I love General Conference. Twice a year I get to listen to the Prophets and Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ share the inspired and revealed truths they have been given to direct, built, and sanctify mankind – to help us to establish Zion in word and deed. Over the past few years, as I have had ears to hears, I have noticed that the leaders of the church have addressed the issues of nationalism more and more. Often these talks juxtapose living with the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and the State (“State-ism”) in such a way as to make it clear that you can either love and follow Jesus Christ or you can love and serve your country/nation/government, but you cannot do both. The most obvious example of this in recent years comes from Apostle M. Russell Ballard’s 2017 General Conference talk where he said:
We need to embrace God’s children compassionately and eliminate any prejudice, including racism, sexism, and nationalism. Let it be said that we truly believe the blessings of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ are for every child of God.
The Trek Continues
But, if you pay attention you’ll find nationalism and statism denounced in all sorts of ways. For example, Apostle Dallin H. Oaks’s April 2017 talk where in the course of describing inspired principles of government he essentially explained the fundamental principles of consensual governments such as anarchy, libertarianism, and voluntaryism.
In a similar way, Apostles Jeffrey R. Holland and Dale G. Renlund both spoke of the evils of statism and nationalism, without ever saying those words, while also teaching that the diametrically opposed belief system and solution to both is the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Elder Holland’s talk focused on the theme of the duty of obedience and love we owe to God first and foremost above all other people, places, or things and the superiority of our eternal identity as Children of God to the ones we have invented in mortality such as our racial, ethnic, political, and social identities. Later, Elder Renlund talked about the way that Christianity and the peace which comes from believing and living the teachings of Jesus Christ abolishes all hatred – including the anger and hatred created by nationalism and ethnic divisions. In the end, Elder Renlund teaches, the Gospel doesn’t do away with the goodness that comes from differing cultural histories. Rather, the Gospel supersedes our differences by creating a superior identity for us all to share – that of Disciple of Jesus Christ.
In this article I will explore these two talks and the ideas within them in detail, ultimately concluding that as we adopt and embrace our true identity as Children of God and the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ then our old ethnic, racial, and nationalist identities must, of necessity, fall by the wayside as ultimately inferior to and in contradiction with the higher and holier principles of Christ and His Church.
Elder Holland: The Greatest Possession
Elder Holland, fitting his image among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (henceforth the Church), comes out the gate swinging. Citing the story of the Rich Young Fool (see Mark 10:17–22), Elder Holland explains that the core problem the Young Ruler faced was not faith or even greed. The root problem the Young Ruler had, the thing that prevented him from being able to, on that day, hear the word of salvation, was that he had not fully consecrated himself to God. God does not demand some of our love, some of loyalty, some of our time, some of our wealth, or some of our life. He demands everything, all the time, always and forever. The further make his point, Elder Holland paraphrases a quote from Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis’s masterful work on Christian doctrine and discipleship. As I think it instructive in understanding Elder Holland’s purpose in this talk, I quote Lewis in full and unaltered below:
The Christian way is different: harder, and easier. Christ says “Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No halfmeasures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.”
Mere Christianity, pg. 201 in the PDF verison
Christ demands everything from us – all our devotion, love, and loyalty. And if we give it all to Him then there simply cannot be anything left to give to anyone, anything, or any other cause – including any love of, loyalty to, or devotion for our culture, country, nation, or race. Elder Holland summarizes what Lewis is saying above thusly:
When difficult things are asked of us, even things contrary to the longings of our heart, remember that the loyalty we pledge to the cause of Christ is to be the supreme devotion of our lives…we must be prepared, using T. S. Eliot’s line, to have it cost “not less than everything.”
The loyalty we pledge to Christ is the supreme devotion of our lives. That word choice is no accident. For something to be supreme it must the highest authority, total sovereign, paramount thing in our life; it must be the utmost, final, and ultimate devotion. It must be everything. To make sure we understand this includes nations, nationalities, and politics, Elder Holland then tells the story of exactly how the Nephites were able to build a Zion society after the Resurrected Lord visited the Americas:
“And it came to pass that there was no contention among all the people, in all the land … because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people.
