Sabbath Devotional: No Manner of -ites

Several women have communicated with me about how they struggle to worship with fellow Saints on opposite sides of the political spectrum. This is a delicate subject, especially for our nonpartisan MWEG organization, but now is not the only time in our church history that member polarization has been an issue.

A handful of many examples: When I think back to the first-generation Latter-day Saints coming from different countries and stations of life, I’m not sure how well my rough American ancestor enjoyed crossing the plains in company with my refined British ancestor, who didn’t know which end of the ox to harness. These families had been on opposite sides of war only decades before. I have pioneer ancestors who were soldiers in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. How did they interact with the new British converts in Nauvoo? We’ve had twentieth-century wars where some LDS members enlisted in the military, and some were pacifists. I think particularly of the Nazi regime, which many German church members supported at the beginning. (My recent devotional shared healing tales from Europe — the Dutch Potato Project, and the Helsinki temple dedication bringing the Finns and the Russian Saints together.)

Recall the tense situation in the early New Testament church, all first-generation Christians. Peter had needed a heavenly vision in order to accept that the gospel would go beyond the tribe of Judah. He learned that “God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him” (Acts 10:34-35). That led to very mixed-background congregations. Many had been raised Jewish and thus kept the Law of Moses. But Gentile converts saw no reason to be circumcised, keep kosher, or deal with ritual purification when Christ had fulfilled that law. The Saints were divided. As they integrated, Paul wrote to the Romans, encouraging the more mature Saints to understand how their unnecessarily rigid actions could impact those with newfound faith. “Let us not therefore judge one another anymore, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block . . . in his brother’s way. I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself… for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Romans 14:13-17). How well did that work? Epistles and schisms and councils and trouble for centuries.

I don’t have any easy solutions, but I recognize now the privilege and challenge of having grown up fairly oblivious: the biggest red/blue divide I knew of as a teen was who supported the BYU or U of U football teams. Tension has more often than not been present in our history–except for perhaps a few brief halcyon decades and select locations which many of us were raised in–so we grew up expecting a continuation of those ways. Thus part of the challenge is just our own expectations. That the Church, and our fellow Saints, should think and behave similarly to us is one thought, perhaps our dominant thought. A new thought could be: we all choose how to think (and vote) and behave. I am choosing how to follow Jesus, and how to interact with fellow Saints, and so are they. Our differences give us a wider perspective, and we can unite over shared values and activities: We believe in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We hope for the plan of happiness to bring eternal joy. We are trying to be peacemakers. We want the young women to build testimonies at camp. We want this family history work to get done. We want to serve in the temple together. 

Becoming one in Christ does not mean that we become identical in thought and action. The Lord created a natural world of great diversity. Variety is vital, as is evidenced by crop blights that strike one strain, such as the Irish potato famine. Monoculture sacrifices the adaptability to change and resilience to disease provided by genetic variety. Settling for or mandating one gospel monoculture is risky, and not how God works in creation. “The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit” (1

Corinthians 12:12 NLT). And as we live and serve in this mortal sphere, ideally, we can turn towards the Savior and be one in our aim, and eventually with each other. As Elder Uchtdorf recently said: “in the Savior’s Church, we gather all of God’s children who are willing to be gathered and who seek the truth. It is not our physical appearance, our political views, our culture, or our ethnicity that brings us together. It is not our common background that unites us. It is our common objective, our love for God and love for our neighbor, our commitment to Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. . .. The unity we seek is not to have everyone stand in the same place; it is to have everyone face in the same direction — toward Jesus Christ.” https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2025/04/27uchtdorf

Even as we can understand intellectually that diversity of thought/action can be a good thing, it can still be really hard to put into practice. Elder Renlund spoke powerfully to this in his 2021 talk, “Infuriating Unfairness.” He told of Bryan Stevenson’s encouragement (from the book Just Mercy) to become stonecatchers, like Jesus who did not stone the woman caught in adultery. Renlund said, “Sisters, not throwing stones is the first step in treating others with compassion. The second step is to try to catch stones thrown by others.” https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2021/04/25renlund

The Nephites at one point became stonecatchers, not many years after they’d been throwing them at Samuel the Lamanite. The Book of Mormon is a text of extreme polarization, yet there was a unique time of unity due to Christ’s visit. “And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people…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 how blessed were they! For the Lord did bless them in all their doings” (4 Nephi 1:15-18). Ultimately, we too seek the love of God dwelling in our hearts to create this peaceful Zion, when war is no longer learned, and our military weapons are turned into agricultural tools like plowshares (Isaiah 2:4). I look forward to that promised day. And in the meantime, for those who are struggling to worship across the aisle, I offer the lyrics to this song I have on repeat, The Plowshare Prayer (Spencer LaJoye - Plowshare Prayer (Live))

---

Anita Wells is the faithful root senior director at Mormon Women for Ethical Government.