Frances Lee Menlove - On Institutional and Individual Honesty

It is impossible for the Church to face the great problems and threats of our age without individual members being free to express to themselves and to others what they think and believe. With the almost unlimited possibility for new scientific discoveries, new sociological and anthropological insights, new ways of explaining human behavior, modern man cannot escape perplexity. "What the Church needs today, as always, are not adulators to extol the status quo, but men whose humility and obedience are no less than their passion for truth; men who brave every misunderstanding and attack as they bear witness; men who, in a word, love the Church more than ease and the unruffled course of their personal destiny." The members of the Church are responsible for the Church.

 -Frances Lee Menlove, "The Challenge of Honesty" Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought (1966), pg.53

Philip L. Barlow - A Self Critical Faith

"...it isn’t authentic inquiry as such that tends toward the erosion of faith. Without faithful inquiry, spiritual growth is not possible. Indeed, faith by itself, although necessary, is not necessarily good. Terrorists who fly jets into tall buildings full of innocent people have deep faith. What is required for mature spiritual health, however, is a thoughtful and even self-critical faith, which includes faithful inquiry."

Philip L. Barlow - "12 Answers From Philip Barlow: Part 2"

I had not choice now but to cast into the willows if I wanted to know why fish were jumping in the water all around me except in this hole, and I still wanted to know, becasue it is not fly fishing if you are not looking for answers to questions.

Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It, pg. 42

[Howard W. Hunter] said that he felt the church was mature enough that our history would be honest.  our faith should not overpower our collective memories and documented experiences.  he did not believe in suppressing information, hiding documents, or concealing or withholding minutes for "screening."  He thought we should publish the documents of our history.  Why should we withhold things that are a part of our history?  He thought it in our best interest to encourage scholars--to help and cooperate with them in doing honest research.  Nevertheless, Hunter counseled me to keep in mind that church members reverenced leaders and their policies.  To investigate too closely the private lives of leaders and the circumstances that led to their decisions might remove some of hte aura that sanctified church policies and procedures.  If hte daylight of historical research should shine too brightly upon the prophets and their policies, he cautioned, it might devitalize the charisma that dedicated leadership inspires.

-Leonard J. Arrington, Adventures of a Church Historian (pg. 84)

There is danger in being open-minded to error; there is also a danger in being so zealous in protecting the Saints from new views that free inquiry is stifled.

-Leonard J. Arrington, Adventures of a Church Historian (pg. 64)