Me: "Maybe the best way to find out the truth is to go straight to the source."...Really? I have tried that before when I was a card holding member. First of all, simply tracking down what is official doctrine is hard enough to do. Why does it conflict? Because of statements like the following: “I have a hard time with historians... because they idolize the truth. The truth is not uplifting; it destroys. Historians should tell only that part of the truth that is inspiring and uplifting.” Apostle Boyd K. Packer
Aplogist:
I tried to look up that statement you quoted and as near as I can tell, its only source is a hostile critic of the church who claims Packer said this during a 45 minute long interview with the man. If this is even true, what was the context? Was he talking about American history, Church history, political history? Was he talking about the full truth or how partial truths can be used to paint a point of view? Again, is this even word for word what he said, or was it just how the author wanted to remember the statement? This doesn't stand up to much scrutiny
Me:
Of course, hostile critic of the church as the source, my mistake.
The next time I want to reference disturbing comments by current church leaders, I will use church official information such as the notes of the 2012 Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting held on February 11, 2012, where Elder Tom Perry and Elder Todd Christofferson outline creepy brainwashing tactics members should use for strengthening membership by exploiting the testimony of children in order to make the parents feel guilty for becoming inactive.