This little pas a deux between disbelief and denial of that disbelief is the source of their meaningless prattle. All public announcements and doctrinal statements are designed to be faith-promoting without actually affirming the Book of Mormon to be true, or acknowledging the fact that their authority rests upon the certainty (or lack thereof) of the book’s truth. Resigning from the church would also separate them from the control they have over the church’s real estate holdings, which they sell from time to time to offset the drastic decrease in tithing that occurred after the truth of the practice of gay ordinations and same-sex weddings came out. The Community of Christ’s not so secret endorsement of no-holds-barred homosexuality ranks on a par with its own judgmental characterization of Mormon polygamy in Nauvoo.

Those who currently adhere to RLDS beliefs do not attend CofChrist services and maintain their own meetings elsewhere. Anyone who currently claims to be an ordained minister of the Community of Christ is not qualified to speak about RLDS beliefs, because priests who adhere to the original teachings of the church have been systematically eliminated from the priesthood.

For those who want to learn about the RLDS church, I advise them to seek out RLDS sources. Those controlling the church are not interested in anything RLDS other than the fact that the RLDS name is on the title of the deeds to the property the Community of Christ controls.

If you want an example of this denial in action, I will provide you a quotation from the liberal edition of the Book of Mormon showing how the text of the book itself has been edited to relieve the potential CofChrist convert of the necessity of accepting the book as historical truth.

Regards,
George

They rarely, if ever speak of the 1st Vision as anything other than a ‘spiritual experience’ or ‘spiritual manifestation.’ Moreover, former President, G. McMurrary stated he was uncomfortable being called a prophet, seer and revelator.

The RLDS church is a prime example of what happens when revelation does not exist, even when the correct principles lay before you!

The post-schism RLDS church never accepted polygamy. Joseph’s polygamy was sufficiently shadowy and hidden that they more or less denied it ever happened, and blamed Brigham Young for introducing that crazy idea.

The RLDS church never accepted temples as anything other than a unique and special worship places. Joseph Smith’s use of the endowment is not well documented and is pretty shadowy itself (in part because much of his temple use was related to plural marriages he was keeping under the radar screen). So the entire culture of temples, eternal families, endowments, is not part of the RLDS belief system.

The RLDS church remained in Zion as they saw it (Nauvoo and Missouri) and refused to leave Zion to go to Utah, a place which Joseph Smith had never once mentioned. Joseph Smith clearly said that Independence Missouri and Nauvoo were the places God wanted His people. The RLDS tended to think that Brigham was nuts to ignore Joseph’s statements about Zion and instead go out to the middle of the desert.

Recently, the RLDS church has taken further steps, downplaying the Book of Mormon and the First Vision. But even fifty or a hundred years ago, there were significant enough doctrinal differences that it is unlikely any reunification would have been successful.