Val's Email Sunday School: As a Hen Gathers Her Chicks

        

What struck me this week was how much of the reading was about Christ, his direct words and teachings. For people who profess to be followers of Christ, it seems like the Book of Mormon would be a must read--even if they didn’t think it was inspired of God or actually representatives of what happened in the past when the resurrected Christ visited the American continent. But what if it was? I would definitely want to read it to see what it said if I professed to believe in Christ regardless of the denomination I belonged to. I would be hungry to read any additional teachings, accounts, or witnesses of Christ. It also makes sense to me that if God and Christ did have a gospel that they wouldn’t share it in only one location in the world. It would seem to make sense for them to proclaim their desired behaviors for man in more than just one place. I also can’t help but think of the movie the testaments and how powerful the portrayal of Christ’s visit to Bountiful was in that movie.

Whether the book was written by ancient prophets in America testifying of Christ or if the book was just some fan fiction about Christ written by Joseph Smith, I would think it was a must read for all Christians. At the very least they should want to read the Book of Mormon, or at the very least the chapters in 3 Nephi when Christ returns, speaks to the people, and then personally visits them. How amazing would it be to discover that entirely new descriptions of the visitations of Christ existed that you didn’t know about? I would want to read more.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself. The reading for the week opens with the signs of Christ’s death and the destruction of entire famous and large cities. There was a mist of darkness that was so pervasive that the people were unable to have any light. Apparently it snuffed out any flames. They were in total, all-consuming darkness. In the reading the people lamented a lot. They lamented for the friends and family they had lost, for the destruction of the cities, and that they hadn’t repented sooner.

The fact that they lamented not having repented sooner stuck with me. This could mean either of two things in my head. They knew they were doing wrong and didn’t want to change so they didn’t, or they weren’t necessarily believers of Christ but the events that had occurred convinced them of the truthfulness of the warnings of the prophets and they wished that they had listened. Were the evidences of what was happening and the fulfillment of prophecy so clear, obvious, and undeniable even to those who did not believe? I like to believe that. I like that it reinforces what earlier chapters have said that the signs and wonders occurred so that there would be no cause for unbelief. The signs are meant to provide evidence and reinforce faith. “14 And now, whoso readeth, let him understand; he that hath the scriptures, let him search them, and see and behold if all these deaths and destructions by fire, and by smoke, and by tempests, and by whirlwinds, and by the opening of the earth to receive them, and all these things are not unto the fulfilling of the prophecies of many of the holy prophets.”

As everyone is languishing in the darkness, they all hear a voice. It’s clarified later that it’s Christ speaking. He exhorts them to repent. He lists a bunch of the cities that were destroyed and what happened to them. Basically it’s a long monologue, cataloging the destruction that has occurred. God takes credit for it, and then says, “O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?”

He tells them that they should “offer up unto me no more the shedding of blood; yea, your sacrifices and your burnt offerings shall be done away, for I will accept none of your sacrifices and your burnt offerings.” He tells them that through him the Law of Moses was fulfilled, and that from now on their offering they make to him should be the sacrifice of “a broken heart and a contrite spirit.” We are told to repent and come unto Christ as a little child. When I think of children I think of someone who is trusting, believing, guileless.

We are also told repeatedly that Christ sought to gather the people “as a hen gathereth her chickens.” The repetition was so frequent, that I decided this was really something that was important. So I looked up why hens gather their chicks under their wings. I originally thought it was just because a hen protects the chicks from the elements, keeps them safe and warm. And that’s part of it. When there are wind and storms raging around, the chicks under the hens wing won’t even get wet. They’re protected from the brunt of storms and weather and are kept safe, dry, and warm. But it’s more than that.

One story I read about a mother hen said she died in a forest fire, shielding her chicks and suffering pain and death to protect them. Obviously she could have left them, but she instead chose to stay and save them, to her own detriment. The hen and chicks comparison can be one of self sacrifice to protect the children the hen loves.

There were other stories too. The hen can’t run to all of the chicks in times of danger. They have to stay close to her so that when danger arises, they can flee to her for safety instead of being devoured by predators or danger. Safety for the chicks only works if they stay close enough to run to the mother’s safety, a mother who is willing to sacrifice her own life for theirs, even though she could get away or save herself if she abandoned them.

