In President Nelson’s book, ‘Accomplishing the Impossible’ (published in 2015), the concluding chapter ‘The World Needs Our Contribution’ states our commission as members of the Church. President Nelson, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, now President of the Church and Prophet who leads us today said: I love the poetic words and message of a favorite hymn:
Behold! A royal army, with banner, sword, and shield,
Is marching forth to conquer on life’s great battle field.
It’s ranks are filled with soldiers, united, bold and strong,
Who follow their Commander and sing this joyful song:
Victory, victory, thru him that redeemed us!
Victory, victory, thru Jesus Christ, our Lord! (1)
Yes, the Lord is our commander; we are His soldiers in a mighty war. The conflict in which we are engaged is between the forces of God and the forces of the adversary.(2) This conflict began before the world was created. It began with the war in Heaven. On God’s side was Jesus Christ, foreordained to be the Savior of the World.(3)
This conflict continues on here on earth. We as servants of the Lord are advocates of joy. We know that “men are that they might have joy.”(4) In contrast, the way of the adversary always leads to misery, despair, and destruction.
Thus, opposing forces are competing for our allegiance: right versus wrong, good versus evil.(5-see below) These forces are, in fact, conflicting religious systems of belief. They are theistic (godly) forces and atheistic (ungodly or satanic) forces. These were cited by Elder Clayton Christensen in an editorial calling for theistic balance on the U.S. Supreme Court.(6-see below) I would like to extend his views and apply them to the challenges we so often face.
Theistic forces, be they Islamic, Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, or Mormon, teach that there is an absolute right and wrong. Theistic forces have an ethic that reveres the righteous judgments of a loving God and obeys civil and divine law voluntarily. The theistic mind-set instills a conscience to do what is right and obey laws that might be otherwise unenforceable.
With such a commitment, you obey a red stop light, even if no other traffic is in sight. As a God-fearing person, you know that even if the police didn’t catch you if you were to steal, murder, or commit adultery, these acts are wrong, and God will ultimately hold you accountable. You know, just as your ancestors knew, that the consequences for not playing by the rules are not only temporal, but also eternal. These theistic forces were part of the shaping of America. From the Book of Mormon, we have learned that this is a “land of promise, . . . choice above all other lands, which the Lord God had preserved for a righteous people.”(7)
Granted, there are people in America who are not religious who also obey unenforceable laws. Why? Because they live in a theistic culture. Although they may try to invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside of God and without acknowledging Him as the ultimate source of true joy, they still draw power from the theism of their ancestors. Their culture is good because the theistic forces them with a rich culture of righteousness. Unfortunately, good culture alone is not strong enough to cause good culture to endure in perpetuity. Additional strength is needed from the power of theistic conviction.
For this reason, a policy to separate church and state completely could become completely counterproductive. The effect of erasing a theistic culture would allow atheistic forces to flourish unopposed in the public square. If that happens, the theistic and noble concept of “freedom of religion” could be twisted and turned to become an atheistic “freedom from religion.” Such an unbalanced policy could sweep out the theistic forces that have been responsible for our society’s success and leave the field wide open to atheistic ideology, secularism, and huge losses for each of us.
This scenario was foresen by our Master, who taught that such people “seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world.(8)
Without an acknowledgment of God and God’s law in one’s life, momentary pleasures will be continually contaminated by gnawing guilt. Momentary pleasures would become meaningless as each raw experience would be stripped of deep meaning and sweet memory, Each day’s work would become sheer drudgery, beauties of nature would become boring, and children would be deemed nuisances to be endured. Without God’s moral underpinnings, political behavior would be skewed toward short-term expediency, lurching nervously from crisis to crisis.
This post to be continued…
(5) President Nelson’s comment here… Unfortunately, evil is not always easily discerned. We hear of wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing, suggesting that camouflage and masquerade often make true identification of the adversary’s minions a bit blurry.
(6) Clayton Christensen, “A theistic balance on the court,” Washington Post, May 18, 2010
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