latter day satyagraha

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They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (2 Nephi 30:15)

Nephi presupposes in these chapters that sufficient knowledge about God will restore the earth to a state of bliss, that correct knowledge about Jesus Christ will usher in the great millennial reign of the Lord. From Nephi’s viewpoint, the Book of Mormon is a central element in that strategy, because God will cause his additional words to be published in the last days – or in “that day when I shall proceed to do a marvelous work among them, that I may remember my covenants which I made unto the children of men, that I may set my hand a second time to recover my people, which are of the house of Israel” (2 Nephi 29:1):

and my words shall hiss forth unto the ends of the earth, for a standard unto my people, which are of the house of Israel; And because my words shall hiss forth – many of the Gentiles shall say: A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible (2 Nephi 29: 2-3).

Thou fool, that shall say: A Bible, we have got a Bible, and we need no more Bible. Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not, that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth? (2 Nephi 29: 6-7)

Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am God, that I remember one nation like unto another. (2 Nephi 29:8)

And I do this that I may prove unto many that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and that I speak forth my words according to my own pleasure. And because that I have spoken one word ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my work is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man. (2 Nephi 29: 9)

Wherefore, because that ye have a Bible ye need not suppose that it contains all my words; neither need ye suppose that I have not caused more to be written. (2 Nephi 29: 10)

Thankfully, the Book of Mormon opens up in this passage for the possibility that the Book of Mormon is, in addition to the Bible, not the last of books that God may have caused to be written: “and I shall also speak unto the other tribes of the house of Israel, which I have led away, and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto all nations of the earth and they shall write it”. God presents to Nephi here the divine concept of interfaith theology:

No matter the name, we are all connected to the Beloved—all the stars, rocks, trees, animals and beings.

God is within all of us, and we are a part of Spirit—just as the Divine is within all things. God is all, in all things, of all things.

We are all one, and our connection is all-encompassing and beyond description.

This interconnection with the Divine enables us to co-create with God, who is our ever-present source of all things good.

We are all one, ever in process, co-creating with Spirit.

There are many paths to one God, many names to the one God of us all.

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In fact, one might ask if Latter day Saints are not well-placed for engaging in dialogue with members of other faith traditions, as they have had to reconcile several books of scripture, sometimes with contradicting messages, since the beginning of their movement? Let us not underestimate the innate ability (and not inability) of Mormons to discover, as well as integrate into their own faith traditions the beauty about God and His divine truth found in other holy texts. Gordon B. Hinckley once said in his famous address “The Continuing Pursuit of Truth” at BYU-Hawaii in 1983:

There is incumbent upon each of us as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the responsibility to observe the commandment to study and to learn. Said the Lord: “Seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.” (D&C 88:118.)

He further made it clear that our search for truth must be broad, that we are to learn “of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms” (D&C 88:79.)

What a charge has been laid upon us to grow constantly toward eternity! None of us can assume that he has learned enough. As the door closes on one phase of life, it opens on another, where we must continue to pursue knowledge. Ours ought to be a ceaseless quest for truth. That truth must include spiritual and religious truth as well as secular. As we go forward with our lives and our search for truth, let us look for the good, the beautiful, the positive.

But all this knowledge, what is it good for if it is not applied? Change theorists agree on the basic idea that when giving people information, they must first understand it for it to become knowledge; knowledge applied must lead to a change of attitudes (have ye experienced a mighty change of heart?), which in turn must lead to a change of behavior (as Jesus explains in 2 Nephi 31: 12 “wherefore, follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do”). This change of behavior means in turn little “for the great and marvelous work among the children of men” unless it also means a change of social structures in favor of justice.

And it shall come to pass that the Lord God shall commence his work among all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, to bring about the restoration of his people upon the earth. And with righteousness shall the Lord God judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth (2 Nephi 30: 8-9)

Paul Knitter has attempted such a synthesis in the book One Earth Many Religions, which carries the subtitle “Multifaith Dialogue ancl Global Responsibility” (Knitter 1995). Here, he tells the story of his personal discovery of and journey with the “Other”. Knitter sees the encounter with the Other as a shattering contrast-experience of facing “the really different, the unexpected, the unthought-of, the surprising, the jolting. I’m talking about people or events that didn’t seem to fit into the world that I had experiencecl or understood” (Knittcr 1995:1). Knitter distinguished between the “religious” and the “suffering” Other.

Knitter’s odyssey began with an encounter with “the religious Other” which led him – as a Jesuit missionary – to recognise that other religious traditions were imbued with a wisdom that both challenged and enriched him. Only through his subsequent solidarity work for refugees and illegal irnmigrants from Central Arnerica to the USA was he led to a shattering encounter with “the suffering Other”. Knitter also tells the story of an ecological revival that led him to the fundamental recognition of what it meant to live on a wounded Mother Earth. For Knitter, “the suffering Other” came to shatter his life far more than the “the religious Other”.

Knitter is adamant that if forced to choose between ”pluralism” or “liberation”, i.e. between interfaith dialogue or the struggle for social justice, he would have to abandon dialogue ancl give priority to the alleviation of suffering and the struggle for justice (Knitter 1995:11). But luckily, he says, experiences from interfaith dialogue in Sri Lanka (as described in the book’s final chapter) have demonstrated that there is a socially committed, truly liberating form of interfaith dialogue.

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The urgent question for everyone committed to both interfaith dialogue and liberation theology must then be how to unite radical struggle for justice that will always be controversial as well as create conflict with a liberal engagement for multi-religious co-existence in which respect of different opinions must be the corner stone. How can one, in shifting contexts, reconcile a double responsibility for the religiously Other and the suffering Other? (Leirvik, the Power of Faith in Global Politics, 129-142)

Nephi is not silent on the matter. Debunking the myth surrounding the religiously Other is probably less important than to secure the rights of the suffering Other (who at times might even be the one and same person). Chapters 28-30 demonstrate how we, for the purpose of dealing justly with the poor, must also come to unite in radical activism despite our religious differences. Social justice – and reversing the oppression and injustice across social divides – is a prime uniting factor for those who may be speaking across faith divides.

Our knowledge must be applied. Our continuing pursuit for truth cannot be separated from a continuing pursuit for justice, or in other words what we call the establishment of God’s Kingdom on Earth and/or the building up of Zion. If you want peace, work for justice.

Yea, and there shall be many [political leaders] which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well wit us. And there shall also be many [religious leaders] which shall say: Eat, drink and be merry; nevertheless, fear God – he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God. And the blood of the saints shall cry from the ground against them.

Because of pride, and because of false teachers, and false doctrine, their churches have become corrupted, and their churches are lifted up; because of pride they are puffed up. They rob the poor because of their fine [temples]; they rob the poor because of their fine clothing; and they persecute the meek and the poor in heart, because in their pride they are puffed up.

Wo unto them that turn aside the just for a thing of naught and revile against that which is good, and say that it is of no worth! (2 Nephi 28: 7-8, 10, 12-13, 16)