Community of Christ - Criticism

Criticism

The church has been criticized for various changes in policy and leadership. In 1978 W. Wallace Smith became the first church president to retire rather than serve until death, becoming President Emeritus, similar to the circumstances facing his son Wallace B. Smith two decades later. President W. Grant McMurray, however, resigned as church president due to health, "family issues" and "inappropriate choices" in his personal life. McMurray also did not name a successor, marking the second time that the succession decision had been left to the leadership of the denomination, the first being at the death of Frederick M. Smith and at the selection of Israel A. Smith. Additionally, although he had been designated as successor by the previous prophet-president, McMurray's church leadership was questioned due to the fact that he was the first church president who was not a direct descendant of Joseph Smith, Jr., which was considered a distinguishing trait from other denominations of the LDS movement.

A revelation presented by Wallace B. Smith in 1984 that resulted in some "disaffection" and "led to intense conflict in scattered areas of the RLDS Church" is contained in the Community of Christ's Doctrine and Covenants, Section 156, which called for construction of the Independence Temple and the ordination of women to the priesthood, among other changes. This led to a schism which prompted the formation of the independent Restoration Branches movement from which other denominations have sprung, including the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The church also came under scrutiny when McMurray allowed the priesthood ordination of practicing homosexuals, something which he acknowledged was already occurring. The church would later renounce this practice, prohibiting the ordination of sexually active gays and lesbians. However, the church allows those who were ordained against policy to continue in priesthood office.

Controversy about changes in the church's beliefs and practices since the 1960s have led to what the historian Roger D. Launius, author of numerous books and articles on Community of Christ history, described in 1998 as a “collapse of the philosophical synthesis” leading to “declines in membership, contributions, and priesthood ordinations.”

Kenneth Mulliken wrote a paper arguing that the changes that took place in the RLDS church since the 1960s were enabled by a policy of "historical amnesia" induced by the church's leadership that could not be explained by existing historical theories or sociological models.