Val's Email Sunday School: Weaponize Empathy and Love

Sometimes when I read the Come Follow Me lessons, I wonder how the lessons for that specific week are so coordinated with what’s happening in the world around us. It’s like it was orchestrated to be read that very week, even though we’re just going chronologically. How can these things we read about in scripture be so utterly relevant to current events? How is it that the things that we read, written so long ago can accurately represent the struggles that we face in our modern day? Mark Twain is attributed to have said that “History doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes.” Will we resolve the struggles and justifications within ourselves? What is the solution to these conflicts we see all around us? Is there any solution?

The struggles that humans and society face are the same throughout history. Human nature is the same. Although we tend to think that we’ve evolved past certain issues, every generation has to grapple with the same struggles and seek to overcome them. What are these issues that persistently plague us and what is the solution? We’ll discuss that as we review the reading. 

The Anatomy of Peace is an excellent book that details this age old struggle so well. What is the root cause of conflict in the world? This book describes it as a process. When we do things against our conscience, we seek justification for what we’ve done, and by extension we begin to dehumanize others, which dehumanizes ourselves. When we start to see others as objects and deprive others of their humanity, we perpetuate conflict within and without ourselves. “So if we are going to find lasting solutions to difficult conflicts or external wars we find ourselves in, we first need to find our way out of the internal wars that are poisoning our thoughts, feelings, and attitudes toward others. If we can't put an end to the violence within us, there is no hope for putting an end to the violence without.”

The primary struggle in the life of every human across all eras of time is precisely that. Will we value and see others as worthy human beings? Will we stop dehumanizing others? Christ taught us to love one another, to have empathy for others. To follow Christ means to mourn with those that mourn, comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to bear one another’s burdens that they may be light. Few of us would argue that these aren’t the very goals that we have. 

How do we do this? How can we help resolve inner and outer wars? How do we bring more light and hope into a dark world?  Alma 31:5 states, “. . . the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them. . .” It is super cliche to say that love conquers all, but that’s the solution. Both secular and religious sources teach us this. God is love. Love one another. Love thy neighbor as thyself. When we love ourselves and others, we have peace. The way to promote love and peace is to exemplify it. We have to promote, magnify, and amplify the things we want more of in the world. When we have love we have empathy, in sharp contrast to hate and discord.

The reading begins pointing out the importance of leaders because of their influence on the people. We want and need good leaders, because they influence the people and show us what to emulate. The reading talks about the importance of unity, and the injustice, immorality, and crime that can result from an unrighteous leader’s influence. We all are leaders. While some of us may have higher platforms, we all have influence. Are we exemplifying the change and behaviors we want to perpetuate? Are we giving the world more of what we want to see in it? Are we blaming others? 

The reading goes on to say that usually the majority of people want what is right, but it’s common for “the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right.” The scriptures tell us we should recognize this and make our laws according to the will of the majority of the people. It’s interesting how much the political system is described in these chapters. There are checks and balances established in their judicial system, with a lower system of courts and a higher system that they could appeal to. 

Alma said, “And now I desire that this inequality should be no more in this land, especially among this my people; but I desire that this land be a land of liberty, and every man may enjoy his rights and privileges alike…” The people saw the merit in this, and “became exceedingly anxious that every man should have an equal chance throughout all the land; yea, and every man expressed a willingness to answer for his own sins.” The people in Alma’s society wanted to be personally responsible for whatever they did. They wanted equal application of the law. 

Their form of government was pretty well described throughout the reading. They chose to implement judges instead of a king. They wanted laws that would be followed and enforced according to the will of the majority of people, not according to a minority or a powerful ruler. They had the death penalty. People who murdered were “condemned to die, according to the law.” They were punished for lying, but they couldn’t be punished for their beliefs. Some people “pretended to preach according to their belief; and now the law could have no power on any man for his belief.” They had laws against stealing, robbing, and murdering. 

I see the merit in this society. It seems like regardless of political or religious belief, we should all be able to agree on some basics like this. Don’t rob, steal, lie, murder, etc. What I find interesting is their allegiance to free speech and free thought. They were allowed to live and believe what they wanted according to the parameters set by their society, but there was a free discourse of ideas. What concerns me about our current society is the intolerance of ideas. We must allow and vigorously maintain the discourse of ideas contrary to ours. The freedom to disagree and to be offended is paramount. 

