The Problem With Denver Snuffer

Previously: Farewell, Sweet Soul

I'm willing to bet there's no one in Mormondom more misrepresented than Denver Snuffer has been these past few weeks. You'll find no shortage of people willing to tell you all about what Denver Snuffer believes in, or denounce him and warn you away from him based on extensive research they gleaned from hours of vigorous guessing.

If there's a problem with Denver Snuffer, it's that there is a veritable glut of wild speculation about him from people who have no idea what they're talking about. Much of what I’ve heard others say about the mysterious Brother Snuffer is wildly inaccurate, yet declared with an air of testimonial certainty by people who have never heard him speak or bothered to read a word he has written. Normally I'd find such ignorance oddly endearing; maybe even a bit entertaining. But right now I just find it...well, odd.

The man does have a website, after all. So anyone can just go over there and have a peek at this mystery man's writings. He has authored ten books, some of which had been available through Deseret Book before he was declared persona non grata from that fine establishment. Those books can still be purchased through Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. His recent series of lectures, the source of most of the current controversy, can be read online for free. So I'd think it shouldn't be too much trouble to learn something about the man's beliefs by going to the source himself instead of lazily sitting around making up Boogeyman stories. Denver Snuffer is a lot less scary than some would make him out to be.

Boogah-Boogah!
Denver Snuffer was a devout member of the LDS church for 40 years, all the way up until the day they excommunicated him for writing a book. I reported on that incident in my post The Denver Snuffer Debacle. If you are unfamiliar with who Denver is, you may want to read that piece first. Click here.

This particular book of Denver's was titled Passing The Heavenly Gift. It is a history of LDS Church leadership. And it is a very good one. No one in the Church hierarchy ever claimed anything in the book was inaccurate.

Nevertheless, Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles took it upon himself to pressure Brother Snuffer's stake president to excommunicate Denver from the church unless he pulled the book from publication.[1]  Nelson leaned on Snuffer's stake president for a year and a half until finally Denver got the boot. Overnight an active, believing, devout stake high councilman who always kept his covenants and whose testimony never wavered was suddenly labeled an apostate. Over a book he wrote. A book no one challenged as being in error.

This move on the part of Elder Nelson was a serious violation of church law, as members of the Twelve are forbidden to interfere in such matters within the stakes of the church. The scriptures say so, and so did Joseph Smith. But today’s leaders rarely consult the scriptures anymore, and Joseph Smith is dead, so members of the Twelve disobey that instruction all the time.[2]

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[1]Denver Snuffer, Letter of Appeal to the First Presidency, included as an appendix to the Phoenix Transcript, pg 41-42. https://www.scribd.com/doc/239760895/10-Phoenix-Transcript-Preserving-the-Restoration.

[2] "The Twelve will have no right to go into Zion or any of its stakes and there undertake to regulate the affairs thereof where there is a standing High Council. But it is their duty to go abroad and regulate all matters relative to the different branches of the church.” -Joseph Smith to the Twelve, Kirtland Council Minute Book as quoted in Shephard and Marquardt, Lost Apostles: Forgotten Members of Mormonism's Original Quorum of the Twelve pg 85-86. See also D&C Sections 102 and 107.

To my knowledge, Russell Nelson has never denied the key part he played in the ouster of Brother Snuffer. If he did he would be lying. Someone has, however, managed to arrange for several members of the Church PR department to lie for him. This keeps Russell Nelson's hands clean and allows him plausible deniability.[3]

Despite being excommunicated for “apostasy” (which nowadays means anything the leaders want it to mean), Denver remains a devout believer in the gospel of the Restoration. So he went ahead with his plans for a year-long series of speaking engagements, the overall theme being, as the late Hugh Nibley aptly titled his own book, Approaching Zion.

