Review
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Title: The Sacrament of Doubt
Author: Paul James Toscano
Publisher: Signature Books
Genre: Non-fiction
Year Published: 2007
Number of Pages: 160
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-56085-146-2
Price: $21.95
Reviewed by Jeffrey Needle
By its very title, this book is bound to raise some eyebrows. Isn’t doubt bad? Shouldn’t we live in the light of perfect faith? And what is faith? What is doubt? And how do these complementary forces function in real life, in the real world where most of us live?
When this book arrived, I put it aside for a little while. I didn’t know if I was truly prepared to confront the famous Paul Toscano as he waxes eloquently against the Church. What I found in this slim volume is a passionate appeal for Christian charity, a clarion call for clarity and openness.
But first, the idea of doubt as a “sacrament.” It is the task of every Roman Catholic priest to not only celebrate the Eucharist daily, but to instill in his people a sense of faith and belief in the invisible process known as transubstantiation -- the changing of the invisible substance of the emblem into the Real body and blood of Jesus Christ. In fact, many believe it, but not one in a hundred understand it. Happily, understanding is not necessary, only trust in the priest's power to effect such a remarkable transformation.
You won’t find many Catholic priests admiring doubt as a virtue, in particular as it relates to any of the “sacraments.” You may have a hard time pairing the words "sacrament" and "doubt." In fact, there is something inherently contradictory here -- for any sacrament to have any efficacy, it must be administered, and received, in true faith. But what will it take to make the mental leap from understanding doubt as something negative to seeing doubt as fertile ground for a faith otherwise directed?
Mormons have faced the dilemma of doubt for years. Those who leave the Church -- whether converts or born in the covenant -- have the opportunity to direct their belief in other directions. Some become evangelicals; a few become catholics. I know of one fellow who became Jewish. Many leave belief behind altogether. I have thought that those who abandon faith make a more comfortable transition than those who try to accommodate another religious way of thinking.
Paul Toscano's new book, published by the always-thorny Signature Books, takes the issue of faith and turns it topsy-turvy, viewing it from every possible angle, ripping it to shreds, and finally bringing it back together in a peculiarly satisfying conclusion. Toscano, as many will recall, was one of the "September Six," six prominent Mormons excommunicated in September 1993. Their crime? They refused to stop teaching doctrines that the Church found uncomfortable.
Toscano states his thesis, and indeed documents his journey, in prose too simple to misunderstand. The diagnosis:
“In a church governed by revelation, there is a lurking fear that chaos will ensue if top church leaders do not control or quash the spiritual and intellectual gifts of the rank and file. Everyone must ratchet down personal gifts so that they do not rise above the level of the lowest gifts of the highest priesthood holders. No one in the church can be spiritually taller than the spiritually shortest apostle." (p. 19)
This statement tore a small hole in my heart. I suspect that Toscano is describing a phenomenon that he believes is correct. And, in fact, I think there's a lot of truth in his observation. But this presents some interesting problems:
— What does this say about leadership and their feelings of inadequacy, of doubt, of fear? I've gotten a sense of many of the Brethren, and I don't think I've sensed this kind of fear of being outdone by a member of the "rank and file." Of course, there are exceptions, and I sometimes wonder how these men cope with these feelings.
— And what does this say about the "rank and file"? Here's my guess: the majority of Latter-day Saints I know would agree heartily that the Brethren are in every way superior to them. One friend told me that he believes they are "closer to God than any other people on earth, and I would be foolish to ignore their counsel." How do you argue with this kind of reasoning?
Toscano sees a need for reformation at all levels, from an arrogant and insecure hierarchy to a complacent and overly-obedient membership. Yes, he describes himself as a "radical" (p. 61-2), one who wants to get to the root of the problem, be taken seriously, and given a voice in the culture he adopted. He found none of this in his Mormon journey, and expressed his displeasure in a way not acceptable to leadership.
