Mormon Ideas to Live By: the Regeneration
The long-term vision:
Changing attitudes, behaviors and conditions among Mormons (LDS/CofChrist) with regards to:
- Nonviolence (means to an end – no war/no violence, including responding to gender-based violence and proposing alternative nonviolent masculinities through peace education and interfaith theology internally in the Restoration movement),
- Economic cooperation (means to an end – reintroduction of mormon communitarianism, including democratic and participatory community governance and institution of cooperatives for livelihood and trade) and
- Environmentalism (means to an end – becoming a critical mass of Mormons concerned about the environment and about our relationship to the planet, it being a pearl of great price, including education on veganism/alternative diets, securing clean water and alternative energy sources).
You do not need to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints to start regenerating your life through the above suggested changes, but familiarity with the Restoration movement (and the Reorganization), based on the principles and teachings of Joseph Smith Jr., is always an advantage. You would have to commit to three core values: nonviolent communication and living (Sermon on the Mount), economic and social cooperativism (United Order) and environmentalism/vegetarianism (Word of Wisdom). Putting theory into practice, this could mean abiding by the following ideas:
1. Do not enlist in the military, do not go to war (any war), seek peace with your enemies, if already enlisted find alternative work. If not already enlisted, be willing to tell others why you do not want to enlist (conscientious objection)
- Serve a (peace) mission instead (this could be an LDS mission, but make clear you are not enlisting in the Lord’s Army), or join a peace activist group. These two may be combined.
- Serve in your inner temple and seek to understand the will of a peaceful God for your life
- Seek to be a peacebuilder (educate yourself and your family on issues related to peace), be a peacemaker (find opportunities to serve and educate others), or a peaceworker (put the education into practice)
2. Always include the opposite sex in all processes of decision-making
- in family, in discussions, in groups, in cooperatives
- if already an LDS/CofC priesthood bearer, find ways in which members of the opposite sex and any other member can serve alongside you on issues of strategic importance for the Regeneration movement
- Always engage your new encounters with others not like you with a prayerful heart, and ask for an opportunity to serve your fellow human beings
3. Help Establish Zion – literally and economically!
- Be willing to part with your disposable income when you see a need
- Live within your means (and give within your means) and repay your debts, should you have any
- Put money aside for rainy days
4. Find alternative and cooperative ways to making new purchases
- See if members (family, church, movement) are able to help you in meeting your needs
- Be creative about solving your material needs, repair old stuff
- See if you are able to help members and let them know what you can help them with
5. Become a vegetarian/vegan – Live according to the Word of Wisdom
- Buy fair traded and/or organic goods, buy local produce if possible
- Be creative and selective about what you eat and about what you put into your body
- Exercise
6. Care about the environment
- Educate yourself about the environment
- Be creative about solving your transport needs, join a car drive
- Start a homegarden and establish a food storage, just like the prophet said
And if you do all these things already, you are on the straight and narrow path to Zion!
Well I am a Latter Day Saint, and this is all messed up. You have taken some things and taken them way out of Line. My son is in The Airforce. My nephews are serving in the Military. I know many good LDS men and boys who have served and are serving their country. You have really interpeted so many thing way wrong. By the way I eat what ever I choose to eat. I eat as much fast food, icecream. soda, foreign foods, try new foods whatever. I Choose not to drink, smoke, or take harmfull drugs into my body. I want to be as healthy as I can. We have a code of health that was given long before our society new that these things were harmful, ( and we all know they are)
NO one if forced to do anything. We follow a living prophet, who is helping us prepare ourselves, spiritually and temporally, for things that have already started to happen. Have you read Revelations?
Dear Linda,
Thank you for your comments. Of course, this is an interpretation of the LDS gospel – and at times may appear “out of line” with accepted truths. I do not call it Latter-day Saint. I call it Latter-day Satyagraha: meaning I combine mormon ideas and cultural beliefs with the principles taught by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, and other advocates of nonviolence. You would have to agree with the two latter in addition to Joseph Smith and Thomas S. Monson to start regenerating your life in that direction. I was myself in the military, and realized that it was not in harmony with the Christian gospel as taught by Christ. I would say here that we ought to, as a people in the latter days, begin to go the extra mile.
Of course, you are entitled to put into your body whatever you like – that’s free agency. So although we are free to eat what we want, we cannot avoid the consequences this has on us or the environment. The food industry has gotten it all wrong, and by not being critical as to where the food comes from or appreciative of the lives that were sacrificed so that I could have meat on my plate, or value properly the labor that went into preparing it, I am part of sustaining the negative and harmful consequences of my consumption. You can be even healthier and kinder towards the environment around you by starting to questioning your eating and purchasing habits.
In this post, I was trying to be as specific and practical as possible, which is in line with mormon thought and practice of the gospel. What would a Latter-day Satyagrahi need to do to be prepared for when He comes? We need to follow the prophet, yes, but we shouldn’t need to be commanded in all things either. And the things we have been commanded to do, many of us don’t do them. I think that we do not see the urgency of now. If we put the emphasis on the spirit of the law, we would realize the purpose for why we are admonished to do the things we need to do. We would do what the Lord wants us to do. By keeping to the letter only (and not even that for some), we end up not reaching our full potential in this life or the next.
It is true that we are told to love all mankind, and seek after Charity, which is the pure love of Christ . We are also told to honor our country, many of the general authorites have servered in the Military. We are admonished to live the laws of the land, Of course if it came down to living the laws of the land, or serving God, we would chose to serve ou God. If we follow the prophet, he will not lead us astray. I know he is a prophet of God, this is know for sure, by the power of the Holy Ghost. You are right, we should not be comanded in all things, we should do much on are own, but we can always recieve personal revelation in making choices. You are right that the spirit of the law is also important, but if we thing that we can be excused from keeping comandments we may not feel we want to keep in a certain way, we are wrong. The Lords house is a house of order, and obedience is the 1st law of Heaven.
I agee with you about the food today.
Another aspect of regeneration ought to include a re-interpretation of the blossoming of the Lamanites. The attention now finally being given to our imbalaced way of living surely is a testament that our predominantly European ancestors misjudged the “savages”. The indigenous American inhabitants actually had(and have) much more wisdom to offer to their “conquerors”. Surely we Latter-Day Saints especially, must admit that we judged these noble peoples wrongly. Their ways and culture was more in alignment with the principle of balance. Is it not this insight which is the thing which is blossoming and which therefore calls us to apologize to our Native brothers and then seek out their counsel?
Absolutely! I could not agree anymore, Dan… Excellent. Thank you for your wise contribution.