I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God and another testament of Jesus Christ. I am also the gospel doctrine (adult Sunday School class) teacher in ward (congregation).
We have a four year rotation of studying of our scriptures. Two years ago we studied the Old Testament. Last year we studied the New Testament. This year we are studying the Book of Mormon. Next year we will study the Doctrine and Covenants/Church History. Then we'll rotate through all again over the next four years.
This week, as happens very often when studying any of the scriptures, our lesson dove-tailed perfectly with my weeks experiences in living life. Our study for the week was Mosiah 29 - Alma 4. The particular bit of our study I am referring to in this Blog references to the change in the form of government for the Nephites people.
Their king, Mosiah, was aging and knew he needed to set things in order. Mosiah was the king as well as the prophet for these people. His sons were not interested in succeeding him to the throne. In fact they were among the Lamanites teaching the gospel.
Mosiah requests of his people that they consider changing their form of government, which at that time was a monarchy/theocracy, with a new form of government having a system of judges. In this form of government the laws would be based on righteous principles, things would be done by the 'voice of the people' and there would be higher judges and smaller judges who would be accountable to the voice of the people. There would also be a system of appeals against judges who did not judge by the law.
Mosiah's plan for this tremendous change in government was presented to the people. The people 'reliquished their desires for a king and became exceedingly anxious that every man should have an equal chance through the land.' The people assembled themselves together in bodies throughout the land, to cast in their voices concerning who should be their judges. The scripture tells us they were 'exceedingly rejoiced because of the liberty which had been granted unto them'.
I have studied this particular portion of the Book of Mormon many times. And, again, as when studying any of the scriptures, I found lovely impressions come into my heart and mind that felt new to me. One of those was the awareness that king Mosiah was actually already giving the people their own voice in the process of this change. I liked that.
Fast forward to my own personal week. My hubby and I are registered Republicans. We were delegates to the 4th Congressional Convention for the Republican Party earlier this year. This last Saturday we were delegates to the State Republican Convention in Somerset, Kentucky. It was such an interesting experience after pouring over and studying the 5 chapters in the Book of Mormon, particularly the ones regarding the change of government.
One of the guest speakers was Mitch McConnell. I find him an interesting man to listen to. He has so many years of experience in this kind of speaking. He gives interesting insight from his perspective of governing in Washington, DC. We lived in Maryland and Claude worked in Washington, DC for 20 years. Our local news was usually also international news. Things that happened in the government were just a part of our local news and the talk about town. From that experience I can say I appreciate hearing Mitch McConnell speak. Granted, he is speaking to the choir, but it is still good insight from an insider.
But on Saturday, my mind kept referring back to all my scripture study during the week and the parallels contained in those scriptures and the language bantered about during the convention.
Mosiah warned the people that a monarchy form of government would be okay if you could always have a righteous man to be king. However, and this is a pretty big and solid however, many times the king will make laws to suit him only, he will surround himself with his men so you do not have access to him, people will murder to keep the king's place on the throne, the people will be made to work to support whatever the king desires.
One of the things Mitch McConnell was telling us was "a government big enough to give everything to everybody is big enough to take everything from everybody. He was very forthright is stating that, frankly, we can't and shouldn't give everybody everything. Government doesn't need to be that big. To me, that fit right with Mosiah's counsel to his people.
Mitch also said that American is the 'land of opportunity'. He stated there were only two ways to fail in this country: 1) quit and 2) die. That is pretty blunt. He stated that America is the 'land of opportunity' because for years when things didn't work for Americans individually or collective they have picked themselves up, dusted themselves off and grabbed on to that 'opportunity' and tried again and again. That is the true American way.
Mosiah's people, after accepting this opportunity to be the 'voice of the people' expressed a 'willingness to answer for their own sins'. They were ready to take responsibility for their own choices. They were ready to seize their 'opportunity' and work for their own good, answering for their own choices.
I was also struck by the number of times during the convention that the phrase 'voice of the people' was used. In fact, one of the portions of a convention is to vote to accept the resolutions committees proposed set of resolutions. There were 24 of these resolutions presented to the convention delegates. We were all given a printed copy to review. When we got to that portion of the convention, we had a motion and a 2nd to accept the resolutions. Then the floor was open for discussion. The wording on several of the resolutions was discussed with amendments to them to fit new wording. I found it interesting as I read our agenda that the lion-share of the convention time was allocated to getting the resolutions so they could be accepted.
In the Book of Mormon in Alma 2 a man named Amlici decided he should be king. He amasses supporters to his cause. The matter is brought before the people. We are told the people 'assembled themselves together throughout the land, every man according to his own mind, whether it were for or against Amlici, in separate bodies, having much dispute and wonderful contentions one with another'. They 'cast in their voices' against making Amlici a king.
I loved that phrase 'wonderful contentions'. One year when we lived in Maryland it was an election year for president. We had three young people living in our home that summer. One was a republican, one a democrat and one an independent. We had some 'wonderful contentions' that summer as each shared their opinion about their particular choice of candidate. It was wonderful to observe these young people and their interest in having their 'voice heard'.
I felt like that convention floor with the discussion about the resolutions was a bit of 'wonderful contention'. The marvel of it all was that, after all comments were given and potential amendments to the language the resolution committee's proposal was reviewed, the voice of the people was heard. We were asked to voice yeah or nay. Once that vote was clearly taken and all could see the outcome, it was accepted. The voice of the people was heard in preparing those resolutions, during the discussion portion and during the voting portion.
Back to Mosiah 29 and king Mosiah's counsel to his people. He stated, "Now it is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law--to do your business by the voice of the people. Amazingly, I watched that happen several times on Saturday.
Now, I believe this same type of thing happens at the Democrats conventions. This is the process for our government. It is such a good process. We don't do it perfectly. But most of the time we get it right.
I came away from my scripture study this week followed by real life experience with extreme gratitude in my heart for being blessed to live in the United States of America. I'm grateful I have a voice that can be heard. I'm grateful that I understand clearly that, if I do not get out and let my voice be heard, I should not complain. I also firmly believe that, once the voice of the people is heard, we need to pray for that person we have elected to lead us in whatever capacity. Then we need to keep on working for the good of all of us. What an amazingly wonderful process. I'm also very grateful for the Book of Mormon and the teachings contained therein that confirm the importance of the governing process in the United States.
This week was very powerful for me.
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