The reading goes on to discuss the struggles within the church, with people getting angry and leaving, asking for their names to be taken off the records. It says that “many withdrew themselves from among them.” It talks about it being hard on the people of the church who stayed. All of the people worked to support themselves, and they believed that their leaders should work to support themselves as well and not live off the labor of others. They donated voluntarily to assist those in need, the poor, the sick, and the afflicted. They were prosperous as they were generous. 

There came a time when people wanted to “deprive [the people] of their rights and privileges of the church.” Their rights to believe and worship according to their own conscience were threatened. They dealt with this by assembling “themselves together throughout all the land, every man according to his mind” and they had “dispute and wonderful contentions one with another.” At first I couldn’t figure out why it called it wonderful contentions, but I think that it’s because they had really great arguments and discussions detailing the merits of the freedom of speech and freedom of religion. 

I think people get hung up on the freedom of religion phrase. Freedom of religion isn’t about religion. It’s about belief. Freedom of religion as a principle protects an individual’s right to their belief system whether you’re religious or adamantly not. When you phrase it like that, I think few would disagree that that’s something we need. No one wants any one else trying to police their thoughts and minds. As long as people adhere to the rules that have been established by the majority of people, why should any of us care what the belief systems of others are? 

If we believe our belief system to be superior (which we all should or it shouldn't be our system) we shouldn’t mind if our children, ourselves, or others are exposed to other systems of belief. Why would the free discussion of ideas or beliefs be restricted? If ours is superior, it should stand well on it’s own against other systems, shouldn’t it? Why would we be afraid of opposing ideas unless we doubt the superiority of our own system? You wouldn't change your system unless you found something better, right? So the worst that could happen is we find a better system to adopt? Do we doubt people’s intelligence to choose for themselves? Who gets to decide which belief systems are better? What if it’s your belief system that’s under attack? This is why we can’t seek to police or suppress any ideas or beliefs. 

I strongly believe in the free discourse of ideas and believe that this is the best tool in combating the problems and conflicts that we find around us. The people in the reading felt the same way. “ . . . They did assemble themselves together to cast in their voices concerning the matter; and they were laid before the judges.” Political problems and violence arose when part of the people wanted to replace the current system with their own king. They went to war against one another. The whole Book of Mormon talks about this. It’s a sad story of the destructive cycle of a people, laid out over many generations that we can take a bird’s eye look at and understand.

These stories of the conflict are the same. They weren’t new stories then, and they aren’t new stories now. Throughout history and time we repeat the same struggles of greed and power. Repeated throughout history and time are the same struggles of greed and power. In the midst of that chaos and war, after the people had extreme afflictions, “every soul had cause to mourn.” As the conflict solidifies it becomes more clear that this is the age old struggle of good vs. evil. It isn’t an age old conflict of race vs. race, or political party vs. political party, or government vs. the people.  

It’s a story about right vs. wrong. It’s a story about “great inequality among the people, [with] some lifting themselves up with their pride, despising others, turning their backs upon the needy and the naked and those who were hungry, and those who were athirst, and those who were sick and afflicted. Now this was a great cause for lamentations among the people, while others were abasing themselves, succoring those who stood in need of their succor, such as imparting their substance to the poor and the needy, feeding the hungry, and suffering all manner of afflictions . . .”

The age old struggle is one of greed or generosity, hate or love, indifference vs. compassion, and anger vs. empathy. Ironically, it appears to suggest in the reading that one big problem was that the people of the church were prideful and greedy for wealth. This example of “wickedness of the church was a great stumbling-block to those who did not belong to the church. . .” Ouch. The hypocrisy of the members of the church was one of the biggest obstacles for people who were looking for something better, for truth, for solutions. 

Other humans are not our enemies. We’re merely grappling with the age old battle of morality of right vs. wrong, good vs. evil. I read about The Greatest Generation, the people who lived during the Great Depression and World War II, wondering what they had done to deserve that title. They were thus described because they personally sacrificed to do what was right, even when it was hard, inconvenient, and sometimes deadly. After the conflict of WWII, the whole world set aside their differences in the spirit of peace and compromise.  

It is arrogant of us to think that we’ve somehow transcended the battle of the ages because of our modernity or technological advancement. If the default of human nature is greed and power, why would we assume that we would be victorious over it just because our predecessors fought the good fight and won? None of these conflicts are new. The true battle is for the heart of the people, and the weapon that will win them is empathy and love. Until we recognize what the true conflict is, we can never effectively battle it. 

