Dear Luke,
I was inspired to write this message by two articles that I read recently. The first is about Pope Francis' Lenten message of last year. He gave a beautiful discourse about fasting from indifference in order to feast on love, and become better Christians. His message was inspiring and uplifting. I had quite the opposite experience as I read a second, and rather unfortunate article which is titled, "Why Mormons Don't Believe In Ash Wednesday and Lent." In addition to being offensive to Catholics, the article was offensive to any Mormon who doesn't want his belief about Lent and the reasons for it to be dictated by some guy who has no authority to make such declarations about the beliefs of Mormonism as a religion. For the record, I think participating in Lent can be a powerful act of devotion, and that any upstanding, temple recommend holding member of the Church could practice Lent and be better for it. I do not think the writer had bad intentions by any means, but his article illustrates my point that there is a persisting culture among pockets of Mormons of ignorance, self-righteousness, and discord concerning their perspective of other religions. If we are to develop true, Christ-like love, we must first replace ignorance with understanding, self-righteousness with tolerance, and discord with harmony.
You might feel like I'm preaching to the choir right now. I know you understand this, but I am not writing this message to convince you. I am writing this message so to help you to change a culture which might abide in your mission, as it did in mine. You know my three best friends in high school were a Jehovah's Witness, a Protestant, and a Roman Catholic. They were, and continue to be, three great men, for whom I have great respect. During one transfer cycle of my mission, I heard a missionary I was living with speak poorly of the Jehovah's Witnesses. He was rattling off their beliefs as if he was a Jehovah's Witness himself, and I recognized many things he said of their doctrine which were simply not true. I made an effort to defend their faith, and I received constant bullying for it. When a zone leader was on splits at my apartment, he found a book a Jehovah's Witness had given me titled, "What Does the Bible Really Teach?" and he ripped it in half. I was astounded by the sheer hypocrisy. Missionaries of a Church which honors its persecuted ancestors, and struggles with the spread of false rumors of its teachings, were gossiping about the beliefs of other religions and destroying religious literature. I think this culture did change on my mission because of the teachings of my mission president, but you might have to play a bigger part in your mission. I hope to give you some resources today which could help you transform that culture.
From Ignorance to Understanding
Perhaps we do not need to understand all things about other religions, but we should cast off enough ignorance at least to understand that Mormons do not have a monopoly on the truth, and that other religions are, in fact, good.
I have notes from a fireside done by Terryl and Fiona Givens which say that Joseph Smith considered himself a gatherer of truth more than a restorer of truth. I also remember having heard of Richard Bushman, another Church historian, saying the same. Unfortunately, I could not find good sources to support that claim because I am a college student and time isn't my most abundant resource. So where did Joseph gather the truth from? I was able to find this quote of his, "Have the Presbyterians any truth? Yes. Have the Baptists, Methodists, etc., any truth? Yes. They all have a little truth mixed with error. We should gather all the good and true principles in the world and treasure them up, or we shall not come out true "Mormons,"" (History of the Church 5:517). There is truth in all religions. We should learn of them.
Terryl and Fiona Givens powerfully argue that Mormons do not have the monopoly on the truth which many pretend in chapter 7 of their book, The Crucible of Doubt. I agree with them wholeheartedly and I wish I could include the whole chapter in this letter for you to read in your spare time, but I cannot. In short, the idea that Mormons have all of the truth, and no one else can have any that we don't, is an absolutely erroneous and arrogant fallacy. Considering the billions of people that have inhabited the earth, and the infinite truths yet to be discovered and canonized, is it not likely that somebody has stumbled across a truth which the Mormons haven't of yet? Considering scriptural evidence (D&C 49:8) and teachings of Preach My Gospel (Chapter 3 Lesson 1) which tell us that God has inspired many men outside of our religion, it is much more than likely, but extremely probable if not certain.
Now, to answer the question of the goodness of other religions, I will refer to Brigham Young. He said, "Now, this may be singular to some. What! They enjoy the Spirit of the Lord? Yes, every man and woman, according to their faith and the knowledge they have in their possession. They enjoy the goodness of their Father in heaven. Do they receive the Spirit of the Lord? They do, and enjoy the light of it, and walk in it, and rejoice in it.
What will be their state hereafter? Every faithful Methodist that has lived up to and faithfully fulfilled the requirements of his religion, according to the best light he had, doing good to all and evil to none, injuring no person upon the earth, honoring his God as far he knew, will have as great a heaven as he ever anticipated in the flesh, and far greater. Every Presbyterian, and every Quaker, and every Baptist, and every Roman Catholic member—every reformer, of whatever class or grade, that lives according to the best light they have, and never have had an opportunity of receiving a greater light than the one in their possession, will have and enjoy all they live for...
