Most of you who are reading this have already spent a lot of time on sites like this. If you’re a part of that group, I’m sorry. For many of you, this is probably the worst time in your life. People don’t really migrate to places like this happily. I’m really sorry.
Maybe you have a question about your religion. Maybe you’re one of those people that has looked in a few places for answers, but haven’t totally settled on one yet. Maybe you’re one of those people that has some issues with your religion, but you haven’t really lost your faith yet. You’re still holding on pretty tight.
Or, maybe, you’re one of the few who hasn’t really questioned anything too seriously before. Maybe your sister or your daughter or your friend recommended taking a look at this site called “Latter-day Wasteland,” and you, being the good friend or sibling or parent that you are, decided to go ahead.
Or, maybe you’ve pretty much decided that you’ve been swindled, but the swindlers are still convincing you every once in a while that they’re not really swindlers, (they’re your friends!) and you should come back to them. And you really need something to hold on to, something to convince you over and over that the swindlers are swindlers and they’re not really your friends.
Or maybe you have heard about LDW and you’ve hated what you’ve heard, so you’ve come here to find out how to take me down.
The point is, there’s a lot of reasons that someone comes to a site like this. None of them are really happy reasons. And I’m sorry about that. I’m sorry that you’re here, and that you’ve had such a rough year or two, and I hope it gets better.
I wrote LDW because I once fell into a few of those groups that I mentioned, and it really was very awful and I hated it and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. And I want to help you.
There’s a lot of confusing information out there. So much. So many people are trying to get you onto their side. Lots of them lie, as a way to reach that goal. Some manipulate. Some speak to you in spiritual words that make your heart buzz, and that must mean that what they’re saying is true (it’s certainly not because they were crying and smiling when they said it.) How in the world are you supposed to know what to listen to?
How are you supposed to know if the Church is true?
Well, you could pray. That’s what Moroni said to do, and that’s what your parents probably told you to do, and that’s what the Prophet says to do. But, that’s not really that reliable. “Pray, and then you’ll know that it’s true!” Well there you go. The answer to your prayer came before you even knelt down. How are you supposed to feel any different than “It’s true”?
When praying doesn’t work, you can go to the Church for answers. You could start looking at LDS.org. You can see the essays, you can read the scriptures, you can listen to the Prophets. That might help you for a while. But, somewhere in the back of your mind, in that dark corner where you’ve put those questions that don’t have answers, those questions that just won’t stop scratching at the floor, gnawing on the door—back there where you’ve piled boxes and blankets and verses and talks, hoping, maybe, to forget those questions that won’t stop scratching and gnawing, or at least to quiet them down—somewhere back there are the questions, and they haven’t stopped. Not at all. They’ve only gotten louder and louder, and they’re making Sunday School and Sacrament Meeting pretty uncomfortable.
Pretty soon, it’s all too loud, and you can’t take it anymore, and the Church just isn’t giving you the answers that you need, so you start to broaden your search.
Latter-day Wasteland comes into play somewhere around here.
It’s not just another CES Letter or Letter For My Wife. It doesn’t talk about Joseph Smith’s First Vision, or his digging, or the Book of Abraham. In fact, it doesn’t talk about Joseph at all, really. At least not in a negative way. That’s not an accident.
I realized, once upon a time, that people spend a lot of their time trying to prove that Joseph Smith really was a Prophet, that he really was the Prophet of the Restoration. And they do this to prove that the Church is true. Because, they say, if Joseph Smith was a Prophet, then the Church is true. This equation is repeated over and over. It’s become a sort of truism. We’ve heard it so often that we’ve completely agreed on it. If we can prove that Joseph Smith was a Prophet, then by default, the Church is true today, and the Prophet today, whoever he is, is a real Prophet, the only one, and the Lord is still at work in His Church.
But this equation is not accurate! It’s never been accurate! Why does Joseph Smith’s truthfulness determine the truthfulness of his Church two hundred years later? It doesn’t. At least, it doesn’t, assuming that Joseph Smith did restore something. If he didn’t restore anything, if he was really just a big fraud, then that fraud persists today. But if we assume that he did restore the Church, we have literally no reason to assume that the Church is still true. A lot can change in two hundred years. The number of Joseph-Smith-related branches of Mormonism is staggering. They all, (including yours,) think that they’re the right one.
We’ve got to determine whether the Church is true, still, today. We’ve got to leave Joseph Smith out of it for a minute, and really consider our specific branch. The Brighamite branch. The branch that followed Brigham. Is that branch still true? Has it remained the same Church for two hundred years? Can we prove it?
Well, Latter-day Wasteland answers those questions. It gives you something solid to believe in, something other than the First Vision and the Book of Abraham, because I know, just as well as you most likely do, that there are some ways to rationalize both scenarios in favor of the Prophet Joseph.
There is no conjecture in Latter-day Wasteland. There are hundreds of sources, nearly a thousand quotations, and they’re all from the Church. From Prophets, leaders, faithful scholars, and scriptures. The picture I’ve tried to paint with LDW is one that cannot be easily rationalized against.
I hope you’ll give it a try. It’s scary, I know. And if you come away from it with the idea that the Church is truer than it’s ever been, then great! I’m glad I’ve made you feel more secure (though I’m not sure how I’ve accomplished this, I must say.) Please read with an open mind. I’m not trying to deceive you. Cross examine me, check my sources, verify the verses, by all means, pray if you have to, for heaven’s sake, and find out if what I’m saying is true!
I wish you the best. I truly do. Thank you for giving truth a try.
Sincerely,
Shane Comin, author of “Latter-day Wasteland”
