Using Agency Wisely: Setting Priorities
Unless we know what matters most to us, we will spend much of our life doing things that don’t matter to us as much as the things we neglect. To use our agency wisely, we have to know what we want out of life. One question I often ask
Good and Evil Are Polar Opposites--New Era June 2007
myself when faced with a choice to make is this: Is what I’m getting worth more than what I’m giving up?” This question reminds me that each time I choose something, I am giving up the other options. The challenge is to choose the option that gives me what I really want from life—not right this moment, but for eternity.
For instance, I am sometimes asked by church members struggling with the gospel, “Do you think God will really keep me out of the Celestial Kingdom over a cup of coffee?” The church teaches us that coffee is one of the several things God has asked us to avoid, as part of the Word of Wisdom, a Mormon health code. The answer to this question, of course, is, “Are you willing to give up your right to spend eternity in God’s presence for a mere cup of coffee?” It’s important to ask the right question when settling priorities. When deciding what to drink with my breakfast, I can see I have two choices (at least.) If I’m a coffee drinker and a member of the church, or someone who wants to become a member, I will ask myself, “Which do I want most for eternity: Coffee, or God?” Put that way, the choice seems obvious. A cup of coffee this morning is not worth more to me than the opportunity to live with God someday. While it might bring momentary pleasure, it will deny me the eternal joy I’m seeking.
While the questioner might have felt she had the question the right way around, she was simply organizing it to meet her own short-sighted desires. God always knows what is best for us, and one reason we are here is to develop self-control and to set priorities. Just as we teach our young children to forego a candy bar this week so he can save faster for the bicycle he wants, God wants us to learn to put aside immediate pleasures in favor of eternal ones.
When faced with a choice, evaluate the short-term and long-term consequences. When we find ourselves choosing the short-term pleasures even when we know the gospel has taught us otherwise, we can see this as a warning that it is time to evaluate and strengthen our testimonies.
For those who are not Mormons, and are held back from converting due to an unwillingness to give up certain habits, the first step is to pray and find out if the lifestyle choice you’ve made has God’s approval. If it’s something you’re strongly attached to, it can be a challenge (and even an act of courage) to go to God humbly, and completely ready to receive His advice without imposing your own will on it. This is, however, the only way to find the strength and conviction needed to make choices and changes.
Once you know God’s will on the subject, spend time putting it into context of your personal goals and your eternal goals. Is the party you want to attend more important than the test you need to study for in terms of your personal goals? Is the friend whose company you enjoy but who is always baiting you to lower your standards important enough to risk giving in to him at a weak moment?
Is that cup of coffee worth the price of Heaven?
Did Proxy Baptism Make Obama’s Mother Mormon?
Filed under: Mormon Temples: Purposes and Promises, News, Public Issues, Saving Ordinances, Temples, Work for the Dead
The stories are circulating the internet that President Obama’s mother is now a Mormon according to Mormon records, because a posthumus baptism was done on her behalf. It’s important to understand how names come to be submitted and what it means when the work is done. It does not mean she is a Mormon; nor does it mean her name has been 
added to church membership records.
Mormons are instructed they must only submit names of direct ancestors and their immediate family (parents, siblings, etc.) unless they have permission from the family. Not every Mormon knows the rule, however, although it is written in the places where submissions are made, and many feel they are helping people they consider special by submitting their names. Therefore, when a name is inappropriately submitted, it is due to a misunderstanding of the rules by the member who submitted it. Since they can be submitted online, there is generally not a worker who can ask them about the names they’ve submitted. The church itself does not submit these names and does not give permission for the practice. Of course, as you go further back into a famous person’s genealogy, there are LDS church members who can legitimately submit the names because they are also descendants of the ancestors.
A church member who finds she shares ancestors with President Obama can submit those ancestors, but cannot continue forward through the line to President Obama’s mother. So, for instance, if a member shares her sixth great grandmother with President Obama, she can submit that grandparent and the grandparents’ immediate families. She can continue further into the past, because those are her direct family, but cannot move forward, all the way to the present.
When a name is sent to a temple, the work is done by a living proxy. This person may be a descendent, or it may be someone using a randomly assigned name that was submitted by another church member. It’s important to understand what Mormons teach about that deceased person.
The Bible teaches that baptism is necessary for eternal life. “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” (See Acts 2:38.) Even Jesus Christ, who had no sins to repent of, insisted on being baptized, because it was a required action. Baptism is not an optional commandment.