You may go among the Pagans, or among all the nations there are, and they have their religion, their sacraments, and ceremonies, which are as sacred to them as ours are to us: they are just as precious and dear to them, though we call them heathen. They are idolatrous worshippers; yet their religion is as sacred to them as ours is to us. If they live according to the best light they have in their religion, God is God over all and the Father of us all; we are all the workmanship of his hands; (Moses 7:32)
and if they are ignorant, filled with superstition, and have the traditions of the fathers interwoven like a mantle around and over them, that they cannot see any light, so will they be judged; and if they have lived according to what they did possess, so they will receive hereafter.
And will it be glory, you may inquire? Yes. Glory, glory, glory..." (Journal of Discourses 6:53).
I think Brigham Young would have been a very difficult man to argue with. It would certainly be difficult to argue that other religions are churches of the devil and abominations after hearing him say what he did in that discourse. Even tougher to argue with is Jesus Christ. Luke 9:49-50 reads, "And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us. And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us." Members of other religions which do good are on our team. They enjoy the Spirit of the Lord, and they will receive glory in heaven. They are good.
From Self Righteousness to Tolerance
Alma tells of a people who prayed in the following manner, "Holy God, we believe that thou hast separated us from our brethren; and we do not believe in the tradition of our brethren, which was handed down to them by the childishness of their fathers; but we believe that thou hast elected us to be thy holy children... and thou hast elected us that we shall be saved, whilst all around us are elected to be cast by thy wrath down to hell; for the which holiness, O God, we thank thee; and we also thank thee that thou hast elected us, that we may not be led away after the foolish traditions of our brethren... And again we thank thee, O God, that we are a chosen and a holy people. Amen," (Alma 31:16-18)
Unfortunately, and almost comically, those verses could just as well be describing some members of the Church. Alma prayed for that people, "Behold, O God, they cry unto thee, and yet their hearts are swallowed up in their pride. Behold, O God, they cry unto thee with their mouths, while they are puffed up, even to greatness, with the vain things of the world," (Alma 31:27). The Zoramites described were religiously intolerant because they were prideful and self righteous.
Tolerance, on the other hand, requires humility. Tolerance is defined as "a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, beliefs, practices, racial or ethnic origins, etc., differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry." The most basic tolerance is described in the 11th Article of Faith, "We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may." Religious tolerance is more than just good idea. It is an important part of our faith as Mormons.
From Discord to Harmony
But tolerance is not enough. Included in BYU Speeches is one delivered by Alwi Shihab in an address titled, "Building Bridges to Harmony Through Understanding."In it he said, "Let me suggest, dear brothers and sisters, that religious tolerance is not enough. We have often seen... that tolerance does not always lead to true social peace and harmony. To tolerate something is to learn to live with it, even when you think it is wrong and downright evil. Often tolerance is a tolerance of indifference, which is at best a grudging willingness to put up with something or someone you hate and wish would go away. We must go, I believe, beyond tolerance if we are to achieve harmony in our world. We must move the adherents of different faiths from a position of strife and tension to one of harmony and understanding by promoting a multifaith and pluralistic society. We must strive for acceptance of the other based on understanding and respect. Nor should we stop even at mere acceptance of the other; rather, we must accept the other as one of us in humanity and, above all, in dignity."
Harmony between religions is a beautiful thing. I would like apply a quote of Elder Wirthlin's to this concept "Tied to this misconception is the erroneous belief that all [religions] should look, talk, and be alike. The Lord did not [dot] the earth with a vibrant orchestra of [religions] only to value the piccolos of the world. Every instrument is precious and adds to the complex beauty of the symphony. All [religions] are different in some degree, yet each has his own beautiful sound that adds depth and richness to the whole," ("Concern for the One"). The beauty of harmony is in diversity, and cooperation. If we all played the melody, it would be a boring piece. If we did not cooperate, the dissonance of notes would be painful to listen to.
Harmony between religions is a component of the modern Church. The Church continues to work closely with Catholic Charities to provide relief after natural disasters. President Hinckley was particularly fond of Pope John Paul II. Examples of harmony between Church leaders and other religions can be found throughout the history of the Church. But I think the culmination of religious harmony was expressed by Joseph Smith, "“The Saints can testify whether I am willing to lay down my life for my brethren. If it has been demonstrated that I have been willing to die for a ‘Mormon,’ I am bold to declare before Heaven that I am just as ready to die in defending the rights of a Presbyterian, a Baptist, or a good man of any other denomination," (History of the Church, 5:498–99).
I hope that that will some day be the predominating culture of the Mormon Church. I hope this will help you to be able to do your part to change a culture.
Keep up the good work, Luke! I love you!
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