Lick This World Hollow

There have been articles written recently about "Mormon intellectuals" growing disappointed over some issue or other, and leaving the Church, one of the most notable being a Church leader from Sweden who grew alarmed over plural marriage and Joseph Smith (see http://en.fairmormon.org/Joseph_Smith/Polygamy).  There are other issues, of course - withholding the priesthood from those of African descent, opposition to calling it marriage when two of the same gender unite, etc. - but I do not propose to confront those issues directly (for in-depth treatment of those topics, see https://www.lds.org/topics/essays?lang=eng ).

 I do not claim to be able to respond succinctly to questions about many of those issues.  What I can report on, is the fruits of "Mormonism" in my personal life and in the lives of those to whom I am close.  What I can claim is that a root which bears fruit this sweet cannot be bitter.

A wise priest out of The Book of Mormon, Giddonah, posed these relevant question to Korihor, an Anti-Christ:  "Why do ye go about perverting the ways of the Lord? Why do ye teach this people that there shall be no Christ, to interrupt their rejoicings? Why do ye speak against all the prophecies of the holy prophets? (Alma 30:22)"

Though I do not have the authority of Giddonah and am not labeling anyone Anti-Christ, still I find the questions applicable here, particularly the one about interrupting rejoicing.  I would alter the question a little bit:  Why do you teach this people that His Restored Church is a sham, and that His prophet is a charlatan, to interrupt their rejoicings?

from http://lukerichards.blogspot.it/

To illustrate my point, I'd like to recall a passage from C.S. Lewis' The Silver Chair.  To set the scene:  the protagonists find themselves fighting the powers of enchantment of an evil queen, who is using her arts to persuade them that Narnia does not exist but is only a figment of their imagination, and that her "underworld" with its dark sorrow is the only real world.  A brave though quirky character named Puddleglum sacrifices his health and safety to break the enchantment.  This is his reply (after stomping on the witch's fiendish fire to quench its power):

One word.  All you've been saying is quite right I shouldn't wonder.  I'm a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it.  So I won't deny any of what you said.  But there's one thing more to be said, even so.  Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things - trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself.  Suppose we have.  Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones.  Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world.  Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one.   And that's a funny thing, when you come to think of it.  We're just babies making up a game, if you're right.  But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow.  That's why I'm going to stand by the play world.  I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it.  I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia.

Now - let me see if I can correlate this to the subject at hand.  When I read articles such as those referred to, the effect on me is kind of like that foisted upon our unhappy heroes.  I am tempted to go all dull-eyed and agree, "There never was a sun:"

"Oh yeah.  There's all that controversy.  I don't know how to respond to the clamor.  People are pointing the finger of scorn.  Am I a fool?  Is everything I believe really a fraud?  Am I really, as the brother from Sweden put it, 'in a bubble' threatening to pop?"

That's when I choose to do the Puddleglum thing; I stomp in the fire.  I remember my covenants:  that I have promised to keep the commandments, to stand as a witness, to build up the Kingdom of God on the earth, with all my heart, might, mind and strength - to remember the Atoning Sacrifice made in my behalf, and that I have promised to take upon me That Dear Name, and to serve Him all my days.
I go to my knees.  I open my scriptures.  I study with a believing heart.  I look for opportunities to do good. I listen to wise leaders like Giddonah and Thomas S. Monson.  I remember my own experiences:  countless answered prayers; overarching comfort and peace in times of great anguish; power and grace beyond natural ability when I knew nothing else to do and nowhere else do go; epiphanies and enlightenment giving me vistas beyond human comprehension; the miracles in the lives of those upon whose sacrificial foundation the life I live today is possible; the rock-solid testimony I have been given by the power of the Holy Ghost (Moroni 10:3-5) of the divinity of Jesus Christ, of Joseph Smith as the Prophet of the Restoration, and of The Book of Mormon, together with The Holy Bible and the other scriptures of the Restoration, as the word of God.

As I do these things, principles such as those espoused in the 13th Article of Faith rise like pregnant suns before me:  "We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."

I remember all my blessings, and I make a choice to hold on to that supposed "play world", because it licks this world hollow.

So here is my reply to the good brother from Sweden and to anyone else who feels smothered in doubt or who points the finger of scorn:  Why do you seek to interrupt my rejoicings?  What is it about this "underworld" in which we presently find ourselves that you find preferable? You say "that it is not reasonable (Helaman 14:16-23)" that God would need to restore His church through a modern prophet, that He would give commandments to his prophet that are "hard things (I Nephi 16:1)" to bear, that a prophet would behave in such-and-such a manner (knowing the lives of the ancient prophets were no less controversial in the eyes of some, often centuries removed, whose standards are themselves questionable).

Before I respond to that, I quote from my good friend Puddleglum again:

"But you can play the fiddle till your fingers drop off, and still you won't make me forget Narnia; and the whole Overworld too.  We'll never see it again, I shouldn't wonder.  You may have blotted it out and turned it dark like this, for all I know.  Nothing more likely.  But I know I was there once.  I've seen the sky full of stars.  I've seen the sun coming up out of the sea of a morning and sinking behind the mountains at night.  And I've seen him up in the midday sky when I couldn't look at him for brightness." 