Come Follow Me

Val's Email Sunday School: Why Do Christians Get Baptized Anyway

Come Follow Me Mosiah 18-24

In the reading this week, after Abinadai was killed, Alma who was in the court of King Noah and listened to Abinadi, continues to preach the Gospel of Christ in secret to the people. What I find interesting is that there seems to have been some debate or conflict about the necessity of baptism. These people were just being converted to the Gospel of Christ, and apparently had questions regarding what the purpose of baptism was, or why they should do this.

We see probably the best example of baptismal covenants (that I know of) here in these scriptures. Alma says, if “ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places . . . if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord . . . ?”

Let’s review that. So, the people apparently did want to bear each other’s burdens, and mourn with those that mourn, and comfort those that need comfort. They wanted these things, and Alma seems to be implying that living that way is what it means to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people. Living in compassion is what it means to stand as a witness of God. He’s like, if you want to do these things, then why wouldn’t you want to get baptized? Because being baptized “[is] a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him.”

Alma is making a case for what baptism is, and why we should do it. I think too often we associate baptism only with the remission of sin at the time of the ordinance. We think baptism = remission of sin. But this gives us a more complete answer. When we get baptized, what are we promising, and what do we get? Alma tells us we are promising to serve God by helping each other so hard things aren’t as hard. We are supposed to mourn with people who are sad and comfort people when they need comforted. We are supposed to emotionally be strong for one another. He tells us that if we want to serve others, that’s serving God, and we should want to be baptized as a formal indication that we intend to do these things. Why? Well, Alma answers that question too. We do it “that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon [us].”

How does this benefit us? Why do we want more of the Lord’s Spirit in our lives? Christ teaches in John 14:27 that His Spirit is what gives us peace and keeps our hearts from being troubled. That’s kind of a big deal in a world full of turmoil and uncertainty. Galatians 5:22-23 teaches us that the fruits of the spirit are “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” All of these things are desirable characteristics and personality traits we should be striving for. Anything else? John 14:26 says, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance . . .”

Okay, so now we’ll also be comforted, we’ll be able to learn more, and remember the things we have learned. Doctrine and Covenants tells us that when we testify of truth, not only will we be given what we should say, but that the Holy Ghost will testify to others the truth of what we say. I’m sure there are many more scriptures that can expound upon the benefits of having God’s guidance in our lives, but these were the first ones that came to mind. It seems like a pretty good deal. We try to help people who are struggling or sad (something I think the majority of people want to do anyway), and we get a lot of guidance, peace, and help from God in return. If these are the desires of our hearts, what have we against being baptized as a witness to God that these are our priorities? The benefits we’ve discussed are independent of any talk of sin or remission of sin, but I’m not going to address that because I think that’s what people think and talk about most when they discuss baptism. It doesn’t seem like that bad of a deal, right? That’s what the people in Alma’s time thought too, and they were baptized in “large numbers.”

Then, the people were organized to continue preaching to more people, and Alma “commanded them that they should preach nothing save it were repentance and faith on the Lord, who had redeemed his people. . .” I think this is really important. Why would Alma tell the others who would be teaching everyone else to only teach faith in the Lord and repentance? Presumably because these things were the most important, right? These were the things that are most expedient for us to understand. If, out of all the information and doctrines we have in the church, any church, are Faith in the Lord and Repentance, those topics ought to be pretty important to us today too, right?

First, faith in the Lord is a huge, comprehensive topic that has entire books written about it. When we read the scriptures we can begin to see that Faith in the Lord is the power, the actual power, that causes the remission of sin, healing, and miracles. We are taught that in Matthew 17:20 “. . . .If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” Like having the Lord’s Spirit/Guidance and help, this faith thing seems like a pretty big deal. To me, understanding the concept of faith is only half of the equation. What does faith “in the Lord” mean? To me, to have faith in the Lord means you need to have a pretty good understanding of who the Lord was/is, what he did, etc. So, we need to study as much as we can about Christ, because how can we have faith in someone or something, without understanding what it is?

Second, there’s repentance. I think we’ve all heard some variation of repentance being described as a four step process that leads to remission of sin. Something like, 1-Recognize we’ve done wrong, 2-Regret, true remorse for what we’ve done, 3-Restitution and make it right if we can, and 4-Resolve to do better and turn from sin. I think we tend to be overly prescriptive in what repentance is, and that is a disservice to ourselves.

