Yes, the LDS Church’s “revelations” changing previous practices does seem to co-incide with the attitude of the culture at large. I’m not going to say that this, de facto, disqualifies them as true revelations. However, I do find it to be in an alien spirit than what we find the Savior teaching in the NT. Matthew 5 speaks of people being blessed when they are persecuted, and the book of Acts says the apostles counted it an honor to suffer for the Name of Jesus (Acts 5:41). We see no sign of backing down under cultural pressure, but of preaching the hard teachings in the face of a hostile crowd. This same spirit is carried on in the early Church when the Roman Empire deemed us cannibals for our teaching on the Holy Eucharist. Our doctrine was explained, but not put on the shelf until later times. In Mormonism it seems like the doctrines are bended to make the culture accept the Church more.
Of course, the LDS can always say that it was “God’s time” for the change to take place. If this is the case, it seems like God began to want things changed when the LDS had ran out of places to run to. Nobody dared say that a revelation ending polygamy would come while the LDS were in Nauvoo. Of course, there was no need for it to happen as Brigham Young could bring them to Utah. But when the U.S. began denying the Utah territory statehood due to polygamy, and the LDS didn’t have anywhere else to run to, God deemed they should “shelf” earthly polygamy, because, of course, God doesn’t want the LDS to sacrifice the rights of statehood, yet the early apostles and Christians sacrificed their lives for every jot-and-tittle of the Gospel.
A similar thing can be applied to the removal of the ban of blacks to the LDS priesthood in the 1970s. Like I said earlier, I can understand continuous public revelation, but isn’t the whole point of having a “continuous” line of revelation be to make the Church’s practice and belief more and more grounded in the truth. Why has the LDS Church used it as a blanket to quit practicing some beliefs than came from that very channel of revelation?
Sorry, if I sound antagonistic, but I guess I feel strongly about this. Hehehe.
In Christ,
Adam