In that book, compiled from speeches and articles written as far back as 40 years ago, Nibley lamented how far we have come from attaining a Zion society, which was supposed to be our principal goal from the moment this church was founded. Nibley asserted that rather than getting closer to Zion, the Church seemed be running lickety-split in the other direction. He noted that the Church in our day has more in common with Babylon than with Zion. He reminded us that Church leaders named Babylonian institutions like the local Federal Reserve branch “Zion's Bank,” which is as close to a slap in the face as you can give to God without hurting your own hand. Nibley made some very pointed barbs toward those in Church leadership, yet no one in the Church hierarchy moved to excommunicate him for his criticisms as they later did Denver Snuffer. Nibley was a beloved and respected Church scholar all the way up until his death at age 95.

Nibley's book was published at a time when there weren't that many overt indications that the Church was veering dangerously off track, so back then, Nibley did not succeed in rousing the Saints to their awful situation. Today it's a different story. There is widespread disillusionment among the rank and file. Hugh Nibley is dead, but Denver Snuffer's similar concerns are now resonating with a great many church members.

I have not seen Denver Snuffer say anything that a number of renowned LDS thinkers like Hugh Nibley would not have said also. What Denver mostly does is encourage his listeners to return to the scriptures. As Nibley also pointed out, a good many of our scriptures tend to indict those in positions of power who would lead the Lord’s people in a direction other than that which the Lord has commanded -all while assuring us they are incapable of error.[4]  A growing number of Saints have awakened in recent years to the reality that the prophecies foretold in the book of Mormon are being fulfilled in our very day.

Not Knowing Our Religion
In reading and listening to Denver's lectures, I was reminded of how during my teen and Young Adult years I attended the Church sponsored “Know Your Religion” series wherein various gospel scholars would travel to outlying stakes like mine, where they would present fascinating talks on church history and theology. The things Denver Snuffer teaches in his presentations remind me of things I learned listening to scholars like Truman Madsen and Sidney B. Sperry. Like Brothers Madsen and Sperry, Denver reminded his listeners that we have not been living up to the ideals of the Restoration, and he shows us how we can do better. Nothing very controversial here. Unless you consider the standard works to be controversial.

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[3]For documentation on the recent assurances from the Church public relations department to various media outlets denying interference in local disciplinary matters, along with evidence that those assurances are patently untrue, see chapter 5 of my book, What To Expect When You're Excommunicated: The Believing Mormon's Guide to the Coming Purge. (You didn't think I would miss a chance to plug my own book here, did you? It's available from Benchmark Books in Salt Lake City, and also from Amazon.com.)

[4]Russell Ballard declared, “Keep your eyes riveted on the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. We will not lead you astray. We cannot.”  That's quite a promise of infallibility. Too bad Ballard wasn't able to back it up by quoting the Lord in a direct revelation. All we have for now is Ballard's word on it.

Unrighteous Judgment

Recently I’ve heard from several devout members of the church, most of them women, telling me they have been interrogated by their bishops and stake presidents merely because they were known to have attended one of Denver Snuffer's lectures. Four of them immediately had their temple recommends revoked, their church callings rescinded, and told they were prohibited from taking the sacrament. Others I know have been disfellowshiped, and some were excommunicated. On what grounds? “Associating with a known apostate” is the reason most frequently given.

So now any active, believing member of the church can be disciplined for befriending a non-member.

Many of these attendees were asked “Do you believe Denver Snuffer is a prophet?”

Well, the answer to that should be obvious to anyone who’s familiar with Snuffer. Of course he’s a prophet. The proper response to any bishop who asks such a question is “Aren't you? Aren't we all supposed to be prophets?”

Take a look in the Bible Dictionary at the back of your set of LDS scriptures and you'll find this definition: “In a general sense a prophet is anyone who has a testimony of Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost.”

Denver Snuffer clearly has such a testimony, and he bears it frequently. But because he is a non-member (through no choice of his own) you can now get called into the Church principal’s office and get suspended or expelled just for being in the same room with this guy.