The Bible was originally believed to be translated from Greek, and the word in Greek for repentance is Metanoia. It is more indicative of a conversion, or a reformation than a mere change in behavior. It is more about improvement and becoming by changing our nature and ourselves than it is about seeing bad things we did, confessing them, and then not being in trouble for them anymore. Once source said that the repentance called for throughout the Bible is “a summons to a personal, absolute and ultimate unconditional surrender to God as Sovereign.” That’s powerful. Perhaps we only surrender portions of ourselves as we recognize how we can do better, with the ultimate goal of repentance being to eventually give God back all the pieces of us. These images of repentance seem to make it more clear that it’s less about sorrow and regret for us being bad, than it is about utilizing the “enabling power” of the atonement to assist us in our pursuit to change, to improve, and ultimately to become something better.

I hope that these ideas can give you new directions to focus some of your studies. If Faith in the Lord and Repentance are two of the most important doctrines that we have (see Article of Faith 4), then it is extremely important that we understand what these concepts are, and why they’re so important. Here are some additional questions you could pursue. What does it mean to renew baptismal covenants? What does it mean to be baptized by fire? What is faith? What evidences do the scriptures have that faith is the power by which miracles are wrought? What does it mean to have faith in something/someone? Who was Christ? Why should we seek to emulate Christ? What does Faith in the Lord look like? Other less academic questions we could ponder are do I recognize and surrender to God? Do I have conditions to submitting to his will? Do I believe that I can change?

Val's Email Sunday School: How Come God Gets to Make the Rules?

As we study the Scriptures, I'm repeatedly reminded of how we've been told that it was "written for our day." All of our scriptures were recorded then to benefit us now. It's through this lens that I try to understand how what is written might be relevant or beneficial to us now. The reading this week had one phrase that stood out to me the very most. 

We enter the story in a time when the leaders of the people were lazy and lived off the work of others, allowing the common men to labor exceedingly to support their immoral behaviors. Abinadi was accused of causing contention because he would teach the people God's commandments. The people preferred he remain silent. They wanted him to be quiet to get along. The leaders would quote scriptures and pretend to keep the Law of Moses, but their actions couldn't have been farther from righteousness behavior.

When Abinadi speaks out against the society's immorality and the leaders, the response is extremely telling. Not only is the king mad at what Abinadi has preached, he's mad at God. In fact, he's so arrogant that he says, "Who is Abinadi, that I and my people should be judged of him, or who is the Lord, that shall bring upon my people such great affliction?" 

In essence the king asks, what right or authority does Abinadi have to criticize anything that I do? In fact, what right does the Lord have to judge me? Who is the Lord, and what right does he have to punish my people? How come God gets to make the rules? Doctrine and Covenants tells us that "21 And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments." In other words, one of the most offensive things we can do is to refuse to acknowledge that God not only exists, but acknowledge that he had created and directs all things. The second most offensive thing we can do is to refuse to obey the guidelines our creator has outlined for us. 

I hope that we can recognize this tendency if it creeps into our attitudes or actions. Do we behave like King Noah? Do we ask what right the Lord has to tell us how to behave? Do we ask what right he has to influence our lives, decisions, or behaviors? Do we acknowledge his existence and acknowledge that he's created all things, but doubt his authority to give us guidelines on how to behave as individuals or societies? Abinadi said that, "because I have told you the truth ye are angry with me. And again, because I have spoken the word of God ye have judged me that I am mad." Do we view the leaders of the church or followers of Christ as mad? Are we angry when people speak the truth?

The scriptures teach us that our safety lies in keeping the commandments. Interestingly enough, this scriptural account is one where that safety doesn't equate to temporal safety. Unlike the story of Daniel and the Lions Den, or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Abinadi wasn't given temporal deliverance and safety. What can we learn from a story like this, when the righteous hero is killed, and the wicked villains go on to live another day?

I think that the lesson here is this. 1 Peter 2 talks about us being "strangers and pilgrims." We are not meant to be at home here. This earth and this life are not our final destination. We are supposed to live and learn to the degree that we understand that now is not all there is. We are supposed to live and learn until we understand that this life is more fleeting and less real to us than the life beyond this one. If this life and world are fleeting and ephemeral and that true reality lies beyond it, the things we experience here can become less tragic and less overwhelming.  

Val's Email Sunday School: Lift Up Your Heads and Be Comforted

What’s interesting about the scriptures is that they tell us that all things testify of Christ. The Bible and Doctrine and Covenants both talk about things being a type and a shadow of things to come. In one of my religion classes we were taught that types were prophecy that remained to be fulfilled, and shadows were types that had been fulfilled. Whether or not that’s entirely accurate, I’m not sure. What I do believe is that the study of history and scripture can teach us a lot about human nature and ourselves as we see common themes repeated throughout time, despite the changing landscape of when those themes occur.

