Rebecca Burnham has served in various roles in the Primary, Sunday School, Relief Society, and Young Women’s organizations and currently serves as a temple ordinance worker, family history consultant and pianist. After her mission to Sao Paulo Brazil, she worked as a journalist until her first marriage, when she became a full-time homemaker. She is now a disability support worker by night and a community builder/entrepreneur/playwright and composer by day, who is recently launching Summit Stages, an initiative to build beloved community through the creation and promotion of musicals that lift and unite. She is passionate about building peace in an increasingly polarized world and writes about gospel topics at 4MutualRespect.
Enter Rebecca…
In her previous article, “Part 1 – Being A Sanctified Zion-builder”, Rebecca shared the impact of how we can become distracted by injustices, but our goal is to discover how to be a sanctified Zion-builder. She ended with one thought about possible redemptive reasons for perceived inequities. Below is the conclusion of her article.
Negative Impact of Activism on Revelation
Second, it seems that agitation against the Church because of inequitable practices may have interfered with the prophet’s getting divine direction to change them.
The way I read it, during Alma’s ministry, the prominent voices that were concerned about the status of non-Nephites were so antagonistic to the Church that they prejudiced Alma and his brethren against their cause. It was early in the reign of the judges when Nehor revolted against the Church and launched his own, likely with non-Nephite priests,* chosen by the people and paid according to their popularity (Alma 1:3,5). He went on to amass great wealth with his teachings which, in the minds of faithful Church members, would have connected priestcraft with the ordination of non-Nephites. Nehor’s subsequent murder of Gideon would have then demolished his entire argument for them. Then, Amlici’s rise to prominence would have involved condemning the rule of Nephites and promising as king to replace both church and government with a system where leaders represented the non-Nephite majority. Alma and his brethren would have been arguing against Amlici’s claims, not asking the Lord if they should change a longstanding tradition that they believed came from Him. Ordaining non-Nephites would have seemed like caving to the dissenter’s demands and trying to curry favour with the world.
As a rule, it seems that the Lord waits for His prophets to ask before He gives new direction. More than a decade before receiving his own revelation that ended the priesthood ban for Black men, Spencer W. Kimball stated,
“Revelations will probably never come unless they are desired… I believe most revelations would come when a man is on his tip toes, reaching as high as he can for something which he knows he needs, and then there bursts upon him the answer to his problems” (BYU Studies Quarterly, Vol 47, Iss. 2 (2008), “Spencer W. Kimball and the Revelation on the Priesthood,” pg. 43).
The prophet is a steward over the Church, not the ultimate leader. He needs to get his own agenda out of the way in order to hear what the Lord is directing. But that’s not easy, especially when there are loud and insistent voices trying to force an issue. How does the prophet hear the still small voice when it’s masked by a cacophony of criticism? The logical and instinctive thing to do is to sit tight, assume that current practices were put in place under inspiration, and defend them. Spencer W. Kimball recalled that before he received the 1978 revelation on the priesthood,
“I had a great deal to fight . . . myself, largely, because I had grown up with this thought that Negroes should not have the priesthood and I was prepared to go all the rest of my life until my death and fight for it and defend it as it was. (“Spencer W. Kimball and the Revelation on the Priesthood,” pg. 45).
As far as I can see, pressure tactics to get the Church to change are just as counterproductive today as they were in Alma’s time. If I believe the prophet is called of God and His appointed mouthpiece, and I do, then I need to sustain him in a way that removes obstacles to revelation instead of creating them. For me, that means praying for the prophet and others who preside, heeding their counsel as it is witnessed to me by the Holy Ghost, and appreciating the way that it blesses my life. Because inspiration improves with information, it also means communicating about my concerns and the negative, personal impact of some teachings and aspects of Church culture, in a supportive manner. It means praying for the membership of the Church to be able to support the prophet in a manner that allows him to receive the revelations the Lord wants to pour out upon him. And then, it means following the personal inspiration that comes to me for how I can bring my own heart and practices into greater harmony with the prophet’s teachings and the light I’ve received.
Injustice May Be an Inescapable Aspect of Fallen Society
Third, it occurs to me that humans are not very good at being just, even when we are trying our very best. We are all, including me, subject to personal bias based on our own experiences. We all have blind spots. That’s why we need to rely on Jesus Christ for justice and our only hope to achieve it in the world is by coming, “in a unity of the faith… unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). Until then, we will need human, hierarchical leaders like apostles and prophets (Ephesians 4:12) to unite us under the Lord’s priorities at this moment for our healing, even though those leaders are fallible.
