cause.
Just as with Hiram Page and the seer stone, or any number of misguided souls who through time have professed to be led by God while actually working against Him, such person are simply deceived by false spirits, which they take to be true ones because it supports their personal preferences. While the truth concerning the nature of the Ordain Women movement must come by revelation from God, we also have a doctrine, which Christ taught to assist us in judging them. "By their fruits you shall know them" One of those fruits which recently came to light, is
the penchant of the supporters of the Ordain Women movement to follow the same twisted logic, and deceptive argumentation as the Anti-Mormons.
For example, their use of an alleged statement by N. Eldon Tanner with relation to Blacks and the priesthood, to support their goals. Their twisted logic runs something like this. Elder
Tanner was a Apostle. He made a mistake with regards to blacks and the priesthood. Therefore Apostles can make mistakes, including mistakes about ordaining women, (with the inference being that they are currently mistaken). In such a way Ordain Women advocates can
justify or rationalize away the teaching of other Apostles, (who are prophets, seers and revelators), like Elder Oaks and his recent conference talk about the Priesthood. Even better for their purposes, by such reasoning they place themselves in a position to rationalize away any and
all future statements by church leaders which might contradict their cause, conveniently assuming those leaders to also be in error. That line of reasoning is filled with logical errors, invalidated by self-serving assumptions, and reveals the same twisted logic which Anti-Mormons have used for years to attack the church. In fact that same quote alleged to be by Elder Tanner can be found on a plethora of Anti-Mormon sites used for just such purposes.
Here are the problems with their reasoning:
1. It assumes facts not proven:
There is no proof that Elder Tanner really said it. (Though one commonality between Anti-Mormons and the Ordain Women movement is their adherence to what I call the "Charlotte's Web" syndrome, of believing whatever they find in writing so long as it supports their beliefs). The reference comes from some obscure magazine out of Seattle, and leaves the sincere truth seeker
without any way of verifying its content or context. Further, we have no way of determining if Elder Tanner was quoted correctly, if the reporter writing the story had an agenda, or what his/her personal biases were, or even if the article really existed. Similarly a favorite source for Anti-Mormons is the Journal of Discourses, which Anti-Mormons love to peruse with the mis-assumptions that it is scripture, that the scribes who recorded it were accurate, and that the record itself is flawless. They set up such straw man arguments, which assume the statements were made and were recorded correctly, because it serves their purposes to do so, NOT because it is actually so!
2. It suffers from errors of context:
Even if Elder Tanner did say it, and it was quoted directly and correctly, the meaning which the Ordain Women movement assigns to the quote still suffers from contextual error. We do not have the context of the discussion or interview in which the remark was made. The OW advocates interpret it in absence of every other quote N. Eldon Tanner made with regard to that same issue, we do not know the spiritual context, if any, in which it was made. To take a quote and interpret it to mean what best suits one's private purpose and ignore all other possible meanings is intellectual dishonesty, whether it is perpetrated by Anti-Mormons or Ordain Women advocates. To the open minded there are clearly other possible interpretations of Elder Tanner's statement, which are wonderfully consistent with the later revelation given to President Kimball.
3. It ignores the true doctrine:
The true doctrine about words of Prophets, Seers and Revelators is revealed in D& C 68:4 "And whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by the Holy Ghost shall be scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation". It is not now and has never been doctrine that everything a prophet says is scripture, doctrine, or the word of God. While others for self-serving purposes may try to infer that, it simply is not the case. The part that is oft left out of
such reasoning is the key that only those things inspired by the Holy Spirit can be relied upon to be the mind and will of God. Thus apostles and prophets are free to express opinions, like Paul, Brigham Young, Elder McConkie, etc....they may write books, speak to reporters, share sermons, and declare their strongly held personal beliefs in many forums, but that does not make those declarations scripture or doctrine. They may even speak them in General Conference, but absent the testifying power of the Holy Ghost, revealing to our hearts the truth of that message or those words, then we are left to determine by revelation from God if it was opinion or doctrine.
Of course God has taught that THE prophet will never lead the Church astray, and thus the prophet will never be permitted to teach false or damning doctrines as eternal doctrines revealed by God. However, that does not make the prophet perfect, more than a man, or no longer entitled to personal opinions or beliefs. It is as Joseph Smith stated: “I never told you I was perfect, but there is no error in the revelations (doctrines) which I have taught.” That the prophet will not error when teaching doctrines in the name of the Lord, does NOT equate to a belief that everything he says is doctrine or God's word.
HOWEVER, once the Holy Spirit affirms the truth of the prophetic declaration, we can know it is doctrine, and along with the correct interpretation thereof provided by the spirit we can trust and fully rely upon those declarations with the same certainty with which we rely upon God himself. D & C 1:38.
Thus, to compare an obscure quote allegedly made by Elder Tanner, without context, and obviously twisting the quote to mean something it doesn't really mean, can actually have NO IMPACT on, NO power to overcome, the revealed and true doctrines of Priesthood Power and Priesthood Authority; for example those doctrines as they were taught by Elder Oaks in the last conference and affirmed by the power of the Holy Ghost to be the mind and will of the Lord. Any attempts to make it so by such means, reveals an apostate heart, and intellectual dishonesty.
Finally, it has NEVER been the doctrine of the church that Blacks could never hold the priesthood, that they were lesser beings, or that they were in anyway less worthy to receive eternal exaltation in God's Kingdom. In the true doctrine, they have ALWAYS been joint heirs with Christ, just as their brothers and sisters of other races were, and Equal before God. For organizations and delusional saints to take quotes, statements of opinions, and declarations made by human
church leaders,-- who rather than teaching doctrines, were merely attempting to express their opinions about, or share possible reasons for, a church policy, --and then to use fuzzy logic in declaring those statements were somehow doctrine, all with the intent to use them as proof that doctrine changes, in the flawed hope that such things somehow would also mean that the doctrine of the priesthood will change, is similarly dishonest, and constitutes nothing more than self-serving fantasy.
The absolute truth, as God will reveal to the truly open hearted, is that doctrines do not change. It is true that policies, opinions, excuses, justifications, explanations, positions, beliefs all may change, but the underlying doctrines, as revealed by the power of the Holy Ghost, do not.
One such revealed and unchanging doctrine is;
1. By divine design, women are equal with, yet different from, men. Women do not need priesthood ordination to; function with priesthood authority, to fulfill their highest and holiest roles, nor to be equal in God's eyes.