I suppose the reason Church leaders get so antsy about a member calling another person a prophet is because we Mormons have such a screwy idea of what a prophet is supposed to be. Most of us think of the prophet as the man at the top of the Church organization, the guy whose job it is to run and manage the Church and give us all our marching orders. But historically, a prophet was a far cry from what we have in place today. Look again at the write-up in your Bible Dictionary: “The work of a Hebrew prophet was to act as God's messenger and make known God's will.”

Someone on LDS Freedom Forum gave what I felt was a fairly apt analogy of the role of a prophet. He describes the prophet as similar in a way to the spokesman for the president of the United States. The president gives the spokesman a message to deliver, and he goes out and delivers that message on behalf of the president. That's it. The messenger doesn't all of a sudden start presiding over the executive branch of government. Nor does he convey his own opinion and try to pass that off as the words of his boss. He delivers only the message he's been sent to deliver, and goes no further. No one follows him home to find out what else he thinks.

There's quite a bit more in the Bible Dictionary regarding the role of a prophet, and as it happens, nothing in there bears much resemblance to what we have today; a corporate CEO who shows up to offer the dedicatory prayer over banks,[5] and participate in ribbon cutting ceremonies for lavish shopping centers.[6]

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[5]That's right. The man we revere as the prophet of God on earth traveled to Provo to give the dedicatory prayer for a bank -very similar to the kind of prayers he gives when dedicating a new temple to the Lord.   http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/central/provo/lds-church-president-dedicates-zions-bank-financial-center/article_aa4c7a09-89ae-5eb4-a361-9fe3d4d400d8.html

[6]See “Bring Ye All The Tithes Into The Stores.” http://puremormonism.blogspot.com/2012/07/bring-ye-all-tithes-into-stores.html  and the follow up, “City Creek: How Did We Come To This?” http://puremormonism.blogspot.com/2013/01/city-creek-how-did-we-come-to-this_20.html

Joseph Smith not only didn't think his role included making celebrity appearances at store openings, he didn't even believe it was his place to run the church. Unlike the constant mantra we hear today to “follow the prophet,” Joseph vigorously insisted the people stop looking to him. He told them their dependence on him was the very thing that was causing them to be darkened in their minds. He tried repeatedly and in vain to get the members to depend upon no man, especially not him.[7]

Joseph Smith did not head up a hierarchy. Where today the Ensign publishes a fold-out flow chart suitable for framing[8] with the First Presidency at the top, followed by the Twelve Apostles, with the Quorums of the Seventy taking direction under the apostles, and the Relief Society as some awkward appendage to them all, Joseph Smith taught something different. All quorums were independent of each other. No position held status over another (not even the First Presidency, and especially not the Twelve Apostles, whose job it was to be the traveling elders, not some group of managers sitting around a boardroom at Church Headquarters). No division was answerable to another -not even the Relief Society, which was supposed to be completely independent of the male priesthood.

 

There was to be no hierarchy in the Church of Jesus Christ. It was a flat organization, with no one at the top “in charge” of anyone else. No member was subject to another, and no leader had authority over any member. A person with a calling had authority to direct only himself in his duties. He could not use his priesthood power to impose his will on others. If he so much as tried, his priesthood was instantly rendered impotent.[9]

It was a great source of frustration to the prophet Joseph that instead of each man seeking the will of God in his own life, the people clamored for someone else to tell them what to do. Nearly half the members in Nauvoo were converts from the British Isles, where centuries of dependence on authority was bred into the very culture.[10]  After Joseph Smith was murdered, the vast majority of these converts looked to Brigham Young to lead them.

We tend to forget that Brigham Young was not chosen to preside over the church by way of any revelation from God. He was elected by a slim majority of members after vigorously campaigning for that position. And even then it wasn't Brigham Young who the people selected, it was the entire quorum of the Twelve as a body, of whom Brigham Young was the Presiding Elder. Brigham Young was never ordained a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator; after the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum, there was no one left on earth who had those keys. Brigham even denied having the gifts that Joseph was blessed with. Nevertheless, over time we have been taught that Brigham Young was a prophet equal to Joseph Smith, until today our traditions hold that every man who attains the position of president of the Church has gifts and authority equal to those held by the founding prophet himself.