Chapter 11 ends with Christ’s physical appearance to the people at the Temple in Bountiful. God the Father introduces Christ, and they see Christ himself descend out of heaven, clothed in white. He introduces himself, and explains the atonement. They remember the prophesies that Christ would come to them after he ascended to heaven. They fell the nail prints in his hands and the slash in his side. Again, they’re offered evidences which they get to personally see and touch. After all of them get this opportunity, they praise God and worship him. We learn about baptism, and Christ gives some the authority to baptize in his name. He exports the people to repent.

He teaches them the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel, as iterated in the Articles of Faith, namely, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, second, repentance, and third, baptism by immersion. He explains that his doctrines not to contend or fight with one another. His doctrine is love and peace. Repeatedly he expresses that this is his doctrine, or his beliefs and principles. To repent. To be baptized. To become as a little child. He tells the people who saw him there to go and tell the others what he’s said, “unto the ends of the earth.”

Val's Email Sunday School: Shared Values, The Foundation of Civilization

The reading this week begins shortly before the coming of Christ to the Americas where he visited the Nephites and the Lamanites. It says “the prophecies of the prophets began to be fulfilled more fully; for there began to be greater signs and greater miracles wrought among the people.” However, despite increased miracles and signs, the people who didn’t believe in Christ persecuted those who did “saying: Behold the time is past, and the words of Samuel are not fulfilled; therefore, your joy and your faith concerning this thing hath been vain.”

They caused a “great uproar throughout the land; and the people who believed began to be very sorrowful, lest by any means those things which had been spoken might not come to pass.” There began to be armed conflicts and heated disagreements among the people. The groups of people who had secret agreements among one another to try to achieve power and wealth “had become so numerous, and did slay so many of the people, and did lay waste so many cities, and did spread so much death and carnage throughout the land, that it became expedient that all the people, both the Nephites and the Lamanites, should take up arms against them.”

The people who believed in God and followed God “did unite with their brethren, the Nephites, and were compelled, for the safety of their lives and their women and their children, to take up arms against those Gadianton robbers, yea, and also to maintain their rights, and the privileges of their church and of their worship, and their freedom and their liberty.” However, despite uniting against a common enemy, they were still fighting among themselves, and the “robbers did gain many advantages over them.” At this time the people were “in a state of many afflictions; and the sword of destruction did hang over them, insomuch that they were about to be smitten down by it, and this because of their iniquity.”

Something I’ve thought a lot about regarding the destruction of civilizations is whether God smites these civilizations because of their wickedness, or whether destruction is just an inevitable consequence of societies that stray too far from the spectrum of shared values that allows humans to live in peace together. I don’t think that once societies hit a threshold of wickedness that God is annoyed enough to try to destroy the people. Instead, I think it’s like all commandments. The wisdom for them is sound, but we don’t always understand what we sometimes perceive as a restriction on our freedom when in reality it’s usually setting guidelines to allow us to thrive more fully by giving us a framework in which to operate. In games, morality, society, and life, there must be rules to create order.

Without order, there’s chaos. When everyone tries to play by their own rules, the game (a board game, society, or life) is ruined. You can’t play/live/thrive together when you aren’t using the same framework. We need some basic shared values (not necessarily shared beliefs) for the game to continue. In the case of the US, our shared values used to be Judeo-Christian values of equality of all men/women before God and in society (regardless of wealth or position which by extension means equal application of the law), and refraining from lying, cheating, stealing, murdering, etc. I think that societies and people destroy themselves by going to war with one another when they drift too far from common values that allow for peace and prosperity. In the scriptures it says that when the majority of the people choose evil, then they’re ripe for destruction. However, if people “repent” or change then they’re spared. To me this doesn’t seem to imply a vengeful God intent on punishing people for wrongs, but rather a continuum with consequences that at some point may tip past the point of no return.

