I'm reading 'The Miracle of Forgiveness' so you don't have to: Chapter 3
*Trigger Warning*
This book contains pious, judgmental, homophobic, and sexist language. It references "causes" or "cures" for homosexuality and goes as far as to suggest that death is better than allowing yourself to be raped.
If you are struggling with any topic mentioned in these articles please remember that you will always be able to find a community out there that loves and appreciates you for who you are, regardless of your faith, gender, or sexual orientation. I would encourage anyone questioning their beliefs, or struggling with mental health issues to either reach out to someone they trust or go to https://www.recoveringfromreligion.org for further advice and support.
No matter what your current belief system is, if it is true it should be able to stand up to honest scrutiny. If you are questioning your faith this does not make you a bad person.
Chapter 3:…None Righteous, No, Not One
This is a really short chapter that doesn’t contain a whole lot other than to say that everyone is guilty of sin. Kimball doesn't yet go into specifics on what he is considering a “sin”, but he does promise that the following chapters will “say more about the sins which threatened us as individuals, as a church, and as a society”.
“The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none. ”
This quote is at the very start of the chapter and it is highly ironic considering the LDS church has never admitted to any wrongdoings and in many instances has gone out of its way to avoid any responsibility for past mistakes. This can be seen in the way that they answer many of the FAQs on their website, often being disingenuous or untruthful in their answers (see LDS FAQs Answered Honestly for more information on this).
The LDS church puts a huge emphasis on the importance of its members confessing their sins and taking responsibility for their actions as the first step to repentance, yet its leadership seems incapable of making reparations for the harm they have caused. Kimball states that Prophets are not perfect, he says that Joseph Smith was “human and therefore fallible” (although he clarifies that Joseph was “free from major sins”. He goes on to say “important to our consideration is the Prophet’s acknowledgement of his errors, and his repentance and his prayers for forgiveness…every person is subject to error if he is not always watchful, for victory over Satan is attained only by constant vigilance”.
Kimball summarise that there are sinners among the Latter-day Saints, he advises “I find parents who have lost the natural affection for their children... I find children who disown their parents and evade responsibility for them in their parents’ old age. I find husbands who desert their wives and their children, and who use almost every pretext to justify such action. I find wives who are demanding, unworthy, quarrelsome, uncooperative, and worldly, and who thereby provoke their husbands to similar responses…I have seen branches broken wide apart by people who say unkind things about each other, who brought into their meetings the spirit of Lucifer instead of the Spirit of Christ”.
He claims that there are some who are “guilty, and worldly, and give lip service only. There are those who hypocritically make pretensions and fail to live up to them, those who are intolerant and prejudiced, those who are unkind to their families”. Unfortunately, the very behaviour that Kimball is admonishing is something that is exemplified by LDS leaders today, we only need to look at how they have treated the LGBTQ+ community in very recent years to look at their own intolerance and prejudice. There are several recent examples of this and you can read more on this in ‘Elder Holland Makes Veiled Threat To University Staff Over A Pro-Gay Speech Made Over 2 Years Ago’, ‘LDS Church Advocates For Diversity While Having Historic Teachings of Racism and Homophobia: Part 1’, and ‘LDS Church Advocates For Diversity While Having Historic Teachings of Racism and Homophobia: Part 2’.
