False Gospel Doctrine

So in the LDS church you submit yourself to 3 hours of church/Sunday. Recently I have only been able to get through the first hour, due to lots and lots of nausea. Today I managed to stay during the first AND second hour, which is Sunday school. You can choose which class you go to (Gospel Essentials is for new converts or investigators, sometimes they have a class on Marriage, or Familiy History...), and I usually go to Gospel Doctrine with Danny because it's where most everybody goes. Today we were with his family at their home ward in Colorado, and the teacher said something that was utterly false doctrine.

If you aren't LDS then you won't know the buzz word "secret combination". Basically, several civilizations in the Book of Mormon perished because people were wicked and turned to Satan for power. They use "secret combinations" - but that's about the length of description the Book of Mormon gives to describe exactly what they do to get their evil power. I think any sane person could understand why a holy book wouldn't include details of sadistic rituals, rites, and secrets.

Anyway, the teacer said that the definition of a "secret combination" is any kind of deal done in secret. To his credit, everyone in the room knew what he MEANT, but what he actually said was that any deal done in secret to the benefit of those making it was a secret combination.

I spent a good portion of the clas shooting holes through his definition in whispers to Danny at the back of the classroom.

"Secrets gleaned by spies during WWII?"
"ANY kind of foreign intelligence? Like in Iraq?"
"What about businessmen? So their company secrets count as 'secret combinations'?"

I ended up raising my hand and saying, "Well, I think you need to say that the definition of a 'secret combination' is any deal done in secret FOR EVIL...what about Mary? If she had told everyone she was pregnant..."

And he interrupted me to say, "That's not what we're talking about, obviously!"

("Well, it's what you SAID we were talking about! If you look at it one way, what Mary and Gabriel did was a sort of 'deal' in secrecy! I'm sure that if Mary could have refused, even though obviously she wouldn't have...")

It bugs me when GD teachers assume that everyone's on the same page, and when they try to make super oversimplified generalizations that just don't work.

I couldn't stay after the GD class because I was super hungry and exhausted, so Danny and I went out to the car, still discussing this issue. Me: "I mean, what's the point in defining a 'secret combination' anyway? The Book of Mormon doesn't! There doesn't seem to be any real value in doing that!"

Sigh. He was probably trying his best, and I'm sure his heart was in the right place. Yet words are extremely important, especially when you are supposed to be the keeper of knowledge.