Category: Chauncey Riddle

6 March 1975

Dear Church Member:

Thanks for your letter; it was good to hear that things are going well with you. You said you wonder about persecution. May I give you my thinking on that topic? First, some background.

I believe that the first and foremost thing for us to remember is that our beloved Master is in charge. In him we live and move and have our being. But he also controls the course of the heavens, the forces and events of nature, the course of nations, and the life of every human being. He grants each of us on this earth enough agency to show our true nature, but never enough to destroy his own purposes. Because men have agency, there is evil. But that evil always has bounds. Two passages from Paul delight my soul as they drive this point home: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. …” (Romans 8:28). “For I am persecuted that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38–39).

The acknowledgment that the Savior’s work is only to bless and that his hand is in all things is the foundation of faith in Christ. When this eternal perspective is surely planted in our souls by the ministrations of the Holy Spirit, we can have that hope, born of faith, which “maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which maketh them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works. …” (Ether 12:4). We all need that security. Persecution brings insecurity to those who are weak and ungrounded. But the faithful can look on persecution with equanimity, knowing that their security is spiritual. No persecution can rob them of anything essential.

That, of course, raises the question as to what is essential. I count as essential the opportunity to be obedient to my Savior, to have the covenants and the priesthood, to have my dear wife and our wonderful children in eternity. I count as non-essential my job, my reputation, my home, my farm, my health, my life. Now don’t mistake me. I enjoy and desire all of those things. But if I ever had to choose between my enjoyment of them in this world and partaking of the Savior’s love through the Spirit, I would not hesitate. The Lord has so blessed me and answered my prayers that I trust his promise of the blessings of the next world as being far greater than any temporary enjoyment of this world.

I can hear you say, “Brave words. What about deeds?” I know that it is what one does under stress that really counts. But I also know I can’t guarantee anything about the future. As I look at my friends who have thrown in the towel and have given over to Satan, I can only say, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” My hope is in that grace, God being willing, I will meet the tests. All I am sure of is that this moment I have a burning desire to do all that the Savior would have me do. I hunger to bring souls unto him, that they may share my joy in the sweetness of the companionship of his Spirit and in the opportunity to bless others.

But on to persecution!

The word “persecution” itself means to pursue. Thus persecution is pursuit to do harm. Its opposite I to bless, to help. Its contrary is to live and let live. Though this subject does not readily yield itself to neat subdivision, some broad types are obvious. We could mention physical, social and intellectual persecution.

Last Sunday I saw again the film, “And Should We Die.” That brought vividly to mind the importance of being spiritually ready for physical persecution. Raphael Para and his companion were ready to meet death for their testimony, senseless and fortuitous though the circumstances might have been. President Bentley was able to lead the people of the colonies in their narrow escape through fasting and prayer. But, while we all hope to escape, we know not all will. Raphael and his companion had to join the Prophet Joseph, his brother Hyrum, Parley P. Pratt, the Savior, John the Baptist, Abinadi, Abel, and countless others in the death of deliberate persecution. Looking at the burning and bombing and the hate murders of our own time, it seems likely that some of us and perhaps many of the rising generation must face death for our Master. Whether we, as individuals, will face it or not is not the point. I think the point is, we must be ready to do so.

Now if each of us had several days to decide whether or not to die for the Savior, most of us would do well. But is not the real test what we would do under immediate attack? I remember the words of Joseph F. Smith at the campfire in California when challenged by horsemen intent on killing Mormons. I hope I can always reply in his spirit: “Yes sir, I am a Mormon, true blue, through and through.” Many of us might not mind dying gloriously, with much fanfare and publicity. But to die for chastity when accosted on a freeway? To die for honesty in a prison camp? To die for belief in God at the hands of a mob? If our testimony means enough to us that we prepare each morning either to live for the Savior or to die for him that day, we will always be prepared.

But perhaps we will not be murdered; just robbed, looted, burned, driven. Kirtland, Independence, Far West, Nauvoo, should always be in our minds. Those persecutions are our heritage. We must again be ready should they need to become our legacy. The Lectures on Faith make it clear where we must stand: “An actual knowledge to any person, that the course of life which he pursues is according to the will of God, is essentially necessary to enable him to have that confidence in God without which no person can obtain eternal life. It was this that enabled the ancient saints to endure all their afflictions and persecutions, and to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing (not believing merely), that they had a more enduring substance. Having the assurance that they were pursuing a course which was agreeable to the will of God, they were enabled to take, not only the spoiling of their goods, and the wasting of their substance, joyfully, but also to suffer death in its most horrid forms; knowing (not merely believing) that when this earthy house of their tabernacle was dissolved, they had a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (Lecture Sixth, 2–3). Only that faith nurtured in the privacy of peace will weather the turmoil of trial.

When I think of social persecution, two classic examples come to mind. One is the story of the Welch family, beautifully told in the article entitled “Persecution: 1924” in the Ensign of January 1975. That remarkable father led his family ten miles to church over mountain and dale, through rain and mud when that was necessary. And when confrontation was the right thing to do, he had the courage to do it.