This belief is wholly unsupportable. We have absolutely zero historical evidence to back up these traditions, and we certainly don't see evidence of these gifts in our current leaders. Consider that not even our pioneer ancestors referred to Young, Taylor, Cannon, Woodruff, et al as prophets of God. In those days, the people called them presidents, not prophets. They presided over the church, but I am aware of few revelations received by them that were conveyed to the people as in Joseph Smith's day.

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[7] Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg 237. See also, “Follow the Prophet, Don't Go Astray” http://zomarah.wordpress.com/2010/09/11/follow-the-prophet-dont-go-astray/
 [8] Or wrapping fish.

[9] D&C 121, “Amen to that priesthood.”

[10] See Lake Wobegon Mormons,  http://puremormonism.blogspot.com/2012/08/lake-wobegon-mormons.html 

Those leaders who had earlier been contemporaries of Joseph Smith when he was alive, both taught and understood there was only one true prophet of this last dispensation, and the claim to that position was Joseph Smith's alone. This modern idea that the successor to Brigham Young is a full-fledged Prophet, Seer, and Revelator on par with Joseph Smith is a construct that did not develop within the church until the mid 1950s. That's also when the hymn “We Thank Thee O God For A Prophet,” originally intended as a tribute to the memory of Joseph Smith, began to be sung when President David O. McKay entered the tabernacle at the start of conference. Too bad McKay didn't nip that in the bud, because ever since then it has continued to be sung as an anthem glorifying men who never exhibited any gifts of prophecy whatsoever. [11]

In the past decade or two I've noticed that the Twelve Apostles are now also considered prophets, seers and revelators in their own right. I don't know when that business got started, but I don't remember being taught it growing up in the church. And unless I'm missing something, there doesn't seem to be much evidence to back up that claim. As LDS philosopher Tarik D. LaCour recently wrote in Sustaining Church Leaders: 

“In order to be a revelator, one must be a prophet and a seer also. It is not enough merely to have revelations, as all members of the church should have them. Rather, it is to tell others through the power of the spirit what has been revealed to you. If Joseph Smith had kept to himself what was made known to him, he would be a prophet and seer only. But, because what has been made known to him was made known to us, he is a prophet, seer, and revelator.

“Is President Thomas S. Monson a prophet, seer, and revelator? True it is that he holds the keys of the priesthood and is the president of the high priesthood. However, in the 40 plus years that he has been sustained as such, Thomas S. Monson has not made one prophecy, seen [translated] one thing, or revealed any new divine truth. This is not to say he is not a wonderful man. He is. But he is not a prophet, seer , and revelator. By virtue of theoffice he holds as president of the Church, he has the right to use these things. But apparently he does not want to use them.”12

Or it could be that the Lord has not seen fit to reveal anything in our day for reasons He already revealed long ago?[13]   We seem to have forgotten the Lord declared the whole church to be under condemnation. I would think that would include the Church's leaders.

It certainly couldn't have anything to do with the astonishing arrogance of some in high office who wear their titles like badges of honor, could it? On the popular new blog maintained by an anonymous bishop, we learn of this revealing exchange with apostle David Bednar:

I remember in a leadership training meeting where Elder Bednar told the story of how he was asked the following question: “How are you guys (referring to the brethren) so in tune with the Lord?” Elder Bednar’s response was interesting. “First of all,” he said “we are not ‘guys’. We are prophets, seers, and revelators. We are special witnesses. Don’t refer to us as guys.”

Hoooo-chee, Mama! Remind me not to cross that guy. David Bednar is so fully convinced of his special place in the firmament that if you forget to address him with the proper degree of deference, he will dress you down one side and up the other right in front of the the whole assembly! Bet you won't make that mistake again.

