Omitting relevant information

The clarity element of the ongoing pursuit of clarity, charity and understanding involves avoiding omission of relevant information.

An X post by Cynical Publius describes what he calls "lying by omission." The recent news about Pentagon reporters refusing to agree to guidelines involves a deliberate omission to change the meaning of the guidelines (see article below). [The original version of the guidelines was quoted accurately, but the Pentagon revised the language to clarify the intent. The news media continues to report the original version instead of the revised version. Hence the claim that they are currently lying by omission.]

This brought to mind the problem of omitting relevant information in the context of M2C and SITH. 

From time to time on this and other blogs, I've noted how critical omissions can change the meaning of a quotation. 

Unlike Cynical Publius, I do not consider omissions to be necessarily lying. I do not think the omissions below to constitute lying. I assume everyone involved was acting in good faith. But these omissions are obvious examples of efforts to promote a specific narratives by omitting important information and context.

_____

There are easy corrections to each of these. The responsible people can simply add back the content they omitted. Even if that's not practical in printed formats, it is easily done on electronic formats, which are the most often read anyway. 

Certainly we can all agree that the Gospel Library app should be accurate and complete, without omissions that promote particular ideological agendas (such as M2C and SITH).

Among the problematic content are these:

- editing the Wentworth letter in the lesson manual Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith to omit Joseph's identification of the remnant of Lehi as "the Indians that now inhabit this country." 

Ironically, in the first paragraph of the letter, Joseph made this statement: "all that I shall ask at his hands is that he publish the account entire, ungarnished, and without misrepresentation."

It turns out that Joseph did not need to worry about Mr. Wentworth. It was the modern curriculum department that failed to honor Joseph's request. 

This modified version of the Wentworth letter is the only version that is widely available in English and that has been translated into dozens of languages, so it is the only version most Latter-day Saints will ever see. 

Young and new Latter-day Saints will never learn what Joseph said about the identity of the Lamanites and the other omitted material. Because of the omission in the lesson manual, even many seasoned Latter-day Saints don't know, or have forgotten, what he wrote.

Reference:

https://www.lettervii.com/2018/07/editing-wentworth-letter.html

- omitting David Whitmer's accounts of the 1829 trip to Fayette in Opening the Heavens. 

Ironically, the introduction to the book claims that it includes "six major collections of key Restoration documents, in their full authenticity and veracity." 

But it does not do so.

The trip to Fayette commenced, according to Lucy Mack Smith (in another account omitted  from the book), when Joseph applied the Urim and Thummim to his eyes to look on the plates. He received a commandment to contact David Whitmer, whom he did not know at the time. Lucy's account corroborates what Joseph and Oliver always said about the translation, but apparently because it contradicts SITH, it was omitted from Opening the Heavens.

Joseph gave the abridged plates to the divine messenger before Joseph and Oliver left Harmony with David. Later, during the trip to Fayette, they encountered the messenger who had the plates. The messenger declined a ride to Fayette, explaining he was "going to Cumorah." This is obviously a problem for M2C, which teaches that the "real Cumorah" is in Mexico. Therefore, this account was omitted from Opening the Heavens.  

It is also significant that the messenger picked up the abridged plates from Joseph in Harmony and delivered the plates of Nephi to Joseph in Fayette, which explains D&C 9 and 10 and why Joseph translated the plates of Nephi last. None of that is apparent in Opening the Heavens because the messenger's visit to Cumorah has been omitted.

The other part of David's account that was omitted from Opening the Heavens is David's explanation that when he asked Joseph Smith about the messenger, Joseph replied that the messenger was one of the three Nephites who were promised they would remain on earth. That obviously contradicts the narrative that it was "Moroni" who showed the plates to David's mother Mary, a narrative that never made sense anyway because it contradicted what Mary herself said, as well as basic doctrine about the nature of resurrected bodies. Moroni was resurrected, the three Nephites were not, and now we're supposed to believe that the resurrected Moroni is a "shape-shifter" who can appear as a short old man?

This deliberate distortion of the historical record in a book claiming to provide Latter-day Saints with "full authenticity and veracity" is obviously inexcusable, but worse, it is another example of how M2C advocates zealously promote their agenda without regard to enabling Latter-day Saints to make informed decisions.

