Sitting in Church this last week, I was reminded of something that LDS leaders have said on several occasions - that the Book of Mormon was written specifically for our times. For example...
1 AND now it came to pass in the *commencement of the twenty and fifth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi, they having established peace between the people of Lehi and the people of Morianton concerning their lands, and having commenced the twenty and fifth year in peace;
2 Nevertheless, they did not long maintain an entire peace in the land, for there began to be a contention among the people concerning the chief judge Pahoran; for behold, there were a part of the people who desired that a few particular points of the law should be altered.
3 But behold, Pahoran would not alter nor suffer the law to be altered; therefore, he did not hearken to those who had sent in their voices with their petitions concerning the altering of the law.
4 Therefore, those who were desirous that the law should be altered were angry with him, and desired that he should no longer be chief judge over the land; therefore there arose a warm dispute concerning the matter, but not unto bloodshed.
5 And it came to pass that those who were desirous that Pahoran should be dethroned from the judgment–seat were called king–men, for they were desirous that the law should be altered in a manner to overthrow the free government and to establish a king over the land.
(Book of Mormon | Alma 51:1 - 5)
Warm disputation. That's one way of putting it. Even the kids are getting involved. It's deeper than just the question of who will be our government. It's a war of ideas, a clash of viewpoints. One side says that we, America, are no better than those whom we have deposed. That we're conquerors, imperialists, seeking to overthrow peaceful governments in other countries to spread our own philosophy, to homogenize the world in our stinking consumer culture. In fact, that makes us worse than those we foolishly seek to supplant.
The other side says that it's a good thing to go out and remove dictators. That it's important, perhaps even vital for us to stick our nose in where we very much are not wanted, because we are better than other countries. One side believes that there are no moral absolutes. The other believes in actual, factual good and evil.
Kingmen and freemen. One believing that men are ultimately incapable of good and evil, because there is no good or evil, or at least it's impossible for men to do something good. One believing that not only is there good and evil, but that men are capable of doing good, and most men will do good.
No mystery where I stand, of course.
And I think that moral absolutists have the advantage because everyone recognizes evil. Killing children for political purposes is evil. Flying planes into buildings in order to kill as many people as possible is evil. And I humbly submit that anyone who believes that the perpetrators were justified in performing those acts is wrong to a degree that I would call willful ignorance.
If there is evil, then there must also be good. In the aggregate, I believe that the good outweighs the bad. That all the little acts of kindness you see between a mother and a child, the service that we render to each other in our neighborhoods and communities, outweighs the evil. These kinds of good are fragile. They thrive and flourish in cultures where people are free of fear - free of terror. In order to ensure that these good things can continue to thrive, we have to make sure that our homes are free of fear. And if we can help others to be free of fear as well, so much the better. In fact, it's necessary. If it were possible for us to completely wall ourselves off from the rest of the world, to perfectly protect everyone inside the protective bubble, and leave the rest of the world to go screw itself over, that would be wrong. All men deserve to live in a free country. All men want to be free. And I humbly submit that those who do not want to be free, who do not want to be able to govern themselves, aren't men. They're unwilling to take responsibility for their actions, which is classic child behavior. It's about on a par with my five-year-old daughter, who is constantly looking for someone else to blame. At least she's learning.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment