Mosiah 13-14

(March 3, 2015)

                The condemnation of Abinidi is one that we face often in today’s society.  If we speak the word of God, others will judge that we are mad.  And so, unfortunately, we feel pressed to keep quiet so those who hate us will not poorly judge us.  It is irrational, this fear that we have, and yet I struggle at times to overcome it.

                But Abinidi’s example is the proper example for each of us.  When we are confronted by those who would condemn us because we believe in God, religion, morality, spirituality, Christ, the Atonement, prophets, the Restoration, or anything else we must remember that we know the truth.  It only seems crazy in light of the lies that have been swallowed whole by the world (and, to a lesser extent, us) that condition us to see the Divine as something not part of our daily existence.

                It is as though we are attending a play and trying to convince the person beside us that Julius Caesar wasn’t just killed in front of us (he’s an actor, we tell them), and they tell us that we are crazy because we are ignoring the evidence of our eyes right in front of us.  He saw the actor playing Caesar scream in pain and fall, and we must be crazy to think that he is really alive (or that he really isn’t Caesar).

                Do we, in that situation, keep our mouths closed?  Do we fear that, because the person we speak to might think we are crazy, that we should just keep quiet and not try and explain the underlying truth of what is happening?  Are we so self-conscious that we fear even the condemnation of those mistaken in their fundamental beliefs?  When put in these terms, it is easy to know what to do – but in the breach, it is harder to remember.