The scriptures show us repeated cycles of the people living in peace and going to war. The cause of the rise and fall of conflict and peace among these people is the same, and it’s not restricted to scripture. When societies start to elevate certain people above others in worth or importance, and the rule of law ceases to apply equally to all people regardless of position or class, and groups of people begin to cheat one another, battle for wealth and power, and society/civilization begins to decay. What’s funny is that the word “civilization” seems to encompass this meaning, the action or process of being courteous or polite, noncriminal. What’s funny is that we have groups in the US right now, particularly BLM (Black Lives Matter Inc), who state a main objective is to rid us of “the oppression of respectability.” Respectability is defined as “proper, correct, and socially acceptable.” They are literally and actively seeking to undermine civility, or the representation of civilization, and we wonder why the world is going to crap.

There are a lot of really interesting studies about how sexual morality and promiscuity are also one of the biggest determiners of the health of a civilization. Civilizations that permit promiscuity undermine the order of civilization. Stable family units are the basis of ordered society. Promiscuity leads to kids without a set of parents, fewer stable homes, and increases in cheating and divorce. I read about how monogamy and restrained sexual passions allow you to bridle your passions and channel them into more productive outlets like career, family, and community, while promiscuity indulges people’s hedonism so that they’re constantly seeking satisfaction and pleasure instead of seeking to building things like family, life, or community. Again, we want the effects of following the rules without having to actually follow them.

Other symptoms of a decaying society are the glorification of violence, and the debasement of the currency. You can find a lot of examples of inflation and what causes it (governments), but I really liked this article about it https://mises.org/library/inflation-and-fall-roman-empire. It explained how the rulers of Rome and the military (those who worked for the government) benefitted from a dual monetary system where the people at the top reaped benefits, while everyone else struggled to get by because their purchasing power was constantly being undermined. That doesn’t sound anything like the rich benefiting from rising asset prices while regular people have the purchasing power of their savings constantly diminished like today, does it? This seems extremely relevant to me when we consider the chaos of all of the currencies in the world from Venezuela to Zimbabwe. The plague of deficit spending is also addressed, and we won’t go too far into it, but the manipulation of currencies and deficit spending to the benefit of the few to the detriment of many are what’s caused things like the sovereign debt crisis in Europe (Greece most famously), stagnant growth over the course of decades in Japan, and 0% to negative interest rates across the board, and rising inequality all over the world. But again, without arguing morality, how can we say that this is wrong? Unfortunately if we aren’t going to be blazing hypocrites, we need to be consistent and moral all the time, not just when it’s convenient or we’re the one getting screwed. There is no moral high ground if you don’t care about morality unless it affects you negatively.

I know this is a bit of a tangent for a Sunday School lesson, but I hope I can help you see the relevance. When we consider the scripture that tells us that “wickedness never was happiness,” I take it to mean that doing the wrong thing doesn’t lead to the good outcomes that we want. These principles are broadly applied. Fiscal or monetary wickedness (doing the wrong thing, being irresponsible, spending what you don’t have) never leads to prosperity. Sexual wickedness (doing the wrong thing and only pursuing pleasure) doesn’t actually lead to satisfaction. I’ve watched the world around me double down on things that are wrong, and act surprised when there are negative consequences.

How can we be surprised that people don’t value life in terms of mass shootings, terrorism, or murder, when we as societies kill unborn babies with abortion (usually for convenience), fail to provide shelter for homeless and let people die on the streets, and let the poor go hungry (whether in our own communities, countries or the world)? How can we expect people to value the sanctity of life when so much of what we do as a society teaches that life is not precious or valuable or sacred at all? When nothing is sacred anymore? We have to do better. We have to actually live the values we profess to have.

How can we be shocked or surprised at all the variations of pornography and sexual exploitation and rape when we as societies profess that sexuality is just pleasure, a need to be filled, and that it doesn’t mean anything special? How can we sexualize children more and more and debase innocence and be surprised when that leads to even worse things? How can we do everything wrong, celebrate it, and then act surprised or horrified to find out there are consequences?

When we discourage marriage, encourage divorce, and destroy the family unit, the foundation of ordered society and civilization, how can we be surprised that the structure and rules of society are crumbling? One thing the pandemic showed us starkly is how much families have shifted the responsibility of their children to the state. Here in the US people were lamenting what children would do if schools were closed because then those kids would have “food insecurity,” meaning that some kids wouldn’t have anything to eat if the school wasn’t feeding them breakfast and lunch. As a society we’ve hoisted the responsibility of feeding our children from the parents onto the state. Teachers and schools shouldn’t be responsible for feeding your children. They shouldn’t be responsible for caring for the emotional, spiritual, and/or physical needs of children. We need to take more responsibility for our own lives, our own children, and our own communities.