Persecution for his family was the hammer and anvil by which they all acquired the temper which makes saints out of faint hearts and well-wishers.

The other example is connected with the controversy over the laws of the Utah Territory and federal law two centuries ago. I honor the memory of George Reynolds, who, loyal to both his people and to his government, stood trial and suffered imprisonment so that the laws could be clarified. This man, secretary to four First Presidencies, General Authority, legislator, businessman, and editor, willingly absorbed the attack of the enemies of the Church so that others might not need to suffer in that way, To cap it off, he used his time in prison to produce our concordance to the Book of Mormon. Perhaps you know the brief account of his life and sufferings found in the foreword of that work.

Recent commendation of the Church and some of its members is a pleasant change for our peculiar people. The changed climate has helped us to bear testimony, to gain the ear of some who otherwise would not have heard. While we rejoice in that change, we must remember that it is not universal. Throughout the world there is as yet ostracism, discrimination, defamation and harassment. What a challenge both to be humble under praise and steady under persecution, not really knowing which will come next! Our path is to be constant, in season and out of season, bearing our witness as the Holy Spirit directs, come what may. When I think of the “come what may,” I am comforted by the saying of Elder Boyd K. Packer: “The truth doesn’t make enemies. It uncovers them.” We are sent to perform a task which includes the uncovering of the enemies along with the joy of finding the lost sheep of our Master. If we fear His enemies, we are not likely to find His sheep.

Bad as physical and social persecution can be, I think that intellectual persecution is the most devastating. The former are by nature opposition from outside, and as such they serve actually to strengthen the Church. But the intellectual attack also works within the Church. It divides and dilutes us when it comes from members. Let me give you two examples of ideas for which we are persecuted at various times and places.

The first example is personal revelation. To me, personal revelation is one of the great glories of the Restoration, especially in the promise that “every man might speak in the name of God, the Lord, even the Savior of the world.” (D&C 1:20) Personal revelation makes ever man and woman a prophet or prophetess, to know the voice of the Lord and to bear witness of him, not needing to depend upon the arm of flesh. Oh how personal revelation pulls down intellectual tyranny, priestcraft, and private interpretation of scripture! How it assuages the confused mind, the aching heart, the yearning soul! How it clothes with a mantle of charity, the pure love of Christ!

Forgive me. I know I do not need to sing the praises of personal communication with the Savior to you. But I can’t help being excited when I ponder all the blessings which come to mankind by it. Perhaps its strength is the very reason why it becomes a focus for persecution.

I once heard a professor of mine boast that he had broken more priests, rabbis and Bible readers than anyone else in the business. With that boast he warned any who wished to continue to believe in revelation to depart. I stayed. Then he lowered the boom and went through all of the reasons why belief in revelation was irrational. He showed how the people who claimed revelation were inconsistent, both within their own individual writings and among themselves. He pointed out the great abuses that religion had wrought in the world, from inquisitions to caste systems, to human sacrifice. He mocked the Bible, pointing out what he took to be obvious internal contradictions. Then he went on to show how everything good in human progress had consisted in rejection of religious beliefs in favor of scientific, empirical evidence.

Well. I was devastated by that onslaught. There I was, a graduate student, well-schooled in LDS theology, happily a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints all of my life, a defender of the faith and successful sufferer of physical and social persecution –but devastated. He had made me realize that I did not have a personal testimony of revelation. All I had was an intellectual awareness of what others said about our religion. That realization shook me, for I fully realized that I might be wrong.

During the next few weeks, I went through an experience for which I can think of only one word which fully represents it: hell. I was assailed by doubt, by fear, by loneliness. I began to wonder if I were sane. Through this time I kept two promises I had made to myself: I would continue to attend church and continue to read ten pages of scripture each night. But those two things also became an agony to me. And I prayed. Oh how I prayed to know for myself if there were such a thing as personal revelation.

Then—thanks be to our good Master—it came. I began to feel something special in my breast. I began to recognize certain ideas that appeared in my mind as being different from my own thoughts. These new ideas told me how to interpret passages of scripture, how to understand things formerly incomprehensible to me, even to know the future. But I could tell the difference. Here was the iron rod. I had hold of it. The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ really was and is true!

Since then I have had stumblings. I have been burned, and through these negative experiences I have learned two things: without Him I am nothing, and I must be ever careful not to be confused as to who it is that is speaking to me.

Now a full quarter-century has passed. That slender thread of personal revelation has brought me to everything I now hold dear. It has brought me a flood of knowledge and understanding—and a glimpse of how far I have yet to go. I now know that there is power in the priesthood of this Church, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is indeed the head of this Church. Now as I see the Church touching the lives of others, my heart overflows with gratitude to the Lord for this pearl of great price which each of us can have. My greatest sorrow, except for my own sins, is that some persons who I know cannot seem to get a testimony. But I have hope for them. Looking back I know that I must have had personal revelation before that trial. The problem was that I had not become acute at recognizing it.

