OBEDIENCE TO A PROPHET’S VOICE VERSUS POPULAR OPINION AND THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES.

So, in my last post I promised that I would post the talk that I had heard when I was home in California. The man who gave it was the man who married me and Matt. He is such an amazing man who I really look up to. I hope all of you will take the time to read it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

OBEDIENCE TO A PROPHET’S VOICE VERSUS POPULAR OPINION AND THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES.

Shortly after organizing the Church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul continued his missionary journey. A brief time later he received communications from several sources that there was a disagreement between Church members and secular leaders where moral laws conflicted with popular public opinion. Some Church members felt obedience to God-given laws should take precedent; others, proposed such matters should be settled by judges in the pagan Corinthian courts. The saints wrote the Apostle Paul for his advice: The first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians’ was his reply.

In the opening paragraph of his letter, Paul states that he is a teacher not a judge: in the words of the Prophet Joseph Smith, his calling was “to teach correct principles and let the people govern themselves.” Without equivocation he establishes his God-given authority for the counsel he is about to give: “[I] am Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God unto the Church of God at Corinth and to those that are sanctified (make and keep such sacramental covenants) in Christ, Jesus” and who call themselves saints.” A modern parallel would be: President Thomas Monson, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Laguna Hills Third Ward that are sanctified in Christ and who identify themselves as Latter-day Saints.

Paul then contrasts the power of his testimony with the wisdom of the world: “My preaching and speaking [is] not with the enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power [of God.]” But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery (meaning it requires faith) even hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory; which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, “Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” Thus when we are confronted with decisions involving moral judgments and popular opinion, we have two choices: listen to a prophet’s voice or follow popular opinion and wait for history to unravel and reveal the results of bad decisions together with their unintended consequences.

Just before the passage of Proposition 8, defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman, I officiated at a sealing and marriage of a beautiful young couple in the Newport Beach Temple. An individual familiar with temple marriage but apposing Proposition 8 asked if I was familiar with the new California Marriage License Form which replaced the words “Husband and Wife” with “Party A and Party B.” I informed the individual I was not only familiar with the Form but that under the authority of the State of California I had signed the Form as the person performing the marriage. I further noted that the Primary Signature on the form, “Party A” was the Bride, not the Groom, presumably a nod to political correctness. I was asked if changing two, little words would affect the eternal salvation of the couple. I said, “knowing the couple it would not.” Then he asked, “why is the Church making such a big issue out of such a trivial change?” My response was “because of the unintended consequences which surely follow as they always do whenever the laws of God conflict with secular opinion no matter how well intended those laws or opinions my be.

Let me illustrate: As a young boy growing up in a non-LDS home it was my practice to give my Father a carton of cigarettes for Christmas present. My Mother purchased the gift which was always decked out in bright Christmas colors and festooned over the years with pictures of famous, popular people such as Walt Disney, John Wayne, Mickey Mantle, Linda Darnell, Edward R. Murrow, Dick Powell, Arthur Godfrey, to name a few. When my parents allowed my baptism at eight years, and I had become familiar with the “Word of Wisdom”, I asked my Mother if it was appropriate to give my Father such a gift. She allowed that it was “ok because my parents were not members of that Church” --- as if the laws of God applied only to Church members. As time passed, I came to realize, I had given my Father a poisoned gift: those famous people advocating the popular practice of smoking had all died of an unintended consequence – lung cancer. In the 89th Section of the Doctrine and Covenants, known as the Word of Wisdom, given over 165 years ago, the Lord through his prophet counseled that those who lived the Word of Wisdom by faith would find “wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden knowledge.” History eventually revealed those hidden treasures of knowledge and now laws are passed that prevent smoking in public places. Still, there are popular public voices today advocating the legalization of Marijuana, drugs and even prostitution with all kinds of claimed benefits. Yet, those advocates of breaking the Lord’s moral laws are only guessing at what the results will be because they lack the “sure word of prophecy” which our inspired Church leaders provide: therefore, unintended consequences will surely follow.

Another example of unintended consequences is public profanity. In the Epistle of James we read: “If any man among you seems to be religious and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.” (James 1:26)

The first use of profanity in motion pictures was a single word spoken by Thett Butler to Scarlett O’ Hara in “Gone with the Wind.” The Prophet President Heber J. Grant expressed concern to the movie industry about the precedent-setting use of profanity in such an important and influential medium. He was promptly ignored as you might expect. After all it was just a single word and a mild profane word at that. Moreover, it would interfere with First Amendment Right of Free Speech. Today we live in a gutter of profanity in nearly all aspects of public and private life. Apostle Dallon Oaks stated recently, “The nature and extent of profanity and vulgarity in our society is a measure of societies degradation, can it possibly get any lower?” It would be well for the advocates of profanity to heed the words of Matthew: 12:36; “But I say unto you, that every word men shall speak, they will give an account thereof in the Day of Judgment.” Fortunately, faithful members of the Church who honor the name of deity and avoid filthy, degrading language will not be subject to the unintended consequences of profanity, the full celestial implications of which are yet to come.