“And there were no envyings, nor strifes, … nor any manner of lasciviousness; and surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God.
“There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God.
“And how blessed were they!”
What is the key to this breakthrough in contented, happy living? It is embedded there in the text in one sentence: “The love of God … did dwell in the hearts of the people.” When the love of God sets the tone for our own lives, for our relationships to each other and ultimately our feeling for all humankind, then old distinctions, limiting labels, and artificial divisions begin to pass away, and peace increases. That is precisely what happened in our Book of Mormon example. No longer were there Lamanites, or Jacobites, or Josephites, or Zoramites. There were no “-ites” at all. The people had taken on just one transcendent identity. They were all, it says, to be known as “the children of Christ.”
The scriptures Elder Holland quotes are from 4 Nephi 1:13, 15–18
Because the Nephites and Lamanites loved God they abandoned their ethnic identities – as Jacobites, Josephites, Zoramites, etc. – and their nationalist identities – as either Lamanites or Nephites – completely and totally. These distinctions, as Elder Holland points were, like all ethnic and nationalist identities, artificial and false. As we abandon them in our service to God we will no longer be American-ites, Chinese-ites, Russian-ites, Korean-ites, Mexican-ites, Israelites, Palestinian-ites, Afghan-ites, Somali-ites, Ghanaian-tes, Brazilian-ites, Argentinian-ites, Cuban-ites, or indeed any other form of modern day -ites. As we strive to truly serve God with our complete devotion these false identities will drop from us and we will all accept our one true identity – as literal brothers and sisters and as the literal Children of God.
Will this be hard for some? Absolutely. After all, many of us are indoctrinated into these ideals from our youngest years until our dying moments. I remember the revelation it was when I finally came to myself and realized the propaganda and lies I had been fed my entire life. To say it hurt is an understatement. It was like I was losing my faith, which in a very real sense I was – I was losing he faith of Mammon and deepening my faith in Christ. It was as heart wrench as it was purifying. As Elder Holland, such sacrifices are exactly what Christ demands of us. None of us can ever expect to be found fit for the Kingdom until we sacrifice everything else. If we wish to avoid being fools ourselves we must, as Christ taught the Rich Young Fool, “Take up [our] cross, however heavy it may be, and follow Him,” we must, “take up the cross of Christ, however demanding it may be, regardless of the issue and regardless of the cost. I bear witness that when we pledge to follow Him, the path will, one way or another, pass by way of a crown of thorns and a stark Roman cross. No matter how wealthy our young ruler was, he wasn’t wealthy enough to buy his way out of a rendezvous with those symbols, and neither can we.”
That includes sacrificing our “-ites” – those ethnic, political, national, and tribal identities which we often hold so dear in order to truly love and fully serve God. I can promise you though that, like most sacrifices in the Gospel, once made you’ll discover laying it upon the altar was no sacrifice at all. What felt like a Cross at the time will end up being the lightest yoke of burden as you are freed form the errors, lies, and limitations of these worldly false identities and embrace who you truly are. Whatever suffering giving up your worldly identities may bring will be swallowed up in the newer, truer identity you will have as a member of the universal Family of God.
Elder Renlund: The Peace of Christ Abolishes Enmity
Elder Renlund, speaking in the Sunday Morning session, returns to the same themes of unity and peace that Elder Holland had spoken about the day before. Like Elder Holland, we find in Elder Renlund’s remarks several teachings that directly contradict nationalism and statism, including a denunciation of the kind of ethnic, racial, and nationalist centrism that forms the basis of modern governments as being in opposition to the doctrines of Christ. Early in his address, Elder Renlund taught:
When the Savior visited the Nephites, He taught, “There shall be no disputations among you. … He that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another.” When we contend with each other in anger, Satan laughs and the God of heaven weeps.
