War of Words

Elder Oaks recently gave a talk at BYU entitled Elections, Hope, and Freedom.  He talked at length about religious liberty and the current challenges to it and free speech that we are seeing.  He discussed the trend that we are experiencing more and more often where those who cannot seem to allow any arguments that differ from their own resort to calling those who disagree with them “bigots” who engage in “hate speech.”  Elder Oaks commented, “This kind of name-calling chills free speech by seeking to penalize the speech of opponents—personally, socially, or professionally.”  He quoted one author who said that “this kind of labeling ‘frequently appears against religious believers and groups that maintain traditional beliefs about sexuality in their internal membership requirements.’”  We have certainly seen recently in relation to the Church in general—instead of engaging in meaningful and civil  discourse about the complex issues surrounding marriage and morality, those opposing traditional Christian values have often instead simply taken to name calling, using the label “bigots” or something similar to describe those whose views differ than theirs. 

                This kind of behavior, though, is not unique to issues surrounding religion and sexuality.  From social media to politics, it seems that it is becoming more and more common to simply insult and attack those whose views are different than yours.  Rather than discussing ideas and debating the different views on a particular topic, more and more we see that individuals and groups simply attack their opponents’ character and try to scream louder than the other side.  This is certainly what we see in the current U.S. presidential election.  But this is not new, and we can see examples of this throughout the scriptures.  Satan gave the example of this in his conversation with Moses: the devil “ranted upon the earth” and “cried with a loud voice, with weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth” (Moses 1:19, 22).  There was certainly no room for any kind of meaningful discourse there when Moses opposed him—he just screamed instead.  This reminds me of the behavior of the people of Ammonihah.  When they disagreed with Alma and Amulek, they threw them in jail and then came to them “gnashing their teeth upon them, and spitting upon them, and saying: How shall we look when we are damned?” (Alma 14:21).  Again, when they found that they could not win in a logical argument with these two, they gave up on civility and simply mocked them and yelled at them.

                Many other scriptures show how the guilty have simply reverted to name calling when called to repentance.  When the Nephites didn’t like Samuel the Lamanite’s message, they “cried unto their captains, saying: Take this fellow and bind him, for behold he hath a devil” (Helaman 16:6).  That was a tactic commonly used against the Savior.  When the Jewish leaders of His day couldn’t accept His teachings, instead of discussing the merits of what He taught, “Many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?” (John 10:20)  On another occasion when those rulers didn’t like what He said, “Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God” (John 8:41).  In other words, they simply accused him of being born as an illegitimate child when they had no other response to His condemnation of their actions.  Many a prophet has undergone this kind of treatment of the people he has been seeking to preach repentance to, and these insult-and-scream type reactions seem to be more and more the norm today as people hide behind their electronic devices and spew out their invectives against those they disagree with.  When Joseph Smith was the recipient of “the most bitter persecution and reviling” he wondered why if those who opposed him “supposed [him] to be deluded” they did not “endeavor in a proper and affectionate manner to have reclaimed [him]” (JSH 1:22, 28).  In other words, if they really thought this boy who was preaching new doctrine—but doing no harm to anyone—was really on the path to damnation, why didn’t they take him by the hand and guide him back to the right path instead of trying to beat him down with insults and reviling?

                Our task today in the midst of our own “war of words and tumult of opinions” is to not respond in kind when the scorn and screaming comes (JSH 1:10).  We must “strive for mutual understanding and treat all with goodwill,” as Elder Oaks urged us, and then “trust in God and his promises” when the persecution does come.