Personal Standards that Guided My Writing of

Joseph Smith: America's Greatest Educator

■ Strive to write under the influence of the Spirit.

■ Construct the text so critics inside and outside the Church could respect it.

■ Make the message theologically accurate—acceptable to Church authorities.

■ Keep the vocabulary in the story-line simple enough for ordinary readers.

■ Make the writing style respectable in a literary sense.

■ Seek to write so Joseph Smith would feel good about the message.

<b><b>/The Oldest and Most Destructive Deception: Rejection and Substitution</b>

As any loving parent would do, our Heavenly Father provided simple answers to the most basic questions that concerned his children:
Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? What should I do? What is my ultimate destiny? He gave this information to the first parents
and instructed them to teach this information to their children. He advised them to keep a family record and pass it on to subsequent generations.
This they did. Some of their children listened and learned; they cherished the answers and followed the counsel. Others, however, were not so
inclined; they heard the information and with a little help from the Adversary (devil that he was) they rejected the answers. They chose not to believe
what their parents taught and substituted their own speculations about what life was all about. A pattern was established. It seemed so easy and exciting
to <i>reject the truth</i> and <i>substitute error</i> in its place. And they got to make their own rules about how to conduct their lives.
This was the origin of the counter-culture; it still prevails in various forms in this mortal estate. True doctrines, principles, and ordinances were
in the past and still are given to the people with a simple explanation and legitimate authority. Inevitably, it seems, many continue to reject this path.
They find it exhilarating to create and substitute false and counterfeit doctrines, principles, and ordinances and promote these without legitimate authority.
Although it is somewhat common to find similar behaviors in both cultures the outcomes are starkly different and affect most aspects of life. On the one hand
continuous effort is expended in the original pattern to seek peace, prosperity, service, and sacrifice. On the other hand, life's dominant drift is toward
eat, drink, and be merry; live for today by the rules you establish that are most comfortable in the moment. The content of the former pattern is to
reverence family, church, schools and government by law. Basic institutions to serve and protect the people are instituted and promoted. Strategies for survival
are pursued. The alternative lifestyle is to attack and destroy the traditional family, distort the concept of Church and corrupt its teachings, challenge,
occupy and change the schools, and revise the purposes of government. Basic ways to confuse and destroy the people are instituted and promoted. Strategies
for destruction are pursued with great vigor--sometimes covertly and other time in the streets with great public visibility. This seems to be what drives
life in mortality. What is our choice?