Satan laughs and God weeps for at least two reasons. First, contention weakens our collective witness to the world of Jesus Christ and the redemption that comes through His “merits, … mercy, and grace.” The Savior said: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another. … By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” The converse is also true—everyone knows that we are not His disciples when we do not show love one to another. His latter-day work is compromised when contention or enmity exists among His disciples. Second, contention is spiritually unhealthy for us as individuals. We are robbed of peace, joy, and rest, and our ability to feel the Spirit is compromised.
Whatever you call your particular brand of – nationalism, patriotism, or something else – the reality is that the foundation of modern nations is enmity, hatred, and violence. Modern states exist by defining its “citizens” against “foreigners,” against the Other, who is represented as being strange and unlike the native born people of the nation. Therefore foreigners are to be treated with suspicion and distrust, if not outright hatred and violence. Their mere presence and existence is an existential threat that needs to be limited by state force codified as immigration laws lest the foreigners bring their filthy, strange, and dangerous ways into the country to pollute it and its peoples. Those who defy these edicts are to be hunted down, violently seized, and thrown into cages. Is this not hostility, antagonism, and animosity? Is this not the spirit and actuality of contention? And this is to say nothing of the way that modern states enforce laws solely through violence or wage wars of mass destruction in order to ensure the existence of the ruling class of politicians and politically connected elites.
Can you call the way that governments function loving, merciful, or grace-ful? With their foundation in contention and conflict can you call any nation Christian? Of course not. They all exist through the spirit of contention, which is of the Devil. No wonder that the scriptures teach that the nations of the world are like a horrific Beast which draws its power from Satan. The Christian life, as Elder Renlund teaches above, is in direct opposition to the philosophy and lifestyle that the nations of the world promote – Christ and Antichrist, God and Mammon.
Building on these truths, Elder Renlund’s teaches go further in rejecting the contention and the identity politics that goes along with statism. Like Elder Holland, the example that Elder Renlund draws up to illustrate how we should identify and live comes from 4 Nephi 1:13, 15–18 and the Zion society the Lamanites and Nephites built after they abandoned all their ethnic, cultural, and nationalist identities in order to more fully live the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the wake of His appearance to them:
After the Savior’s visit to the Americas, the people were unified; “there was no contention in all the land.” Do you think that the people were unified because they were all the same, or because they had no differences of opinion? I doubt it. Instead, contention and enmity disappeared because they placed their discipleship of the Savior above all else. Their differences paled in comparison to their shared love of the Savior, and they were united as “heirs to the kingdom of God.” The result was that “there could not be a happier people … who had been created by the hand of God.”
Unity requires effort. It develops when we cultivate the love of God in our hearts and we focus on our eternal destiny. We are united by our common, primary identity as children of God and our commitment to the truths of the restored gospel. In turn, our love of God and our discipleship of Jesus Christ generate genuine concern for others. We value the kaleidoscope of others’ characteristics, perspectives, and talents. If we are unable to place our discipleship to Jesus Christ above personal interests and viewpoints, we should reexamine our priorities and change.
Notice what Elder Renlund teaches here. The people had peace because they placed their discipleship to Christ – their loyalty to His Gospel and dedication to explicitly living its teachings – above all else. Above political party. Above national origin. Above racial ancestry. Above cultural heritage. Above ethnic identity. Above sexual desires. Above everything. And what did they substitute for all these false and worldly identities? The sublime, overarching, and absolute truth that all people are the literal Children of God and that this is their only essential, integral, and primary identity. The example that Elder Renlund provides of this from his own life, concerning the historic hatred between Finns and Russians, just further drives home the oppositional and contentious nature – the Satanic nature – of nationalism and how Christ and Christianity calls for something completely different:
Even former enemies can become united in their discipleship of the Savior. In 2006, I attended the dedication of the Helsinki Finland Temple to honor my father and grandparents, who had been early converts to the Church in Finland. Finns, including my father, had dreamed of a temple in Finland for decades. At the time, the temple district would encompass Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, and Russia.
