In the last many years, we’ve seen many movements based upon anger, often justifiable anger. Blacks Lives Matter, Me Too, and several others have declared their anger towards society and its failure to protect and help them.
Society Has failed them (and us). It has created the environment for peoples everywhere to be mistreated, abused, harmed, and enslaved. Nephi saw what to expect of society in our day:
4 And they shall contend one with another; and their priests shall contend one with another, and they shall teach with their learning, and deny the Holy Ghost, which giveth utterance.5 And they deny the power of God, the Holy One of Israel; and they say unto the people: Hearken unto us, and hear ye our precept; for behold there is no God today, for the Lord and the Redeemer hath done his work, and he hath given his power unto men;6 Behold, hearken ye unto my precept; if they shall say there is a miracle wrought by the hand of the Lord, believe it not; for this day he is not a God of miracles; he hath done his work.7 Yea, and there shall be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us8 And there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God—he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God.9 Yea, and there shall be many which shall teach after this manner, false and vain and foolish doctrines, and shall be puffed up in their hearts, and shall seek deep to hide their counsels from the Lord; and their works shall be in the dark.10 And the blood of the saints shall cry from the ground against them.11 Yea, they have all gone out of the way; they have become corrupted.12 Because of pride, and because of false teachers, and false doctrine, their churches have become corrupted, and their churches are lifted up; because of pride they are puffed up.13 They rob the poor because of their fine sanctuaries; they rob the poor because of their fine clothing; and they persecute the meek and the poor in heart, because in their pride they are puffed up.(2 Nephi 28).
Even the once good organizations have become corrupted. No one sees a problem with digging a pit for others. Even God will look the other way because of cheap grace. Pride allows all of us to justify our sins, and still think God accepts us. Society, including its churches, will persecute the meek and poor!
So, how do the poor and afflicted respond to the failures of society?
For behold, at that day shall he (Satan) rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good.21 And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.22 And behold, others he flattereth away, and telleth them there is no hell; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none—and thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance.23 Yea, they are grasped with death, and hell; and death, and hell, and the devil, and all that have been seized therewith must stand before the throne of God, and be judged according to their works, from whence they must go into the place prepared for them, even a lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment.24 Therefore, wo be unto him that is at ease in Zion!25 Wo be unto him that crieth: All is well!26 Yea, wo be unto him that hearkeneth unto the precepts of men, and denieth the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost! (2 Ne 28).
Satan uses society’s power to corrupt the poor and meek. They believe their government, church and societal leaders. Many of these tell them there is no sin. They believe it.
Others are enraged through the power of Satan, using organizations that the poor trust. That rage leads us away from reason and the Holy Ghost, to seek revenge rather than justice and mercy.
Some are pacified by society’s leaders. All is well in America! Ignore those who are complaining. Ignore the fake news media (on either side).
For those in the Me Too, Black Lives Matter, and other similar groups, they are caught in the middle. They are victims of society. Society has long ignored their cries. Sadly, Satan angers many of them into such rage that they no longer only seek justice of the guilty, but wish to castigate any who is accused. They seek revenge. Society even jumps in to stir up their rage, society (in this sense) being a tool of the devil.
Where was Society when so many women and children of past years were molested and raped by men in Hollywood and in churches? Society gave power to those in power to destroy souls, while thinking God would not one day judge them. For many of them, there was no hell to worry about, as in their minds, it did not exist for them. Now that very society overreaches to stir the poor to anger in search of justice (which society can never give them).
They do not understand that revenge is of God. In resorting to rage, the poor and victims empower the very Society that has harmed them. Hopefully the poor and meek can receive justice here. But justice alone will not bring them peace of mind and spirit.
Today’s Society denies the “power of God and the gift of the Holy Ghost!” There is no place for repentance nor forgiveness. Because of this, there also is no place for justice nor mercy. This is not to say that the abusers should not go to prison, if found guilty. What it means is the victim will not find peace, simply because the perp has been found guilty. Neither will the guilty find peace through Society, because repentance comes through God. A truly repentant person would go to the victim, apologize, and ask what would it take to make things right. If that means turning oneself in to the authorities, that then would be the step God would have such a person take as part of his/her repentance.
True Justice can only be meted out by God. Society can punish, but Justice is an eternal principle that works in conjunction with Mercy. Society often fails, letting the guilty go, and punishing the innocent. It falsely accuses and digs pits, while persecuting the poor and meek.
Finally, I pray for the victims. We are all victims of Satan and Society. In some way, we are also all aggressors and sinners. Only by returning to the principles of Christ, and allowing His power and the gift of the Holy Ghost in our lives, can we be healed and saved from the dangers of Society and the devil in these last days.
*I worry on writing about such things, because I risk being misinterpreted. Recently, someone misread a comment I did on FB, thinking I was supporting perps and demeaning the victims. Sadly, words are such fungible things, and anger only makes things harder to truly understand.
Peter Kreeft has some good things to say on this.
