What I am about to write today has been marinating for many months, but the impetus behind today’s post comes from a single word that stood out to me while listening to the LDS Church President’s General Conference talk, “Let God Prevail.”
President Russel M. Nelson related a story about a single word of advice he once offered to a struggling young woman: Myopic.
Myopic means short-sighted. This is a term that can be used to describe large swathes of our national consciousness today.
To be myopic is to lean so heavily on what we know that we fail to ask questions. As I have written numerous times, only a fool claims to know everything, while a wise man asks ‘what can I learn today?’
Learning relies heavily upon questions and answers, as it does on experience. We learn less from watching the news than we do conversing with our fellow brothers and sisters. “Any fool can know,” Albert Einstein once said. “The point is to understand.”
The road to understanding can start from the tiniest question deep in the mind and heart. Our spiritual and temporal growth on this earth depends on us not knowing, but understanding the information that reaches us every day. We cannot gain answers without asking questions, but we must be careful who we ask.
Associate Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr opined that “Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.”
To retreat to the comfort of what we know harms our appetite for further growth. That allows us to shrink our minds, leading us further from true understanding.
I posit that the biggest failing of modern religion is the idea that we know everything that God has intended for us. God is generous and loving. He liberally grants us the understanding we ask for. This world is a venue for learning.
On the current affairs of our world, churches can offer both solid advice and poisonous platitudes. It is up to us to discern.
As I noted earlier, I have had a question lurking in my heart for many months. Please allow me this space to discuss it.
Church doctrine reliably tells us what is right and wrong, and the religious believe that information is inspired from God himself. It teaches us to discern good from evil, but it fails to teach us how to understand those concepts.
For instance, on racism, the LDS church has been somewhat consistent in its messaging that racism is wrong, but it doesn’t outline the truth of racism for us. For me, this was a major point of criticism of the church.
This last week, I believe it finally clicked after listening to the inspired words of President Nelson.
“Each of us has a divine potential because each is a child of God,” Nelson explained. “Each is equal in His eyes. The implications of this truth are profound. Brothers and sisters, please listen carefully to what I am about to say. God does not love one race more than another. His doctrine on this matter is clear. He invites all to come unto Him, ‘black and white, bond and free, male and female. (Book of Mormon; 2Nephi 26:33)’”
Nelson continues by exhorting us to end all attitudes of prejudice. “Today I call upon our members everywhere to lead out in abandoning attitudes and actions of prejudice. I plead with you to promote respect for all of God’s children.”
This plea at first disappointed me, because it failed to detail the racism and prejudice that infects to hearts and minds of so many people, members and nonmembers alike. But reading the words behind the words helped me to understand. “Lead,” Nelson advises. The meaning of that word can be more complicated than it seems, but the best leadership is an attitude that seeks greater understanding by asking important questions.
I admit that my understanding of the problem I saw was myopic. I failed to account for compassionate leadership.
In truth, I’m not certain I feel comfortable taking lessons of what constitutes racism and prejudice from a body of predominantly white men who may not understand the struggles from a first-hand point of view. We can lead in that effort to abolish racism and prejudice by asking our black and brown brothers and sisters about how the problems affect them personally and then promise to lead an effort to address that in our lives and relationships.
It is perfectly acceptable to admit that our churches don’t know everything about how the world works, or even about the nature of God himself. It should lead by asking more questions.
God, according to 2 Nephi, is perfectly inclusive. When he invites all to come unto him, he means all.
I hope that we can lead by asking questions without myopia. Learning is not an instantaneous experience, but a long process through which we make ourselves better-suited to face the world around us and more equipped to meet our God when the time comes.