The first sexually explicit scene in film was in the Movie “Outlaw” starring Jane Russell and Walter Houston. The movie was schedule to be released in 1941 but was delayed for several years because it violated the Hays Code which set the standards of morally acceptable content in motion pictures. But clever publicity created a public outcry that censorship was an interference with artistic expression. We all know what moral cesspool the entertainment industry and the internet have become creating unintended consequences, never foreseen or mentioned by the advocates: broken marriages and families, illegitimate children and over crowded jails. Fortunately, the first Presidency saw this coming with the introduction of the Family Home Evening in 1905 and faithful members for the most part are not subject to the unintended consequences of the sexual revolution. One statistic provided by the First Presidency shows that the national divorce rate is 62%; the Temple marriage divorce rate is 6%; in many of the Temple divorces broken covenants were involved. The Church non-temple marriage divorce rate is 24%.

In 1986 Betty and I moved to California where I became President of a pharmaceutical company conducting clinical trials for the treatment of AIDS, Hepatitis C and other viral diseases. These were high-profile activities where I was called upon to speak before large groups of scientific and business leaders. This was a time of great civil unrest where speakers were frequently heckled and even spattered with blood and angry mobs. I had been asked to speak to the C.E.O’s of the Casualty and Underwriters Association of North America on the possibility of a cure of effective treatment for AIDS. Without getting into the technical details, I was prepared to tell these leaders that the only cure for AIDS is chastity before marriage and fidelity after marriage. This was not a popular message with some groups because of its moral connotations. To anticipate what reaction I might encounter, I consulted an acquaintance and California legislative leader who had been responsible for much of the Gay rights legislation in the State of California. He was an engaging and brilliant man whose partner had died of AIDS and he himself was in the latter stages of the disease. He read my paper and to my surprise said “I wouldn’t change a word. You are exactly right. When we started this movement we did not know what we were doing.” History was revealing the unintended consequences of a promiscuous, immoral life style among the gay and heterosexual communities.

Following forty years of work on their ten volume history of the world, The Story of Civilization, Will and Ariel Durant, distilled into a small follow-up volume, The Lessons of History, what history had revealed about the prospects for a society that ignores the God-given laws of chastity and fidelity. Their conclusion: “No one man, however brilliant or well informed, can come in one lifetime to such a fullness of understanding as to safely judge and dismiss the customs or institutions of his society for these are the wisdom of generations after centuries of experience in the laboratories of history. A youth boiling with hormones, may ruin his life before he sufficiently matures to understand that sex is a river of fire that must be banked and cooled by a hundred constrains if it is not to consume in chaos both individual and group. --- There is no significant example in history before our time of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion.”

Finally, I wish to apply these same principles to the Law of Tithing. Shortly, Betty and I will have the opportunity to visit Bishop Hick as part of tithing settlement to declare ourselves as full tithe payers, something we have done for each of the 57 years of our marriage. What a wonderful feeling it is to appear before the Judge of Israel knowing that we are in full conformity of the Law. We have never paid tithing with the expectation we would receive something in return; yet we have been blessed in so many ways. We agree with President Hinckley who said: “Tithing is not so much a matter of money as much as it is a matter of faith.” President Hinckley continues, “I have yet to find a faithful tithe payer who cannot testify that in a very literal and wonderful way the windows of heaven have been opened and blessings have been poured out upon him or her. Tithing is the Lord’s law of finance. There is no other law like it. It is a principle given with a promise spoken by the Lord himself for the blessing of His children.”

The Law of Tithing did not originate with the LDS Church. It applies to all people and all institutions. It is applicable to every member of the church, whether they are rich or poor. Tithing is the means that allows the Church to complete nearly 150 temples and buildings like this one at a rate of almost one building a day, completely free of debt and full operational; one only needs to compare the 50 words of Malachi counseling the payment of tithing to the thousands of pages in the Federal Income Tax Registry to recognize the simplicity that comes of the wisdom of God in contrast with the complexity that comes of the wisdom of men.

While serving as the President of the Cumorah Stake, I was invited by the leaders of the Rochester New York Catholic Diocese to explain how our Church manages its finances. They had heard we were a very wealthy Church at a time they were facing a financial crisis. They were about to lose a major Catholic seminary used for the training of priests. I said we did it in the Lord’s way. They asked: “what is the Lord’s way?” I read them the words of Malachi from their own Bible: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” They were very skeptical their people would be willing to give a tenth of their income and left the room feeling I had given them a very impractical advice. Subsequently, the Seminary structures were sold to the Eastman Kodak Company and converted into commercial buildings.

I leave with you my testimony of the blessing of tithing that I know God lives; Jesus Christ in our Elder brother and exemplar; that Thomas S. Monson is a modern prophet of God and that we would do well to heed his words. I leave with you as I began the words of the Apostle Paul: “But as it is written, ‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.