An article about types and shadows said that “Recognizing the types that foreshadow the fulfillment in Christ is one way of seeing the fulfillment of prophecy. An easy way of thinking about types and shadows is to remember the phrase “promise and fulfillment.” In this regard, types share many similarities with prophecy in the scriptures. We can see, as Elder M. Russell Ballard taught, “the repeating pattern of history in the lives of God’s children as recorded in the Old Testament. Time and again we see the cycle of righteousness followed by wickedness. Similarly, the Book of Mormon records that ancient civilizations of this continent followed exactly the same pattern.” [3]”

The scriptures give us a bird’s eye perspective of individuals and societies as they grapple with pride and humility, selflessness and greed, indifference and discipleship as people seek to follow Christ despite difficulties and struggles. This is why I believe the scriptures are helpful for us in our day. When our removed perspective allows us to more clearly identify correct and incorrect choices in scriptural stories, we can watch from a broad perspective and see how God can take a seemingly hopeless or overwhelming situation and give us better outcomes than we imagined were possible.

We’ve been told that the scriptures were written for our day, so I always try to see how what we read can parallel our lives. We begin in Mosiah 7, learning about Limhi’s people, who were subject to excessive taxation of ½ of everything they made. They said this was grievous to be born, and it was a great affliction. They were in bondage. They were hoping for deliverance from that bondage, but they didn’t know how it could happen. This is a broad story, talking about a whole society of people, but what’s so interesting is that these same lessons that apply in a macro way to groups of people also apply in a micro way to us as individuals.

So in this case, we could look at our own society from a macro perspective and see society’s ills like great wealth inequality, excessive taxes, and a global pandemic as overwhelming and nearly insurmountable. We might look at our own lives from a micro perspective and see whatever we are battling (health, finances, or generalized fear of the future), and be able to apply the lessons we see here.

The scriptures say that we are to “Lift up your heads and be comforted; for behold, the time is at hand, or is not far distant, when we shall no longer be in subjection to our enemies… Lift up your heads and rejoice, and put your trust in God…” These scriptures in this particular instance are talking about an example of a physical deliverance from bondage, but the same principles apply spiritually, physically, financially, etc. True principles are true. Scriptures can also apply in a broader, sweeping way as well which is what the quote from Elder Ballard said. There are recurring cycles and themes throughout all of human history. In some way or another, all people fight the same battles to overcome the natural man and become refined. All societies struggle with the same issues.

Here the scriptures talk about how the people were contentious and refused to follow the Lord. They even killed a prophet of God. I thought this was interesting because I believe that our current society wouldn’t kill a prophet, but if we take a bit of a more zoomed out perspective we can see that in Joseph Smith’s time the people were contentious (trying to kill and drive out the Mormons), also refused to follow the Lord, and killed a prophet of God.

The scriptures in the reading this week show us what we are supposed to do when we are in bondage (whatever bondage that may be for us). We are supposed to turn to God, put our trust in him, and serve him with all diligence. The irony here is that “when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.” We are advised to trust God and work to improve the lives of those around us, expending our energy to make the world a better place.

When making the world, other’s lives, or our own lives better seems insurmountable for whatever reason, we again turn to the scriptures. Deuteronomy 1:30 teaches us that “The Lord your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt. . . “ The Lord has said he’ll go before us, fight our fights, as long as we work to do his will. If we keep the commandments we’ll prosper and he’ll fight the battles for us that we couldn’t otherwise win, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12) Ephesians 6 tells us to put on the armor of God, that we’ll be prepared and protected from whatever’s thrown at us.

Preparation is a true principle. It’s incredibly important. Preparation is something that is done in advance, whether it be medically for a pandemic, physically so that we’ll be equal to the tasks that life requires, spiritually so that we can have hope amidst hardship, financially so that when things don’t go well we are protected, etc. We just don't know when things will happen that will deplete us of our reserves. It’s important to work and save, to be prepared as well as we can be for adversity, challenges, and just for life in general. Scriptures teach that if we are prepared we don’t have to fear. We can have more joy and peace and less fear when we have prepared for life as well as we know how.

This is what I think trusting in the Lord means. It means we do what’s right even in the face of insurmountable odds (like the people in the reading going to battle). We do what’s right even when we can’t see a way it can possibly work out. We do what’s right in spite of our doubt and fear, not because we don’t have any. Our power lies in action, not in belief because it’s our actions that show what our values really are. Our actions show who we really are and what we believe. I hope that all of our actions can be beautiful and faithful, in spite of odds that seem overwhelming.