Hi Hank
1.) I served a two year mission in Argentina during which I was involved in many hundreds of convert baptisms, including finding, teaching, and baptizing entire villages.
2.) Of course I had a testimony. That's why I risked my life braving death threats in Argentina (I was there when Elders Ball and Wilson, who you've probably never heard of, were assassinated just north of us in Bolivia by Maoist guerrillas), why I risked my life baptizing in crocodile-frequented swamps, why I risked my life by living for weeks at a time in the middle of nowhere surrounded by lethal snakes, sleeping in a tree at night, just to get to remote aboriginals...why I now have eight children, why I spent many thousands of dollars amassing a huge gospel library, why I talked about the church in every interview in which it came up all over the world, why I did firesides for the church, why I was happy to have multiple callings on occasion, etc.
3.) My family relationships are closer than ever, although the discovery that we were wrong about everything that was most important to us, really threw my wife and I for a loop. We felt shellshocked. Fortunately though now, we are best of friends.
I have a serious question for you, Hank. Please think it over carefully and answer me honestly.
I know you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Joseph Smith always told the truth about his sacred experiences, that the witnesses were absolutely reliable, and that Mormonism is the only true religion in the history of the world, so true that Jesus himself was the first Mormon and started the Mormon church 2000 years ago in Palestine.
And I know you probably feel perfectly content with the church...you've probably noticed a little local church problem here or there, but overall, I'm sure you feel that for whatever foibles church members or even prophets might have had, that you feel nothing but gratitude for your membership in the church. I'm sure you feel that it is the glue which helps hold your family together; that it is the only thing out there which really seems to make sense, and that it has brought you incalculable amounts of blessings. I am further sure you have had incredibly riveting spiritual experiences, which have let you know that you really do belong to the only true religion in the world.
Am I right?
If so, here is my question.
If, by some terrible, unfathomable chance, it was the case that Joseph did NOT tell the truth about his experiences, and that there was some hitherto uncontemplated by you explanation for your conviction that Mormonism is true, and that whatever else it may be, the church Joseph founded was NOT what it claimed to be -
given all the good and joy you feel you have found in the church -
why would you EVER want to find that out?
I am dead serious, Hank. Why? IBMagg is welcome to answer too, if he comes back on.
Why?
Why, when your wife will cry herself to sleep for nights on end?
Why, when you will lose many of your friends?
Why, when it will plunge you into the greatest despair, leaving you seeing stars, feeling hurt and betrayed and even embarrassed, sending you from thinking you know nearly everything of importance in the universe, to knowing virtually nothing?
Why, when members using aliases on bulletin boards will feel no compunction about casting aspersions on your character, and insinuating all kinds of dark motives for the "real" reason you "left"?
Why, when it might strain relations with family members who, unlike you, don't wish to know what you know?
All those beautiful visions of missions and baptisms...all gone now...
Losing face in front of others...having to admit to non-member friends they were right all along, and you were wrong...
Why, Hank and IBMagg, given all this, would you EVER want to find out that a talented but desperate Joseph, did not tell the truth?
Why, in this admittedly nearly unfathomable case, would you not just take the easy way, and stay believing just what you believe now?
I answered your questions directly. Please answer mine.
[This message has been edited by tbachman (edited 5/7/2006 9:27p).]
[This message has been edited by tbachman (edited 5/7/2006 9:30p).]