Here's my favorite part of this story: later that weekend in a training segment with the youth, Bednar sprinkled his conversation with words such as “dude, rad, gnarly, and freakin” so those kids would think of him as just one of the guys.[14]

[11] The lyrics to the hymn were penned by William Fowler, a British convert. The tune was borrowed from a Scottish bagpipe number played at military funerals. (You many have also noticed that the tune for Praise to the Man is also cribbed from a bagpipe standard, Scotland the Brave.)
[12] Sustaining Church Leaders https://www.scribd.com/doc/241926848/Sustaining-Church-Leaders
For a thorough analysis regarding what gifts should attend a prophet, seer, and revelator, see Michael Ellis, Thomas S. Monson, A Seer, A Revelator, A Translator, and A Prophet. http://zomarah.wordpress.com/2011/02/09/thomas-s-monson-a-seer-a-revelator-a-translator-and-a-prophet/ 
[13] Ezra Taft Benson, “Cleansing the Inner Vessel” https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1986/04/cleansing-the-inner-vessel?lang=eng 
[14] I'm just an old geezer myself, so I'm not up to speed with the groovy lingo of these young hepcats of the now generation, but do kids today still use words like 'rad' and 'gnarly'? Those words were considered 'boss' and 'tubular' when I was a teenager way back in the sixties, so either Bednar is hopelessly out of touch, or I am, Daddy-O. (And isn't it odd that someone of Bednar's snootily proper stature would use the word “freakin',” which everyone knows is a slang variation of a vulgar term referring to the act of procreation?)

Why Not Simply Heed The Message?
Denver Snuffer has never claimed to be a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator, so David Bednar, you and the boys in Salt Lake can breathe easy for now. Denver Snuffer is not after your jobs.

But he did have a message to deliver, and the last part of that message was presented at Phoenix, Arizona on September 9th. In a nutshell, the message was this: if we are to aspire to a Zion society, now is the time to dig in and get started. Waiting for the institutional Church to give us the go-ahead is not going to make it happen. And guess what? Zion was never intended to be instituted from the top down anyway. In fact, it could not be Zion if it was.  Zion has failed to appear thus far because the Saints have been waiting around for their leaders to start it up for them. It's been almost 200 years, and we'll wait 200 more if we refuse to simply follow the plan the Lord has already laid out for us.

You can read the Phoenix transcript for yourself here. But it won't have near as much meaning if you don't take a look at the nine lectures that preceded it. These talks, as Denver frequently reminds the listener, are intended to be seen as ten interrelated segments of one master presentation. They must be heard or read in their entirety and in the proper order if you expect to fully grasp the message.

How do we create Zion? Well first off, you don't do it by quitting this church and joining a new one. That's what so many outsiders feared Denver was up to; that his plan was to siphon off loyal latter-day Saints and start his own church. That's hogwash -the kind of nonsense that results from the current LDS corporate think, the idea that a prophet is some guy who has a bunch of followers who can't function unless they have a leader to look to for instruction. Denver Snuffer has no followers, nor does he want any.

In fact, an interesting thing happened as soon as Denver was finished speaking in Phoenix. He up and walked out the door.

That's right. He just left.

He had left his audience with a thousand questions they wanted answers to, but like the true prophet he is, he delivered the message God gave him to deliver, and when he was finished he was done. Many of the people who read or listened to that lecture later flooded his blog and email box with more questions.

Don't they get it? Denver Snuffer is not going to tell you how to do what the Lord has already taught you to do. He is not going to lead anybody anywhere. He is not going to be your president, prophet, or mystical guru. You want a Zion society? The instructions are in the scriptures. Denver Snuffer helpfully pointed those scriptures out to you. Now he's done. What more do you want?

If you're looking for someone to take charge and lead you, you may as well continue on the path you've been following. You've had people willing to take charge of you and lead you all your life and you're no closer to Zion now than the Saints were in 1831. What's it going to take for you to wake up and realize you don't need leaders in order to accomplish the Lord's purposes? Looking for someone other than Jesus Christ to be in charge of us is the very thing that has hampered this church for a hundred and eighty two years.

