The
Search for Moral Harmony
Neil J. Flinders
1999 LDS Education Forum
Brigham Young University
Provo, Utah
August 13, 1999
I appreciate the invitation to participate in your conference. This may be an historical event--not just the conference or its specific content, but because of the potential ripple effect driven by the spirit of collaboration that created this gathering. We are still at the beginning, not the end, of discussing and implementing world-wide education among the Latter-day Saints. President Alvin R. Dyer many years ago expressed some interesting views on what the future holds during a Millennium of learning and teaching. Three years ago on this campus President Boyd K. Packer addressed the topic of Latter-day Saint education. His discourse was delivered at the David O. McKay Symposium sponsored by the School of Education. A large congregation heard the discourse; few seem to have seriously studied its content, and even less appear to have grasped the significance of his message. There is an observable distance between where we are and where we ought to be; between what we are doing and what we could be doing.
President Packer focused on premises embraced by the prophets regarding LDS education. He quoted President David O. McKay who said that Brigham Young University "is primarily a religious institution .... established for the sole purpose of associating with facts of science, art, literature, and philosophy the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ... the heart of all true progress." Then President McKay made a very significant distinction which President Packer challenged every student in the School of Education to analyze. He challenged us to "emphasize religion, because the Church university offers more than theological instruction." President McKay goes on to explain what all of us should recognize--the distinction between "theology" and "religion." We should remember "theology" is a Greek term referring to the science or rational study of a deity. Theology is objective, it is a formal exercise in reason. Religion, as President McKay points out, is subjective--true religion is founded in revelation. We must not lose track of this distinction. Reason and revelation are not synonyms. And to exile one from the other is man's way, not God's way of educating. President Packer concluded his remarks by quoting the minutes from the meeting in which the Board of Education changed the name of the College of Education to the School of Education: "It signals renewed focus on educator preparation (1) with President McKay as exemplar and (2) a return to the past to invigorate the future." (President Boyd K Packer, David O. McKay Symposium, BYU, Oct. 9, 1996). [Note: From this same talk, see Elder Packer's comments on saving the constitution].
True Religion and True Education
I believe true religion is the divine guidance provided by a loving Heavenly Father to his children; including but extending beyond institutions. The primary purpose of true religion is to enable all those who so desire to fulfill their divine destiny. True education is the process of individuals helping each other recognize, understand and experience true religion. According to the revelation given the Prophet Moses, the foundation of true education is "inspired" literacy.
Moses clearly explains that in the very beginning it was given unto those "who called upon the name of the Lord... to write by the spirit of inspiration; and by them their children were taught to read and write." (Moses 6:1-8) This is the key to establishing a civil society and to creating an exalting social order. True religion is a gift sent from heaven. True education is the process of accepting that gift on earth and sharing it with each other. Everything that is true about heaven and earth-both temporal and spiritual, whether discovered by reason or revelation-is the curriculum. Embracing and communicating that curriculum is education.
The Lord has told us, however, that although "light and truth" are "plainly manifest," often we "receive not the light." Rather, we succumb to "disobedience" and the false "tradition of [our] fathers." (D&C 93:31- 40) Rejecting the truth and substituting something other than the truth in the place thereof has been the adversary's strategy since he began his work among the children of Adam and Eve. (Moses 5:13, 25) The presence of this strategy and its destructive consequences remain with us to this day. It was this obstructive presence that caused the Lord to usher in a final dispensation of the truth in the era of latter-day darkness. Speaking to the inhabitants of these latter-days he said: "They have strayed from mine ordinances, and have broken mine everlasting covenant; they seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance.., shall perish in Babylon,... which shall fall." (D&C 1:13-16) It is within this revealed framework that I desire to share a few observations related to this 1999 LDS educational forum. I commend you for this effort to seek harmony in the face of a prosperous but troubled and disturbed society.
