Latter Day Satyagraha

Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice, not people.

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Gandhi said: “Working for economic equality means abolishing the eternal conflict between capital and labour. It means the leveling down of the few rich in whose hands is concentrated the bulk of the nation’s wealth on the one hand, and the leveling up of the semi-starved naked millions on the other. A nonviolent system of government is clearly an impossibility, so long as the wide gulf between the rich and the hungry millions persists”.

For it shall come to pass, that which I spake by the mouths of my prophets shall be fulfilled; for I will consecrate of the riches of those who embrace my gospel among the Gentiles unto the poor of my people who are of the house of Israel. (Doctrine and Covenants 42:39) But it must needs be done in mine own away; and behold this is the way that I, the Lord, have decreed to provide for my saints, that the poor shall be exalted, in that the rich are made low (Doctrine and Covenants 104:16)

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Martin Luther King’s Nonviolence Step 3: Remain Committed

Accept that you will face many obstacles and challenges as you and your team try to change society. Agree to encourage and inspire one another along the journey.

 

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Freedom Letters from Jail – Mormon Liberation Theology

In 1963, while an imprisoned Martin Luther King, Jr. was writing his groundbreaking and church-shaking “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” on toilet paper, President Joseph Fielding Smith dedicated the renovated Liberty Jail (also known as the Prison Temple) in which Joseph Smith Jr. wrote his Letter from Jail in 1838 on the topics of civil liberties and persecutions of the Saints (the year the LDS Church came to abandon its pacifist convictions), now contained in the sections 121-123 of the Doctrine and Covenants. These verses lie at the core of a Mormon Liberation Theology. Other articles under the category of Mormon Liberation Theology:

1. Saviours on Mount Zion
2. Temples: Structures of Peace
3. Teachings for the Young, the Rich and the Beautiful

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Nobody is Saved Alone – the Zion Formula

Davies believes that, in one sense, ‘it is easy to argue that Mormonism is radically individualistic, given its strong emphasis upon individual responsibility in the process of attaining salvation, but that would be a mistake because, as vital as that personal responsibility is, and as much as it may be advocated by church leaders, it demands a community of endeavour to achieve its goal. On the relational front, it is absolutely fundamental to appreciate that even a person’s ultimate salvation depends upon his or her relationship to someone else. It was common for early Mormon leaders to stress that nobody is ‘saved’ alone. Indeed, this is a distinctive feature of LDS theology – for exaltation is a corporate venture’.

1. Latter-day Saints in Communal History (CofC site)
2. Signal Communities (CofC video)
3. The Globalization of Zion (SaintsHerald)
4. Practical Tools to Grow an Intentional Community

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Not as the World Gives – Mormon Alternatives

In 1831, God warned Joseph Smith and his followers in a revelation given to the prophet that “if ye are not one, ye are not mine”. During the succeeding century the scripture has served LDS church leaders as a rallying cry in their efforts to urge compliance of the general church membership to three grand designs for building greater economic cooperation among the Saints. The first of these was the Law of Consecration and Stewardship, initiated by the Prophet himself in Ohio and Missouri in 1831.

1. Introduction to Mormon Anarchism (themormonworker)
2. Now is the Time to Make Real the Promises of Theocracy
3. Limits of Neo-liberal Peacebuilding

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Gandhian Swaraj/Swadeshi and Mormon Self-Reliance

Although the word Swaraj means self-rule, Gandhi gave it the content of an integral revolution that encompasses all spheres of life. “At the individual level Swaraj is vitally connected with the capacity for dispassionate self-assessment, ceaseless self-purification and growing self-reliance”. Politically swaraj is self-government and it means a continuous effort to be independent of government control, whether it is foreign government or whether it is national. In other words, it is sovereignty of the people based on pure moral authority. Economically, Swaraj means full economic freedom for the toiling millions.

1. Nonviolent Economics (PeacePower)
2. Mormon Care for the Poor will be Accelerated (Messenger and Advocate)
3. Development of the Church Welfare Program (Mormon History)
4. The Price of Gold

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Give with Wisdom, so that They May Receive with Dignity

The late-Apostle Marvin J. Ashton spoke in a conference address entitled Give with Wisdom That They May Receive with Dignity (November 1981) of a stake Relief Society President that had flashed a large picture on a screen, during a department session of Education Week sponsored by BYU, showing a bright-eyed boy with unkempt hair and folded arms, deep in thought. The caption read, “I know I’m somebody ’cause God don’t make no junk.” Ashton thought that, ‘with the grammar improved, that caption could well be the theme of Church welfare services’.

1. Proclaiming the Gospel and Human Security
2. Perfecting the Saints and Human Development
3. Modern Day Prophets – Advocates of Freedom and Social Justice