I spent some time criticizing the environment for students these days at modern universities here. This article in the New York Times can add some fire to the debate.
It appears to be newsworthy in the New York Times that there are a few people at Princeton who don’t have sex until they are married. Of course, until recently, such an article would never have been newsworthy because that was the societal standard. So, the first point is simply a wake-up call to indicate the shifting sands on which we precariously stand as a society.
But the other side of this situation is a trend that I am noticing more and more: there are also reasons to be optimistic about society. There are still many people who maintain basic standards of decency and insist on them. So, it appears there are two trends going on: rapid decay and decadence on the one hand and increasing righteousness despite the hurdles on the other. As President Hinckley always says, there are reasons for real optimism. I’m wondering: shouldn’t we as Latter-day Saints do a better job concentrating on the reasons for being optimistic?
I fully agree. There are so many things going better. Less crime. Less poverty. More chastity. More religosity.
However we can always do better. There’s still a lot of inequality in our society, still a lot of ignorance, and I sometimes worry we don’t work as hard as we once did.
With regards to optimism Pres. Hinkley really reminds me of Brigham Young in a way.
I do believe we should be optimistic, but never about the standards of the world. Those shift and change so often that we should focus more on the success of the gospel. I see these sorts of things as the dividing the sheep from the goats; the wicked become more wicked, the righteous become more righteous.
I remember watching the movie “Anne of Green Gables” as a girl. Anne was despairing after a long and horrible day, and Mariah (the seemingly harsh figure of a person who didn’t want her) replied, “To despair is to turn your back on God”. When I was a girl I thought that statement was harsh and unfair of her to say to poor Anne, but the older I get, the more I remember that statement when I think of the word “despair” in relation to what I am feeling.
When I first started typing out this comment I felt that I had come to the sad realization that I am no longer an optimist, especially when I thought about how the world will be for my 2-yr old son in ten or twenty years considering the current rate of societal decline. But, then I remembered that I as I have hope and faith in God, I should have hope and faith in His plan for my life if I follow His will. I don’t have much optimism when it comes to society, but like Goodwin said, I can have optimism in the Lord’s work in my life and in the world.
Thanks for the post, Geoff B.
“I’m wondering: shouldn’t we as Latter-day Saints do a better job concentrating on the reasons for being optimistic?”
Interesting post. I think we should always focus on the beautiful, uplifting, and inspirational joys of this life instead of all of the very negative events that we see happening around us. The Church doctrine does a good job of encouraging people to seek out the “praiseworthy”, but the culture has a tendency to emphasize an “us against them” or an “in the world, not of the world” attitude that allows people to view the world as a scary, hateful place.
There are many compassionate people with integrity pursuing praiseworthy and meaningful goals who have never heard of Mormons or who have rejected religion altogether, and I think Church culture should focus more on what these people are doing instead of focusing on all the illicit sex and hedonism that has been around since the world began.
Tess: So, to clariy, in your opinion the church culture (people/leaders of the church?) are “focusing on all the illicit sex and hedonism that has been around since the world began” and that instead they should focus on the actions of people who are not mormon or apostate-mormons because…they ignore the illicit sex and hedonism that we’re so focused on and live much better lives?
Man, it’s amazing how people can take comments and twist them around to mean whatever they want them to mean. This could be because there is no tone to email, so it’s hard to tell if someone is being lighthearted or serious, or that you don’t want to post a comment that’s three pages long, so the general theme could get lost in translation. Or it could be that my comment was confusing…
Anyway, to clarify my comment #4 above, I think the culture should be more focused on the good things people are doing, Mormon, non-Mormon, and apostate alike, instead of focusing on the evils of the outside world.
Tess, for what it’s worth, I understood what you meant the first time.
I understand what you’re saying Tess, but I don’t really agree. Personally it seems a little too much like “All is well in Zion.” The scriptures, usually are negative, that is because prophets are called to warn, not praise the people. I think the danger of these sins warrents the attention they get.