Furthermore, the same omission of the truth about the trip to Fayette is omitted from the Church's movies about Harmony and Fayette, and from the Saints book, volume 1. Whether that content relied on Opening the Heavens is unknown, but it promotes the same narrative. As a result, young and new Latter-day Saints will never learn about these things, particular those non-English speakers whose only source of Church history is the Saints book and related curriculum.

References:

https://www.mobom.org/trip-to-fayette-references

https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2017/12/opening-heavens-but-censoring-history.html

https://saintsreview.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-mary-whitmer-problem.html

- omitting references to the Urim and Thummim in the Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Translation, Rough Stone Rolling, and innumerable podcasts and article that promote SITH.

In both the Elders' Journal and the Times and Seasons, Joseph Smith explicitly declared that he used the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates--not a "seer stone" he had found in a well--to translate the record. 

But young and new Latter-day Saints never learn this from current curriculum or their BYU professors and other SITH promoting influencers.

Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the record by the gift, and power of God.

(Times and Seasons III.9:707 ¶6)

[Note: at least the Joseph Smith lesson manual retained this sentence before the omitted portion discussed above.]

I obtained them [the plates] and the Urim and Thummim with them, by the means of which I translated the plates and thus came the Book of Mormon.

(Elders’ Journal I.3:43 ¶1)

References:

Rough Stone Rolling: https://www.mobom.org/rsr-review

https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/p/gospel-topics-essay-on-translation.html

https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2022/09/analysis-gospel-topics-essay-on-book-of.html

_____

Here is the post by Cynical Publius. As I mentioned, he did not provide the full context by explaining that the Pentagon released a revised memo and that the media continues to report the original memo instead, which somewhat excuses the original reporting but not the current reporting.

In that sense, his own post ironically omits relevant information. But it is still a good example of how omissions can change the sense of a statement.

Cynical Publius

@CynicalPublius

·

14h

RE: Pentagon Access Kerfuffle & Media Lies Please take the time to read this lengthy post, it’s important. There is SO MUCH lying and distortion on this matter, we need to cut through the garbage. So I’m here for it. Go ahead and Google this phrase (you'll see it everywhere in sooooo many legacy media reports): “. . . information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified." Google it with quotes around it so you get that EXACT phrase. See how much it shows up, VERBATIM, with those EXACT WORDS in that EXACT ORDER in so, so, so many media reports? Go look for yourself. I’ll wait. ______________________ Welcome back. Now. This quote strongly suggests that what the Pentagon is saying is that the media cannot publish an article without Pentagon prior approval. If this were true, that would, in fact, be an egregious example of prior restraint and a grotesque First Amendment violation. But… See… That VERBATIM quote is NOT TRUE. Here is the actual quote: “. . . information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released by any military member, DoW civilian employee or contract employee, even if it is unclassified.” (I’ll link to the source document in my post immediately below, because the algorithm hates links.) Notice the words that are DIFFERENT in the actual quote. (I bolded and italicized them.) The lying media—the ones mewling about First Amendment violations—PURPOSELY LEFT OUT THOSE KEY WORDS. Liars, liars, pants on fire. Let me explain the difference: 1. In the media’s distorted, untrue quote, the language suggests that any news story requires pre-approval by the DoW. If this were true, it would be a clear First Amendment violation. But it’s not true. 2. The ACTUAL quote merely says that people who work in the Department of War are not allowed to provide important defense-related information to the media without the appropriate national security approval party in the DoW authorizing that DoW employee to share such information first. THIS IS NOT A FIRST AMENDMENT VIOLATION. THIS IS NOT PRIOR RESTRAINT. The press is still allowed to write whatever it wants. The limitation is on DoW employees, military and civilian, and NO ONE ELSE. THERE ARE NO LIMITS ON THE PRESS IN THIS MATTER, and the press is purposely and deliberately lying to you about this issue—lying by omission. Please spread the word. Otherwise well-meaning people are being snookered by this propagandistic sleight of hand these evil journotards are foisting on them.