Jordan Peterson, a Canadian Psychologist, talks about this. He talks about how the voluntary acceptance of responsibility is what gives us meaning in our lives. The more we seek supposed freedom by refusing responsibility (regarding the state of our lives, our finances, our kids), the more we diminish meaning in our lives. I think that the acceptance of the burden of responsibility and bearing it well is what we consider success. For example, in any area of life, it is the voluntary acceptance of responsibility and striving to bear it well that constitutes success. In our pursuit of ultimate freedom from rules and responsibilities in our modern societies, we’ve destroyed the basis of our meaning and success.

Back to the reading. The leader of the wicked group of people sends a letter to the leader of the people, Lachoneus. Lachoneus was “exceedingly astonished, because of the boldness of Giddianhi demanding the possession of the land of the Nephites, and also of threatening the people and avenging the wrongs of those that had received no wrong, save it were they had wronged themselves by dissenting away unto those wicked and abominable robbers.” This reminds me of what’s happening in the US right now too. There are groups of people, who I believe are a minority, who are demanding that the country acquiesce to them. They’re threatening everyone because of perceived wrongs.

In the reading, the good guys prepared for conflict. They only plan to defend themselves, instead of going after the bad guys. They “put up their prayers unto the Lord their God, that he would deliver them in the time that their enemies should come down against them to battle.” When the bad guys come to battle against them, “behold, great and terrible was the day that they did come up to battle; and they were girded about after the manner of robbers; and they had a lamb-skin about their loins, and they were dyed in blood, and their heads were shorn, and they had head-plates upon them; and great and terrible was the appearance of the armies of Giddianhi, because of their armor, and because of their being dyed in blood.” The bad guys use fear and intimidation as a deliberate tactic. They want to scare the people into submission, into surrender. They wanted to punish the people for things that they didn’t do. I don’t know about you, but this tactic in the Book of Mormon and in our society today is against my religion. It’s wrong. It’s evil. I believe that man should be punished for their own sins and not for Adam’s transgressions, or that we should only be held responsible for the things that we do, not for Adam's sins or for the sins of our ancestors. I didn't want to bring politics into this, but the concept original sin in which we are all born sinful, is one that a certain political party is pushing. I watched a community event in which one of the presidential candidates spoke of us as a people and a nation needing to address the original sin of 400 years of slavery. There's so much that's morally wrong with this that I wasn't even sure that I should mention it here. I don't believe in original sin. I don't believe in holding people accountable for things that they had no part in. 

The good guys fell down on the ground, praying to God for protection. There’s very little in life that we can control. We have some control over our own lives, and little control over the direction of society or the world. We are fragile and frail, and much of the control that we think we have is an illusion. Prayer is what we do to try to influence those things which are out of our control. The battle ensues, and the good guys win. Afterwards, “their hearts were swollen with joy, unto the gushing out of many tears, because of the great goodness of God in delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; and they knew it was because of their repentance and their humility that they had been delivered from an everlasting destruction.”

Though the deliverance in these chapters was physical, I think that we can superimpose the lessons in the story onto other areas of life. We can talk about emotional or spiritual deliverance instead of just physical deliverance. Though The Book of Mormon is full of physical battles, the stories can apply to us. We can think of it in the context of the armour of God (see the bible) with the shield of faith, the sword of the spirit, etc. We too can prepare as best we can, and when the time comes to battle, we pray for strength and guidance and then boldly act.

It said near the end of the reading that “behold, there was not a living soul among all the people of the Nephites who did doubt in the least the words of all the holy prophets who had spoken; for they knew that it must needs be that they must be fulfilled. And they knew that it must be expedient that Christ had come, because of the many signs which had been given, according to the words of the prophets; and because of the things which had come to pass.” I mentioned this in my last lesson, but I liked how it spoke of the people believing because of the many signs which had been given. In the recent reading in Helaman 14 it said, “many shall see greater things than these, to the intent that they might believe that these signs and these wonders should come to pass upon all the face of this land, to the intent that there should be no cause for unbelief among the children of men.”