So personal revelation becomes a great watershed, in the Church and out. Those who have it are drawn into a unity of faith in Christ. Many of those who don’t have it think those who have it are deluded or demented. I suspect that some fear that it might really exist—so they persecute those who teach and proclaim its reality. They don’t want it for fear they might have to give up some sin. And they don’t want anyone else to have it because that too convicts them of sin.

So we are persecuted for personal revelation in a world that prides itself on “hard” evidence, and on the strength of consensus. As a philosopher of human knowledge, I can only shake my head. For I know and can prove that there is no such thing as evidence apart from a matrix of presuppositions, that objectivity is at best a consensus, and that consensus is often but a public relations job. Every scientific system begins with un\proved postulates. Every person founds his life on articles of faith. But what a blessing to be able to ground our faith upon a rock—on personal revelation from our Savior.

I promise to be more brief on the next idea. We are also persecuted for our belief in uniqueness, for the idea that there is but one true church, one true priesthood, one narrow path to salvation, one chosen people, one fountain for all righteousness. Many people of my acquaintance are willing to see good in the Church, especially as a social system. But for us to claim that no one but members of our Church can become celestial raises hackles. That does not fit the permissive, egalitarian, ecumenical age we live in. It is taken as a sign of snobbery, of racism, of hypocrisy, of almost anything bad. One of the reasons my soul so hungers and yearns to see the establishment of Zion is so that we won’t have to say anything about uniqueness then. We will just be content to be unique. How unique would it be to get a least half the Church members to be of one heart and one mind, to dwell in righteousness, and have no poor person among them. I think that we would then see the fulfillment of that promise and challenge: “That the kingdoms of this world may be constrained to acknowledge that the kingdom of God is in very deed the kingdom of God and of his Christ.” (D&C 105:32)

Meanwhile, we are subject to persecution for our claim to be the true Church, and are dismissed with others who make the same claim. Is it possible that we deserve persecution on this point? If we claim to be the one true church and are not significantly better, perhaps we have earned trouble. Oh for Zion!

Three more observations on persecution and I will stop these ramblings lest I wear you out. (My egotism presumes you are yet with me.)

The first concerns the story of Stephen in Acts 6 and 7. I reread it recently and was forcefully impressed with an idea. Stephen has always come across to me as a good man, well-suited to minister to widow’s need, “full of the Holy Ghost,” a powerful servant of Christ. But it has always struck me that he spoke to the Sanhedrin rather forthrightly, surely provocatively. His speech would hardly win any Dale Carnegie awards. I have wondered: Did he have a martyr complex? Was he trying to die?

My feeling now is that he enjoyed life as much as you or I, and was doubtless very happy because of the good he was able to do for others. But he had a mission to perform. For some reason the Sanhedrin needed another witness of the great tragedy in which they were principals. The promised Messiah had come and had fulfilled all things while some of those who desired to be His servants carefully engineered His death. This was a tragic flaw, a damming fate, indeed. His own people largely rejected Him as would no other nation or people –or planet. Could Stephen have supposed that he could convert them when the Savior himself had failed to do so?

But Stephen was true to his mission. He bore testimony of Christ and of their sin. The flood of anger and hate that carried him outside of the walls to die, stone by stone, was the necessary consequence of his commission. He sealed his testimony (and probably their reward) with his blood. The moral I draw from this story is that we should not be needlessly offensive in this world. We should never seek to be persecuted. But we should seek to fulfill our personal missions, wending our way among the hate and persecutions that will come, but never trying to offend. But should our commission call us to an unsavory task where we cannot help but offend, then we should bear the task off manfully, with great humility, and with a firm grasp on the iron rod. I honor Stephen in his great example.

My second thought relates to Saul, afterwards known as Paul, also of Acts. Saul persecuted the Saints with great zeal and ability. Then the Lord’s mercy allowed him to repent and to become Paul. Then he was persecuted by the Jews and others, even as he had persecuted. I think all of us should see ourselves in this story. We should ask ourselves: “Am I yet Saul or am I now Paul? Am I still persecuting the Saints and the Savior or have I repented of my sins to serve and suffer for the Lord Jesus Christ? Do I persecute others in my zeal to do God a favor (as if He needed my hate or scorn to further His cause), or do I humbly and patiently “submit to all things that my God seeth fit to inflict upon me, even as a child doth submit to his father.”

One final point: As we look at the “big picture” of things, I see persecution taking a special significance. All of us who have become accountable have sinned. Having sinned we justly merit retribution from the world. We cannot claim that being persecuted is wholly unwarranted. But there is One whose life and perfection has swallowed up our debt for sin. In His atonement, our Savior paid the debt of justice for every human sin that had been or would be committed. Having paid that debt, all sin focuses on him. When any of us sin we are persecuting Christ, for we are adding to his burden of suffering for sin.

