Why the Church befriended the Nazis, Exed a Nazi resistor and what it all means to you...NOW

When you think of Nazis, what words cross your mind? "Evil"? "Devils"? "Monsters"? "Criminals"? 

And probably worse. 

But what if someone, or something, just as bad came along? Well, naturally, the general public would say that they would never, ever allow another Adolph Hitler to come to power. And I'd agree; Any political leader who wrote a book calling for the genocide, the extermination, of an entire world race would be appalling to us. 

But what if another Hitler were to come along who had the same intentions, the same capabilities (if not more), than the original Hitler? Could we detect him then?

Could the church, which is helmed by "Prophets, seers and revelators" who say "You keep your eyes riveted on the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. We will not lead you astray" [1] ever detect an evil, devilish Hitler and his regime?

Let's see. 

"Keep Your Eyes Riveted"

In 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed German Chancellor. He called boycotting Jewish businesses, opened the Dachau concentration camp and established the Gestapo. In 1934, Hitler proclaimed himself Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and Reich Chancellor). In 1936, Germans marched into the Rhineland (previously demilitarized by the Versailles Treaty) and opened the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. On July 15 1937, they opened the Buchenwald concentration camp. [2]

Now let's say you're the President of the Church at this time (and remember: you're a prophet, seer and revelator. You know stuff most of us don't). As the one who has a direct line to God, would you travel to Germany and hang out with a bunch of Nazis? Would you get photos taken with them, add to their credibility and seek to glorify them? Or would you stay at home, and perhaps even condemn the Nazis?

Well, if you chose to avoid the Nazis and condemn them, then you would be choosing the incorrect course of action. In all actuality, the Church President at the time - Heber J. Grant - chose to spend several weeks in Germany, praising the people and Nazis at every turn. He oversaw the church when it glorified Nazi actions (and even took credit for a few of them). And it was the church Grant led which excommunicated a church member who directly opposed the Hitler regime.

"Good Citizens"

In December 1933, the Deseret News published an article with glowing descriptions of the Nazi's adoption of "Fast Sunday," Hitler's personal physical superiority by adhering to a form of the Word of Wisdom, and the praise members had been receiving "for their patriotism": [3]

A little over two years later, Nazi basketball players participated in the 1936 Olympic Games, held in Berlin. They were trained by none other than LDS elders (on the left). [4]

In his Book "Moroni and the Swastika," author David Conley Nelson stated,

"Mormon missionaries played a small but significant role in the German national basketball team's 1936 Olympic efforts. It was not enough to help a hopelessly overmatched team win even a single game, but it helped Mormons win friends among government officials and assert that the American-based sect was no foe of National Socialism. Young elders introduced basketball fundamentals to some of the athletes who had been picked to play on the German team before a professional coach could be hired. Four missionaries kept the official score books for the first round of Olympic basketball play." 

Also in 1936, the Deseret News published a picture of the European Mission President, Joseph F. Merrill, speaking at a Berlin podium adorned with a large swastika. [5]

More than 700 people attended that soiree.

The next year, in the summer of 1937, President Heber J. Grant visited both German-speaking Switzerland and Nazi Germany. [6]

Below is a picture of Pres. Grant at a banquet with the Saints in Frankfurt, Germany on July 8, 1937 - a few days before the Buchenwald concentration camp (the third one to be constructed) opened. [7]

By this time, Nazi Germany had curtailed many freedoms, including religious freedoms. More than thirty different denominations had been prohibited from preaching there. [8]

And check out that Nazi flag in the background. To the Nazis, it was displayed as a requirement of the National Socialist Government. To us, we posted it because we LDS "believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law" - evil or not.

In other words, the Nazis had already shown a significant hatred for the Jews and had curtailed the religious freedoms of thousands of people. But we were OK with all that (after all, our missionaries were competing against fewer Christian denominations for converts), and to symbolize our okay-ness, the church president plopped himself directly in front of the Nazi flag.

