Who do you serve?

Growing up in the church you repeatedly get the Primary, YM/YW, Sunday School, Relief Society, and/or Priesthood lesson about Matthew 6:24 "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."


So who do you serve?

Imagine Terry is a high powered executive at an advertising firm.  What if Terry, as a practicing Mormon is asked to represent an abortion activist organization.  If Terry doesn't represent it they may fire Terry and Terry will have a hard time getting a job with another company, Terry's reputation will be damaged.  However,  Terry could get a job somewhere and while making an above average living  Terry would be making significantly less money.   Terry feels that representing this organization is against both  Terry's religion and  Terry's personal views about abortion (say this company is for very late term abortions, this post really isn't about abortion.  We could use any moral issue that is particular to Mormonism as an example.) What should  Terry do?*


Who does your church serve?

The Official Declaration 1 says, "And I now publicly declare that my advice to the Latter-day Saints is to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land."  Essentially as long as it is against the law of the land, the church would stop performing plural marriages.  It in no way says that the doctrine of plural marriages changes.

Imagine the church introduces the gospel to members of a country where polygamy is not only legal it is common.  Is there any reason for the church to force would be members to give up their plural wives?  Why is it that according to D. Michael Quinn in his interview in the 1995 Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium, he asserts that the Church is breaking up families and forcing them to enter into monogamous relationships when those relationships are currently polygamous?  Here is an excerpt from his interview.  (I suggest listening starting at 1:08:35.)

"We have committed cultural genocide, we have committed familiacide in Sub-Saharan Africa. We have broken up stable polygamous families, or we have denied polygamous families the opportunity of the gospel if they will not abandon polygamy.  This is an outrage in my view."**(Beginning at 1:10:00)

So I have to ask, why is it the church will not let these families join in Polygamous relationships?  Has the doctrine changed?  No.  Did President Woodruff say that as long as polygamy was against the law of Utah or the United States?  No.  Is the church trying to be accepted as a "Christian" church?  Yes.  Would promoting polygamous marriage look bad to "Christian" churches?  Yes.  Would it make Mormonism look strange to a lot of people?  Yes.  Is it a bad PR move?  Yes.  So the choices are to obey the doctrine and allow polygamous marriages where it is not against the law or to disobey the doctrine and give in to the PR department.  Who do you serve?  God or the public opinion?  Is the church actually disobeying a commandment of God just because it is worried about how the world will think of it?

My solution.

If the church's doctrine includes polygamy, then it should allow these members to keep their families in tact and enjoy the blessings many of our ancestors enjoyed while living the commandment.  If the church's doctrine has changed, then make it official.  Let me see the revelation from God that changes the commandment.  Otherwise I have to believe the church is guilty of obeying Mammon before obeying God.





*Did you imagine Terry in the story above was male or female?  Think about why it was one or the other.

**Source: Mormon Stories Episode 267 which is a rebroadcast from the 1995 Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium. Entitled, “The Church Years: Michael Quinn, History, and the Mormon World View,” it includes Dr. Martha Sonntag Bradley interviewing D. Michael Quinn about his life as a Mormon church historian.