Glossing over the scriptures

A few weeks ago in an Elder’s Quorum meeting I spoke out strongly against the direction the lesson was going. I think I briefly shook a few people up, but, of course, the lesson just moved along without directly dealing with what I had said.

The lesson was based on the October 2024 Conference talk “In the Space of Not Many Years” by Elder David A. Bednar.

Elder Bednar’s talk was about the dangers of pride. He quoted previous church president Ezra Taft Benson on how “the Book of Mormon is the keystone to our religion,” and how the Book of Mormon was specifically “written for our day.” Elder Bednar then explained just what the Book of Mormon’s message for our day is.

Pride leads to wickedness

Elder Bednar referred to the record of Helaman, which describes a time when the Lamanites were more righteous than the Nephites. He asked, “How could a once-righteous people (the Nephites) become hardened and wicked in such a short period of time? How could people so quickly forget the God who had blessed them so abundantly?”

In a profound and powerful way, the negative example of the Nephites is instructive for us today.

– David A. Bednar

He then quoted from the Book of Mormon showing that pride over their “exceedingly great riches” had led to the corruption and wickedness of the Nephites. (Helaman 3:33, 36 and Helaman 7:21, 26).

Elder Bednar then said this:

Ancient voices from the dust plead with us today to learn this everlasting lesson: prosperity, possessions, and ease (Helaman 12:2) constitute a potent mixture that can lead even the righteous to drink the spiritual poison of pride.

-David A. Bednar

Elder’s Quorum response

The Elder’s Quorum mused upon these ideas a bit and then the instructor said this:

“Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong about prosperity, possessions, and ease…”

He left this statement hanging in the air as if everyone in the room understood the obvious truth of what he was saying. There was a general nodding of heads around the room. That was when I spoke up – probably more loudly than I should have.

Excuse me, but I completely disagree. Prosperity, possessions, and ease ARE inherently wrong. Otherwise, why does the Book of Mormon warn us against them so often?

Brigham Young used to warn the Saints about the dangers of prosperity. Regarding possessions, the gospel teaches us that everything belongs to the God who created them – not to us. We own nothing. And, as for ease, what about the scriptural warnings against idleness?

-Brian Ferguson

I also pointed out that there are much greater blessings in this world than riches and material goods. I gave as examples our families and the natural world around us. In the class, our former bishop helpfully pointed out that we too often define “prosperity” in terms of money when there are other, better, forms of prosperity.

Minimizing the lesson

The problem – and this still bothers me – is that Latter-day Saints often point out an important lesson from the scriptures and then immediately ignore or deny that the lesson applies to THEM. We recognize the “bad people” in the scriptures without considering whether we, ourselves, might need to repent!

This is not the first time I have heard a teacher in Church – in Quorum meetings, in Sunday School, and even from the pulpit – minimize the immediate personal relevance of the scripture they have just quoted. All too often, I have heard this downplaying of the scriptures being done using that very same comforting phrase, “Of course there is nothing inherently wrong about …”

I don’t honestly know if this “glossing over the scriptures” problem is Church-wide or if it is a Utah/Idaho/Arizona cultural thing, but it needs to be pointed out and stopped, by church members of conscience, every time it starts to happen.

Ignoring, denying, excusing, or justifying our sins does not make them disappear. It just delays our repentance. (Or hastens the consequences of not repenting)….