The work of our Savior is to bless everyone and everything. We who are not omniscient know not how to bless perfectly, as He does. But as we act on our Savior’s instructions, He guides us through his priesthood and the Holy Spirit in the blessing of others. Our wiling obedience to Him constitutes faith in Jesus Christ. But when we do not bless, we hurt, either by commission or omission. Thus all sinning is really persecution. It is persecution both of the person or persons we do not bless, and it is persecution of the great and good God of this earth, Jesus Christ. It helps me to have perspective to see that murder, adultery, lying, hypocrisy, anger, hate, stealing, etc., are all persecution of Christ. I sorrow for all who are hurt by sin. But I all grieve for our Master, who, I believe, feels every sin more keenly than any of us do when we are sinned against. Every war, every riot, every pillage, all raping, all priestcraft, all sinning, are personal attacks on the Savior. I imagine His grief when we set guilty murderers free, despising the lives of those whom they have murdered, then legally condemning to death millions of innocent unborn (and some born) babies.

Knowing all this doesn’t make me perfect. I wish it did. But it does make me ache to stop sinning. If I could only stop, every last whit, then I would no longer be persecuting my loved ones and my Savior. The real point is that I am a persecutor. Any persecution inflicted upon me does not begin to compare in importance with fact that I, until I fully repent, am pursuing others to do them harm. I know that it is possible to stop sinning, but only through the laws and ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Lavina, you have been kind to wade through all of this, I inflict this on you only in the hope that our souls will so hunger after Him who we love that we will make every sacrifice necessary to become as He is. That is the greatest thing we can do about persecution. “Let us here observe, that a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has the power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto the enjoyment of life and salvation; for, from the first existence of man, the faith necessary unto the enjoyment of life and salvation never could be obtained without the sacrifice of all earthly things. It was through this sacrifice, and this only, that God has ordained that men should enjoy eternal life; and it is through this medium of the sacrifice of all earthly things that men do actually know that they are doing the things that are well pleasing in the sight of God. When a man has offered in sacrifice all that he has for the truth’s sake, not even withholding his life, and believing before God that he has been called to make this sacrifice because he seeks to do His will, he does know, most assuredly, that God does and will accept his sacrifice and offering, and that he has not, nor will seek His face in vain. Under these circumstances, then, he can obtain the faith necessary for him to lay hold on eternal life.” (Lectures on Faith, Lecture Sixth: 7)

(Written in about 1975)

Each of us files a daily report as to how we feel about the Church in our actions. Silently we acclaim or protest through our support or non-support of what we see and hear. This is an unsolicited verbal report filed for any and all who might be interested. As you might guess, what is said below is the perspective of a single individual. You are also a single individual. May we compare notes?

The first thing I must do to give you my reactions is to separate some things out. The most important of these are the Savior, the Gospel, the Church, and the people of the Church.

I think of the Savior as my friend and companion. That sounds presumptuous, but I am willing to say it because I think of myself as His friend and servant. And I say it because I know the sweet peace of His spirit.

Feeling His spirit is the sweetest, most desirable experience in my life. Sometimes it gives me an overwhelming spiritual shock, as when I read Micah 6:8, or D&C 121:45–46, or Matthew 25:40. That shock shakes the very core of my being; I cannot deny what is said, for I know it is true. I know, because of such experiences that the Lord loves righteousness, and, therefore, He loves me. I know also that I love righteousness, and, therefore, I love Him. That’s why I think of Him as my friend. We both desire the same goals, and delight in the same things, especially to do justly, and to have mercy.

But, to be frank, the Lord scares me at the same time I feel His friendship. He is perfect in righteousness, and I am far from it. Though I think less of myself for it, I do yet yield to the flesh, filling its desires when I should not. Or sometimes anger or pride well up within me to defy the humility of the Holy Spirit. I know well what Nephi was talking about when he lamented because of his flesh in 2 Nephi 4. But Nephi is small comfort on that point. I see clearly that I will go on being scared until I have fully repented. I think that is what it means to work out our salvation in fear and trembling.

Sometimes I wonder about the whole business. The thought comes to me: You are just telestial material; no matter how hard you try you can never be like the Savior. But as I cry out in desperation to the Lord through hot tears, the sweet peace of the Spirit reaches to me like a cool breath to a fevered brow. It says: God is just, so do not worry about where you will be in eternity. There is much to be done now, for the sheep are scattered. Let the love of the lost sheep cause you to hunger to see them blessed. That hunger will enable you to overcome the flesh through the Savior; then you can do great good in this world.

So I have this testimony of the Lord. He speaks to me often through His spirit. He shows me the vision of righteousness and of Zion. He tells me how to read the scriptures. He has given me every good idea I have used in my professional and family life for many years. He reproves me when I am wayward, showing me the better way. When I am ill, His spirit heals me when I have learned my lesson, and He always teaches me some precious lesson that way. Do you see why I call Him my friend and companion? I have no mortal friend who compares with Him, save my wife. For Him I would gladly die, anytime, anywhere, even though I have never seen Him. But I also feel that I will die if I can never be faithful enough to see Him.

I love the Gospel because it teaches me of the Savior. I understand it to be those simple but marvelous ideas expressed in a few verses within 3 Nephi 27. It seems to be a formula for receiving the companionship of the Lord through His Holy Spirit. I know the Gospel is true because I have applied the formula and know that it works.

