Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Use of sources/The LDS as Mindless Followers

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A FAIR Analysis of: One Nation Under Gods A work by author: Richard Abanes Use of sources, The LDS as Mindless Followers

President Hinckley and enemies of the Church

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The LDS as Mindless Followers

The Quote

One Nation under Gods, page 413-414 (hardback and paperback)

Some of the most disturbing instructions about blind obedience came from LDS president Ezra Taft Benson in his "Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet" speech. His fundamentals for living a righteous Mormon life left little room for independent thought (see this endnote for transcript).39

The Reference

Endnote 39, page 609-610 (hardback); page 607-608 (paperback)

39. Ezra Taft Benson, "Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet," February 26, 1980, online at http://www.xmission.com/~country/authority/14_fund1.htm. Excerpts from this speech:

The Problems

It needs to be emphasized that Ezra Taft Benson was not the "president" of the LDS Church when he delivered this address at Brigham Young University on 26 February 1980. He was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and he was talking to "students." This devotional was published only once, in the Church's overseas magazine (Liahona/Tambuli, June 1981), but it was still specified in the text that Elder Benson belonged to "the Quorum of the Twelve" when his remarks were delivered.

ONUG only lets its readers see a truncated version of only half of the points that Elder Benson covered. The full text of the speech can be found here: http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=6751. A summary of the 14 points -- included in Elder Benson's talk -- are as follows:

• 1. The prophet is the only man who speaks for the Lord in everything.

• 2. The living prophet is more vital to us than the standard works.

• 3. The living prophet is more important to us than a dead prophet.

• 4. The prophet will never lead the church astray.

• 5. The prophet is not required to have any particular earthly training or credentials to speak on any subject or act on any matter at any time.

• 6. The prophet does not have to say “Thus Saith the Lord,” to give us scripture.

• 7. The prophet tells us what we need to know, not always what we want to know.

• 8. The prophet is not limited by men’s reasoning.

• 9. The prophet can receive revelation on any matter, temporal or spiritual.

• 10. The prophet may advise on civic matters.

• 11. The two groups who have the greatest difficulty in following the prophet are the proud who are learned and the proud who are rich.

• 12. The prophet will not necessarily be popular with the world or the worldly.

• 13. The prophet and his counselors make up the First Presidency — the highest quorum in the Church.

• 14. The prophet and the presidency — the living prophet and the First Presidency — follow them and be blessed; reject them and suffer.

Further reading

A FAIR Analysis of Critical Works

• American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows— (Index of claims)
• An Insider's View of Mormon Origins — (Index of claims—Use of sources)
• Archaeology and the Book of Mormon
• Ashamed of Joseph: Mormon Foundations Crumble
• Becoming Gods: A Closer Look at 21st-Century Mormonism/Inside Today's Mormonism — (Index of claims—Use of sources)
• Behind the Mask of Mormonism
• Specific works/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows
• Specific works/By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus
• Counterfeit Gospel of Mormonism
• Covering Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon
  • Answering Mormon Scholars, Vol. 1
  • Answering Mormon Scholars, Vol. 2
• Decker's Complete Handbook on Mormonism
• Early Mormonism and the Magic World View — (Index of claims—Use of sources)
• Specific works/Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Mormonism
• Faithful History: Essays on Writing Mormon History
• From Captain Kidd's Treasure Ghost to the Angel Moroni: Changing Dramatis Personae in Early Mormonism
• In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith — (Index of Claims)
• Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon
• Inventing Mormonism: Tradition and the Historical Record
• Is the Mormon My Brother?
• Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet
• Joseph Smith and the Origins of The Book of Mormon (2nd edition)—(Index of claims)
• Joseph Smith's New York Reputation Reexamined
• The Kingdom of the Cults (Revised) — (Index of claims)
• Leaving the Saints
• Letters to a Mormon Elder
• Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church — (Index of claims)
• Mormon America: The Power and the Promise — (Index of claims)
• The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power — (Index of claims)
• The Mormon Mirage: Seeing Through the Illusion of Mainstream Mormonism
• Mormonism 101—Index of claims
• Mormonism (Kurt Van Gorden)
• Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? — (Index of claims)
• The Mysteries of Godliness—A History of Mormon Temple Worship
• Nauvoo Polygamy — (Index of claims—Use of sources—Prejudicial language—Presentism—Mind reading—Censorship—Romance—Assumptions—Magick)
• New Approaches to the Book of Mormon
• New Mormon Challenge
• No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith — (Index of claims)
• One Nation Under Gods — (Index of claims—Use of Sources—Prejudicial language—Absurd claims—Presentism—Mind reading—Rewording—Omissions—Sarcasm)
• The Refiner's Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644–1844
• Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example — (Index of claims)
• Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess
• The Changing World of Mormonism — (Index of claims)
• Trouble Enough: Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon
• Under the Banner of Heaven — (Index of claims)
• Word of God: Essays on Mormon Scripture