President Gordon B. Hinckley has observed: "The father of us all must weep as he looks down upon his quarrelsome children." (April Conference, 1999) King Benjamin instructed the parents of his day: Do "not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably, and to render to every man according to that which is his due." Then he added, while parents set this example, they should not "suffer that their children transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil, who is the master of sin". (Mosiah 4:13-14) Similar counsel was given to parents in this dispensation: "l have commanded you to bring up your children in light and truth". (D&C 93:40; see also 68:25-35). Our Heavenly Father clearly establishes the need for a moral order--a foundation of moral harmony. It seems obvious that if we are to have any hope of receiving the gift from heaven and sharing it with one another here on earth we must be morally worthy. Neither true religion nor true education will flourish in the absence of moral harmony. Thus, we have repeatedly been given the Ten Commandments. We ignore them at our peril.
Origin of Conflict and War
Nearly all chronic conflict in the human family is rooted in some aspect of a negative struggle against true religious principles. Personal conflict is inevitable when we ignore, deny, or distort true religious principles. This is evident in both sacred and profane history. It reaches from Cain to Korihor and from Korihor to many of the most prominent public figures today It is a personal burden in each of our lives. It is the primary cause of wasted resources and failed families. Chronic conflict over true religious principles is corrosive, contagious, and costly.
On the larger social scale, it is evident that nearly all armed conflict--the wars and the rumors of wars--is concentrated along the fault lines of distorted religion. War, both national and tribal, is a political earthquake that occurs primarily where human culture is contaminated by corrupt religious tradition. War is the ultimate consequence of stress created by ignoring, resisting, or distorting true religious principles. The greater the stress the more likely it is to trigger destructive fractures between factions and various belief systems. History demonstrates that most wars have occurred where various "religious orders" such as Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Secularism, and Atheism interface with one another.
It is the energy of personal "religion," true or false, that appears to create social governments and it is governments that create wars. Whether one looks at Ireland, Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosova or hundreds of other examples, the root of the basic issue remains the same We must either abide by the law of God and enjoy its fruits or become a law unto ourselves and reap the consequences. Moral harmony is a fruit of God's perfect law--seeking after and doing his will. Chronic conflict is a consequence of our desire to become a law unto ourselves--seeking after and doing "our will" rather than "his will," substituting our laws for his laws. I do not believe there can be any meaningful discussion of education--its content or process-- unless that discussion is framed by this fundamental delimitation of human agency. Without moral harmony there can be no moral education. And without moral education we perpetuate personal conflict and cultural war--in our homes, within neighborhoods, and between nations.
The Book of Mormon contains a classic description of this premise. It is no accident that the books of Mosiah and Alma include a terse description of two literacy-based educational programs--one in which the curriculum was founded on divinely revealed moral precepts, and the other intentionally excluding any reference to God, the mission of Jesus Christ, and the moral order given to Moses. (Mosiah 24:1-8) One system is referred to as the Order of God and the other as the Order of Nehor. The one, a form of schooling that produced leaders like Benjamin, Alma, and Captain Moroni. The other, an equally "successful" form of schooling that taught the people to be "wise... according to the wisdom of the world," to love "the vain things of the world," and to seek after "riches and honors," (Alma 1:16)--producing characters like Nehor, Zeezrom, Amiici, and Korihor.
All this transpired in over the space of 200 years just prior to the first coming of Christ. That society's government went from the rule of kings, to a republic, to a republic in confusion, and finally to tribalism. It was a society that shifted its legal premises from theism to agnosticism, and finally to atheism. There is a curious similarity between this Book of Mormon epoch and America's own history--moving as she has from colonies under a kingdom, to a republic, to a republic in confusion, to... whatever lies ahead as we look forward to a new Millennium and the second coming of Christ. The comparison gives one cause to reflect and ponder.
Constructs of Moral Harmony in Latter-day Saint Education
As I understand the mission of this LDS Education Forum, it is to promote the discussion, discovery, and implementation of LDS educational principles. This is a noble enterprise and it is also an old enterprise. In this dispensation I suppose the charge, in the sense you are discussing the topic, was first given by the Lord himself in a revelation to W. W. Phelps and Oliver Cowdery in June of 1831--slightly over a year after the Church was organized. The goal was simple and straightforward: print, select, and write "books for schools in this Church, that little children also may receive instruction before me that is pleasing unto me." (D&C 55:4). This objective is still in force and is being pursued and I suppose will continue into the future. But times and circumstances change. For example, on Nov. 1, 1845 the brethren called a special conference in Nauvoo. There appears in the minutes of that conference the following entry:
Elder [Heber C.] Kimball said, "There is yet another piece of business of great importance to all who have families; that is, to have some books printed for the education of our children, which will not be according to the Gentile order".
