We Need Organized Religion

 

Get in the Lifeboat: Finding Safety in the Church

By Brother Bradley R. Wilcox

Second Counselor in the Young Men General Presidency

Value Organized Religion

Many people believe in God but not organized religion. They say, “I’m spiritual, not religious.” Typically that means they acknowledge God’s existence but do not want Him to ask anything of them, give them any commandments, or expect them to make any changes.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has taught that spirituality—an individualized experience—might be all we would need if we lived alone on mountaintops, but we live in families, communities, societies. That’s why we need religion—the group practice of spirituality.⁷

It’s easy to sit alone on a mountaintop and say, “I love everyone.” Try feeling the same way when you are late for work because the driver of the vehicle in front of you is going so slow. You want to honk and yell at the driver. In that moment, you need the norms and standards of religion to help you bring mountaintop ideals like love right down to the reality of the moment when someone is being unlovable. That is what religion helps us to do.

Some people see no need for organized religion, and yet they demand organized schools, cities, stores, airports, and hospitals. They see the benefits of going to an organized hospital, where there are rules or expectations. We see the same benefits in our organized Church.

Being part of this organized religion blesses us and those we love in every aspect of our lives. Because the Church is organized, we can care for others more effectively together than we could ever do individually. Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has said that partway through the world pandemic of 2020, the Church had already participated in over 1,000 humanitarian aid projects in over 150 countries. We provided food and other necessities to care for millions in need. None of us could have done that on our own, but we did it together because we have an organized religion.⁸

Society Needs To Hear from People of Faith

 

The Eternal Importance of Religious Freedom

By Michael R. Morris

Church Magazines

Elder Christofferson concurs: “Values we once shared with the great majority of our fellow citizens are now often considered outdated, naive, and sometimes even bigoted. Because a society’s deepest values drive law and public policy, and because those values in many Western nations are now almost entirely secular, government is increasingly enforcing secular values at the expense of religious ones. And society itself—even without the force of government—can ostracize, stigmatize, and discriminate against religious believers in overt and subtle ways, leaving people of faith marginalized and sometimes even despised.”⁸

Religion and Self-Governance

“One of the reasons the attack on moral and religious principles has been so successful is the reluctance of people of faith to express their views,” said Elder Cook. “Extraordinary effort will be required to protect religious liberty. Our doctrine confirms what the U.S. founding fathers and political philosophers have advocated [see Doctrine and Covenants 134:2].”¹⁵

What they have advocated, President Oaks taught, is the central role religion plays in developing self-governance: “Our society is not held together primarily by law and its enforcement, but most importantly by those who voluntarily obey the unenforceable because of their internalized norms of righteous or correct behavior. Religious belief in right and wrong is a vital influence to produce such voluntary compliance by a large number of our citizens.”

What Will Little Children Be Like When They Are Resurrected?

 

The Salvation of Little Children Who Die: What We Do and Don’t Know

By Mark A. Mathews

Seminaries and Institutes

What Will Little Children Be Like When They Are Resurrected?

President Joseph F. Smith (1838–1918) lost many children to early deaths. He was comforted by the doctrine that little children would be resurrected as little children and raised to maturity by their righteous parents after the Resurrection. President Smith once shared the following: “Joseph Smith taught the doctrine that the infant child that was laid away in death would come up in the resurrection as a child; and, pointing to the mother of a lifeless child, he said to her: ‘You will have the joy, the pleasure, and satisfaction of nurturing this child, after its resurrection, until it reaches the full stature of its spirit.’ There is restitution, there is growth, there is development, after the resurrection from death. I love this truth. It speaks volumes of happiness, of joy and gratitude to my soul. Thank the Lord he has revealed these principles to us.”²

Not only will little children reach full maturity; they will also reach full exaltation. Abinadi taught that “little children also have eternal life” (Mosiah 15:25). The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that “you shall have your children; for they shall have eternal life, for their debt is paid.”³

To obtain the highest degree of the celestial kingdom, those who are accountable must enter into the new and everlasting covenant of marriage (see Doctrine and Covenants 131:1–3). Little children who die will have this opportunity in the future. President Joseph Fielding Smith (1876–1972) explained: “The Lord will grant unto these children the privilege of all the sealing blessings which pertain to exaltation. … When they grow, after the resurrection, to the full maturity of the spirit, they will be entitled to all the blessings which they would have been entitled to had they been privileged to tarry here and receive them.”⁴