I’ve always been impressed with Alma’s counsel to his son Helaman, as chronicled in Alma 37. There, he candidly acknowledges, in some detail, his own past mistakes—an act of humility that does not come naturally to most men, especially those in positions of authority. And his self-awareness of his own limitations provides the foundation for the counsel he imparts to his son in verses 3 and 27 of Alma chapter 26: trust in the Lord, not in any one man, and build your faith on the scriptures. In other words: “Don’t follow me; follow the Savior.”

Part of the “Follow the Prophet” emphasis is preventing children from considering other voices to be as authoritative. Of course, that backfires if people leave the church when they conclude the church leaders are fallible. On the other hand, if anybody’s voice is equally good (assuming some sort of criteria which isn’t clear how to establish), how does one maintain unity of the faith? Does one want “following the prophet” to be reduced to simply following people who seem to have their acts together? Obviously, believing people can disagree a lot over beliefs, and I suspect a lot of people don’t feel a strong need for everybody to believe the same as long as there’s considerable overlap. It probably wouldn’t be in the best interest of the institutional church for children to consider their primary president to be just as prophetic as an apostle, even when on a practical, day-to-day basis, it may be true.

Jones, thanks for bringing out a point that I didn’t explicitly cover in the intro: when we look to prophets as an example of repentance, it elegantly strikes that balance of implicitly acknowledging that they sin and make mistakes, yet still allowing us to honor and follow them with confidence.