LDS Newsroom: Elder Oaks Calls for Balance and Accommodation, Not Culture Wars

Oaks referenced submitting to the "highest authority" (which Mormons and the military excel at), referring to the Federal Government and Supreme Court, oblivious to the fact that the Constitution is the highest authority in the land,1 the people being its supreme arbiters, and that Constitution does not give authority to the Court to make any such decision.

His "great lawyerly reasoning" is absurd in the extreme, and is the fearful result of the marriage2 of religion and government.

He says further that "Such outcomes are rarely attainable and never preferable to living together in mutual understanding and peace" is a slap in the face to the blood our fathers spilt and many other sacrifices they made. His logic would have us submitting still to the rule of Britain, and the tyranny we live under now is many times worse than those early Americans stood for. The moment the contract the people established for their government was trampled upon, is the moment a government becomes the enemy of the people, and the only thing stopping a just overthrow of such a government is a people lulled to sleep, who think such an idea, penned in their own Declaration of Independence is abhorrent.

Yet we will listen to him, and those like him, because we as a society are trained to look to authority figures and experts and place our trust in them, never learning for ourselves a true principle.

He preaches to set himself as a light to get gain and praise of the world. His speech is calculated to lull people to sleep to trust and love their abusers which government he says "passes light and love through a flexible and open cloth boundary." This metaphor of a veil and the idol on the other side sending "love and light" is apropos.3

Be careful who you accept "in the name of Christ."

"Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.

"Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.

"Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God." (Micah 3:5-7)

 

Notes

1. Once again, ironically, in both religion and government the idea of submission to higher authority is not understood and instead turned on its head.

2. Though this is the marriage we got, this is not the marriage we were looking for. 

3. This bowing of the knee is something the LDS church has been doing for a long time and its pace is increasing. See paper Cutting Down the Tree of Life to Build a Wooden Bridge.