On one recent occasion, while I was pondering my freedom as it relates to how I live my faith, I was struck by the connection between freedom and service. Forgive me if this seems to be an over-generalization, but the thought crossed my mind that human beings have always lived at some degree in the following spectrum:
BONDAGE INDEPENDENCE SERVICE
Latter-day Saints young and old alike are often reminded of the Lord’s commandment to serve their fellow brothers and sisters as they read the words of King Benjamin:
“And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.”
In addition, priesthood holders have been counseled countless times to magnify our callings and render service to all those in need. As we apply these scriptures to our own lives, in our own day, we can be grateful that we live in a country where we are free to serve our fellow beings according to our own willingness and desires. We are free to decide when, where, and whom to serve. But this has not been the case for many of our ancestors or even our neighbors in other nations today, and we need to ensure that our freedom to serve is never taken away by an unrighteous and controlling government in our own country.
An examination of the spectrum shown above can help us to understand the importance of freedom in relation to our ability to give service to others.
On one side of the spectrum is bondage, or slavery. Those in bondage are servants, yes, but not of their own free will. This is Satan’s plan – to force God’s children to act according to their master’s wishes – and government force is often employed in this plan. Central planners become tyrants as they dictate employment, salary, property, and life. As agency is destroyed, so is accountability, and Heavenly Father’s plan along with it. At the root of bondage is dependence, for a slave has no means whereby he or she can sustain life independently. Ezra Taft Benson spoke out against this dependence in a 1958 General Conference address:
“It is high time we awakened to the dangers of excessive government in business and in agriculture. It is time we realized the perils of too great a centralization of power, and too much dependence on public agencies.”
Our forefathers fought against this dependence – this bondage – and won their freedom through the shedding of blood. Their fight against tyranny was a righteous fight and was key in the Lord’s plan to set up his church on the American continent. The Lord knew that only in a land of independence could his children be free to do His will. But even in a state of independence, the Lord’s commandments could still be ignored. He warned all those who have lived and will ever live on the American continent that their freedom would be taken away if they failed to serve their fellow men:
“Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written.”
Those in a state of independence are not forced to serve, and unfortunately many make the choice not to serve. They fail to use their talents and their freedom to benefit others. Perhaps this is also a generalization, but I find that many self-avowed “capitalists” and “objectivists” may fall into this category – this is selfish independence, where “me” and “I” are the only people who are cared for. Perhaps there is a short-lived time and place for this state of being, but it is certainly not the Lord’s way, and we have been cautioned not to fall into this trap where we fail to take advantage of our freedom.
The Lord has commanded us not to bury our talents but to multiply them. We cannot multiply our talents by ourselves, so we must mix them with the resources that God has given us and with the talents of our fellow brothers and sisters in order to create an increase. Thus, the necessity of service.
Those in a state of service have made the choice to give of themselves to benefit others. They have acknowledged the talents that Heavenly Father has given them and they have put their talents to work in order to gain a return, either in this life or in the life to come. They glorify God by serving His children. President David O. McKay spoke in defense of Christ-like service in a 1960 address to students at Brigham Young University:
“The most worthy calling in life, therefore, is that in which man can serve best his fellow man. It is not preaching; it is not teaching; it is not medicine; it is not engineering, nor any other vocation common among men. Each of these, though offering opportunities for service, may be followed by men actuated by the most selfish, the most sordid motives. The noblest aim in life is to strive to live to make other lives better and happier.”
Perhaps we should all examine the state in which we currently rest, and ask ourselves how we can do better. Those of us in this country have been blessed with freedom from masters and tyrants – and we should take full advantage of that independence to act upon King Benjamin’s exhortations. We should support free markets, which allow Christ-like service to cross borders without government interference. We should befriend the constitutional law of the land which protects our right to make these good decisions, because if we fail to serve according to our own free will then we will be forced to serve by tyrants. It is my hope that we can defend the cause of Christians, as spoken of in Alma 48:
“And thus he was preparing to support their liberty, their lands, their wives, and their children, and their peace, and that they might live unto the Lord their God, and that they might maintain that which was called by their enemies the cause of Christians.”