I am now encouraged that it's possible create Zion in our day. If anyone reading this is truly interested in doing that, I would suggest simply going to the source and reading the transcripts Denver Snuffer provides on his website, beginning with the first one he gave in Boise Idaho, and ending with the one at Phoenix, Arizona. You'll find them listed in order on the right side of his website. Do not rely on anyone else's summary or truncated interpretation of what Denver believes or what he preaches. I guarantee you will get it wrong.

I had intended to supply some snippets of quotes from the Phoenix seminar, because it's so rich in wisdom. But then I realized that offering snippets of things Denver Snuffer said has been part of the problem; it's very easy to misinterpret what he says if you don't hear or read it all in context.

I got a chuckle out of a question I saw in an online forum where someone had seen that the transcript of the Phoenix presentation was 42 pages long. He was reluctant to read the entire document, and asked the other members of the forum, “is there some sort of Cliff Notes version where I can get the gist of what he's saying?”

I guess he didn't realize that Denver's ten part series of lectures is the Cliff Notes version. These transcripts are the Cliff Notes to the Standard Works. They are an overview and analysis to the entire purpose of the Restoration of the gospel. They represent the coursework that will enable you to get the full gist of God's plan for his people. If you take the trouble to familiarize yourself with Denver Snuffer's Ten Part Overview of the Restoration, you will have earned your G.E.D. in Mormon Studies. Here are the chapter headings:

Be of Good Cheer

Faith

Repentance

Covenants

Priesthood

Zion

Christ

A Broken Heart and Contrite Spirit

Marriage and Family

Preserving the Restoration

That pretty much covers the essentials of what the Lord would have us know and do, front to back. And it's all very fascinating; you won't want to stop. There's nothing tedious about Denver Snuffer's teachings. If you want a deeper understanding, then go ahead and read the entire standard works. But when you do I think you'll be glad you had a guide like Denver Snuffer to point out the good parts for you in advance.

I highly recommend not only reading the transcripts, but also listening to the audio recordings, because Denver has a droll sense of humor that does not always translate to the written page. If you don't hear the inflections in some of the things he says, some of his comments could be misinterpreted, and you might take too seriously some of the things he says in jest. I like listening to the audio version of the talks first, then I read them so I get the footnotes.

Let me make a couple of things clear: First, Denver Snuffer is not looking to lead any kind of movement. The very idea repulses him.

Second, there is no such entity as a “Snuffer-ite.” If you come across someone who calls himself a
follower of Denver Snuffer, run the other way. He's either a phony or he just doesn't get it. Those who attended Snuffer's lectures are not Denver Snuffer's followers. They consider themselves followers of Jesus Christ.

Some years ago while reading a book on early American history, I was struck by a letter sent back to England from one of the colonial governors assigned by the King of England to govern the colonies. He was lamenting the fact that the American colonists refused follow his orders.

“We tell them their king demands obedience, but they stubbornly reply 'we have no king but Jesus.'”

If there is one belief held in common by the thousands so far who have found validity in the messages delivered by Denver Snuffer in his series of talks, it is that we have no king but Jesus. A rapidly growing number of latter-day Saints are discovering that leaders don't contribute anything to the advance of Zion; they often just get in the way. I think of that poor confused colonial governor every time I hear someone try to tell me my safety lies in following the Brethren. It makes me want to remind them of the words of the prophet Joshua, which I prefer to paraphrase.“You can follow whatever idols you want to, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

I suggest that if you hope to become spiritually mature, you're going to have to stop letting others frighten you away from examining the words of a fellow believer simply because someone in authority has told you he'll endanger your soul. Read Brother Snuffer's words and judge for yourself whether you think his thoughts are at least as inspired as anything you just heard in general conference this weekend.[15]  And if your bishop, stake president, or any other authority figure asks you if you think Denver Snuffer is a prophet, ask him this question:

“Aren't you a prophet?”

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[15] Yes, I made a joke. Of course Denver Snuffer's words are more inspired than anything you'll hear in conference.

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