Recently, the governor of Utah announced that the Utah National Guard would not be assisting the US federal government in their immigration raids and arrests. Soon after, in response to this, I saw a meme contrasting Governor Cox with Captain Moroni from The Book of Mormon alleging that Moroni in a time of war had fortifications built at the border of the land to prevent others from entering the land of the Nephites. The point of the meme was to criticize Governor Cox and say that he should be supporting and assisting the arrests and deportations of immigrants in Utah.
It is often easy to pick specific passages of scripture, whether from the Bible or Book of Mormon, to support certain political viewpoints. However, it is often just as easy to find another passage that would contradict the first. In the case of Moroni building border defenses, which he did around cities not at the border itself, we could cite the time that the Nephites welcomed refugees giving them land to settle on or the verses that discuss movement and trade between the Nephites and Lamanites with people coming and going freely between their lands. With hundreds of years of history, many periods of war and peace, and varying degrees of righteousness and wickedness, numerous varieties of political systems, policies, and leadership styles and philosophies are found throughout the pages of The Book of Mormon.
Instead of picking a specific verse or period of time from the whole narrative to back up a contemporary point of view, I encourage us to look for patterns that hold true throughout the periods of the book of scripture. One such pattern that holds constant and true through times of war, peace, wickedness, righteousness, struggle, and prosperity is that of looking to the prophet for direction from God.
We see this throughout the periods of war described in the book. Their commanders sought out the prophet for counsel and advice in their strategy and planning in defense of their people. When the people were righteous, they also turned to the prophet for direction. Righteous political leaders in times of war and peace went to the prophet or sent for the prophet’s direction. The prophets in each of these scenarios turn to God for answers and deliver the messages to those asking even if the direction wasn’t what they were hoping for. The righteous heeded the prophet and the word of God.
Therefore, rather than looking only to the most detailed section of war in The Book of Mormon to find answers for how to act or respond when we feel like our freedom is being attacked, I invite us to look throughout the book and take the more complete lesson of looking to the prophet in our day for how to respond and act in our current situations.
If we do this, we find exhortations to be peace makers. We hear that we are to be living higher and holier than the world around us to be a light to that world and bring others to Christ and the covenant path. To me that means not jumping on any bandwagon—not of politics, social issues, or parties. Instead, I should ponder on the topic, seek out direction from the prophet(s) including scripture, and humble myself before God to ascertain if I am acting as I should. Sometimes this will mean waiting and not responding or reacting. Sometimes this will mean speaking out against the crowd in my particular part of the vineyard, and at other times joining with the crowd in efforts to do good and righteous things.
When we look to the prophet for guidance and direction, we also need to look at the official direction and actions of the Church since the actions of the general Church are directed by those we sustain as prophets. This includes recent social media posts with tips for being better stewards of the environment by reducing waste of water and electricity. These posts were released around the same time that the Church publicized its efforts to be more sustainable at its properties around the world.
It also includes the amazing effort of the Church to show a more diverse church membership through its visual media such as photos and videos and in its social media stories of everyday church members and their struggles and successes in everything from employment and education to fertility and healthcare.
When we look at the fruits of the Church that are being produced under the direction of those prophets, seers, and revelators, we might need to adjust our own ways of thinking and living to better align with the prophet’s counsel to live a higher and holier way that will help us be a peculiar people that God will use to gather His children unto Him, to find joy in our Savior even through our struggles and trials, and prepare for the second coming of our Savior Jesus Christ.
Hopefully, you’re preparing to listen to the words of the prophets and their current direction and counsel during General Conference on Oct. 4-5. You can watch online here: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/?lang=eng.
Since I originally wrote this, President Nelson has written an op-ed about the lessons he has learned in his 101 years of life. It was published in Time Magazine. You can read his birthday wish for each of us on Time.com titled: “We All Deserve Dignity and Respect.” https://time.com/7315003/russell-nelson-dignity-respect/. Here’s just one excerpt:
A century of experience has taught me this with certainty: anger never persuades, hostility never heals, and contention never leads to lasting solutions. Too much of today’s public discourse, especially online, fosters enmity instead of empathy.
Imagine how different our world could be if more of us were peacemakers—building bridges of understanding rather than walls of prejudice—especially with those who may see the world differently than we do.
This is my prayer that we can heed the counsel of the prophet as he points us to the Savior.