Defend your independence, and defend your ability to serve God and your fellow man.
Yeah this is definitely a crucial topic in these last, last days. I’m sure that I am not the only one who noticed the coinciding “directives” from The Church of Jesus Christ and The Great & Abominable Church of The Devil regarding service. The brethren made the move to draw special attention to caring for the poor. When I heard them designate this as a fourth mission or purpose of The Church, my mind thought of the governments recent moves to “promote service”. In light of the divinely inspired council from the prophet Ezra Taft Benson, government’s attempts to “get involved” in service should cause alarm. Following the spectrum laid out here we should know where this leads.
I know this is a big part of The Father’s Strange Work. President McKay had this in mind when he used such strong and “offensive” (to the wicked) language to describe the, “most sordid motives” of many “professionals”. If you tend to doubt those prophetic words or think they have less relevance today or among LDS, please try this experiment in faith…ask 50 would-be doctors, and 50 future business men/women attending “The Lord’s University” right now why they chose their major. If even so much as half of the sampled individuals list “To serve my fellow man” or any expression of that idea within their top 4 reasons or more truthfully the first 4 things to come to their mind when questioned then “All is well in Zion”. This is unfortunately far from the case. Even in America, “the greatest” nation on earth (take a close look at the definition of great in scriptures and see if you notice any patterns in regards to great nations specifically). We are only SOMEWHAT free to decide when, where, and whom to serve.
WHEN? After taxes and red tape (Red “tape” Cross) are taken care of. WHERE? On this side of the line please. But wait the dying people (WHO) are on the other side of the hevily guarded line. Oh well right? If the U.S. Government won’t let us go to where we can do the most good then we will just settle for less. Because to be a good LDS we must be obedient and good in the eyes of the Government men with guns. (For anyone who has no idea what I might be referencing, look into Hurricane Katrina) Why do we think it is ok to be so dictated to and quickly motivated by the call of “our” government officials when it comes to service? In Rio De Janeiro the government called for “helping hands” to clean up in an attempt to secure the “honor” (of men) of the next Olympic Games. Mormons came running to THEIR aid…but they stay safely and happily on this side of the gigantic walls which government has installed to contain the “Ghetto Dwellers” Why would we want to serve them anyway? Palastinians, Africans, Lamanites? Those on the other side of the wall are often hated by the public at large including vast amounts of Church “members” And any modern day Sons of Mosiah suffer the same ridicule as Ammon and his brethren did when they proposed SELFLESS SERVICE.
SELFLESS service is not very popular. But it is the only kind that the The Lord in his holy scriptures requires and accepts of us. This true service does not include T-Shirts which stand out, Public Relations Messages to promote “Service” (and hey if we can get more than a little self promotion in there too all the better!) The scriptures do talk about this brand of service and they explain very clearly that those who engage in it receive “NO REWARD” from our Father in Heaven. I do not like to bring this up…it hurts me and causes me to see my short comings as well. But we must look to Christ and hold our selves to the standard of the scriptures if we want to preserve FREEDOM. We absolutely MUST. We SHOULD support free markets, which allow Christ-like service to cross borders without government interference. I ask all my LDS brethren and sisters to look and find out for themselves if this was the case in the recent aid sent over to our fellow beings in Haiti? Or was there one government in particular interfering, I mean overseeing (we are trading Seers for Overseers) and managing (Managers versus Leaders, War in Heaven) the use of all funds and goods sent “to the victims”? Our service and the caliber of it will have everything to do with the just judgments we all receive from God at the last day. Lets look at our service and always attempt to apply the words of God through prophets and scriptures to improve our service…to make it more and more and more Zion-like. Love you all!
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I’m glad you wrote this article Doug! We often need reminding that unrighteous selfishness is not what the Lord taught. Capitalism, free-enterprise, libertarianism, etc alone will not save us. Sometimes we, in the liberty movement, get caught up in the fight for temporal freedom and forget about the fight for spiritual freedom which includes things like repentance, humility, kindness, faith, love and service. I think collectively the liberty group is pretty good about most of these things but individually we can work on being more moral & responsible with our freedom.