These scriptures tell me that there will be evidences given to people by God, with the intent that they should believe. We were never meant to blindly believe in prophecy, God, the prophets, or The Church. We are supposed to experiment in our own lives on a micro-level and receive evidence, experience, and knowledge there, and we are also supposed to watch society and the world follow the macro-level prophecies written about in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, so that when we see them fulfilled, we will have reason to believe. Because the people had the prophecies proven to them as they watched them fulfilled, and presumably had individual spiritual experiences in their own lives as well, they believed and “they did forsake all their sins, and their abominations, and their whoredoms, and did serve God with all diligence day and night.”

It says a few different places that Nephi ministered with “power and with great authority.” Guess what the reaction was of the people who weren’t trying to follow God or Christ. You’ll never guess. Nephi was casting out devils, performing miracles, and raising his brother from the dead and providing evidence of the truth of his words, and “they were angry with him, even because he had greater power than they. . .” They were mad at him because he was more powerful than they were! How dumb is that! They were also mad at him because it wasn’t possible “that they could disbelieve his words, for so great was his faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. . .” The bad guys “saw it, and did witness of it, and were angry with him because of his power; and he did also do many more miracles, in the sight of the people, in the name of Jesus.” Another place in the reading it talked about the people willfully rebelling against God. They didn't do bad things in ignorance. They knew better and they chose to do evil things willfully. 

In the end, their chief judge is murdered and it says that basically the government is destroyed. The bad guys who tried to destroy the government appoint an anti-Christ King over themselves. Everyone else divided into tribes which consisted of their friends and families. There is some tenuous peace between many of the tribes, but the shared values that previously bound them together are gone. They don’t have the same laws, but “they were united in the hatred of those who had entered into a covenant to destroy the government.”

To me, the reading this week was a stark warning of what can happen to people when we disregard the consequences of immorality. Everyone wants to live in a moral society with moral leaders, but many people don’t want those rules of morality to apply to them. It also is a warning of what happens when we no longer have shared values. When order breaks down, chaos ensues. The fall of the Nephite civilization into tribalism is so interesting, and what’s even crazier is that it’s not out of the realm of possibility for our societies today. We like to believe that we're more evolved, more enlightened, or somehow more civilized than the rest of humanity because of our modernity, but this isn't the case, and to believe it is dangerous. 

It reminds me of a quote by Jeffery R. Holland in a CES broadcast in 2015 when he said, “We know for certain that if or when everything else in the latter days is down or dying: if governments, economies, industries, and institutions crumble; if societies and cultures become a quagmire of chaos and insecurity, nevertheless through it all the gospel of Jesus Christ and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that bears that gospel to the world will stand triumphant. It will stand undefiled in God’s hand until the very Son of God Himself comes to rule and reign as Lord of lords and King of kings. Nothing is more certain in this world. Nothing is more sure. Nothing could be more of an antidote to anxiety.”

Val's Email Sunday School: Bravery, Faith, and Hope

Ah yes, it’s time again for Email Sunday School. Today we’ll discuss another one of my favorite scripture stories, Samuel the Lamanite, and what this story can teach us about ourselves and our day. Samuel the Lamanite was a prophet who came to a city called Zarahemla to preach to the people. He taught about repentance (or the need to become better and more moral) and about Jesus Christ. The scriptures say “he did preach, many days, repentance unto the people. . .” However, the people didn’t like what he had to say, and they threw him out of the city. Samuel the Lamanite received inspiration that he needed to go back, but the people wouldn’t let him into the city. This is where it gets good.

We’ve got to admire Samuel’s resolve to do what he feels is right, despite the obstacles he faces. First, he preaches and no one listens. Then, he preaches and they literally throw him out. He’s instructed to go back, but they won’t let him into the city. If I was Samuel and I knew God wanted me to do something, I’d be wondering why He wasn’t preparing the way a little bit instead of having me face all of these obstacles and dead ends. But instead of dwelling on what he couldn’t do, Samuel the Lamanite instead does what he can do. Samuel keeps putting in the effort.

