In Matthew, chapter 10, Jesus gave his Twelve Apostles instructions before sending them out to preach the Gospel. He warned them that they would be made to suffer by other Jews (Matthew 10: 16-18), but that they should continue to speak out.
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Matthew 10:16
When I read this scripture, I feel like we have the “sheep” part down only too well, but that we keep forgetting the charge to be “wise as serpents.”
Passive
The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ isn’t intended to make us sheep. It is intended to teach us how to become shepherds!
Decades of passively following and “obeying” authority figures, without learning how to be leaders ourselves, has crippled our ability to stand up to the onslaught of lies and deceptions we now face. Our old habits of living in an isolated bubble, ignoring the wider society around us, and blindly voting Republican, no longer serve us (if, indeed, they ever did).
Self-centered
We have been lazy. We are not living up to our responsibility to consecrate ourselves and build a Zion society. We have allowed ourselves to be deceived by professional liars. We disregard health advice from a Prophet of God (who also happens to be a medical doctor). We have ignored the clear warnings, given to us in the Book of Mormon, against those who seek power and gain.
We refuse to love our neighbor if his skin is a different shade. We continue to disempower women. We deny health care to the poor. We persecute immigrants. We cling to our guns. And we are destroying the very planet we live on.
Ignorant
Rather than being a light to the world, most (so-called) Latter-day Saints, at least in the United States, support the current Republican fascism. We blindly accept lies and actively support demagogues.
In the scriptures (both the Bible and the Book of Mormon), when the members of the Church reach this stubborn and prideful state, destruction always follows.
We, as a people, need to wake up. We need to repent of our association with charlatans and demagogues. We need to cease our pursuit of power and gain. We need to reorder our priorities toward love, not fear and hatred, toward unity, not resentment and divisiveness.
God will not be patient with us forever.
I wonder about the terminally naive or if it’s a matter of saints choosing. This past Sunday I felt actively shunned because I’ve spoken out and really all I’ve done is asked questions about health care, immigration, the election, etc. We have a member of our ward who is running for mayor unopposed who flies a Trump flag in his yard and he won’t even look at me nor his “buddies” in the ward (which is most of the other members). So I guess what I’m saying is, I agree with what you’re saying but at least in some places be prepared for those who feel they are wise as serpents to rise up and dismiss everything you stand for even if it’s supported by the scriptures or a living prophet.
Tom, I believe the people you have described in your ward are the “wolves” spoken of in the scripture I quoted. They think they are wise, but their behavior reveals them to be nothing more than bloodthirsty predators. Jesus didn’t warn the Apostles against the Romans, he warned them against their fellow Jews.
Also, like these people, wolves hunt in packs. They are more daring, and more dangerous, in groups.
Be wise, but know that the truth is on your side.
To answer your question, the answer is yes. We have been groomed by the Church to reject the left completely, beginning with the church’s opposition to the New Deal, on through Ezra Taft Benson and Cleon Skousen. It’s no accident LDS can’t render an accurate judgement on Trump.
To another question: Is This the Beginning of Runaway Global Warming? It’s possible, but I doubt the church can focus on this either. The church is in a really tough spot.
The negativity in this brief article counters the admonition to be one. While I am not pleased that so many members of the church seem to blindly lean right, they are my brothers and sisters. I love them. I struggle in that effort. the negativity of this article does not help my effort to be one with them.
Being one does not mean you have to agree with them. Are they being one if they refuse to agree with you? How is this article more negative than trump? Are you saying we should all agree with trumpublicans so we can all be one?