Great, great-great-grandson of Joseph and Emma Smith, Lachlan Mackay, is a member of the Council of Twelve Apostles in Community of Christ.
A native of Independence, Missouri, Lach argues that context is absolutely critical when doing church history. Unbundling theology from history offers these disciplines the integrity they both need and deserve.
This has been important to Lach both professionally and personally as someone who sits in a faith tradition founded by a great-grandparent who continues to be one of America’s most controversial religious figures.
For some reason I find Community of Christ to boring. I guess this thing sort of happens when you agree with everything that is being heard. Whereas the wrestle with the ideas in LDS tradition produces a level of cognitive dissonance that initiates a journey of the soul and mind in search for ideas.
But maybe I don’t know any better. I’m not sure if CoC speaks to me… I just don’t know it well enough, and giving that up to follow a different faith community seems like starting all over again. If the whole family were to want to take this journey with me… then I would embark.