President Nelson said that, “...the Lord loves effort, because effort brings rewards that can’t come without it.” What might those rewards be? Maybe allowing us to learn how to exercise trust or faith. Maybe allowing us to realize our actual capacity or strength. Maybe having us do things we know, we know, that we didn’t have the ability to do on our own so that we can bear witness and testimony to others later? President Nelson never specifies in that talk what those rewards are, but I think it would be enlightening for us to think about why sometimes the things that God wants from us are hard and why he lets us struggle. Why did Nephi and his brother’s have to go back for the plates? Why did they have to try so hard to get them? Why is struggle often a theme in the stories about following the Lord?

Back to Samuel. Samuel decides to do what he can, and climbs up on the wall of the city since he can’t get inside. It’s fun to imagine how high the wall of the city might have been. Did he have to rock climb up it? It had to have been pretty high for the rest of the story to make sense. Anyway, he went and got “upon the wall thereof, and stretched forth his hand and cried with a loud voice, and prophesied unto the people whatsoever things the Lord put into his heart.” He prophesied of their destruction if they didn’t change and become more moral, more righteous. They needed to change (repent). He taught of Christ, and Christ’s coming. He prophesied of violence, famine, and pestilence if they didn’t change. He taught that they would face God’s fierce anger if they didn’t improve. He taught that the city was spared because of the righteous who were in it, “But behold, the time cometh, saith the Lord, that when ye shall cast out the righteous from among you, then shall ye be ripe for destruction. . .”

He doesn’t mince words as he describes how the people “do not remember the Lord” in the things he’s blessed them with, but they “always remember [their] riches, not to thank the Lord . . .for them; yea, [their] hearts are not drawn out unto the Lord, but they do swell with great pride, unto boasting, and unto great swelling, envyings, strifes, malice, persecutions, and murders, and all manner of iniquities.” He preaches very specifically about the prophecies around Christ’s birth and death, saying that “many shall see greater things than these, to the intent that they might believe that these signs and these wonders should come to pass upon all the face of this land, to the intent that there should be no cause for unbelief among the children of men.” I find this reassuring. When we consider the Second Coming of Christ, and the last days, and the signs, wonders, and prophecies that will come before his return, it is comforting to think that the Lord will provide us enough evidence with the specific intent that there should be no cause for unbelief.

It’s a good sermon. He has a lot to say. I like it because whether or not you believe that The Book of Mormon is an actual history of people on the American Continent, it’s at least as old as Joseph Smith’s day. And the philosophies and arguments and ideologies of man are not new. I particularly liked this excerpt:

“25 And now when ye talk, ye say: If our days had been in the days of our fathers of old, we would not have slain the prophets; we would not have stoned them, and cast them out.

26 Behold ye are worse than they; for as the Lord liveth, if a prophet come among you and declareth unto you the word of the Lord, which testifieth of your sins and iniquities, ye are angry with him, and cast him out and seek all manner of ways to destroy him; yea, you will say that he is a false prophet, and that he is a sinner, and of the devil, because he testifieth that your deeds are evil.

27 But behold, if a man shall come among you and shall say: Do this, and there is no iniquity; do that and ye shall not suffer; yea, he will say: Walk after the pride of your own hearts; yea, walk after the pride of your eyes, and do whatsoever your heart desireth—and if a man shall come among you and say this, ye will receive him, and say that he is a prophet.

28 Yea, ye will lift him up, and ye will give unto him of your substance; ye will give unto him of your gold, and of your silver, and ye will clothe him with costly apparel; and because he speaketh flattering words unto you, and he saith that all is well, then ye will not find fault with him.

29 O ye wicked and ye perverse generation; ye hardened and ye stiffnecked people, how long will ye suppose that the Lord will suffer you? Yea, how long will ye suffer yourselves to be led by foolish and blind guides? Yea, how long will ye choose darkness rather than light?”

He goes on to say that if we don’t choose to do right now, then at some point it will be too late, because “your days of probation are past; ye have procrastinated the day of your salvation until it is everlastingly too late, and your destruction is made sure; yea, for ye have sought all the days of your lives for that which ye could not obtain; and ye have sought for happiness in doing iniquity, which thing is contrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and Eternal Head.” What Samuel the Lamanite says here is really interesting, and you can find a lot of variations of this sentiment in self-help books and self-development books. Many people believe that being happy is a side effect of a certain type of life, a certain type of living, and not an ends in itself. They say that the harder you pursue happiness, the more elusive that it is, but if instead you build a life, based on service and meaning, that happiness is a result.

