Saints Herald

SaintsHerald is pleased to welcome mormongandhi as a new columnist. A former member of the LDS church from Oslo, Norway, he is an advocate for nonviolence in the Restoration movement. He is currently investigating the Community of Christ. — John Hamer

The art of rhetoric may be defined as changing other people’s minds (opinions, beliefs) without providing them with new information. One technique heavily used by rhetoric is analogies. Using analogies, one may draw the listener’s attention to similarities between cases and reorganize existing information with the use of an illustrative example.

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“Man Down!”

Personally, I have over the years felt very uncomfortable about the war and military analogies employed by LDS church leaders to teach their members principles from the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I make allusion in particular to a Conference Address given by President Henry B. Eyring during the April 2009 General Conference:

“You will need bravery and you will need boldness because you are enlisted in the Lord’s army in the last dispensation. This is not a time of peace. That has been so since Satan arrayed his forces against our Heavenly Father’s plan in the premortal existence. [..] Satan and his followers were cast down into the earth. And since the creation of Adam and Eve, the conflict has continued. We have seen it intensify. And the scriptures suggest that the war will become more violent and the spiritual casualties on the Lord’s side will mount”.

Eyring continues: “Almost all of us have seen a battlefield portrayed in a film or read the description in a story. Over the din of explosions and the shouts of soldiers, there comes a cry, “Man down!” When the cry sounds, faithful fellow soldiers will move toward the sound. Another soldier or a medic will ignore danger and move to the injured comrade. And the man down will know that help will come. Whatever the risk, someone will run low or crawl to get there in time to protect and give aid. That is true in every band of men joined in a difficult and dangerous mission, which they are determined to fulfill at any sacrifice. The histories of such groups are full of stories of those loyal men who were determined that no man would be left behind”.

Here President Eyring is using a war analogy to illustrate the need for priesthood holders to show solidarity to each other in times of need. He goes on to illustrate this principle with “Black Hawk Down”, the true story of two US army rangers who, during fighting in Somalia in October 1993, had learned of two other helicopters who had fallen down to earth and that were now being surrounded by enemy groups. You may see his account of that story on the following Youtube video:

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The Lost Battalion

In addition, one of President Thomas S. Monson’s favorite war stories which he repeatedly uses in his addresses, is that of the “Lost Battalion”: a unit of the United States Army 77th Infantry Division in World War I. He explains, “During one part of the war, this battalion was completely surrounded by the enemy. Food and water were short; the wounded could not be moved out. The battalion fought off repeated attacks, ignoring requests from the enemy asking them to surrender. Then, after that desperate period of total isolation, other units of the 77th Division advanced and relieved the “lost battalion.”

For Monson, this story has some teaching value: “Are there “lost battalions” today—people who feel isolated from their fellow human beings? If so, what is our responsibility to rescue them? There are the “lost battalions” of the handicapped, the aged, the widowed, and the sick. All too often these people are in that desolate wilderness called loneliness. When youth is gone, when health declines, when physical strength decreases, when the light of hope flickers ever so dimly, members of these vast “lost battalions” can be helped by someone who cares”.

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The Prophet Nathan rebukes King David

Nathan, a prophet in the Old Testament, rebukes King David for having taken to himself Uriah’s wife. “And the LORD sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man’s lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him”.

And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the rich man; and he said to Nathan, As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die: And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. [...] And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD.” (2 Samuel 12 :: King James Version) How did Nathan convince King David that he had sinned?

King David did not know the story about the rich and the poor men, for the story is a parable. It need not be factually true to be an effective rhetorical tool. Moreover, after King David heard the story, he expresses his fury over the rich man’s behavior. He seems neither to feel any regret over his own conduct, nor to even think of it. Only after Nathan said “Thou art the man” did the King change his view regarding his crime. Until that point, King David was missing the analogy between his sin and the rich man’s wrongdoing.

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Love Your Neighbor, But Who is My Neighbor?

But [the lawyer], desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed mercy on him.” And Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

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Are war analogies helpful?

In the last two analogies – one taken from the Old Testament and the other from the New Testament – we see both Nathan and Jesus teach gospel principles through the use of peaceful analogies, or parables. Nathan uses the story of the love of a poor man for his only lamb to teach King David about the immoral act of stealing Uriah’s wife, and Jesus teaches the lawyer about the identity of his neighbor by recounting the story of the good Samaritan. The stories, in addition to being moral analogies in answer to a particular teaching need, also stand on their own as stories about selflessness, generosity and sacrifice, of love, care and devotion.

I don’t think that war analogies are neither needful nor helpful in presenting the Restored Gospel of peace to any audience, even in our day of commercial violent cinema and of warfare in foreign lands. In order to establish the urgency and the moral imperative of caring for the poor or for fellow priesthood members, Monson and Eyring justify war indirectly – or at least, by using war analogies, they put forward the underlying assumption that war is in and of itself not wrong. Quite in the contrary, they suggest that heroic and selfless acts are the common currency of wars and conflicts. The war analogy, that points to the LDS church’s belief that priesthood holders are “enlisted in the Lord’s army” against the devil and his angels, colors members’ perception of the meaning of their existence on earth.

As soldiers in God’s Army, priesthood members are to conform to and wear the LDS uniform: white shirt and tie. The analogy of the Good Shepherd and of his fold has given way to the analogy of Captain Moroni and of the army of Helaman. The analogy of the curious mind of little children being those who make up the Kingdom of God has given way to the analogy of unquestioning soldiers that must never doubt the morality of their acts of obedience to authority. Dissent is understood as treason.

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The analogy of feeding the sheep has given way to that of protecting God’s people from the fiery darts of the devil and of his followers. Feminists, Gays and Lesbians become the enemies of God in a confrontation between those who seek to be heard, understood and recognized as equals and between those who stand as moral watchmen, judges in Israel, in defense of the Kingdom of God against any assault – for the Kingdom of God on Earth is now the Church and its priesthood structure, and it is no longer the long-awaited peaceable Kingdom, that far-off Promised Land of Justice and Equality. In any case, taking the war analogy a bit too far, Latter-day Saints may end up causing a lot of unintended harm. But it is difficult to undo the underlying assumptions that these analogies put forward, because war is embedded in modern LDS culture and because the Church follows a military logic.

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Peace I leave with you

Nathan and Jesus’ analogies are, on the other hand, good examples of what it means to be mindful of the imagery with which you color the minds of those you teach, allowing the Spirit to teach the message of peace in the latter days, not through the lightening of missiles nor through the thunder of bombs, but through a gentle and still small voice.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (John 14:27)

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This entry was posted on February 12, 2010 at 4:30 pm and is filed under Peace and Justice. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.