It is reported that there were about 870 people present at this meeting -- one of the largest groups of saints that had ever assembled in Europe." [9]

All of these efforts above were synergistic in positioning the church, its leaders and members as non-threats to the Nazis. Nelson summarized:

"From the top to the bottom of the ecclesiastical chain, Mormons in prewar Nazi Germany cooperated to survive and prosper. Many happily believed that they were favored citizens in a police state. Some ordinary congregants convinced themselves that Hitler had read the Book of Mormon and was a secret church member. Mission President Roy Welker, whose wife rode with Hitler in the Führer's limousine, told a civic meeting in Salt Lake City in 1937 that "Jews are safer today in Germany than they are in many parts of the world." [10]

As BYU professor and historian Douglas F. Tobler summarized (regarding Arthur Zander, the Hamburg Branch President and a Nazi party member), 

"He wanted to show that latter-day saints were good Germans, and there was a tremendous amount of pressure that was put on by the government and the party to quickly separate those who are who are good Germans and those who aren't." [11]

Tobler also said,

"I believe Zander put that [a pro-Nazi sign] up there [in a church building] partly as an expression of his support for the regime and partly to communicate that latter-day saints were good citizens in the Third Reich and partly perhaps to protect his own flock." 

We are told that God will "inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God." [12]

Are praising, assisting, validating and glorifying Nazis "good" things? I'd say no.

Where was the power of discernment amongst the prophet and apostles? How could they not have had any clue that Hitler, that the LDS Church wrote many praising things about, was within a few years of becoming the most evil man in history?

(Kind of reminds me of that picture of the First Presidency meeting with Mark Hofmann just before he killed two people).

That being the case, is it possible that the Lord was telling the church, its leaders and members to avoid the Nazis, and to quit giving them credibility? If he didn't, then he abrogated his responsibilities of "Standing for Something". If he did, then it looks like the Jehovah's Witnesses got the message (see below). But why not the LDS Church? 

Let's see what happened to one member who did resist the Nazis, and went on to define what a real hero is made of.

The (Nazi) Traitor in the Midst of the Church

If you're not familiar with the name Helmuth Hübener, you need to be. Click here for the Wiki article about him. Or better yet, watch these YouTubes about him. It would be well worth your time to do so.

And of course, I can't recommend enough THE definitive work on this topic, David Coney Nelson's book, Moroni and the Swastika, available here.

To summarize:

"Helmuth Hübener, a 16-year-old Mormon youth living in Hitler's Germany, exhibited unprecedented moral courage in opposing the propaganda machine of the Nazi regime in the summer of 1941. 

By all accounts, Helmuth Hübener was a remarkable boy - a worthy role model for any teenager, male or female, then or now. Unlike his peers in 1941…Helmuth acted on his discomfort with the ever growing restrictions on civil rights and personal freedoms in the totalitarian dictatorship and specifically with the treatment of Jews. Following his conscience rather than his fears, he secretly tuned into illegal German-language BBC broadcasts and discovered the distortions and outright lies in the Nazi propaganda about the progress of the war effort, as compared to the details provided by the BBC. He discretely enlisted Rudolf "Rudi" Wobbe and Karl-Heinz Schnibbe, trusted Mormon friends from his St. Georg LDS branch in central Hamburg - the largest branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in its West German Mission with over 400 members at the time - (and later also his colleague Gehard Düwer) to help him distribute leaflets typed using the branch typewriter, which he kept at home as part of his work as Branch Secretary. As noted, his resolve was fatal.

For his trouble he was arrested on February 5, 1942 (less than a month after turning 17)." [13]

What is not commonly known is that when Hübener was arrested it put the whole branch in danger. The Gestapo scrutinized the branch even more intensely, with agents frequently attending meetings and taking notes. The Gestapo naturally believed that adults in the branch had influenced Hübener and his friends to act, which it did not.