It took me a long time to learn the Gospel. The greatest obstacle was unlearning much of what I had been taught as a youngster in the Church. Until I seriously sought to dig out for myself the true meaning and application of faith and repentance, they were baffling because the cliches I heard didn’t fit the scriptures. With the help of some very spiritual people of the Church and the help of the Holy Spirit itself I have learned what I think are the essentials of the Gospel. My hesitation stems from the fact that every now and then I get a new and clearer glimpse of the first principles that makes me wonder if I ever really understood them before.

The scriptures seem to be the intellectual battleground where one struggles with ideas to get a clear and true idea of the Gospel formula. When we know the formula, our minds and bodies become the battleground for self control so that we might gain the companionship of the Holy Spirit. When one has the Holy Spirit, the world seems to be the battleground where one struggles to do good in the midst of great evil. As one succeeds in doing some good, the mysteries of heaven begin to unfold, a glimpse of celestial order and celestial kingdoms. If one is wise enough not to talk of them, knowledge of the mysteries becomes a great anchor to the soul. But there is no anchor to compare with the more sure word.

The Church, to me, is the priesthood organization extending from the Savior through the president of the Church down to each member. I like to think of the priesthood as a harness; it gives us a specific place to work, a specific relationship to other workers, a real opportunity to move along the work of God, which is the work of righteousness and salvation. If I can learn to fill my role, to do my priesthood assignments well, the Church can move forward. If we all pull together as the Savior directs, we together can do good things for this suffering world which could not be done by us alone or in any other way. It is both a great thrill and an awesome responsibility to be in the harness.

There have been times when I have aspired to high office in the Church. I dreamed once of becoming a general authority. I can see the adversary laughing gleefully when he has gotten me to think of desiring high office. The Lord in His kindness has let me have enough office to discover two most precious things. He has taught me first that there is no greater priesthood calling than father and mother; nothing is more challenging or more worthwhile than the firm establishment of a celestial family. Secondly, He has shown me that office in the Church is something I cannot refuse, but I must see Church office as an added burden which may destroy my primary family responsibility. If I am doing well in my family, I will have power to do well in my Church calling, and the better I then do in my Church calling, the more help I will have with my family. But if I am not doing well in my family, I will have little to offer to the Church; as I fail in my Church assignment, I destroy the possibility of ever having an eternal family. There is no way out but up. My love of the Lord must become so consuming that it will burn the dross out of me. Then I can be the father and the high priest that I want to be. Then I am fully on the Savior’s team and can do great eternal good. But oh the deceitfulness of the temptation to desire that which we do not have!

When I think of the priesthood order of the Church, I think particularly of the General Authorities, my Stake President, and my Bishop. I love to attend conference or any meeting where I am instructed and encouraged by those over me in authority. When any one of my file leaders speak, my soul resonates to the message, and their voice seems like the voice of my Father. Sometimes I am out of tune with them; I still get the message that they are right, but I am jarred by it. When I am most in tune, I can often anticipate what they will say and do. Needless to say, when I am in tune, sustaining them is a joy, for it is the Savior that I and they are unitedly sustaining.

The Brethren scare me, too, as does the Savior. I feel uncomfortable around them because I know that what they say is right and I am not yet doing all I could do. When, oh when, I keep wondering, will I ever get on the ball so that my confidence will wax strong in the presence of the Lord? Even though they burn me and scare me, I am proud of the Brethren and so grateful to have them to help me find the way of the Savior. I know many of them personally and can testify that they are great and godly men.

Sometimes I hear people criticize the Brethren. I hurt inside for the criticizer, for I know that he does not enjoy that great and uplifting gift of spiritual unity with them. The Holy Spirit has taught me to listen first to them, out of all the voices in this world, on any and every subject, at any time and place. When I talk with them, I perceive they are highly intelligent men. They have seen more of the world and know more of what is critical and urgent than any other group I have ever read or listened to. I marvel at the power and precision of the programs they bring out; the programs are not always final, but they are marvelously suited to the needs of the Church.

I see the Correlation work of the Church as the great struggle to convert all members of the Church to become servants of Jesus Christ. Church membership makes us nominal servants; the work of the program of correlation will bring our heart, might, mind and strength under that head, culminating in the establishment of the full patriarchal order. But the patriarchal order is simply the rule of Jesus Christ through His priesthood, the kind of rule that can be established only when people are fully faithful.

Home teaching (now Ministering) is the key to all Church work, as I see it. If it succeeds, the patriarchal order will be established; if it fails, I presume the Lord will simply wait for a new generation of children or converts who will be faithful. I have never glimpsed a greater organized power to raise souls to perfection than the Home Teaching Program (now the Ministering Program).

The genealogy program is another facet of the patriarchal system. I understand our greatest responsibility to be to seek after our kindred dead. Living or dead, we cannot serve Christ fully without honoring all our righteous fathers and blessing our children.

 The missionary program is exciting to behold. As the great net sweeps the seas the harvest of souls almost breaks it. What a hope to know that there are kindred spirits in every nation, tongue and people! And what a joy to find them and to bring them unto Christ.

