14/16: Jeremy Runnells, D. Todd Christofferson, Warren Jeffs

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Jeremy Runnells, author of A Letter to a CES Director, often called The CES Letter, has been notified that he is facing disciplinary action. Initially scheduled for Valentine’s day, his court has been postponed until March.

(For those unfamiliar with the CES Letter, Jake Spurlock offers an executive summary. I also recommend Randall Bowen’s summary of the contents.)

Some ex-Mormons are characterizing this as another member being excommunicated for asking the wrong questions, but Jeremy Runnells is no Carson Calderwood. Jeremy has been vocal about not just his questions but also his conclusions. The only surprise is that the Church waited so long to take action.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson kicked off a Facebook discussion that began, “I’m not sure what is behind the increasing attacks upon the Prophet Joseph Smith in our current time.”

Predictably, many disaffected Mormons stepped up to enlighten him. The top comment from the thread was from Christie Christopherson, who wrote,

I used to have a testimony of Joseph Smith. But my testimony was based on the narrative that I learned while growing up in the church as well as what the Church taught up until it released the essays on the church’s web site. I was shocked and saddened to learn that my testimony was based on lies. I think that’s a big factor in a lot of people’s disdain for Joseph Smith. The translation wasn’t what I thought it had been. The first vision wasn’t what I thought it had been. The Book of Abraham wasn’t what I thought it had been. And Joseph Smith’s relationship with Emma wasn’t anywhere near what I thought it had been. So I am leaving my comment here not to diss anyone, but to share why many people have changed their opinion about Joseph Smith and have lost their testimony of him. I don’t wish to lead anyone astray, but I want to provide insight. If you know all of these horrible issues and still have a testimony of him, then that is your choice and your belief, and I respect that. But there are many of us who can no longer believe and have gone through a traumatic faith transition. Please respect those of us who now believe differently. Thank you.

The Church initially kept a light hand on comment moderation, but as the discussion continued for multiple days any comments that could be construed as critical of Joseph or the Church disappeared, including Christie’s.

Rolling Stone reports on Warren Jeffs and the FLDS. Disturbing throughout; here is the conclusion:

Even as a boy, Jeffs saw himself as messianic, believing the blood of Christ coursed through him. Ironically, his lasting legacy may be the destruction of the very cult that gave him birth. Criminal charges against the remaining FLDS leadership (nine church elders are already in prison with Jeffs) could possibly follow, depending on the jury’s verdict… Not long after my last visit to Short Creek, I hear about an alarming prophecy that Jeffs has recently issued from jail. The end of the world is coming, and soon. It’s a prophecy he has made many times before. In fact, he had once predicted the world would end at the dawn of the new millennium, and had selected a few families to go out into a field known as Berry Knoll on New Year’s Eve in 1999 to be “lifted up” as the pestilence and plagues rolled forth upon the land. FLDS apostates still laugh about it. But it turns out Jeffs had been right back then, he just hadn’t realized one important detail: Man’s calendar is 16 years different from God’s. The world will in fact end as Jeffs had predicted, and God has even given him a date: April 2016.

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