Elder W. W. Phelps then said: "By revelation, in 1831, I was appointed to 'do the work of printing, and of selecting and writing books for schools in this Church, that little children might receive instruction.' and since then I have received a further sanction. We are preparing to go out from among the people, where we can serve God in righteousness; and the first thing is, to teach our children they are as Israel of old. It is our children who will take the kingdom and bear it off to all the world .... We will instruct our children in the paths of righteousness; and we want that instruction compiled in a book". (Times and Seasons, 6:1015, 1 Nov. 1845)
In striking contrast, the very next entry in the minutes, records an exhortation to the saints about keeping their cattle out of each other's gardens and to refrain from wasting powder and ball by firing their guns off in the middle of the night just to make sure they still work.
I cite the foregoing example to emphasize that the ideal and the practical must find harmony--even in troublesome times. Without rehearsing the long and convoluted history of education in the Church and among its peoples, consider a few general observations. These assertions are simple but I believe significant. They are easily and frequently ignored, particularly by those who become entangled in a blinding allegiance to the various professions in the sub-cultures of our day. Perhaps there will be something helpful here as you seek to find a better way to protect and nurture our children. These observations are drawn from personal experience; they are part of my witness. I offer them as educational testimony. For more than 40 years I have tried to understand and practice true religion and true education--in my home, my Church and my profession. Looking back, I am humbled by the weakness of my efforts and underwhelmed by my personal success. I have learned that this life is big, very big, and although I am accountable and have some control, I am not in charge of "life." Life requires faith, courage, and the support of a power and intelligence beyond those possessed by humankind. With that view in mind, I offer the following seven observations.
Observation # 1: Scripture, in the broad sense of the term, has proven to be the best text on education, and the family the most instructive laboratory on practice. I say this recognizing the privilege I've had to serve outside our home in many diverse educational settings--from a one room school with 24 seats and a coal stove in the Uinta Basin, to the spacious environments of the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City, and here at Brigham Young University. Both my ecclesiastical and professional educational experiences have been very helpful, but learning and teaching within the walls of my own home has had the greatest personal impact. We sent our children to public school but we reserved the right to govern their education. I believe the governing philosophy of education can be manifest in institutions, but the result of education is created and nurtured within individuals. Where we are schooled is less important than how we are schooled. Generally speaking, contemporary educational theory gives some lip service to the importance of the family and its educational role. But when current educational practice is carefully examined, the family is essentially ignored both by teacher training institutions and classroom practitioners. The voice of the profession has taken precedence over the revealed tradition of the family. It doesn't have to be this way, but the state of the "art" is currently at odds with the intrinsic nature of moral harmony. Our remarkable prosperity and technological advances notwithstanding, shifting axioms in the moral foundation of society is pressing our formal educational processes closer and closer to paralysis. The curriculum at large no longer distinguishes between "honesty" and "virtue" nor is there much desire to pursue such a discussion. Many Latter-day Saint parents and professionals are caught in this worldly web. We are not immune. But I do not believe the safe answer is isolationism.