The people are so mad about what Samuel the Lamanite has to say that the crowd decides to try to kill him. When I was little, I didn’t know why the people wanted to kill Samuel for what he said. I just thought they were bad guys, so that’s what they did. The bad guys tried to kill the good guys. Wasn’t that how it worked? But seeing the anger and senseless violence of the riots throughtout the country this summer online has exemplified to me George Orwell’s quote that says, “The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.” I can see people in our society today wanting to kill people for saying things they don’t like.

The mob starts throwing rocks and shooting arrows at Samuel. Samuel is not only obedient and wise, he’s brave. He keeps his cool and continues preaching, trusting that God will protect him, especially because he’s on the errand that God sent him on. Some of the people believed his words because they couldn’t hit him, but the others who didn’t believe him were even madder and “when they saw that they could not hit him with their stones and their arrows, they cried unto their captains, saying: Take this fellow and bind him, for behold he hath a devil; and because of the power of the devil which is in him we cannot hit him with our stones and our arrows; therefore take him and bind him, and away with him.” When Samuel the Lamanite saw the people coming to physically get him because they couldn’t kill him any other way, “he did cast himself down from the wall, and did flee out of their lands, yea, even unto his own country . . .”

Samuel’s most famous prophecy is probably the one that told of Christ’s Coming. He talks about the signs and wonders that will precede the birth of Christ. I liked reading about the prophecies regarding Christ’s birth and death, and the stalwart faith of those who believed Samuel. That’s a whole other lesson, so I’ll conclude talking about what this story of Samuel can teach us today.

One thing that struck me was that Samuel managed to offend almost everyone. If “the wicked take the truth to be hard” he managed to rub everyone’s sore points. Some of the people realized he was right, and decided to change and become better, but most of them just got mad. To me, this demonstrates the importance of not giving into hate and anger, the importance of humility. When we are humble we can recognize when we’re doing wrong and we can change. The world is better when we are better. The people in the crowd listening to Samuel were just people. Many of them were probably relatively good people who were making some immoral choices that Samuel pointed out. Instead of recognizing that he was right, they got defensive, angry, and violent.

Becoming defensive, angry, and hateful is something I’ve seen online a lot. And I’ve seen it from people in various denominations who claim to follow Christ. They publically disparage others and rant about how they can’t believe that someone who follows Christ could support one political candidate or the other. This is so disappointing. We know better. Are we living up to the standard we know is right?

We must be more Christlike, and that includes not shaming others for having different opinions. Isn’t that literally one of the biggest problems our society has today anyway? Are we going to jump on the bandwagon of division when people don’t reach the same conclusions we have? Tolerance, agency, and freedom of choice are literally the point of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to have actual tolerance, understanding, and love for others and not try to force them to conform to what we think is best.

Life is full of shades of grey, and there is often no “right” choice, but merely the best choice we think we can make after reasoning things out in our minds. This is why Christ is supposed to be our advocate with God. He knows our hearts, minds, and intent. It’s not our place to judge people and their choices and try to shame them into what we think is right. It’s wrong to use God, our church, or Christ as a justification for what we’re doing and try to force or compel others to do the same. President Uchdorf said, “We must realize that all of God’s children wear the same jersey. Our team is the brotherhood of man. This mortal life is our playing field. Our goal is to learn to love God and to extend that same love toward our fellowman.”

I hope we can look at this story and find inspiration in Samuel’s example of resilience, perseverance, obedience, faith, and bravery (also his magnificent superhero-like ability not to get hit with projectiles and arrows). I hope that as a society we can stop being so rooted in our ideologies and instead find common ground in our shared values of freedom, liberty, agency, and humanity. I hope we can rise above the psychological and spiritual warfare that seems to be being waged against us in news cycles and on social media and instead choose faith over fear. I hope we can focus on the good and have hope. Hope is a scarce commodity, and those who have it will stand apart in this world. As Thomas S. Monson said that “the future is as bright as your faith.”