The welfare program is sort of the “proof of the pudding.” If the other programs “take” on us, then we feel a fierce urgency to do something for the poor. And that something will be to consecrate all we have to the Lord and His work, that His children might not lack blessing. The size of our souls is measured by the size of our ability to help others spiritually and temporally. For the whole Gospel, spiritually and temporally, in time and in eternity, for the saviors and those who save, is one great welfare program.

How does it look from the bottom? It looks great. The ship is sound and is on course. There are no better shipmates to be found anywhere. The officers know where they are going and are steering a correct course. I know that because my private receiver lets me listen in on their instructions. They are following the Master indeed.

Are there no troubles, no breaches, no lapses, you say? Indeed, there are problems. False doctrine is taught by some of us. Some of us in authority have little love. Some of us just relax in the harness and let the leaders pull us along. But the problems are the problems of the people of the Church, not problems of the Church, or the Gospel, or the Lord.

For this is my testimony, too: “Stick to the old ship.”

Written in about 1975

The traditional training for the ministry in Catholicism, Protestantism and Judaism has been basically sophic. It has been a rational approach which emphasizes scholarship as the basic approach. Scholarship is taken as the key because it is to the basic written sources that each of these religions goes for its direction and justification.

It is interesting to note, however, that the basic written sources of those religions are not sophic in origin but are mantic. They are the eye-witness accounts of persons who knew God as a person. The sophic or scholarly approach is the basis of those religions only because the mantic element is gone: revelation has admittedly ceased. But revelation is yet venerated in the scholarly investigation of its written remnants.

Training for the ministry in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is basically mantic and only secondarily sophic. First and foremost the Elder must recognize and live by his own personal revelation from God. By this means he is able to identify those who are truly given presiding authority by God, to make correct interpretations of doctrine, and to order properly the affairs of the Kingdom which are placed in his charge. Only secondarily does he need and use the sophic approach, but he definitely and necessarily needs it. But his interpretations of the written records are always guided by revelation even when maximally enriched by the fruits of sophic scholarship.

Thus the training of an LDS Elder is of necessity mostly a field training. It involves substantial schooling after the manner of other religions, but depends principally upon the ability of the Elder to discern and live by the personal revelations he receives in the daily course of working within the Church in his assigned stewardship and in his contacts with the world.

20 April 1973

Much publicity has been given recently to an alleged “glut” in graduate education. Let us examine this situation for a moment by asking and answering some important questions.

Question: Why is graduate education valued so highly in our culture?

Answer: In part the answer is tradition. The ideal man in western civilization has been “a gentleman and a scholar.” To be a scholar enables one to be a “knower.” Knowledge is liberating and exhilarating. Many also seek to engage in intellectual pursuits because they give a person a station in life above the menial. Many persons in our culture think that it is degrading to earn a livelihood in a way that dirties one’s hands.

Another reason why graduate education is highly valued is that ofttimes it enables a person to achieve a technical competence that is needed by society. Engineers and scientists particularly, including both physical and social engineers and scientists, have been much sought after in recent times. Accountants and information specialists are in demand.

In sum: Graduate education has great social and often great vocational value.

Question: Why has there been such a marked increase in persons receiving higher degrees?

Answer: The reason for the increase is again twofold. Because of the great cultural value placed on graduate degrees, great masses of people see them as their personal key to joining the elite of our society. Every underprivileged (that is to say non-elite) parent would like to see his children join the higher ranks, to become elite. So in this age of social egalitarianism, education has come to be seen as an inherent political “right” by which minorities and repressed persons are to be given their fair share of the civilization’s glory. It is dimly recognized that if everyone had a Ph.D. then the Ph.D. would be of no value to anyone. But since relatively few persons do, there is still great advantage in being called “Doctor” even though the value is diminishing.

The second main reason for the increase in persons with higher degrees is money. The Federal Government, being persuaded of a national emergency, has poured billions of dollars into degree production.

In sum: The increase in graduate degrees is due to social and political pressures.

Question: Is there a real glut?

Answer: There is an oversupply in some fields. Fields that are directly oriented to vocational needs of society other than teaching are faring much better.

Question: Will the oversupply continue?

Answer: The desire for upward social movement with its attendant political pressure will assure continuing oversupply, supposing economic stability. Private universities have cut back but state institutions continue to increase in all fields. Only the lack of funds prevents increasing oversupply.

Question: What are the results of oversupply?

Answer: An oversupply creates a buyers’ market, which means that quality of product becomes very important. Business and industry will tend to profit from some oversupply in that they can pick and choose more. But the oversupply is least in the areas needed by business and industry.

Under the free market, universities would also profit from the oversupply, for it is in the fields that lead to university teaching that we have the greatest oversupply. But we do not have a free market. The system of tenure assures that year of being hired, not competence, is the criterion for continuing university employment. Able graduates in the humanities and social sciences may have to be jobless or under-hired and to be content with their increased social status.

Question: What is the best strategy for a person to pursue in a buyers’ market?