Observation # 2: The principles of the Gospel, which are foundational principles of education, cannot be safely separated from the ordinances of the Gospel and the authority to administer those ordinances. I believe there is a principle of governance inherent in the "keys of the Priesthood" that cannot be replicated by administrative manipulation or by commercial interest, regardless of how pure our intent. When we seek to separate the principles of the Gospel from the ordinances of the Gospel, we set our foot upon a path that moves us away from the Celestial order of education toward a Terrestrial or even Telestial order. I realize this separation can and does occur. But we ought to be forthright and recognize that such a move inevitably shifts the focus away from the spiritual toward the moral, and in the direction of the less than moral domain. As Latter-day Saints, privately and publicly, we should always strive to move in the opposite direction--away from the immoral toward the moral in order to embrace the spiritual. This is the vision we are encouraged to obtain and sustain. Agent-based propriety does not require compromise. Moral harmony can be our personal goal and shape our performance in any educational setting, private or public. The point is, we must recognize as educators, what we are talking about and not create confusion by thinking we are doing one thing when we are actually doing another. The Holy Spirit is in charge of spiritual instruction. We are not. He operates in harmony with the "keys of the Priesthood." Unless we operate under the direction of and in harmony with those same "keys" even while ministering in the moral domain, we face the dangers of embracing, as Nephi said, the "precepts of men" as opposed to the "precepts of God". Pondering the relationship between principles and ordinances is a necessary exercise, I believe, for all who desire to create, discuss, and implement LDS principles of education. When properly understood, this perspective helps protect individuals from making undue claims and from being victimized by the false educational ideas of the adversary.
Observation # 3: Recognize that the assignment given by the Lord to W. W. Phelps and Oliver Cowdery was given to Church officers. This assignment has remained with the Church authorities. Under their direction, the Lord's assignment is currently pursued by the Correlation and Curriculum departments of the Church. Near the turn of this century a concerted effort was made by the First Presidency to support the goal of preparing curriculum pleasing unto the Lord by several committees and by individuals assigned to specific tasks with priesthood oversight. In the decade of the 1960's, more planning and development was invested in this task and greater correlation was introduced. To date, the "books" have been limited essentially to religious education and social services materials. The day may come when the Church will expand this curriculum to include other subject matter but that day is not here at the moment. In the interim, the established policy leaves the Saints to "anxiously engage" themselves in finding, creating, and utilizing the "best books" available in the respective fields. It is no easy task. But no one has a more truthful or a better context in which to work than we do. We should not be satisfied with less than the best. But we should not confuse what we are doing with what the Church is doing.
Observation # 4: Collaboration, not isolation, is the best protection for Latter-day Saint educators who want to complement the Celestial order in their educational pursuits. Over the years I have witnessed many, many efforts of well-intentioned individuals who desired to create a gospel-centered curriculum and instructional experience. The Lord has invited us to be "anxiously engaged in a good cause of our own free will." As we launch such efforts, however, we will increase the likelihood of both safety and success if we seek both counsel and councils to aid us in our efforts. We live in a complex society filled with legal and cultural conflict. Independent efforts to establish LDS educational programs may be moderately fruitful, but more often than not they are very vulnerable to personal human weaknesses in knowledge, character, and vision. Too often, autonomous efforts lack balance, quality, propriety, and financial support. Some efforts to collaborate have failed because the participants could not overcome the pride, selfishness, or limitations of curricular or methodological hobbies. When collaboration is open, realistic, and subject to counsel and councils, there are checks and balances that operate. These checks and balances may slow the process down somewhat but they add strengths and wisdom that are otherwise missing and thus contribute to failure. I am reasonably confident that no enduring, successful LDS educational endeavor will be developed by a single personality or clique--it must have broader and deeper foundations. This requires moral harmony. The Lord loves each of his children too much to sanction an educational autocracy or even oligarchy.
Observation # 5: Perhaps the single greatest inhibitor to the development of an LDS educational operation, inside or outside the ecclesiastical organization, is the restrictive and contaminating allegiance people bring to the task from the world. No one, it seems, is free enough from false educational ideas and traditions. More often than not, the more prestigious an education a person receives from the world, the more likely they are to be bound by subtle and blinding allegiances that shadow their view of prophetic vision. The prophets call it "pride."