So injustice will continue in the kingdom until we, as a people, are sufficiently sanctified to achieve Zion. I can make that reality an obstacle that diverts me out of the path to Zion and His presence, or I can use it as a stepping stone. There have been times when I’ve done the latter, like early in my proselyting mission, when my senior companion informed me that it was not my job as junior to counsel with her about the work; I was to learn the discussions (already passed off) and work on my language skills, and leave the work to her. When I told her that a recent convert had approached me at Church to say she needed to see us that week and I had promised we would be there, she informed me that it wasn’t my place to make such a promise. We never made that visit. I learned then about the debilitating effects of unrighteous dominion: I felt detached from our work, completely disconnected when she would report on our goals in district meeting, and drained of energy. The Lord led me to a personal commitment to never pull rank on my junior companions. The unjust treatment I received from my senior companion changed me in happy ways that have outlasted my mission and influenced my leadership ever since. It taught me one aspect of justice—egalitarian leadership—and in a way that has burned that principle into my soul.
The Lord grieves (D&C 121:37), even weeps (Moses 7:29,32-33), over the injustices we practice on each other. But He isn’t interested in dictating justice. He’s interested in our choosing it, which we cannot do until we’re close enough to Him to even be able to comprehend what genuine justice (or Zion) looks like.
This brings me back to the teachings of Alma and Amulek in Ammonihah.
I Need to Change My Focus from Justice to Reconciliation With God
First, Amulek, who by my theory has stumbled over the injustice in the kingdom, counsels the people to focus on their own repentance—“well doth he cry unto this people, by the voice of his angels: Repent ye, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”—and not to get tripped up by the injustice because: “well doth he cry, by the voice of his angels that: I will come down among my people, with equity and justice in my hands” (Alma 10:20-21). Our job, Amulek explains, is to prepare the way of the Lord by getting our hearts right with Him. When we’ve done that, He will visit us—and the world—and we will find equity and justice in Him.
Then, Alma suggests that the Ammonihahites are barking up the wrong tree when they focus on the priesthood as a marker of power and status; the entire point of priesthood ordination is to forward the sanctification of the priesthood holder (Alma 13:11), reconcile him with God (Alma 13:12), and turn him into an ambassador for God to the unordained, to help them also enter into His rest (Alma 13:6). Reconciliation and reunion with God through the gift of His Son is the one thing that really matters and is just as available to them as to any high priest, if they seek it. There’s precedent for this. The people of Melchizedek “were full of all manner of wickedness” but they repented and obtained peace. Won’t the Ammonihahites do likewise, “that ye may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his rest” (Alma 13:29)?
I feel my heart softening as I read Alma 13 with this perspective. It occurs to me that preoccupation with power and status is just as spiritually blinding to the unempowered and the marginalized as it is to the mighty and the celebrated. I don’t want to chase that rabbit. It leads away from faith, through anger and toward futility. I want to be like Melchizedek instead: a witness of God and a sanctified Zion-builder. I don’t need priesthood ordination for that because my covenants specifically include that commission.
I long for a just society—for Zion. But more than that, I long to be connected with and reconciled to God. Like Amulek, I want to trust in His merciful mysteries and marvelous power, let them have full sway in my heart. And that’s not a trade-off: reconciliation with God is the only path to Zion. I can let go and let God deal with the injustices that continue among His people, while He leads me to deal with the injustice that still exists in me.
I feel an upswelling of conviction that God will do His work. No. Not that He will, but that He is doing it and has been doing it all along. I see the evidence of His sanctifying influence all around me. “Be still,” the Spirit seems to whisper. “Lift your eyes to the pillar of fire that guards and guides My people and know this: ere long, you will watch the Red Sea part.”
* Of note: Nehor’s name was Jaredite (see Ether 7:4). He arose to prominence just after Mosiah II brought an end to the monarchy with a proclamation that deplored inequality and called for the “land [to] be a land of liberty, and every man [to] enjoy his rights and privileges alike,” (Mosiah 29:32). After his proclamation, the people “became exceedingly anxious that every man should have an equal chance throughout all the land” (Mosiah 29:38).
