From a previous post Hypocrisy? Resisting the Carnal Grudge . . . .
Many otherwise faithful Saints who are trying to follow Christ in most ways nevertheless allow themselves the resentment and irritation of this carnal grudge against some aspect of Christ’s kingdom. In every ward there are those with a chip on their shoulder, who are not sinful or wicked or even “inactive,” but whose carnal self just resents being subjected to the Spirit, so irritation and resentment becomes their habitual and normal responses to Church leaders and programs. Their carnal self isn’t strong enough to keep them in Egypt, but it does sabotage the wagons all the way to Canaan. If we are obliged to serve God with all our heart, might, mind and strength, and to build his kingdom, can we in good faith resist, resent, or attack any part of that kingdom? Continuing. . .
Always the goal of Church programs is to perfect the Saints. Always (so far) they fail to do that completely. That means the institutional Church and its individual members are trying to do something (achieve perfection) that they fail to do. The carnal self and other critics like to interpret that failure as hypocrisy. “You hypocrites,” they say. “You think you’re so hot, trying to be so good, but you turn out to be human just like the rest of us.” But hypocrisy is having pretended values we don’t really try to live by, and there is no pretense about LDS values and goals—these are genuine aspirations. Moreover, weakness is not the same as hypocrisy, and those who genuinely seek perfection and fall short are no more “hypocrites” than high jumpers or pole vaulters who fail to clear the bar are hypocrites. That is one of Satan’s filthy slanders, one that is widely accepted. I have seen people who never even notice the corruption of Babylon practically foam at the mouth in anger at the imperfection and “hypocrisy” of Church programs. But why should those who aspire to righteousness and fall short be despised more than who aspire to evil and succeed? Because the natural man is an enemy to God, and the natural man despises any attempt to live by the Spirit.
Now, what makes you mad at the church, its programs or its constituent parts? Think about it. Shall we be double-minded, or single eyed? Shall we finally decide whose team we’re on—and let the consequence follow? Even after we have been converted to the gospel, we must be wary of some treasons against the cause of Zion rooted in the resentment of the carnal self to the control of the Spirit.7
Where the natural man has gained even greater control in the life of a person, it no longer snipes from ambush at peripheral programs, but it attacks the central elements of the Church or attacks the Brethren directly. In cases like these, the carnal self is no longer just resentful; it has become the dominant part of us and attacks the Spirit openly. That is the last step before total loss of the Spirit and complete apostasy. ~Stephen E. Robinson (deceased) Following Christ (Salt Lake City, Deseret Book, 2019) 425-27 Dwarsligger® edition