Thus, 10 days after Hübener's arrest (15 February 1942), Hübener's branch president excommunicated the young man without consulting his church superiors or holding the church court normally prerequisite for excommunication or other discipline. [14] The reason: for "intercepting and spreading foreign broadcast transmissions." [15]

"In removing Helmuth's name from the church membership rolls, and simultaneously defrocking him from the universal Mormon male priesthood, Arthur Zander had decreed that Helmuth Hübener's soul could not enter the Celestial Kingdom, the Mormon concept of Heaven. That was a steep price to pay for defaming Adolf Hitler, but apparently the Nazi Party was pleased with Zander's actions and with the attitude of his congregants. On February 24, 1942, nine days after Zander's excommunication of Hübener, the Hamburg district leader for the Nazi Party wrote to the Gestapo: "This [St. Georg Mormon] church congregation is legally recognized and stands on a firm footing with the present government." [16]

What a place to have your congregation - "on a firm footing" with Nazis!

"[Hübener was] brutally interrogated and later tortured in Gestapo prisons in Hamburg and Berlin, and then finally beheaded by guillotine in the Gestapo's Berlin Plötzensee prison on October 27, 1942 as the youngest person (at age 17) to be sentenced by Hitler's special "People's Court" and executed for conspiracy to commit treason against the Nazi regime." [13]

Hübener died with a clean conscience. He was executed for engaging in acts of heroism against a truly evil totalitarian government. Here are the last words he said in mortality:

“Now I must die, even though I have committed no crime.

So now it's my turn, but your turn will come."

"Standing for Something"? Damn straight he did.

Amidst a church which had adopted - from top to bottom -- an enthusiastic attitude towards the Nazis, it's clear to me that Hübener acted as inspired by the Spirit and was morally right in warning others about the evil Nazis.

On January 24, 1948, Pres. George Albert Smith ordered the reversal of Hübener's excommunication. [17] Hübener was later ordained an Elder and endowed by proxy on June 8, 1948. [18] So, the church and its leaders abandoned Hübener when it actually meant something, then supported him after he'd been long dead and it's the popular opinion again. How brave! While some members may see this as a good thing, it's the most awful example of how fickle, cowardly and pathetic the church's leaders really are.

The church's Hitler policy was to display allegiance to the Nazis in hopes that the church would thrive. The Nazis had power, and the church's leaders needed power in order for the church to survive in Germany. So, they aligned themselves and promoted this powerful political entity. Conversely, Jehovah's Witnesses spoke out against the Third Reich. They were sent to Buchenwald concentration camp. They suffered dearly and many were murdered. I admire them speaking out against Hitler. 

(One might think, "Well, the LDS Church had to go along to get along, in order to maintain its membership base there," but that would be wrong. If membership numbers are any indication of inspiration, the Jehovah's Witnesses (who opposed the Nazi regime) still come out on top. The LDS Church currently has around 40,000 German members [19], whereas the Jehovah's Witnesses have four times that much, or 161,931 [20]).

Still, the story of the church's very public admiration and assistance of the Nazis and its excommunication of a Nazi resistor among its membership is proof enough that the church's leaders were not in tune with God.

"I don't know what we accomplish by dredging these things up and trying to sort them out."

In 1992, BYU produced a play, Hübener, which enjoyed sellout crowds and gained national acclaim and recognition. Yet because German Mormons in Utah and Europe (many of whom were former Nazi party members and military officers) feared the play would cast them in a bad light, church leaders (specifically Dallin Oaks, then the university's president) asked the play's producer not to make the play available again. [19]  

(Today, you can get the play -- and a lot of other cool stuff -- here).

Of the play's quiet suppression, then-apostle Thomas S. Monson stated, ''Who knows who was right or wrong. I don't know what we accomplish by dredging these things up and trying to sort them out." [21]

That's called "sweeping it under the rug" -- a classic action which demonstrates an unwillingness (or perhaps inability) to learn from the mistakes of the past.

Which takes us to today.

Have the church's leaders learned from their mistakes?

Because of our natural human predilection not to learn from the past -- and church leaders' ambivalence toward learning the lessons of Nazi sympathy and Hübener's excommunication -- neither the general church membership nor its leaders are in a prime position to ensure past mistakes are never repeated. 

And as we know, God's pretty fond of teaching us the same 'ol lessons until we get them.

