In a previous post, "The importance of one's assumptions and presuppositions," I reproduced part of an email I sent to a member of the Church who was struggling due, in large part, to fundamentalist assumptions (read: inerrancy of scripture; infallibility and impeccability of Church leadership). in Alongside the information reproduced there, I am adding some further information to the discussion where we learn from Brigham Young and the apostle Paul, where the impeccability and personal infallibility of Church leaders is deemed a fiction with no basis in reality (such quotes could be multiplied):
As you have been told hundreds of times, how easy it would be for your leaders to lead you to destruction unless you actually know the mind and will of the Spirit yourselves. (Brigham Young; JOD 4:368)
I do not wish any Latter-day Saint in this world, nor in heaven, to be satisfied with anything I do, unless the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, the spirit of revelation, makes them satisfied . . . Suppose that the people were heedless, that they manifested no concern with regard to the things of the kingdom of God, but threw the whole burden upon the leaders fo the people, saying, 'if the brethren who take charge of matters are satisfied, we are,' that is not pleasing in the sight of the Lord. (Brigham Young; JOD 3:45)
And when James and Cephas and John, who were acknowledged pillars, recognised the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do. But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood self-condemned; for until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But after they came, he drew back and keep himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction. And the other jews joined him in this hypocrisy so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not acting consistency with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?" (Gal 2:9-14 [NRSV])