Too few individuals, it appears, have the opportunity to be schooled sufficiently, or make an adequate effort to achieve the necessary balance in their education to place revelation above or even along side of reason in their professional performance. The reward systems of the world are very enticing, very demanding, and very selfish. Scholarly traditions are powerful biases--whether we recognize it or not. Scholarly traditions are self-policing, but they are not self-critical: they demand conformity but not self-correction. The great tendency is for us to think we are "right on target," when in fact, we are unwittingly bound by various forms of intellectual, emotional, and social compartmentalization. What people use to think with when they think about something is a great challenge we humans face as we try to seek the mind and will of God in educational matters. This phenomenon is one reason that efforts to develop LDS education as a complement to the direction of the living prophets must be approached with great care and humility. We have a very significant challenge among our own people in these matters--sincere Latter-day Saints--those with the finest worldly credentials. Consequently, I would be cautious of those who look to the world as the primary source of their educational sustenance, feasting upon the latest and most popular trends, and then try to harmonize what is popular in their professional circles with some aspects of what the Lord has revealed, thinking to make the "popular" more palatable. This practice is just as dangerous and perhaps more prevalent than the difficulties created by those who narrowly seek to pursue education on the basis of personal "revelation" with little or no regard for the truths the Lord freely bestows upon his children who are not members of the Church. Discernment, balance, openness, and propriety are essential to success. That is why we say, "If there is anything virtuous, lovely or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things." (Article of Faith #13) It is well to avoid the extremes on both ends of this educational teeter-totter.
Observation # 6: Financial integrity is a major challenge to the private LDS educational enterprise, because in most of our communities we lack a sufficiently broad-based foundation of inherited wealth to adequately sustain such an endeavor. The reason most private education in the United States clusters along the Atlantic seaboard is because that's where the inherited wealth is concentrated. The current message to the Church by the First Presidency--the topic for all stake conferences during the first half of this year (1999)--is self-reliance. It is inconsistent with the principles of the gospel to promote a private LDS educational program that is on financial welfare. Sound LDS educational programs should be self-sustaining. This is a major challenge. We currently lack both the wealth and the commitment to sustain a full-fledged formal LDS educational system. Nevertheless, self-reliance is a fundamental requisite to service. In terms of our personal lives the pattern is clear and the formula is simple to state.
The same formula applies to educational programs. The point is, the entire educational enterprise begins with self-reliance--including financial self-reliance. The Lord does not want us to be on spiritual welfare, intellectual welfare, financial welfare, or any other kind of welfare. He wants us to be self-reliant. Until circumstances can be arranged that make this possible, private LDS educational programs will struggle. We happen to live in an educational pioneering era. The Church itself is currently limited in this area and consequently has reduced its primary instructional focus to the three-hour block on the Sabbath and youth centered week-day religious education programs. There are opportunities to pioneer private LDS educational operations at this time, but we should not be blind to the financial realities or they will eventually cripple our efforts. Wisdom demands that we learn to play within the realities of our day.
Observation # 7: Moral harmony requires the conservation of our resources by expending them on building rather than destroying. We waste our time, energy and financial resources when we build on faulty foundations and when we deplete ourselves by attacking others. There seems to be a fine line, at times, between (a) making sure our educational building site is secure, that we are building on the rock, not on a sandy place, and (b) sending out the troops to hunt down and destroy the enemy--whatever or whomever that may be. I believe the LDS educational enterprise in our day is best served when we clearly identify for ourselves as well as others (a) what is right and why we believe it is right and (b) what is wrong and why we believe it is wrong. But then we should devote our resources to building the positive, letting our light shine, rather than trying to destroy the negative. Evil and error are like darkness in a room. Darkness cannot be shoveled out, but it is forced to leave when light, even that produced by a small match or candle, is introduced. We should focus on letting our light so shine that others may see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven. (see Matt. 5:14-16)
Conclusion
Perhaps some will feel these observations are disheartening. This is not my intent. We do face legitimate educational challenges, within as well as beyond the LDS community. Some challenges may increase dramatically, but so will the opportunities to do more true education and to do it better. We must strive to be realistic and not wishful thinkers. Latter-day Saints believe in faith, not wishes. Faith is a matter of action. We also believe in planning, practicality, and building "line upon line, here a little and there a little". We believe in laying proper foundations. We believe in pioneers and sacrifices. My prayer is that we will each successfully complete our respective missions according to the mind and will of God. Thank You.
Copyright 1999 by Neil Flinders