Answer: Be good. To be good in your field means mostly to be well-disciplined and hard-working. It is your continuing production, not your past laurels which count.

Question: Can a “good” person really break into the tight market?

Answer: The oversupply is strictly in “ordinary” graduates. Extraordinary people are always in demand.

Every day I see inquiries from search committees, ads in papers, requests from friends for extraordinary people.

Question: What are the characteristics of this extraordinary type of person?

Answer: The answer is three-fold:

1. It is to be good in your field, as mentioned before. Have you published? Have you done an outstanding piece of research? Do you know the frontiers of your field? Do you have a “magnificent obsession” that makes you work on even if you are not being paid for it?
2. Are you a good person? Are you steady, resilient, resourceful? Do you have your passions and appetites in control? Is your family life happy and stable? Are you cheerful, gracious, grateful?
3. Are you a good leader? Do you have a keen sense of right and wrong, and do you openly stand for what is right? Do you have vision, so that you are able to plan wisely and fulfill those plans? Are you able to enlist the support of others through persuasion and information? Do you help everyone on your team to achieve every satisfaction you achieve?

For all of our social and material glory, our great need today is for intelligent, righteous leadership. How sad to see men and women poorly trained, or self-indulgers, or unable to muster backbone, or blind to possibilities, or unable to change, or unwilling to follow, or unable to share; cynics, backbiters, given to lucre, faint of heart.

Question: Doesn’t all this begin to smack of religion?

Answer: Indeed it does. Religion is the ordering of life. No man can every rise above the personal religion he espouses. (A person’s personal religion and his church may be two different things.) Every personal and social problem can be shown to be a problem of religion. Poverty, ignorance, war, are all functions of religion as are plenty, intelligence, and peace. The real solution to the world’s problems is in religion. If men could and would repent, that is to say, to exchange their false beliefs for true ones and their evil desires and poor habits for good desires and good habits, then we could solve every problem, including all of yours and mine.

But how can the world repent? Most people don’t even believe that what we call repentance is possible. The only hope the world has is to see true repentance. Then they will know it is possible. This is where you come in.

You who graduate from Brigham Young University know of the true and restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you live that Gospel, you will come to exemplify every good thing I have mentioned today. Brigham Young University certifies to the world today that you have basic competence in your chosen field. But it is up to you to be and to demonstrate to the world that you are also a good person and a good leader.

The world has mistakenly thought that academic training was sufficient to provide the leadership the world needs. Operating on that principle has caused us to go round and round, from war to war, from tax to tax, from program to program with little real change in our human situation. What the world needs is not just you, but a repentant you made over in the image of our Lord and master, Jesus Christ.

In the midst of all else that transpires today, I hope you will remember that today is the occasion set aside annually to commemorate that greatest of all events of history, the atonement of our Savior. In that sacrifice on the cross, our Master fulfilled His perfect example to us. There is nothing fine which we could ever hope to attain wherein He has not set the example of perfection in that already. We say we believe in seeking after those things that are virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy. Of all things or persons, Jesus Christ is the most virtuous, lovely, of good report and praiseworthy. We can do no better than to become exactly as He is.

We send you forth today as graduates, to do good among men. Our Savior sends us all forth as His children, to be the salt of the earth, to bring full and true salvation within the grasp of every nation, kindred, tongue and people. It is our hope that you go forth to serve, not to be served; to love purely, to sacrifice, to establish Zion. May you be giants of strength among fearful companions. May you be islands of righteousness in a sea of instability. May you desire and lay hold of every good thing. May we all honor our Master as He has honored us. This is my hope and prayer for you and for all of us.

May 1972 Commencement Remarks

As many of you have come to the climax of your formal education, it is appropriate to ask what you have learned. Likely you have learned in two areas, acting and thinking. Training is the educational approach which has taught you how to act: how to write a history, how to run a titration, how to conduct a survey, how to analyze a business, how to produce a play. Hopefully each of you is well-trained in the business of your specialty, and that this training will be the basis of a solid contribution which you will now make to society. Knowing the people and the programs under which you have been trained, I have confidence in the future of your contribution.

But I am more concerned with your thinking than with your acting. Learning to act skillfully in the work of the world is crucial, but it is in thinking well that the real power of man lies. Training is basically the process of stimulating imitation. You have served with and under masters who have led you to emulate themselves and thus to be successful producers. But learning to think is never a matter of imitating. Thinking is a process of challenge, it is the unique assertion of individuality wherein you establish your identity as a person. You cannot really be trained to think, but you can be challenged to think. If you can think, you can better meet any challenge, you thrive on difference, you delight in problems. For if you can think, you can rise to meet the exigencies of new occasions, you can bring unity out of difference, you turn problems into progress.

Do not confuse thinking and the challenge to think with iconoclasm, for the latter is an oft seen counterfeit of the former. Every person comes to the university with a worldview, a set of values, a heart full of desires, all more or less naïvely held. The iconoclast is the person who cleverly invades that naïvety, demolishes the appertaining mindset of the naïve and substitutes his own prejudices and opinions in place of that which he destroys. Iconoclasm thus does not teach a person to think; it merely trains him to parrot the responses of the current academic vogues.