Today, the church is dealing with a number of interesting situations:

• Its leaders publicly support and contribute to national pro-abortion candidates.
• It publicly promotes and assists an organization which promotes abortion. 
• It publicly promotes and assists an organization which is actively, publicly developing a man-made new world order with no mention whatsoever of God nor Jesus Christ.
• It encourages "everyone" to be "good citizens" by following "the wise and thoughtful recommendations of…government leaders."
• Because these recommendations involve partaking of something proven destructive to human immune systems and their bodies in general, they have the potential to obliterate an entire class of humans (those who have taken the jab) (see here, here, here and here).
• It has threatened - and followed through with - excommunicating those who oppose its jab policies. 

As I asked earlier, what if someone, or something, just as bad as Hitler and the Nazis came along? 

Will we have the necessary discernment to detect evil?

What this all means to you...NOW

We are told in Revelation 18:23, "And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived."

• "And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee"
• Is literally kai phOs luchnou ou mE phanE en soi eti, or "And light of lamp not no may be appearing in you." (source)
• This cross-references with Jeremiah 25:10: "I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle"
• "the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee"
• The bride (righteous, faithful mortals) and the bridegroom (the Lord) no longer resonate within them. See Jeremiah 7:34; Jeremiah 16:9.
• "for thy merchants were the great men of the earth"
• The Greek word for merchants is emporoi (plural of emporos) (source; source)
• They - the great and important of the earth - are selling something. What are they selling? Keep reading…
• "sorceries"
• Is pharmakeia (far-mak-i'-ah) - the root word for words we commonly use today, like pharmacist and pharmaceutical.
• It not only means "drugs," but also "poisoning" and/or "the use or administering of drugs" and/or an "enchantment" (source)
• "were all nations deceived"
• Is eplanEthEsan panta ta ethnE, or "all the nations were strayed/deceived" (source)

Because the faithful lack the light they need to detect these sorceries, Hosea 4:6 kicks in: 

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee … seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God. …"

Joseph Smith once explained how members develop darkness in their minds. He said,

"if the people departed from the Lord, they must fall -- that they were depending on the Prophet, hence were darkened in their minds, in consequence of neglecting the duties devolving upon themselves..." [22]

Or, as Brigham Young stated,

"What a pity it would be if we were led by one man to utter destruction! Are you afraid of this? I am more afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by him. I am fearful they settle down in a state of blind self-security, trusting their eternal destiny in the hands of their leaders with a reckless confidence that in itself would thwart the purposes of God in their salvation, and weaken the influence they could give to their leaders, did they know for themselves, by the revelations of Jesus, that they are led in the right way. Let every man and woman know, themselves, whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates, or not. This has been my exhortation continually." [23]

Question: Would true "prophets of God" encourage you to put your trust in "medical experts and government leaders" [20] -- in other words, the arm of flesh -- or in God? [24]

They've aligned themselves with "government leaders" before, and with tragic consequences.

Seems to me since church leaders are reluctant to do it, it's time for us to not be found having a lack of knowledge. We need to learn the mistakes of the past, and ensure they are not repeated today…

…before it's too late.

"To sin by silence, when they should protest,

makes cowards of men." (Ella Wheeler Wilcox,

contained in "Poems of Problems", p. 154–55)

