The following, from D. Michael Quinn’s biography of J. Reuben Clark (focusing on the years where he held positions of Church leadership), we find the following which refutes the incredibly naïve/fundamentalist “Church leaders know everything about Church doctrine and have automatic access to God”-attitude that many Church members to this day still hold to:
A few years before his own call to the First Presidency, Reuben had advised his missionary son that “The philosophy of the Gospel is so deep and many sided, its truths are so far reaching it is never safe to dogmatize, even about the most elemental principles, such as faith” (JRC to J. Reuben Clark III, 23 May 1929). Because he disliked religious dogmatism, President Clark was able to be remarkably noncommittal when asked about deeper aspects of doctrine. To one inquirer he wrote that “it does not make any difference to your service nor to mine, whether God is progressing or whether He has come to a stand-still” (JRC to M***** R. R***, 24 September 1953). To one man who inquired about the Adam-God theory he wrote, “I understand that in the days of President Young, this controversy raged with considerable fury, but I believe with no casualties and with no one winning a decision.” Then he concluded, “I am equally sure that none of us can understand it because we are dealing with matters of infinity and we are only finite. The Lord has not revealed these mysteries to us” (JRC to G***** E. W******, 28 October 1936). When a member of the Church asked about the fate of the sons of perdition, he merely observed that he was “trying never to become one” (Rowena J. Miller to L***** R*****, 25 August 1953). With good humor and an emphasis upon the importance of simple faith, J. Reuben Clark sidestepped many doctrinal speculations. (D. Michael Quinn, J. Reuben Clark: The Church Years [Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1983], 166)