The challenge to think, by contrast, is administered effectively only be persons who think. A person who thinks may well have a worldview, values and desires, but each is subject to constant scrutiny and to possible change. He who truly thinks values the freedom and power that thinking brings, knowing that it is his personal access to individuality and increased ability. Treasuring that individuality and power for himself he cannot righteously deny that freedom to another. Thus he will not indulge in iconoclasm, no matter how superior to those of his contemporaries he perceives his ideas to be.

How then does one person challenge another to think? It is done by throwing a person back into his own naïve mind and asking him to justify what he thinks and says. In other words, it is to challenge the person to substitute his own personal deliberate basis for accepting what he believes in place of the happenstances of upbringing and formal training which have produced his naïve initial approach. Whether a person changes anything he believes, values or desires in this process of thinking is incidental. The change is that what he thinks are now his thoughts, a reflection of his personality, and the emergence of a true individual. He who thinks is no longer the creature of his social environment. In one sense he has now become a threat and a challenge to it, for he is no longer subject to it, and now has the power to change it. Any indication of such independence or move to change makes the non-thinkers, especially the iconoclasts, most uncomfortable. I suppose that discomfort is the source of the fear that drives some men to try to dominate others, classic examples of which we see in the auto da fe

of the inquisition, the witchcraft trials of Salem, the liquidation and incarceration of political opposition in communist nations, which are in turn but repetitions of the answers of fear administered to Socrates, to John the Baptist, to Jesus the Messiah, and to Joseph the Prophet.

Let us use an example to show the contrast between the approach to a problem as exhibited by a fearful non-thinker on the one hand and a genuine thinker on the other. I deliberately choose an example which is current.

It is popular among the iconoclasts of our day to speak sneeringly of the “Protestant work ethic.” For their purposes this is a happy collocation of concepts already on the run, and derogating them in unison makes “rhetorical hay” most efficiently.

Protestantism is on the run. A hundred years of iconoclastic attack on the Bible has so withered its foundations that to be a believer is virtually synonymous with being non-rational or non-educated. The original protest has sunk from the noble purpose of affirming God’s revealed word to the support of communist aggression in Indo-China. So it is easy and profitable to kick Protestantism.

“Work” as a concept and an action is similarly on the run. In a day when labor-saving devices are seen by many as the real fruit of scientific endeavor, it is seemingly a mark of progress and intelligence to work as little as possible. Labor unions, whose stock in trade might reasonably seem to be work, are saying, “Workers of the world unite and we will see that you do as little work as possible.” When welfare is perceived as a right, when the criminal is favored over his victim, when men would far prefer to fight than work, it becomes a delightful populist technique to kick work.

The term “ethic” is another rhetorical pushover. In a day that defies restraints both legal and moral, the connotations of the word “ethic” seem like relics of the dark ages. As permissiveness abounds, so do restraints, rules, regulations, and laws, of any sort, become horrendous. The good life is seen to be as one floating in the sea of impulse, washed by the waves of desire, mindless in a wallow of gratification. “Ethic”?: a thing of derision.

But we as Latter-day Saints should know better. We should know that for all of its problems, Protestantism has been beneficial to mankind, nurturing in a sustained way both political freedom and scientific thought as no other culture has ever done. And it laid the foundations necessary for the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in these latter days. Work we know to be the basis of all good things, both in time and in eternity, a commandment of God to men, and a sanctifying activity to all who know when, where and how to apply their strength. We know that ethics is what makes man more than beast, and that as the world sinks in our day into the miasma of sub-bestial permissive irregularity, we know that it is only by wholehearted adoption of the true ethic, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that there will be anything saved or worth saving when the cataclysm of the Second Coming comes. Hopefully we as Latter-day Saints and as educated people will not mindlessly sneer against the “Protestant work ethic” with the iconoclasts.

Perhaps we do perceive, however, that the Protestant work ethic has some defects. What will the thinker then do? Rather than sneer and destroy, he will go to his own mind and will attempt to conceive a cure for the ills of mankind. Relentlessly he will ask himself why? wherefore? Does it work for me? Will it work for others? Out of the best thinking he can muster will come a hypothesis, an idea he is willing to sacrifice to experiment upon, something worth testing. If his test proves affirmative, he will bear witness of his hypothesis and the experiment he has performed, but without any attempt to coerce any hearer. He will patiently hear others who have sacrificed to perform their own experiments, hoping that perhaps someone has come closer to the answers than he. But above all he will respect the sanctity of the individuality of his fellow human beings. Being true to thinking, he will never try to damn the progress of humanity by attempting to prevent or to inhibit their thinking. And in so acting he will serve his God, the greatest good which he knows.

It is my hope that each of us will think, and think, and think until we become thinkers. Then our education will not have been merely training. Then our lives will not be lived simply as animals. Then we will not mindlessly parrot the cliches of our times. Then we can truly serve our God.