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I will be interested to see whether Brooks discusses this essay on the long cultural history of interpretations of Noah's Curse, by Stirling Adams. As I recall, he did a post here on the same topic.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3686&context=byusq
Or this by Ethan Sproat on 'Skins as Garments in the Book of Mormon'
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1572&context=jbms
Regarding Susan's comments on expectations for LDS leaders, Thomas Kuhn points out that in science 'anomally emerges against a background of expectation.' And recovery literature makes the point that 'expectations are premeditated resentments.' Over the years, whenever I run across something I did not expect, I've adopted the fruitful practice of asking 'What should I expect?' That is, I check my own eye for beams, and not surprisingly, since I lack omniscience and infallible judgement as a starting point, I usually find a beam or two, incorrect expectations, and that the process of removing them enables me to see more clearly.
Just as Jesus defines what we ought to call his doctrine in a very narrow and specific way, warning of consequences for doing otherwise, (see 3 Nephi 11:31-40) so I find that D&C 1 sets my expectations of LDS leaders in a profoundly blunt and realistic way:
24 Behold, I am God and have spoken it; these commandments are of me, and were given unto my servants in their weakness, after the manner of their language, that they might come to understanding.
25 And inasmuch as they erred it might be made known;
26 And inasmuch as they sought wisdom they might be binstructed;
27 And inasmuch as they sinned they might be chastened, that they might repent;
28 And inasmuch as they were humble they might be made strong, and blessed from on high, and receive knowledge from time to time.
If that is a correct and realistic expectation, that I am not disappointed but not shaken when I see LDS prophets behaving with same blend of humanity and occasional inspiration that I see in the Bible, rather than as divine sock puppets, whose agency and personality has been surgically removed to prevent them embarressing me and making me ashamed to be associated with them by their behaving as as Acts 14:15 states, that, 'We are men of like passions with you' and 1 John 8 that 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.'
Lorenzon Snow famously commented that he personally saw Joseph Smith do things of which he did not approve, but rather than disillusion him, that gave him hope, because he knew his own weakness.Share
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