At the dedication, I learned something surprising. The first day of general operation had been set aside for Russian members to perform temple ordinances. It is difficult to explain just how astonishing this was. Russia and Finland had fought many wars over the centuries. My father distrusted and disliked not only Russia but all Russians. He had expressed such feelings passionately, and his feelings were typical of Finnish enmity toward Russia. He had memorized epic poems that chronicled 19th-century warfare between Finns and Russians. His experiences during World War II, when Finland and Russia were again antagonists, did nothing to change his opinions.
A year before the dedication of the Helsinki Finland Temple, the temple committee, consisting exclusively of Finnish members, met to discuss plans for the dedication. During the meeting, someone observed that Russian Saints would be traveling several days to attend the dedication and might hope to receive their temple blessings before returning home. The committee chairman, Brother Sven Eklund, suggested that the Finns could wait a little longer, that Russians could be the first members to perform temple ordinances in the temple. All committee members agreed. Faithful Latter-day Saint Finns delayed their temple blessings to accommodate Russian Saints.
The Area President who was present at that temple committee meeting, Elder Dennis B. Neuenschwander, later wrote: “I have never been prouder of the Finns than I was at this moment. Finland’s difficult history with its eastern neighbor … and their excitement of finally having [a temple] constructed on their own soil were put aside. Permitting the Russians to enter the temple first [was] a statement of love and sacrifice.”
When I reported this kindness to my father, his heart melted and he wept, a very rare occurrence for that stoic Finn. From that time until his death three years later, he never expressed another negative sentiment about Russia. Inspired by the example of his fellow Finns, my father chose to place his discipleship of Jesus Christ above all other considerations. The Finns were no less Finnish; the Russians were no less Russian; neither group abandoned their culture, history, or experiences to banish enmity. They did not need to. Instead, they chose to make their discipleship of Jesus Christ their primary consideration.
This beautiful story illustrates some very valuable truths.
First of all, nationalism thrives on ethnic, racial, and cultural hatred. Finns were taught to hate Russians and Russians were taught to hate Finns. This kind of historic toxicity had even poisoned Elder Renlund’s own father, who was seemingly otherwise a good man. Nationalism can only thrive when contention is not just the norm but is treated as moral. Anything that teaches us that it is ever okay to fight, contend with, hurt, harm, or kill others – that teaches contention can ever be moral – is not of Christ, but the Devil, a lie form the Father of Lies.
Secondly, that it was the influence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that countered this hatred. With the Finnish temple committee the Spirit worked upon them, softening their hearts and soothing the hatred stoked by the nationalist identity politics they had long been indoctrinated into. Under the influence of the Spirit of God they rejected the infernal spirit of contention and embraced their enemies, loved them, sacrificed for them, and served them. This is a beautiful example of the essence of Christian opposition to evil – we love and serve our enemies until they are converted into our friends, we do not harm or destroy them.
Likewise, this example of love and service struck at the bitter root of nationalism that had poisoned the heart of Elder Renlund’s father. Instead of harboring nationalist hatred and contentions, under the influence of Christ he gave them all up, abandoned his prejudices, and embraced the central truth – that all people are Children of God. When Christ is our Exemplar, when discipleship to His teachings are our guide, the enmities of nationalism, statism, and the other false identifiers created by the world in order to breed contention fall from our eyes like scales from the eyes of Saul of Tarsus. We finally begin to see. As the Gospel fills our vision, it reveals us all for who we truly are and shows us the one true Path to Peace.
The End of -isms and -ites
I cannot write a better coda than those offered by the Apostles above. I can merely echo their truths. As we abandon the false ideologies of the world and all its -isms, such as patriotism, nationalism, statism, socialism, etc., and embrace the true way that is the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ we will find a new and better identity, a greater and more sublime culture, a higher and holier understanding, than anything and any way the world has to offer. As we give up all our false identities, all our -ites whether they be national, political, or seemingly biological (including everything from race to sex and gender) we will discover both the emptiness of those identities and the beauty and fulness of our true identities. We will discover that all humans individually and communally are the literal spirit Children of God. The old prejudices will fall away as foolish things of the past as we grow up in spirit and truth to a brighter day and way. We will learn who we really are, and who they really are, and that will transform everything.
Such is the power of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and its ability to change the world.