Sources

1.   M. Russell Ballard, "When Shall These Things Be?" BYU Devotional, March 12, 1996
2.   https://www.museumoftolerance.com/education/teacher-resources/holocaust-resources/timeline-of-the-holocaust.html
3.   Deseret News, Dec. 10, 1933.
4.   "Two Modern Methods: Sports, Radio," Deseret News, January 25, 1936
5.   "Germany holds M.I.A. 'Echo of Joy' Festival" Deseret News, July 18, 1936
6.   https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4088&context=byusq
7.   Hyrum J. Smith, "President Grant in Frankfurt, Germany," Deseret News, August 7, 1937
8.   Grant, in 108th Semi-Annual Conference of the Church, p. 4
9.   Bertis Lloyd Embry, Journal, July 5 and 8,1937, typescript, Missionary Journals November 1935-July 1938, Church Archives
10.   David Conley Nelson, "Moroni and the Swastika," p. 13.
11.   https://youtu.be/ICswA1YnvA8?t=401
12.   Moroni 7:13.
13.   https://bycommonconsent.com/2014/10/27/helmuth-hubener-on-the-day-of-his-execution
14.   Barbara Beuys, "Vergeßt uns nicht - Menschen im Widerstand 1933-1945", 1987. P. 488.
15.   "Abhören u. Verbreiten ausl. Rundfunksenden."
16.   District Leader to State Secret Police, in Holmes and Keele, "When Truth Was Treason," Document 17: 175.
17.   "Helmuth Hübener Membership Record," LDS Archives.
18.   Kunkel interview, LDS Archives, 21.
19.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints_in_Germany
20.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah%27s_Witnesses_by_country#Europe
21.   https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/15/us/play-about-mormon-youth-s-war-on-hitler-stirs-conflict-in-church.html
22.  Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith pp. 237-38
23.  Brigham Young, JD 9:150
24.  https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/first-presidency-message-covid-19-august-2021

VIDEO PROOF: When a First Presidency member publicly told a bald-faced lie

In his address, "The Love and Laws of God," given at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, on September 17, 2019, Pres. Nelson said:

"We may not always tell people what they want to hear. Prophets are rarely popular. But we will always teach the truth!

My dear young friends, exaltation is not easy. Requirements include a focused and persistent effort to keep God’s laws, and rigorously repenting when we don’t. But the reward for doing so is far greater than anything we can imagine, because it brings us joy here, and 'never-ending happiness'  hereafter.

Thus, our commission as Apostles is to teach nothing but truth." [1]

OK, great: Apostles teach nothing but the truth. Got it. Now, with that in mind, let's stroll down a bit of Brigham Young University Memory Lane. It's important.

A Brief History of BYU Electroshock Aversion Therapies

Dallin H Oaks served as BYU's President from August 1971 – August 1980 [2]. During that time, Gerald J. Dye oversaw the University Standards Office (renamed the Honor Code Office in 1991). [3] Dye stated that during that decade part of the "set process" for homosexual BYU students referred to his office for "less serious" offenses was to require that they undergo some form of therapy to remain at BYU, and that in special cases, this included "electroshock and vomiting aversion therapies." [4].

Here is an excerpt from the Wikipedia article on BYU electroshock aversion therapies (all source citations are found in the article, here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Young_University_LGBT_history):

'In an independent BYU newspaper article two men describe their experience with the BYU Aversion therapy program during the early 1970s.[89]: 162  After confessing to homosexual feelings they were referred to the BYU Counseling Center where the electroshock aversion therapy took place using pornographic pictures of males and females. Jon, one of the individuals, implied that the treatment was completely ineffective.[90] The experiences match most reports which state that shock therapy was ineffective in changing sexual orientation.[91]

From 1975 to 1976 Max Ford McBride, a student at BYU, conducted electroshock aversion therapy on 17 men (with 14 completing the treatment) using a male arousal measuring device placed around the penis and electrodes on the bicep. He published a dissertation on the use of electrical aversive techniques to treat ego-dystonic homosexuality.[92] The thesis documents the use of "Electrical Aversion Therapy" on 14 homosexual men using a "phallometric" apparatus, "barely tolerable" shocks, and "nude male visual-cue stimuli."[93][94] Although it is not publicly published whether all top LDS Church leaders were aware of the electroshock aversion therapy program,[95] it is known that apostles Spencer W Kimball, Mark E. Peterson, and now apostle Dallin H. Oaks were,[2]: 379  and leaders involved in LDS Social Services thought the therapy was effective.[96][40]: 164–165  At the time, homosexuality was considered by the medical community as a psychiatric condition,[97] and aversion therapy was one of the more common methods used to try to change it.[98] In 1966, Martin Seligman had conducted a study at the University of Pennsylvania that demonstrated positive results, which led to "a great burst of enthusiasm about changing homosexuality [that] swept over the therapeutic community."[99] After flaws were demonstrated in Seligman's experiments, aversion therapy fell out of popularity, and in 1994 the American Medical Association issued a report that stated "aversion therapy is no longer recommended for gay men and lesbians."[100]

