What do the LDS Church and Plato have in Common?

They say politics makes strange bedfellows. Religion does, too, especially when religion is based on something other than the Bible.

In fact, many in the LDS Church have found a friend in Plato. Let me explain.

A Historical Reckoning

Prior to Google, it was challenging to hold LDS leaders accountable. Original documents, transcribed talks, and old periodicals were safely stored in hard-to-find periodical collections, LDS libraries, or specialized bookstores. If a researcher wanted to see, for example, what exactly Brigham Young said about the inhabitants of the sun¹, he or she had to visit one of those specific collections personally and hope the resource was there.

Nowadays, Google will fetch a scanned image in less than a second. As such, modern-day Latter-day Saints are forced to reckon with unsavory history, bizarre doctrine, and outright blasphemy. When born-again Christians point out these problems, their LDS friends … shrug. Born-again Christians are flabbergasted. Not only are their LDS friends aware of the problem, but they happily promote the LDS Church anyway. Enter Plato.

Plato’s Republic

Plato (428-324 BC) was a classical Greek philosopher whose political ideas profoundly shaped the Roman world of the New Testament. One of Plato’s most enduring contributions was something called, “the noble lie.” In a noble lie, a society’s ruling class teaches as truth a known fiction for the overall good of maintaining social order.

A relatively recent noble lie can be found in Japan circa 1940. Emperor Hirohito’s war-mongering associates advanced his status as a living god to maintain order during WW2. With Japan in ruins, Hirohito renounced the claim in 1946, saying, “The Emperor was a living god in the minds of the people, but I did not believe it. I never encouraged it. And I did not encourage the people to believe in this either.” And with that denial, many believe Hirohito advanced a second noble lie. By falsely distancing himself from pre-war Emperor worship, he retained Japanese social order amid the chaos of postwar rebuilding.

Marrying Plato and Mormonism

Through the years, God has allowed many conversations with a wide variety of LDS leaders. When the conversation turns toward faith, we often find ourselves discussing unsavory elements of LDS history and theology. What follows are three examples of actual comments from actual leaders as best as I can recollect them. I think you’ll see the shape of a noble lie in their responses.

“Well, by their fruits you shall know them. The Church does so much good that it’s best not to dwell on past failings.”

“I’m very bothered by many things about Joseph Smith. But I wouldn’t want to destroy what others have by expressing my concerns or by leaving the Church.”

“I’m at peace with the issues you’ve raised. When people start dwelling on them, it does nothing but split families apart.”

Perhaps you’ve heard responses like the ones above. I don’t pretend to have the best answer (or even the right one, for that matter). But I do have a couple Bible questions that I ask my LDS friends to consider.

Question #1: Although I certainly understand your reluctance to turn your back on your heritage, Jesus said, “God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). How would you reconcile what you’re saying with Jesus’s requirement of truth in worship?

Question #2: Numbers 23:19 says that “God is not a man that He should lie.” Have you considered what God might think of perpetuating a known falsehood even if you think it’s for other people’s good?

Conclusion

The next time you hear a noble lie from your LDS friend, I would encourage you to address it. Respectfully encourage your friend to examine the thought in light of the Bible’s focus on truth. Once you do, tell us how it went. We’d love to hear more about your interaction.