Dear Gramps,

Is there any official Church statement or quote from the Brethren concerning talking about Church doctrine outside of Church-sanctioned meetings? It seems I heard something like this, that it is requested so we don’t start talking about things we shouldn’t or start making speculations, etc.

Steve, from Utah

Dear Steve,

If we weren’t to talk about Church doctrine outside of Church-sanctioned meetings, we might as well leave all the scriptures and official Church publications in the church buildings. We could assign missionaries different classrooms in which to teach, and the members could bring the investigators there to be taught. They could progress from one classroom to another for each of the six lessons, then proceed to the baptismal font to be baptized. We could then swear them to secrecy to never mention outside of the church building what they had learned.

Perhaps, however, you didn’t mean Church doctrine, but rather speculations about doctrinal issues. To speculate about doctrine suggests that we are talking about things that we don’t really understand, and are guessing at what they may mean. If this is what you refer to, it would probably be a good idea not to propound any ideas, whether religious or not, unless we felt that we knew what we were talking about. The amazing amount of misinformation that is passed around about Mormon Church doctrine and practice is more than evident by the many questions we entertain in this column.

Gramps