“In what would be the most startling moment of His early ministry, Jesus stood up in His home synagogue in Nazareth and read these words prophesied by Isaiah and recorded in the Gospel of Luke: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and … set at liberty them that are bruised.” (Luke 4:18) Thus the Savior made the first public announcement of His messianic ministry. But this verse also made clear that on the way to His ultimate atoning sacrifice and Resurrection, Jesus’s first and foremost messianic duty would be to bless the poor, ...” ...the Creator of heaven and earth “and all…
“During recent months, both in Salt Lake City and across the nation, considerable interest has been expressed in the position of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the matter of civil rights. We would like it to be known that there is in this Church no doctrine, belief, or practice that is intended to deny the enjoyment of full civil rights by any person regardless of race, color, or creed. We say again, as we have said many times before, that we believe that we are the children of the same God, and that it is a moral evil for any person or group of persons to deny any human being the right to gainful employment, to full educational opportunity, and to every privilege of citizenship, just…
“Although pride is highly effective at drawing individuals to racism and justifying its application, greed often motivates it. The adversary offers the destructive force of racism as a dangerous tool to justify greed—greed that manifests in the oppression of others for material gain, power, and control. Greed, as it relates to racism toward African Americans, can be seen with stark clarity in the history of slavery that I outlined earlier but also in the modern day. Researchers studying the Great Recession found that predatory lending agencies—all for the sake of profit—targeted predominantly Black communities and channeled them into high-cost, high-risk mortgage loans. This left Black families vulnerable to defaulting on their loans, having their homes repossessed, and losing much of their wealth. In the end, these two unholy traits—pride and…
“The pure love of Christ [is] kind, meek, and lowly….it has no place for bigotry, hatred, or violence….It encourages diverse people to live together in Christian love regardless of religious belief, race, nationality, financial standing, education, or culture.”
Three Fold Mission of the Church: “My brothers and sisters, as the Brethren of the First Presidency and the Twelve... we are impressed that the mission of the Church is threefold: -To proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people; -To perfect the Saints by preparing them to receive the ordinances of the gospel and by instruction and discipline to gain exaltation; -To redeem the dead by performing vicarious ordinances of the gospel for those who have lived on the earth. All three are part of one work—to assist our Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ, in Their grand and glorious mission “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” (Moses 1:39.) President Spencer W. Kimball. April 1981…
(Homelessness and addictions are often a product of systemic racism.) “Always dealing honorably with others is part of loving mercy. Consider a conversation I overheard decades ago in the emergency department of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States. A patient, Mr. Jackson, was a courteous, pleasant man who was well known to the hospital staff. He had previously been hospitalized multiple times for the treatment of alcohol-related diseases. On this occasion, Mr. Jackson returned to the hospital for symptoms that would be diagnosed as inflammation of the pancreas caused by alcohol consumption. Toward the end of his shift, Dr. Cohen, a hardworking and admired physician, evaluated Mr. Jackson and determined that hospitalization was warranted. Dr. Cohen assigned Dr. Jones, the physician next up in rotation, to…
“Some unfairness cannot be explained; inexplicable unfairness is infuriating... Mortal life is inherently unfair. Some people are born in affluence; others are not. Some have loving parents; others do not. Some live many years; others, few. And on and on and on. Some individuals make injurious mistakes even when they are trying to do good. Some choose not to alleviate unfairness when they could. Distressingly, some individuals use their God-given agency to hurt others when they never should. Different types of unfairness can merge, creating a tsunami of overwhelming unfairness. For instance, the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affects those who already are subject to multifactorial, underlying disadvantages. My heart aches for those who face such unfairness, but I declare with all my aching heart that Jesus Christ both understands unfairness and…