Participant in the 1975–76 BYU study Don Harryman wrote that he experienced "burns on [his] arms and ... emotional trauma."[101][102] Another participant, John Clarence Cameron, who wrote a play called "14" about his experiences, said "it didn’t change anything except increase my self-loathing. I didn’t know the ramifications of the experiment until years later."[103] Cameron stated that he "would like everyone to tell the truth, admit the mistakes that took place, and stop trying to act like it didn't happen"[104] Another one of the test subjects described his experiences, stating "No one wanted to change more than I did. I did everything within my power to change, and it didn't alter my homosexuality one whit. All I had learned to do was suppress much of my personality ... I was shutting down, turning off.... I was making my life miserable by a pervasive denial of who I am."[105]

Additionally, Connell O'Donovan describes the attempts by the University to 'cure' his homosexuality through vomit-inducing aversion therapy as well as electroshock aversion therapy. Val Mansfield and Drew Staffanson also describe undergoing aversion therapy and Raymond King describes his involvement as an intern with the BYU psychology department's electroshock aversion therapy program in the 1996 short documentary Legacies.[106] The documentary 8: The Mormon Proposition also contains an interview wherein Bruce Barton states that BYU coerced him into vomit aversion therapy, as well as electroshock therapy, which later precipitated his suicide attempt.[107] Jayce Cox also reported his experience with BYU shock therapy[108] and suicidal ideation in articles and an MTV documentary.[109][110][111] Scott Burton discusses the burn marks on his wrists he developed when undergoing electroshock therapy from ages 13 to 15 at the hands of a Mormon therapist by request from his Mormon parents.[112]

In 2011 BYU admitted to the past use of electroshock therapy but denies that it had ever used vomit-inducing therapy "in the BYU Counseling Center"[93] (which has been in the Wilkinson Student Center since 1964). However, the students that underwent the treatment have stated that the vomit therapy took place in the basement of the Psychology department's Joseph F. Smith Family Living Center (built in 1957, demolished in 2002).[106][113]"

Even BYU admitted that electroshock aversion therapy was conducted in the 1970s [5] by Max Ford McBride, then a Psychology Department graduate student. A copy of his August 1976 thesis paper, "Effect of Visual Stimuli in Electric Aversion Therapy," can be found here. August 1976 falls right in the middle of Oaks' tenure as BYU President.

Fast Forward to Today

On November 12, 2021, Oaks participated in a forum at the University of Virginia School of Law. [6] Here is a brief snippet of Oaks' remarks there:

Oaks is a former President of BYU (1971-1980) who oversaw the use of electroshock and vomiting aversion therapy on LGBTQAI+ students. When questioned about this at today’s event, he claimed that these practices ended before his tenure. This is demonstrably false. pic.twitter.com/C0mmwiqcwY

— Lambda Law Alliance at UVA (@lambdaatuva) November 12, 2021

Here is a transcript of his quote:

"Let me say about electric shock treatments at BYU. I became presdient at BYU, that had been discontinued earlier and never went on under my administration." [7]

You can add this one to the discussions about Pres Nelsons' "Flight of Death" and Elder Holland's talk about the missionary and his brother.

Nevertheless, "Oaks declined to comment on the discrepancy between his memory and the research, church spokesperson Doug Andersen said Monday." [8]

So we are left with two options: Either Oaks is suffering from memory loss or he lied. And the church's unwillingness to comment only deepens the suspicion.

Goodbye total / complete "transparency"

Given Oaks' reticence to apologize or comment on his statement -- as well as his position in the First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve and his position as Nelson's heir-apparent -- it looks like now is the appropriate time for us to bid a fond adieu to the church's claim that "We’re as transparent as we know how to be."

