Editing Openai/6954271b-6dd0-8000-b680-35e44f6d4478 (section)

=== Assistant: Below is a precise extension of your HOS framework that incorporates accountability of those who preside and teach, gro… ===
Below is a precise extension of your HOS framework that incorporates accountability of those who preside and teach, grounded explicitly in McConkie’s letter. This is not an add-on; it is already latent in the document and becomes visible once your degree logic is applied consistently.

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McConkie states unambiguously:

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This is crucial: authority does not eliminate accountability; it concentrates it.

==== Your HOS already implies this; McConkie makes it explicit. ====

===== The lower the degree of separation from canon, the higher the accountability burden. =====

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McConkie accepts this structure when he says:
* he bears responsibility if he errs,
* others must not usurp his role,
* judgment ultimately rests with God.

==== McConkie draws a sharp distinction that aligns with HOS constraints: ====

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This establishes a separation between accountability and authority flow.

===== - Accountability flows upward to God =====
* Authority flows downward to the Church
* Subordinates are not epistemic arbiters, even if correct

This prevents:
* democratized doctrine
* crowd-sourced correction
* recursive authority collapse

Your HOS system preserves this by prohibiting degree-jumping.

==== McConkie says: ====

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This is often misunderstood as authoritarianism. Under HOS, it is degree discipline.

===== Silence means: =====
* refusing to escalate unresolved degree conflicts
* refusing to reclassify speculation as doctrine
* preserving the integrity of the system

Silence ≠ agreement
Silence = refusal to corrupt degree boundaries

==== McConkie repeatedly anchors himself under the Standard Works: ====

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This is critical.

===== Presiding authorities: =====
* operate at Degree-1, not Degree-0
* are constrained interpreters, not creators of doctrine
* can err, but cannot redefine canon

This preserves:
* continuity across dispensations
* resistance to charismatic drift
* stability of belief systems

==== McConkie states: ====

: 

This introduces temporal deferral without epistemic relativism.

===== - HOS allows unresolved nodes to remain open =====
* Resolution may occur: - later in history - through canonization - eschatologically

This avoids false binaries:
* “correct now or rebel”
* “silence equals blind obedience”

Instead: structured patience.

==== This letter: ====
* refutes the claim that LDS epistemology is authoritarian
* shows hierarchical accountability without infallibility
* preserves divine order without flattening truth

In HOS terms:

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Those two are deliberately not the same.

==== Here is a concise formulation consistent with both HOS and McConkie: ====

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That sentence is defensible from the letter itself.

==== I can: ====
* Integrate this as a formal “Authority & Accountability Module” in HOS
* Contrast this with Protestant sola scriptura accountability gaps
* Show how critics misread silence as submission instead of discipline
* Produce a CARM-ready paragraph that uses McConkie against authoritarian critiques

Just say which direction you want.