1. We are at war.
2. Who the enemy is, and who is not the enemy.
3. What the weapon is.
Part three could almost be a prophet’s talk at General Conference. Probably part two, also.
Kreeft is a charismatic Catholic.
http://peterkreeft.com/topics-more/culture-war_transcription.htm
That Kreeft is a good read. Though this made me smile:
“Can you imagine what 12 more Mother Teresas or 12 more John Wesleys would do for this poor old world? Can you imagine what would happen if just 12 people in this room did it? Gave Christ 100 percent of their hearts with 100 percent of their hearts 100 percent of the time and held back nothing, absolutely nothing?”
Indeed. If only there were 12 people out there giving their all for the Church. If only. 🙂
Mormontarian, Interesting that Kreeft talks of 12 giving their all for Christ and your sly “if only” response talks of 12 giving their all for the church. They are not exactly synonyms. I wonder if that isn’t part of the problem for these once good organisations Rameumpton describes. In their doing good they forget they are a means to an end and begin to conceive of themselves as the end they were originally trying to bring about. It’s an especially slippery slope when that means is a church and the end is Christ. There’s a lot of potential for harm in a means acting as an ends, or in the conflation of the two.
I think this is a really good post, but I think it is unfortunate that the only two examples that you mention by name – Blacks Lives Matter and Me Too come from the left side of the political spectrum. I think that risks making your post more politicized than it has to be. Surely, those on the right who are fueled by resentment of outsiders or fear of asylum seekers and immigrants are under the same delusion?
Daniel, I agree with you. But the radical groups on the right that i can think of do not have noble beginnings.
I’m not going compare MeToo with NeoNazis or KKK.
Good call, especially since the Nazis and the KKK both come from the left. Blackshirt versus Brownshirt is still left-on-left.
I’m open to hearing about a radical right-wing group, but I don’t think there are very many, or that they’re big enough to matter. The Birchers, maybe? Are they even still a thing?
The neoNazis and kkk may have started out on the left, but now are firmly part of the Alt Right. Both major parties are swiftly moving toward totalitarianism, and so radical groups find shelter in the fringes.
Is alt right is on the left. It’s lefty authoritarians fighting lefty authoritarians all the way down.
Alt Right is generally labelled as such because it’s racist.
There is nothing “Right” about racists ideology. Racism or sexism can exist on the left or right. You can’t tell me there aren’t a bunch of sexist in the Democratic party, because they voted for Trump. You can’t tell me there aren’t a bunch of racists in the Democratic party because in 2012 they voted more heavily for Romney than they did for Trump in 2016.
The racists among the Democrats went for Romney when a black person was running. The racists returned to the Democrats and voted for Hillary when there was no longer a black person running
The sexists among the Democrats voted for Obama, but left the Democrats for Trump.
This is fairly well documented among the numbers. It doesn’t mean all racists and sexists are democrats, but certainly it’s the case that they aren’t all (or even majority) Republican.
A political party that voted for segregation and elected the most racist and womanizing leaders in the country’s history doesn’t just transform over night. There are a lot of racist, sexist, womanizers in that group.
Republicans have plenty of problems as well… But I just think it’s a mistake to equate racism with a political ideology per se. It’s more like a cancer affecting both parties — certainly to a lesser degree in contemporary times than it used to.
But just blaming “the right” for it is a joke.
The ethnocentric / nationalist aspect is a little bit more pronounced on the right from what we see in the media, but for every white nationalist who hates foreigners or gays on the right you show me I can show you a black one on the left. For every concerned Republican about immigration effect on culture I can show you a union member on the left equally concerned about immigrants or foreign competitors and their jobs.
We’d be much better dispelling the thought that we have to bash the other political party over the head with the dregs that make up their voting block, and instead just equally confront the ideologies espoused on their merits.
The political parties don’t want that though, because then we come to a middle ground of agreement that doesn’t allow them to divide and conquer.
COB,
Half of your rant wasn’t cogent. To address the parts I understand:
The alt right IS a part of the Republican party, thanks to Steve Bannion and others who invited them in. In fact, Trump has thrown them an occasional bone.
While many of these are racist groyps, they also have political views, often leaning towards fascism.
Coherent, not cogent
Some of them may vote Republican but that makes them no more of the party than I. I’m not.
If you can’t comprehend truth that’s your problem, but sadly ignorance is externalized on all of society.
To repeat, racism is no more an ideology of the right or the left. We might as well argue who Nazis would vote for – socialists or advocates of free enterprise. Hint, not the latter. That doesn’t make nazis part of the democratic party.
COB, the post has nothing to do with racism. Keep on the discussion or I’ll remove your derailing comments.
Gerald, YOU invoked alt right.
So I look up the alt right. The definition is… the alt-right, or alternative right, is a loosely-connected and somewhat ill-defined grouping of white supremacists….(and then lists every other string of bad guys which all leads back to racism — kkk, nazi, etc). Nationalism is in the mix too.
You invoked it to assign ownership to the right. It’s just not the case. Delete the comments all you like if it helps you to sleep at night.