Although some might say it's been like this for decades or even generations, we can now consider the following quotes to be invalid re: the LDS Church:

“We would have to say, as two apostles who have covered the world and know the history of the Church and know the integrity of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve from the beginning, there has been no attempt on the part of the Church leaders to try to hide anything from anybody.” [9]

“Just trust us, wherever you are in the world, and you share this message with anyone else who raises the question about the Church not being transparent. We’re as transparent as we know how to be in telling the truth. We have to do that; that’s the Lord’s way.” [9]

“My view is that being open about our history solves a whole lot more problems than it creates. We might not have all the answers, but if we are open (and we now have pretty remarkable transparency), then I think in the long run that will serve us well. I think in the past there was a tendency to keep a lot of the records closed or at least not give access to information. But the world has changed in the last generation — with the access to information on the Internet, we can’t continue that pattern; I think we need to continue to be more open.” [10]

“Well, we have nothing to hide. Our history is an open book. They may find what they are looking for, but the fact is the history of the church is clear and open and leads to faith and strength and virtues.” [11]

“I think in the past there was a tendency to keep a lot of the records closed or at least not give access to information.  But the world has changed in the last generation-with the access to information on the Internet, we can’t continue that pattern; I think we need to continue to be more open.” [12] 

It will be interesting to see if God ever calls this proven liar to be his "mouthpiece" to the world. 

"Wo unto the liar, for he shall be thrust down to hell." [13]

"Lying is sinful, as it has always been, and there is no exempt category for so-called lying for the Lord. Lying is simply outside the range of permitted or condoned conduct by Latter-day Saints members or leaders." (Dallin H. Oaks, Gospel Teachings About Lying, address to faculty, students, and alumni of BYU on September 12, 1993)

Questions

I have a few questions for Pres. Oaks:

1. Pres. Nelson says apostles "teach nothing but the truth." Is that still true?
2. Were you BYU President from August 1971 to August 1980?
3. Did you state at the University of Virginia School of Law forum held on November 12, 2021 that "I became president at BYU, that [electroshock aversion therapy] had been discontinued earlier and never went on under my administration."?
4. If so, then why is there such an abundance of evidence that contradicts your statement (even from BYU itself)?
5. Do you still believe that apostles "teach nothing but the truth"?
6. If this was a mistake, then why didn't you admit to it and apologize (as others would)? That's called being "open" and "honest" -- two of God's virtues. 
7. What makes you superior to others by not admitting mistakes, and how is that an example of humility?
8. Is your statement re: lying dated September 12, 1993 still truthful, or not?
9. Just to clarify: Are members expected to repent and be accountable for their actions, but the leaders have a “no apologies” policy? How is this not the height of hypocrisy?
10. What are members to think/do when one of their top leaders is not exactly being honest in their dealings with their fellow man? 

Sources

1 https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/president-nelson-byu-transcript-september-2019
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallin_H._Oaks
3 "Brigham Young University. University Standards Office". BYU Library. BYU. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
4 O'Donovan, Rocky Connell; Corcoran, Brent (1994). "'The Abominable and Detestable Crime against Nature' A Brief History of Homosexuality and Mormonism, 1840–1980". Multiply and Replenish. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN 978-1560850502. Retrieved 13 August 2017, p 155
5 https://abcnews.go.com/Health/mormon-gay-cures-reparative-therapies-shock-today/story?id=13240700
6 https://www.law.virginia.edu/news/event/1411656
7 https://twitter.com/lambdaatuva/status/1459256897958260741?s=21
8      https://sltrib.pressreader.com/article/6788663979620408
9      M. Russell Ballard, 11/20/17, https://www.thechurchnews.com/archive/2017-11-20/personal-revelation-homosexuality-and-dating-among-topics-discussed-in-face-to-face-broadcast-46757
10    Steven Snow, former member of the First Quorum of the Seventy and former executive director of the Church History Department, 11/8/2013
11    Gordon B. Hinckley, The Associated Press interview, Dec. 25, 2005
12    Steven Snow, https://mi.byu.edu/truth-in-church-history-excerpts-from-the-religious-educators-qa-with-elder-steven-snow
13    2 Nephi 9:34