He is at his most eloquent when he discusses the now famous declaration by Elder Boyd J. Packer concerning intellectuals, feminists and homosexuals. In a piercing and nearly angry comment on Elder Packer's statement, Toscano observes:
“(I)ntellectuals threaten to expose the church leaders' claim to know truth from error. Feminists threaten to expose church leaders' claim to distinguish love from power. Homosexuals threaten to expose church leaders' claim to discern virtue from vice.” (p. 72)
Fighting words? You bet. And though Toscano claims early in the book that he has no desire to go to war with the Church (legally or otherwise), there is nonetheless a sense of weary anger and anxious discontent in his writings. Some of these essays have appeared elsewhere; some are transcripts of talks given by him to various audiences. But all are marked by a passion that is unmistakable.
Those who disagree with Toscano's words and actions -- the true blue of the Mormon faith -- will wonder whether Toscano's indictment of the arrogance of the Brethren isn't a reflection of his own arrogance in raising himself above them. But this would be a misreading of Toscano's words. I never got the sense that he wanted to rise above them, that he wanted to erect his own Tower of Babel to reach into the inner recesses of the Church Office Building. Neither did I understand him to want some leadership role in the Church. Instead, he only wanted to be heard, and to have the respect of leadership in considering his views to be both competent and relevant. And, after all, isn't this what we all want?
Chapter 7 is perhaps the strongest, and most pointed, entry in this book. Titled "Boyd K. Packer -- Modern Prophet in a Post-Modern World," Toscano takes on the Mormon apostle with directness and courage. His words literally breathe accusation and indictment. After discussing some of Elder Packer’s own charges and admonitions, Toscano replies:
“It is you [Elder Packer] who have failed us in our struggles, we who are sinking in the dark storms that beset us. It is you who have fallen into the unforgiving deep of legalism. Your writings and speeches tell us you have rejected the chief gift of the Holy Spirit — the gift of irony — the gift to see yourself as you are seen, to see yourself as you see others, to see yourself as needy rather than as needed, to see yourself as sinner rather than as saint, student rather than teacher, and as apostate rather than as apostle. You sit in Peter’s seat. Like him, you deny the Christ — not by name, certainly; but you deny Christ every time he comes to you in an image other than your own, in ways you do not expect, as intellectual, feminist, homosexual, or as a thief in the night.” (p. 96)
I shudder when I read such words. They will anger the faithful and offend those who walk the middle of the road. They will perhaps stain both Toscano, and Signature Books, in a way that will prejudice readers and cause them to reject anything said, or published, by either.
But this will be a big mistake. There is a tantalizing possibility: what if Toscano is right? What if he, and not any of the usual suspects, constitute the “watchman on the wall”? What if Toscano is a modern-day Abinadi, calling King Noah to repentance? It isn’t my place to speculate either way, but only to read, and analyze, what Toscano has written, and offer possible interpretations.
In the end, Toscano hopes that his questions, his doubts, will find resolution. In what may be the most eloquent finish to any book I’ve read in years, Toscano speaks my own mind:
“Perhaps faith is to give God the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps doubt is to restrain the narcissism of certainty. For me, the bread of doubt is as sacred as the water of faith. Together they form a Eucharist of hope, a wellspring of charity — a love that is neither partial nor sentimental, but simply the heart’s desire that God’s love fall like rain in equal measure upon the just and the unjust, that no one claim a blessing one would withhold from another or impose a burden one not would bear oneself.
“Such charity is what, in the end, may be the best remedy for the privations of poverty, the pretensions of priesthoods, and the privileging of patriarchs because it does not arise upon the authority of certainty but is a grace flowing freely from the ordinance of faith and the sacrament of doubt.” (p. 160)
As a non-Mormon, I suppose it may be said that I have no standing to comment on the matters Toscano treats here. But, like most of us, my spiritual journey is not a clean, straight line. My doubts and fears freely mingle with my faith. Together they inform my worldview, and allow me to be open to so many differing expressions of faith.
I rest easily in recommending this book to every thinking person who reads these reviews. It will anger some and delight others. But it will certainly make you all think deeply about your Church, your faith, and your own place on the spiritual path. This, after all, may be the most dangerous book you’ll ever read.
Jeff Needle
Association for Mormon Letters
jeff.needle@gmail.comwww.aml-online.orgwww.LDSBookLovers.com/Needle.html
