John's Questions

2003-2-8 18:22:00

Lawrence wrote:
Searching the Archives I noticed one comment by JJ re Paul Twitchell and Eckankar:
"Yvon: I can understand your problems with Eckankar. In my own search I visited them and studied their books and found them to be at least as authoritative as the Mormon church, but with a fancier vocabulary. "


John:
Question. When you said "as authoritative as the Mormon church", were you making a distinction between Joseph Smith and his writings vs. the Mormon Church as today constituted? As you saying that like Paul Twitchell, JS had a few revelations in the beginning and then went off track?

JJ:
I was comparing it to the authoritarianism of the Mormon church of today. It wasn't nearly as bad in the days of Joseph Smith. The current Eck master is seen as an authority figure very much like the Mormons see their current president. I wasn't making any comparison to Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith seemed to get closer to the truth the longer he lived and Twitchel seemed to get further away from it.

John:
Also, I notice that you don't endorse, or at least you don't teach, all the principles taught by Joseph Smith. I would like to know where you draw the line. For example, you teach that Moses led the first attempt in history at a gathering of lights. What about Enoch and his city? From the accounts revealed through JS, they were very successful in gathering and building a Zion community.

JJ:
I was speaking of recorded history. There have been numerous gatherings before Moses of which there is no historical record.

I believe there are elements of truth behind most things that Joseph Smith taught, but the full picture is missing in many of the teachings.

I believe his biggest mistake was polygamy. There is a time and a place for everything and there have been times in history where it met a need but it does not fit into the Aquarian age. The Fundamentalist Mormon idea that you have to have many wives to obtain the highest glory is illusion.

It would take a book to go through his teachings and comment on them all, but overall he did an admirable job with what he had of creating an elevated Christian religion. It's too bad the better parts of his teachings have been abandoned by the church - especially his teachings on the freedom of thought and expression.

JJ