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)….
Thats why I don’t go anymore…
During the April 1989 conference, Gordon B. Hinckley read Ezra Taft Benson’s opening talk, “Beware of Pride.” It is very detailed about how pride looks in modern times. It was replayed on the Words of Christ YouTube channel this past month with the following comment, “In this powerful message prepared by President Benson, the dangers and consequences of pride are explored. The address emphasizes the significance of the Book of Mormon’s teachings on pride, illustrating how pride led to the downfall of ancient civilizations and continues to impact our lives today. The message calls for self-examination, repentance, and humility, urging members to choose humility over pride. Through historical and scriptural examples, President Benson warns of pride’s divisive nature and implores listeners to unite under God’s will for the redemption of Zion. Embrace humility, serve selflessly, and commit to following God’s commandments to overcome pride and fulfill our divine destiny.”
Good for you for speaking out. It’s true. The saints will flip this. I think it’s because we’ve been taught that having money isn’t inherently evil, if you use it righteously (Elder Oakes -Oct ‘85 conference talk, Elder Holland Oct ‘15 conference talk, and multiple articles, posts.) But, truly having massive amounts of money in light of the disparities we experience today is evil. Mosiah, Mormon, and essentially the last several books in the BoM harshly warm against materialism and wealth disparities. In our faith, we put wealthy people in leadership position (mission presidents, temple presidents, stake presidents, GAs) and almost apply the false prosperity doctrine to the success formula of their lives. And yet looking at the ethics of private equity brokerage, lifelong corporate defense attorneys, American healthcare executives, pharmaceutical reps, stick-trading legislators who have inside information and affect the markets or benefit from their pork, etc. easy to see deep and inexcusable problems. There isn’t anything ethical about the 1% that we should be glossing over. And we, the saints have massive wealth. We build mansion-like temples, City Creek has luxury brands, and meanwhile- there are an estimated 70,000 to 80,000 malnourished (clinically suffering) LDS Primary children worldwide and millions more children of all faiths similarly hungry and starving. And we sit on a 100B nest egg and many are happily unaware of such problems.
My fav quote from Brigham is this:
“The worst fear that I have about [members of this Church] is that they will get rich in this country, forget God and his people, wax fat, and kick themselves out of the Church and go to hell. This people will stand mobbing, robbing, poverty, and all manner of persecution, and be true. But my greater fear for them is that they cannot stand wealth; and yet they have to be tried with riches.”
But here it is cited with the VERY glossing over that you described- in context of Oaks quoting a philosophical tangent from Paul that really excuses extremely rich persons as well as the church’s excessive stored wealth.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2002/04/questions-and-answers?lang=eng
This is so spot on!!!!! I can’t tell you how many times I have wanted to stand up in my Utah Sunday school class and shout to my class “this lesson is for you! WE ARE the religious ones needing to repent just like these wicked people in the scriptures we are reading about!!!!” Nobody seems to put two and two together. It’s frustrating.
You are absolutely right! I was reading in Ether Chapters 8, 9, 10, this week and I used the David Ridges BofM study guide where he gives prompts and comments before specific scriptures to help us understand them better. In Chapter 8 just before verse12 he says: Next, we see one of the evil elements of secret combinations, namey, secretly covenanting with others to protect them in murdering for puprposes of gaining power and wealth…….. The first thought that came into my mind was “Could this be part of what this current administration is doing when they have been chainsawing through government departments and holding our personal information hostage especially when it comes to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security? ” If they remove these benefits from people who sorely need them what happens to those who no longer have the means to take care of their health or living needs? In effect some of these people may die due to the lack of sources to take care of their needs. I asked a friend what they thought…they said I was making a mountain out of a molehill. Maybe I am an alarmist, but this and the other chapters really got to me.