Nor Any Manner of -Ites

In Mormon’s description of the united people in 4 Nephi, after the Savior’s visit among them had brought them to a total unity in the faith, he said this: “There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God” (4 Nephi 1:17). In other words, the cultural labels that their people had used for centuries disappeared as they all came unto the Savior. They did not differentiate themselves by titles or race or education or anything else: they were simply all children of Christ. This reminds me of President Nelson’s recent remarks about labels to young adults: “Any label replaces your most important identifiers, the results can be spiritually suffocating. For example, if I were to rank in order of importance the designations that could be applied to me, I would say: First, I am a child of God—a son of God—then a son of the covenant, then a disciple of Jesus Christ and a devoted member of His restored Church.” He then urged all of us to focus on those same designations: “First and foremost, you are a child of God. Second, as a member of the Church, you are a child of the covenant. And third, you are a disciple of Jesus Christ. Tonight, I plead with you not to replace these three paramount and unchanging identifiers with any others, because doing so could stymie your progress or pigeonhole you in a stereotype that could potentially thwart your eternal progression…. The adversary rejoices in labels because they divide us and restrict the way we think about ourselves and each other. How sad it is when we honor labels more than we honor each other.” In our society we certainly give all kinds of labels to each other, our own version of “ites”, related to political party, ethnicity, religion, career, and a host of other things. The message of 4 Nephi for us is that what matters most is not any earthly label but our relationship with the Savior and our journey back to God. And just as we leave behind us all the worldly wealth we have acquired when we depart from this life, so too will we leave behind the earthly titles and labels that have separated us from each other.

                Mormon described the state of this people who were so unified that their worldly labels had been discarded: “And how blessed were they! For the Lord did bless them in all their doings; yea, even they were blessed and prospered until an hundred and ten years had passed away; and the first generation from Christ had passed away, and there was no contention in all the land” (4 Nephi 1:18). We too can be blessed of the Lord in our families, wards, and communities as we choose not to focus on worldly labels and see each other as brothers and sisters all on the same spiritual journey back to the Father. The power of this approach to seeing others is shown in the story of the Bishop of Digne in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. Jean Valjean had been in prison for many years, and when he was finally let out he could not get past that label—everyone he met distrusted him and rejected him because they saw him through the lens of that label: ex-convict. Everyone, that is, until he met the Bishop of Digne. When the Bishop did not reject him, Valjean had a hard time believing it: “Did you hear? I am a galley-slave; a convict. I come from the galleys. Here’s my passport. Yellow, as you see. This serves to expel me from every place where I go. Will you read it? I know how to read. I learned in the galleys. There is a school there for those who choose to learn. Hold, this is what they put on this passport: ‘Jean Valjean, discharged convict, native of’—that is nothing to you—‘has been nineteen years in the galleys: five years for house-breaking and burglary; fourteen years for having attempted to escape on four occasions. He is a very dangerous man.’ There! Every one has cast me out.” But the Bishop did not. After Valjean stole from him and was caught, the Bishop again saw not as a criminal but as a child of God with great potential as he forgave him instantly and gave him more: “Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I buy from you; I withdraw it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God.” As we work to get rid of the “ites” as we see the world and instead focus on what binds us all together as children of God, we too can treat others like this Bishop did—seeing all first and foremost as sisters and brothers.