Through the wonders of facebook, I was able to read some articles about the anniversary of the Kate Kelly excommunication, and what I assume is a recent disfellowship of a member of the Ordain Women’s board.  The term ‘truth seeker’ was a self description of both of these individuals.  I have also seen this term used by those who claim to be within the church and support this and other causes.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints makes many significant truth claims.  A couple of the most primary claims is that of a restored priesthood, and the calling of prophets and apostles.  Believing that the leadership of the church are authorized representatives of the Lord, and receive revelation from God in fulfilling their responsibilities, seems essential to qualify one as a faithful member of this church.  To think of oneself as a faithful member of the Mormon church, yet to oppose the teachings of the church leaders, is something of a contradiction, and can lead to difficult decisions and soul searching.

It appears that one strategy that is used by people in this situation is to label their side of the disagreement ‘truth’, and their activities as truth seeking.  This is similar to labeling their position as ‘gospel’, while labeling the position of prophets and apostles as ‘church‘.  It is a very easy thing to claim that your opinions, politics, causes, etc. are ‘truth’, and your activities are truth seeking – any terrorist could do the same thing, to give an extreme example..

This type of truth-seeking claim seems very odd to me in a Mormon context.  To claim to be a faithful Mormon, which implies an acceptance of Mormonism’s primary truth claims, yet to oppose it’s teaching or practices in the name of ‘truth’ seeking would include a lot of tension I would think.

The question is whether this seeking is really after truth, or if it is after something much less.