Many religions struggle with this particular issue, because they realize there are those who had no opportunity to choose baptism, and to deny them eternal salvation due to something beyond their control conflicts with their understanding of a loving God. The Bible gives us the answer to this problem. Paul asked the Corinthians: “Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?” (1 Corinthians 15:29). It is easy to understand the meaning of this question. He asked the people why they were doing baptisms for the dead if the dead didn’t rise. Well, of course, the dead do rise. He was not explaining baptisms for the dead; he was teaching that the dead do rise and that this was the purpose of these proxy baptisms. Baptisms for the dead were something they obviously already knew about, since he didn’t take any time to explain them. It was in practice at the time and lost in the apostasy. Paul knew, as did Jesus’ other followers, that baptism was necessary for salvation, and that a loving God provided for the challenge of having people die prior to receiving the gospel.
However, God also gives us agency. No one is forced to become a member of God’s church, even if he knows it is true. This gift of agency does not end with death. A baptism by proxy only gives the deceased person the opportunity to accept baptism on his behalf. He is first taught the gospel, just as he would have on earth. Even though at this point, he clearly knows what is true, he is free to reject it if he chooses to do so. Even during life, some people who have received confirmation of the truthfulness of the gospel decide they prefer not to accept or live the truth, and this is also true after death. We continue to be ourselves after we die.
The work can be done one year after death, allowing time for this instruction to occur and for the decision to be made. When the work has been done by a proxy, the deceased person decides whether or not to accept the gift that has been offered. If he rejects it, it is as if it never happened, and he goes on with the life he has earned and chosen. If he does accept, then the proxy ordinance is accepted just as if it had been done by him in his lifetime.
The baptized person is never placed on the records of the earthly church, since we do not know who accepted or what their choices are in Heaven. Those records are kept in the heavenly realm. Here, the only record kept is that the work was done, giving that person the option to accept or reject.
The answer to the question, then, of whether President Obama’s mother is a Mormon is that she is not. The church cancelled the baptism. This means that if she accepted the baptism, the privileges of baptism have been taken from her until one of her own descendants converts and has the work redone. If she had rejected it, nothing has changed for her anyway. Even if the baptism had not been cancelled, her name was never on the records of the earthly church as a member, and she would be a Mormon in Heaven only if she chose to be.
More on the Mormon baptism of Obama’s mother
Using Agency Wisely: Consequences
Filed under: For the Strength of the Youth, Life Lessons, Making Decisions, Old Testament
In order to learn to make wise use of our eternal gift of agency, we must understand that each choice we make has consequences. These consequences can affect our entire lives and even our eternities. They also affect others. When we learn to evaluate the consequences of our choices, we are better able to make wise choices and get the most from our agency.
In the past, many Mormons used the term “free agency” to describe our God-given right to choose for ourselves. Today, church leaders discourage that term, because agency is not free, and they want us to understand this. Instead, they encourage the use of the term “moral agency.” Read more
Gossip
Filed under: Becoming More Christlike, Relationships
In September of 1981, Gene R. Cook wrote an article that might well have struck fear in the hearts of some readers. He wrote of a group of Mormons summoned before church leadership because they were in danger of having their church
Gossip--Don't Pass it on
membership taken from them? Had they robbed a bank? Broken the law of chastity? Committed apostasy? No, not at all. They had done something most of them probably considered unimportant—they had gossiped. They had participated in a nasty whisper campaign about someone they believed had been immoral. The stories were lies and the damage was widespread. Church leaders found it necessary to take this drastic step to help their members understand that gossip is not entertainment or a minor sin. A reputation had been destroyed and it would be impossible to completely undo the damage, especially since the stories had spread outside the church. Read more
Eternally Safe Choices–Undertanding Agency
Filed under: Becoming More Christlike, Discovering Yourself, Finding joy within the gospel, For the Strength of the Youth, Living the Gospel, Making Decisions, Peer Pressure, Teens & Seminary
The teen years are filled with temptation. The media, peers, even teachers and other adults can try to convince a young person that sin is okay, natural, normal, and fun. For a teenager with high standards and an eye for eternity, it can be a challenge to stay on the right path, when so many people are determined to take her off that path.
Fortunately, God and His servants have outlined effective ways for teens—and adults—to stay safe.
Staying safe is a matter of choices, and to make wise choices, we have to understand the concept of agency. This article will focus on agency, and future articles in this series will walk through the process of using that understanding to make eternally safe choices. Read more