Changing Doctrine

            As I’ve shown in the previous few posts, the Church’s doctrines have undergone dramatic changes in the past and are continuing to evolve today.  If you want to see what the Church was like under Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, you can go down to Colorado City, Arizona and take a good look.  I suppose this amount of change could be appropriate for an imperfect god that is constantly improving and learning new things every day, but not for the god of the Bible, which Mormonism depends upon, yet denies at the same time.  When members of the Church hear controversial statements made by Brigham Young, I’ve often heard them jokingly answer, “Oh, that’s just Brigham Young.  He doesn’t count.”  Why doesn’t he count?  Was he less of a prophet than Thomas S. Monson?  Is the Church becoming truer and truer every day?  Someday members of the Church are going to look at controversial statements made by Gordon B. Hinckley during General Conference and say, “Oh, that doesn’t count.  He was just a bigot.”  It’s interesting how when the prophet first says something, it’s gospel truth until it gets proven wrong.  Then it suddenly becomes just his opinion.  I guess people fly to Salt Lake City from all over the world twice a year just to listen to a man’s opinions.