The old expression says “No good deed goes unpunished.” This seems true every time you try to do something good. The principle of “opposition in all things” never fails to cause amazement because of its universality. Anything good you try to do unfailingly runs into obstacles that seem surprisingly tenacious, which occur in often unpredictable ways. It’s sort of the spiritual version of Newton’ law of motion which tells us that, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Last week, when President Russell M. Nelson of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints made a global statement inviting people to engage in positive exercise of giving thanks on social media—what seemed a nice, innocuous, non-confrontational, universal message—I quietly wondered what kind of backlash could be manufactured. I mean, the President of the Church could have delivered an important and true message about the need of every person to repent, to believe in Christ, to receive proper baptism by one with authority from God, and to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands by a Mormon elder. Such a message would be totally true, but divisive. That’s not what he was going for. Sometimes, you have to start at square one, and that’s what he did.
Gratitude is the most fundamental element of faith in almost every religion on the planet. When a person believes in some higher power, the most elemental feelings a person experiences are fear/reverence, humility/wonder, and gratitude. This is what President Nelson was going for. It is probably the most universal message that crosses barriers of dogma, doctrine, and tradition. In a world being ripped apart by what well may be a manufactured crisis, the invitation to reflect and document our gratitude on social media was a powerful unifying message. A message with that power will unfailingly meet with opposition, unfortunately.
Of course, who better to document the message opposing gratitude than the Salt Lake Tribune, the newspaper that was founded by the Godbeites, an apostate group that originated with people who opposed the United Order in the pioneer days. It is still the anti-Mormon newspaper of record. In a SLT article this week, Peggy Fletcher Stack asks “So is expressing gratitude, as LDS Church President Russell Nelson urged, healthy or hurtful, during a pandemic?” In her article manages to locate a few malcontents who were critical of the Prophet’s message. Where the real opposition, however, emerged was in the comments section of the article. Here are a couple of examples.
“When a significant number of church members don’t follow COVID-prevention guidelines, a talk about gratitude is cold.”
“If he’d just have announced ‘wear a mask’ with the same conviction he insists on God’s choice of underwear we’d be thrilled.”
You can’t fault the Church for not doing its part in the pandemic. We closed down our temples and our meetinghouses. We brought tens of thousands of missionaries home. We stopped door-to-door proselyting. We canceled two General Conferences and the traditional First Presidency Christmas Devotional. In general, many of these remarks were generated by obvious Democrats pushing a COVID narrative that has been rejected by many conservatives. These Democrats hate the Church because it preaches sobriety, personal responsibility, and generally opposes gay marriage and people who think its a good thing to chop off their sexual organs and dress as the opposite sex. Most Church members in the United States vote Republican because its values and policies are generally more in harmony with gospel teachings. In the United States, political conservatives generally view COVID-19 no differently than a severe strain of flu like the swine flu, which did not result in global lockdowns, despite greater numbers of deaths. Republicans see the panic as caused by Democrats, who manufactured a crisis for political gain.
Consider these facts. The virus arrived on U.S. shores on January 15, 2020. What else occurred or was scheduled to occur that day? The trade deal Trump negotiated with China was supposed to take effect that day. That trade deal was far less favorable to China than previous trade deals. The agreement had a “pandemic clause” in it that gave the Chinese an out should a global pandemic occur. Also, on January 15th, Nancy Pelosi staged a theatrical walking of the articles of impeachment from the House to the Senate. This was after she held the articles for ten days. Why did she not transmit the articles to the Senate right away? Why wait until the 15th, the day the pandemic reached America? Was the delay intended to give the virus time to get here so the President would have to fight impeachment while a pandemic raged across the country? Dem governors led the way in locking down their states and forcing infected elderly COVID patients into nursing homes, spiking the death counts among the most vulnerable population. Were the lockdowns intended to stop the massive Trump rallies, wreck the record employment gains (for blacks, Hispanics, and women) and kill the booming Trump economy? It also facilitated the push for massive mail-in voting which has led to the ongoing problems of election fraud. Was it about the election all along?
But I digress. The Lord’s Prophet sends a message to the world, with a week of advertised build-up to enhance anticipation. That message could have been to repent or to read the Book of Mormon, all of which would be valid, but instead, it was a message to simply share the things about which we are grateful. It was a powerful message to sweep the world with the spirit of thanksgiving and create positive emotional energy. And that’s a message that Democrat and anti-Mormon malcontents find offensive and necessary to attack? Nothing is without opposition! The Lord tells us that nothing is more offensive to him that ingratitude and in not confessing his hand in all things (Doctrine and Covenants 59:21). Anyone who opposes such a message of gratitude shows us whose spirit they truly follow.
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