And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:
They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:
Exodus 32:7-9
The history of the children of Israel is one of constant backsliding. Time and again they witness miracles and are delivered from bondage, only to forget the blessings of the Lord and fall again into their old selfish, sinful habits.
Examples from the scriptures
In Moses’ day, the people were freed from bondage in Egypt, and miraculously crossed the Red Sea on dry land, only to eventually end up dancing before an idol in the form of a golden calf.
In the Book of Mormon, it is the temple-building Nephites, not the wilderness-dwelling Lamanites, who eventually sin so greatly that the Lord allows their nation to be completely destroyed.
Joseph Smith sent his people to build up Zion in the land of Missouri and the Lord allowed mobs to chase them out of the state because they would not live the Law of Consecration.
Idol worship in the church today
Given this history, it is only fair to ask if the membership of the current Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints might also show signs of backsliding, stubbornness, and “stiff-neckedness.”
The answer is an unequivocal, “Yes.” Many Latter-day Saints are currently worshiping a “golden-haired” idol in the form of Donald J. Trump. Just as the ancient Israelites did to their golden idol, these “Saints” lift him up, worship him, dance before him, give their gold to him, and expect him to deliver them from their troubles.
They completely ignore the overwhelming evidence of his arrogance, his ignorance, his immorality, his criminality, his corruption, his illiteracy, his inconsistency, his pandering, his gaslighting, his fraud, his cheating, his bullying, his complete refusal to ever repent of anything, and his constant lies.
These MAGA “Saints” seem to have lost their ability to discern good from evil. When it comes to Trump, they willingly deny the truth of their own eyes and ears. They are worshiping an idol. They have set aside the teachings of Jesus Christ in favor of a false God.
There will be consequences
Trumpism is not an equally-reasonable, legitimately-debatable, political position. It is a complete denial of truth, reason, morality, science, expertise, the rule of law, and the Constitution of the United States.
My dear brothers and sisters in the restored Church of Jesus Christ who may still support this anti-Christ. Please wake up and repent. Do not, for any reason, return this dangerous man to power. Both history and the scriptures promise, repeatedly, that you will come to painfully regret it.
And the Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf ….
Exodus 32:35
“They completely ignore the overwhelming evidence of his arrogance, his ignorance, his immorality, his criminality, his corruption, his illiteracy, his inconsistency, his pandering, his gaslighting, his fraud, his cheating, his bullying, his complete refusal to ever repent of anything, and his constant lies.”
But this is also true of our leadership. We are each on our own.
Lew, it is not clear whether by “our leadership” you mean the Biden administration or the church General Authorities. Either way, I must disagree with you. I have met many intelligent, moral, good, kind, caring people in both the Democratic party and in the LDS Church. This includes Joe Biden himself. If we come to believe that there are no good guys – and give up, the bad guys will win by default.
Interestingly, on this same topic, Robert Reich recently posted the following:
“Reminder: If we allow ourselves to fall into fatalism, or wallow in disappointment, or become resigned to what is rather than what should be, we will lose the long game. The greatest enemy of positive social change is cynicism about what can be changed.”
I meant LDS leadership. We both think we are facing a constitutional crisis, yet not one word about same during conference. I leave you to your own conclusions.
I’ll say something else. I think at least some of the GA’s really like Trump on balance. After all he has given them everything they could want – conservative SC, abortion bans.
As we know, none of us is perfect. We live in a fallen world. We all make mistakes, the General Authorities of the LDS Church and people who run for political offices are not without sin, but we have been asked repeatedly through the times since the Church was restored to vote for good and decent people. One certainly has to ask himself if Joe Biden is the better of the two…he certainly has his faults, but not the laundry list that Trump has flaunted his entire life!
Reuben J. Clark said, “God provided that in this land of liberty, our political allegiance shall run not to individuals, that is, to government officials, no matter how great or how small they may be. Under his plan our allegiance and the only allegiance we owe as citizens of the United States, runs to our inspired Constitution….So runs the oath of office of those who participate in government…. (Devotion to the Rule of Law, J. Reuben Clark, Ensign April 1974)
It is clear to me that Joe Biden knows the Constitution far better than Trump does or ever will. It is also clear to me that the naysayers of Biden have not done their homework…but each to his own. I have had a sinking feeling ever since Trump walked down the escalator in 2015 that if he ran for President and won…(I have always listened to my gut instincts) that we were going to see the beginning of more trouble in America than we had seen for a long time and it has come to pass.
It is my opinion that the lds church corporate side is overpowering the morality side. The whole hiding money in shell accounts thing really irked me. I think that the church leadership should consider giving up its apolitical tax free status so they can uniquivically state trumpism is evil and not in line with our beliefs. Until that happens, in my opinion, there us more than one golden calf being worshiped.