TI was totally shocked to find no consensus; the answers were just all over the map. Some would go on for a very long time without taking a breath, as if hunting for a good answer, laying out the entire plan of salvation, marching out the ten tribes and putting them back again, and including the sealed book portions and brother of Jared's undisclosed experience and all the records in the hill cumorah and degrees of glory and on and on and on. I don't recall anyone just quoting D&C 39:6 or the various similar definitions in 3 Nephi that the Lord gave to the ancient inhabitants. I never interrupted or offered my opinion in these interviews. I never mentioned that the Lord has consistently defined the gospel as just the preparation for and receiving of this thing we are calling the Holy Ghost. However, if I asked the question a little differently such as, What are the first principles and ordinance of the gospel of Jesus Christ, then there was always a total instant consensus. It seems we have been programmed very well. I decided to take my personal research project and extend it to non-members of various descriptions to see what I got. I found that the responses were always something along the line that the gospel is the good news that: and then a lot of jesus words strung together that had no meaning because it was nothing that you could actually act upon or do anything with, and left you flat footed not knowing how to proceed. However, I did get a lot of free pamphlets.

I once was asked to sub as a gospel doctrine teacher. For that class I purposely stuck very tightly to the lesson material, but I purposely used unfamiliar terms and synonyms in everything I said. One brother finally jumped to his feet and told the class that I was teaching the devil's doctrine and that his brother-in-law used to talk like I was and now he is an apostate!