A narrative about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints exists, among its critics and among those with only a casual acquaintance, that it is a rich white man’s religion from Utah. The Church has been working hard to counter that narrative for a number of years. Church produced videos with a target audience of both those inside and outside the Church have sought to portray the diversity of the membership and increase the perception of the Church as accepting of people from a variety of backgrounds. In recent years female members have taken a more prominent role in General Conference, the twice yearly two day gathering where members in leadership positions, at the direction of the President of the Church, give talks meant to guide and instruct, inspire and edify the members, as well as non-members.
President Oaks, at the beginning of the most recent Sunday morning session of General Conference, said, “On this beautiful Easter morning, President Nelson expressed a great desire to have speakers from throughout the world preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” Of all the five sessions of General Conference, I imagine the Sunday morning session is the most widely viewed, and to devote that session to not only speakers from all over the world but musical numbers offered by members from all over the world was, to me, inspiring. President Nelson’s decision, I have to believe, was not only to reinforce the message that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was intended for peoples throughout the world to non-members, but to members both outside and inside the United States, and perhaps those inside and outside of Utah. The Church is trying to bury the specter of Bruce R. McKonkie, and deeply.
But then there are other strains within the Church that, in my mind, only reinforce the perception that the Church is a rich white man’s religion from Utah. The strain is the result of a certain tone deafness amongst certain members. An example is a story told by President Jan E. Newman, Second Counselor in the Sunday School General Presidency, during a talk called “Teaching in the Savior’s Way,” at the last General Conference.
“Several years ago, my son Jack and I had the opportunity to play the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland, where the game of golf began. It was simply amazing! Upon my return I tried to convey to others the magnitude of the experience. But I couldn’t. Photos, videos, and my best descriptions were totally inadequate. I finally realized the only way for someone to know the grandeur of St. Andrews is to experience it—to see the vast fairways, breathe the air, feel the wind in their face, and hit a few errant shots into the cavernous bunkers and burly gorse bushes, which we did with great efficiency.”
I cringed when I heard these words live. I’ve read them a number of times and I’m still mystified how someone tasked with leading the Church’s efforts in teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ could feel inspired to tell such a story during a worldwide General Conference, within a talk called “Teaching in the Savior’s Way.” How so very far away was what I felt when President Newman regaled us of his amazing experience playing golf, from what I feel when I read the scriptures, the very words of the Savior, or from the admonitions given in the Book of Mormon.
I’ve heard many times throughout my years as a member of the Church inspiring stories about members in less affluent areas saving their hard-earned money to travel great distances, often by bus or on foot, to attend the Temple once a year, or even less often. Even my wife and I, when we were married, drove almost six hours to be sealed in the Washington DC Temple because at the time it was the closest to our home. Although our sacrifice pales in comparison to others, it still felt like a sacrifice, and we felt blessed to have that experience and where grateful that so many of our friends from Church, and my non-member parents, made the trip for us.
When I became a member, and still today, I am inspired by the fact that a member from the poorest areas of the world can enter any of the Church’s Temples throughout the world if the have a Temple Recommend, which is in effect an ecclesiastical endorsement of their faithfulness, but a billionaire without a Temple Recommend cannot buy his way into the humblest of Temples at any price.
What were the members supposed to take from the fact most of us don’t have the money, or if we do have the money the inclination, to fly to Scotland to play a round of golf as Elder Newman did, so we can never have that amazing experience? Despite Elder Newman’s photos, videos and best descriptions, we can never fully appreciate what it was like for him to walk St. Andrews’ vast fairways, feel the wind in his face, and hit a few errant shots into the cavernous bunkers and burly gorse bushes? Maybe I am being too uncharitable, maybe too harsh and critical, but I can’t conceive why any leader of a Church that bears the Savior’s name would tell that story. Why does anyone tell such a story?
The scriptures are full of admonitions for the rich to be leery, oh so leery, about how their riches can cloud their vision. We all should be familiar with the words of the Savior. “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” Luke 18:24-25.
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! 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.” Matthew 6:19-24.
Outside of the words of the Savior the admonitions to be watchful of the temptations and snares of riches are found elsewhere in the New Testament. “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.” I Timothy 6:7-9
The prophets of the Book of Mormon were no less vehement on the subject.
“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 3:27
“And whoso knocketh, to him will he open; and the wise, and the learned, and they that are rich, who are puffed up because of their learning, and their wisdom, and their riches – yea, they are they whom he despiseth; and save they shall cast these things away, and consider themselves fools before God, and come down in the depths of humility, he will not open unto them.” 2 Nephi 9:42
“Now the cause of this iniquity of the people was this – Satan had great power unto the stirring up of the people to do all manner of iniquity, and to the puffing them up with pride, tempting them to seek for power, and authority, and riches, and the vain things of the world.” 3 Nephi 6:15
Even Brigham Young, way back in the mid-1800’s, when the Church was both in its relative infancy, and relatively poor, said. “The worst fear that I have about [members of this Church] is that they will get rich in this country, forget God and his people, wax fat, and kick themselves out of the Church and go to hell. This people will stand mobbing, robbing, poverty, and all manner of persecution, and be true. But my greater fear for them is that they cannot stand wealth; and yet they have to be tried with riches.”
We risk a spiritual hollowing out of the Church if we do not heed these admonitions to be skeptical of the influence our riches have on us, how our affluence clouds our vision, especially if we favor for those in leadership positions those who the outside world would recognize as successful; doctors, lawyers, successful businessmen, etc. Is this the pattern the Savior set in choosing His Apostles, the leaders of His Church?
The Savior choose as His first Apostles two sets of brothers, first Peter and Andrew, then James and John. All four were fishermen, the first two were casting their nets into the water and the second two were mending their nets. These were not men of high stature in the community, except in the Savior’s eyes.
The scriptures are not devoid of others from whom the Savior could have called. Pharisees and Sadducees, lawyers and doctors of the law, merchants and money changers, scribes. What did the Savior say about those who walk out in their fine apparel, and love to be greeted in the marketplace, sit in the highest seats during worship, and eat at the table with the most important brethren? Was it favorable?
Perhaps, as I’ve said, I am simply being uncharitable, too harsh and critical. But I can’t believe that I’m the only one who reacted to Elder Newman’s story, about his amazing experience playing golf, in the way that I did. Those words coming from a leader, or any member, whether speaking to the whole body of the Church or in the hallways of an out of the way Ward, are the opposite of inspiring and edifying, to me at least. Such words only reinforce a narrative that the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Church can ill afford to be reinforced.