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Our Church |
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An emphasis on higher
education, which began during the presidency of Fred M. Smith,
gained momentum during Israel A. Smith's administration. It took
hold on the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
during the 1960s. The church enacted educational requirements for
its new appointees, eventually requiring advanced course work in
religious curriculums for employment.
Many church members favored the development. America in
general was becoming better educated. Church members expected their
ministers to be competent, especially the paid ministry. The
development came with a price.
One significant distinctive of the Reorganization was the
prevalent manifestations of spiritual gifts among the membership.
The tension between Fred M. Smith and both the Twelve and Bishopric,
which culminated in the 1925 decision on “supreme directional control” and the
resulting Protest Movement, significantly impacted those spiritual
manifestations. Afterwards, a number of them denounced the decision
and warned against the growing preference of some to “return to the
world for their equipment.” Church leaders began a campaign to
control those gifts. They advocated the need to alert the presiding
administrator, such as pastor or district president, before
exercising a spiritual manifestation. In time, church members began
to believe that spiritual manifestations should be under the control
of church administrators. Some even thought them valid only if they
came through the pastor, district president, or other church
leader. Slowly spiritual manifestations dwindled in frequency,
until they rarely, if ever, characterized normal church services.
The decline of spiritual manifestations and the emphasis
on higher education combined to transform the atmosphere surrounding
church leaders. While respect for their academic knowledge and
scholarly competence grew among most members, suspicions about their
scriptural insight and spiritual receptiveness increased among a
significant portion of the church. That suspicion set the stage for
a period of turmoil and eventual fragmentation that overtook the
Reorganized Church.
David Blair, the grandson of President W. W. Blair, like
so many members at the time, discerned the shift in outlook and
direction. He wrote his boyhood friend Clifford Cole in the early
1960s and asked him to use his position to help return to the church
to its more traditional and, presumably, more spiritual
foundations. Brother Cole refused and wrote back saying that he and
others would continue to reshape the church to such an extent that
Brother Blair would not recognize it in the future.
The reshaping of the church multiplied discontent
throughout the membership. The First Presidency had challenged the
entire church in 1964 to re-think its theology and basic teachings.
New books advocating a more academic view were published. Almost
every branch of the church began debating the church’s basic
beliefs. The discussion and debates polarized the membership
instead of unifying it. More progressive elements continued to
de-mythologize the church’s beliefs. The traditional segment more
tenaciously clung to the mystical view so prevalent in the past.
When the church agreed at the 1984 World Conference to ordain women
to priesthood offices, the tenuous tie between the more progressive
and more traditional segments of the church was broken. The church
fragmented.
No better statistic can show the results of that
division. According to the Presiding Bishop’s report at the 1974
World Conference, about 86,000 members contributed to the World
Church in 1972. By 2008, the number of member contributors had
dropped to 22,000, a loss of 64,000 supportive members. Meanwhile,
the number of members worshipping in church fellowships not
authorized by the present Community of Christ leaders cannot be more
than 12,000. That leaves 44,000 active members, or half the church
of yesteryear, unaccounted for.
The division and decline of the Reorganized Church is
similar to many other Protestant denominations. The general
revision and demythologizing has occurred in all those sects,
increasing doubt, decreasing devotion and overall secularizing the
general population. A number lost interest in institutional
religion altogether, some because of the politics and some because
of disbelief. Meanwhile, significant numbers left their childhood
denominations to join more traditional or scriptural-based churches.
The fragmentation of the Reorganized Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints raises the question: which of the
fragments, if any, presents the Savior’s church in the same way that
the Reorganized Church has in the past. Fortunately Joseph III, who
gathered and molded the fragments of the original church into the
Reorganization, gave a plain answer. When asked where the church
was between the disorganization of the original church and its
Reorganization, Joseph III answered, “It was with the remnant
scattered abroad, who remained true to the principles first given as
the gospel of Christ; and with any body of such remnant, numbering
six or more, under the pastoral charge of an elder, priest, teacher,
or deacon” (Church History, vol 5, p 346). Elsewhere, he wrote, “It
is a principle well known in civil law, and ought to be in
ecclesiastical circles, that whenever a church is founded, its
principles of faith formulated, its traditions fulminated from the
forum and pulpit those declarations become the constitution
of its corporate and legal existence. If in the history of any
church, anything out of harmony with, or antagonistic to that
constitution is introduced, or a change is sought to be made in
the creed and government, which is opposed and resisted, or denied
by any of the members of the church, that portion of the membership
that remains in adherence to the faith as it was before the change
was attempted or made, is the church. Nor does it make any
difference in law how few this adhering portion may be, or how
numerous the changing membership, the church is that part of the
members remaining true to the original tenets” (Rejection of the
Church, p 6).
A number of branches, some within the Community of
Christ and some organized separate from the Community of Christ, are
faithful branches of the Reorganized Church, at least according to
Joseph Smith III’s criteria. Some of those branches are working
together under the law of the Reorganized Church and in harmony with
its great commission to teach the restored gospel throughout the
world. It is an exceptional way for church members to unite in
spreading the angel message to the world. As a result, the Holy
Spirit has attended its activities and blessed its deliberations
with insight and revelations. The old camaraderie and fellowship
has returned. We invite you to gather with the faithful saints
dedicated to extending the light of the gospel in an ever darkening
world.
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