Elder Maxwell’s talk making the rounds is titled “Meeting the Challenges of Today.”<\/a> It was an address delivered at BYU in October of 1978, just months after the revelation that extended all priesthood and temple blessings to black members of the Church. The focus of the speech is on the tension generated when religious opinions are offered up in the public square. It warns of a growing\u00a0“irreligious imperialism” infecting political\u00a0discourse and counsels members to follow the First Presidency rather than embrace the secular trends of society at large.<\/p>\n There is nothing in either speech with which I disagree. I heartily endorse both messages without qualification, and they are certainly worth your prayerful consideration.<\/p>\n What I find troubling is that so many seem to think these speeches are uniquely\u00a0applicable to the situation in which we now find ourselves. Because they really, really aren’t.<\/p>\n Consider that neither message is speaking about division within the Church, but, rather, the great divide between\u00a0Zion and Babylon. The counsel is to leave the world and join the Church. Those members who, like me, oppose this policy have already done precisely that. We made our\u00a0decision and have decided to follow the prophets. The\u00a0reason we find this matter so troubling is not because we long to adopt\u00a0the standards of the world, but because we find this policy\u00a0inconsistent with gospel\u00a0principles that the prophets have taught and continue to teach.<\/p>\n To claim we are not following the prophet now is to claim that prophets have repudiated the Second Article of Faith, which teaches the beautiful doctrine that we will be punished for our own sins and no one else’s.\u00a0\u00a0Certainly this principle remains at the core of our doctrine. For generations, primary children have been\u00a0asked to memorize these words and repeat them in sacrament meeting. That practice continues to this day.<\/p>\n So should I follow the prophet when he tells me that we shouldn’t punish anyone for anyone\u00a0else’s sins, or should I follow the prophet when he tells me to punish an innocent child by withholding the Gift of the Holy Ghost and the Aaronic Priesthood from them throughout their childhood and adolescence because of someone else’s sins?<\/p>\n President Hinckley and Elder Maxwell spoke\u00a0of choosing between the ways of the world and the prophets\u00a0of God. Yet our current situation calls us to choose between two diametrically opposed messages given to us by prophets of God. How, then, are these talks\/articles\u00a0in any way applicable to our\u00a0current circumstance?<\/p>\n The clear implication by those who cite these two articles\/speeches\u00a0is that those who are struggling are the ones being sifted out, and that those who accept this policy without reservation are the ones who can smugly and self-righteously pat themselves on the back for passing the test. Who would take comfort in that at a time like this? Who would watch those of us struggling and rejoice that the Lord is purging His church of the\u00a0faithless rather than reach out to us\u00a0in charity and love?<\/p>\n This calls to mind the story of the Rameumptom in the Book of Mormon, which tells of a group of people who would\u00a0stand on a massive elevated platform and rejoice that the Lord “hast elected us that we shall be saved, whilst all around us are elected to be cast by thy wrath down to hell.” (Alma 31:17)<\/p>\n I find it deeply depressing that some seem to\u00a0delight in the spiritual misery of others, especially when those others are desperately trying to follow the Lord according to the dictates of their own consciences. As Latter-day Saints and disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can, and should, do far better than that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yeah,me again. I left this blog untended for\u00a0months on end, and\u00a0now I can't shut up. Sorry about that.Members of my church are responding to this new policy change in a host of different ways, and\u00a0several have thought it appropriate to post links to messages\u00a0prepared by two of the most beloved leaders ... Read more<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3613"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5135,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3613\/revisions\/5135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"rameumptom1\"](\"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/rameumptom1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n