These remarks put me in mind of Paul's teachings on the faith of Abraham and others:

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.  And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.

But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. - Hebrews 11:13-16

From this I learn not to trust what is "reasonable" by the standards of this world.  Sometimes I feel like a stranger and a pilgrim; but, spiritually speaking, I can say that I have seen the sky full of stars, and the sun in the midday sky when I couldn't look at him for brightness, and all this through my membership in and allegiance to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I may feel suffocated by life in the underworld at times, but I know "Narnia" is there, that despite what appears to be so, my true home is real.

I will follow this admonition to Emma Smith, the wife of the prophet:  "And verily I say unto thee that thou shalt lay aside the things of this world, and seek for the things of a better. (Doctrine and Covenants 25:10)"

I will trust that:  "...whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God. (Ether 12:4)"

I will also say this:  These references come from books of scripture that are derided and downplayed by people who say they were brought forth by a charlatan.  How can we, living in a polluted world of diminishing moral absolutes, charge a man living in another era with immorality, with any kind of validity?  Hear instead the words of a contemporary, Parley P. Pratt:

This said Col. Price placed us in a room without beds, chairs, or any other convenience, and chained seven of us all together, with a kind of trace chain, extending from one man’s ankle to another, and fastened round one ankle of each with a padlock.  In this situation we were guarded night and day by about ten men at a time, who stood over us with loaded pistols in hand.  At night we were all stretched on the floor in a row upon our backs, and tried to sleep, but the hard floor, the cold, and the inability to change our position because of our chains, and the noise of the guards effectually prevented sleep.

In one of those tedious nights we had lain as if in sleep, till the hour of midnight had passed, and our ears and hearts had been pained, while we had listened for hours to the obscene jests, the horrid oaths, the dreadful blasphemies, and filthy language of our guards, Col. Price at their head, as they recounted to each other their deeds of rapine, murder, robbery, etc., which they had committed among the “Mormons,” while at Far West, and vicinity.  They even boasted of defiling by force, wives, daughters, and virgins, and of shooting or dashing out the brains of men, women, and children.

I had listened till I became so disgusted, shocked, horrified, and so filled with the spirit of indignant justice, that I could scarcely refrain from rising upon my feet and rebuking the guards, but had said nothing to Joseph, or any one else, although I lay next to him and knew he was awake.  On a sudden he arose to his feet, and spoke in a voice of thunder, or as the roaring lion, uttering, as near as I can recollect, the following words:

“SILENCE—Ye fiends of the infernal pit.  In the name of Jesus Christ I rebuke you, and command you to be still; I will not live another minute, and hear such language.  Cease such talk, or you or I die THIS MINUTE.”

He ceased to speak.  He stood erect in terrible majesty.  Chained, and without a weapon,–calm, unruffled and dignified as an angel, he looked down upon the quailing guards, whose weapons were lowed or dropped to the ground; whose knees smote together, and who, shrinking into a corner, or crouching at his feet, begged his pardon, and remained quiet till a change of guards.

I have seen the ministers of justice, clothed in magisterial robes, and criminals arraigned before them, while life was suspended upon a breath, in the courts of England; I have witnessed a Congress in solemn session to give laws to nations;  I have tried to conceive of kings, of royal courts, of thrones, and crowns; and of emperors assembled to decide the fate of kingdoms, but dignity and majesty have I seen but once, as it stood in chains at midnight, in a dungeon, in an obscure village of Missouri.

A great and virtuous woman of the time, who knew him well, Bathsheba W. Smith (married to the prophet's cousin), said of Joseph Smith, “I know him to be what he professed to be—a true prophet of God, and the Lord through him restored the everlasting gospel and every ordinance and endowment that will lead us into the celestial kingdom.”

While there are many other witnesses, these two will suffice for now.   To me it is no wonder that the tree that has grown from those roots bears sweet fruit.

The prophet Alma in The Book of Mormon, speaking of faith as a seed producing a tree from which one can pluck the fruit that is the love of God asked of the experience, "O then, is this not real?  I say unto you, Yea, because it is light, and whatsoever is light is good, because it is discernible. (Alma 32:35)"   That is the real world I speak of.

I rejoice in the fruit of the tree; I will hold to the rod that leads to it.  I will stand by this "play world;" I am on the side of Jesus Christ and and of his prophet Joseph Smith even if there is no Jesus Christ and no Prophet of the Restoration; I'm going to live as like a Latter-day Saint as I can, even if there is no Kingdom of God on the earth today - although I testify that these things are indeed so.

The Savior of the World Himself was the target of derision, and many of his early disciples found his acts and words "too hard."  He asked Peter and the others,

Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.

I feel the same way about all that I have spoken.

So [says Puddleglum], thanking you kindly for our supper, if [my brothers and sisters] are ready, we're leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives [living for what we know and believe].  Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that's small loss if the world's as dull a place [as the one you claim is real].

The everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ licks this world hollow.