Evolution of a miracle

 TikToker El_Urim_Tumim posted this video which outlines how President Nelson has evolved his story about an attack when he was in Mozambique into a miracle story. My thoughts are based on the points made in the video.

May 30 2009 - Elder and Sister Nelson were visiting a mission and while having dinner the mission home was robbed, the Mission President's wife had her arm broken, others got some cuts and bruises. Former missionaries said this is common and people usually use machetes for these types of robberies. link

June 1 2009 - Blair Packard, mission president, says Elder and Sister Nelson were not specifically targeted and it wasn't an act against the church, their guards were not involved. Said they were robbed by armed gunmen. link

November 21 2009 - Only intention was to harm Elder Nelson and kidnap Wendy. Mission President's wife gets outside and shouts for help, breaks her arm, others get cuts and bruises. Wendy felt peace right before the bad guy came in. link

March 27 2017 - Accomplishing the Impossible: What god does, what we can do page 25 (excerpt) - Elder Nelson says he was dining with a member family, bad men stormed in and announced they wanted to kidnap Wendy and kill Elder Nelson. A gun next to Elder Nelson's head failed to fire, Sister Nelson was miraculously released from their grip, they disappeared as quickly as they appeared. He knows angels saved them. No mention of the mission president's wife making it outside to get help, no mention of other things from the house being stolen.

Seems to me at this point either the mission president lied about what happened or Elder Nelson lied about what happened. Can both of them be telling the truth here? Why would one say Elder Nelson wasn't a target but then Elder Nelson says he was the sole target? Why would the Mission President say his wife got outside and got help and the other say angels saved them? 

One clear reason for Elder Nelson to improve the story is that it makes him look more important. God saved him from a gun, armed evil men attacked him with the purpose of hurting him but then were miraculously foiled. This take makes it seem like Elder Nelson is someone special that God is watching over. The first account makes it seem like Elder Nelson just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The (not so) secret SCMC

 SCMC stands for Strengthening Church Members Committee. The Wikipedia article says that this committee is for monitoring members who are critical of the church or the leaders, other members may report critical members to the committee and the committee will forward the information to local leaders for discipline. In this video a church employee tries to lie about the existence of the committee and then when cornered admits it exists but has to pass the interviewer on to someone else. It also shows where the interviewer continues with Jeffrey Holland and discusses the existence and purpose of the committee but if you watch the whole clip, which FAIR recognizes as legitimate, you can see how uncomfortable Holland is to be discussing it. Now Holland's reasoning for the existence of the committee is primarily to guard against polygamy. This seems strange when you think about it. The church no longer practices polygamy and ended it over 100 years ago. So why would the church, currently, need a committee to protect the church against polygamy? The Wikipedia article's claims about monitoring members for criticisms seems much more likely. This reddit post outlines and provides sources for several instances of the SCMC passing information on to a Stake president for discipline. The podcaster RFM discusses when he called the church office building and confirmed they had a file about him. 

It seems especially strange that a church, with a book, which discusses in depth the evils of secret combinations, would then create committee's that it tries to keep secret from members or the world.

If God is running the church and if the church has revelations and the spirit of discernment then why is this committee needed? Couldn't a bishop receive inspiration that a member in the ward needs correction?

If the church is God's church, and if God doesn't like secret combinations, and if God is willing to cast out 1/3 of the hosts of heaven so that we can have our agency, then why would he allow a mostly secret committee like this, which seems to have the sole purpose of denying people their agency to speak critically of leaders, operate? Can God not defend himself and his leaders from criticism?