Righteous Women... A Call to Arms

The onslaught of e-mails has increased. Blogs tirade regularly of dissatisfaction. People, if they can find something to complain about, will.

I say - "Thumper... what did you father

tell you just this morning?"

"If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."

Nonetheless, sometimes we find ourselves in a position where we need to stop another from affecting us negatively, and still do it positively.

I found myself in just such this situation recently. A self-professed Latter-day Saint Christian woman with whom I am associated recently sent me a mass e-mail. She does this pretty regularly, and I, typically, ignore her emails, but this time it really got to me. The first paragraph, a comment on the article she forwarded, was scathing. Among other things, she referred to the President of the United States as evil, a racist, and that he is "filled with hate." She then included a forwarded e-mail claiming to be written by an American historian. She testified that the comments were along the same lines as she was thinking.

Allow me to interject briefly... This blog is not about politics. For those of you that know me, I'm not a fan of politics, and so I'm not writing about that. I am writing to illustrate methods of communication.

I don't trust a lot of what I read in mass mailings. When I check the facts (usually at snopes.com) I find that the email is a myth, and not worth my time. I reviewed the article she forwarded and found it to be a fallacy. At this point, I knew that perhaps this individual needed to be reminded of her worth. To refer to the President as she did, and then propagate the mis-information she received, without checking her facts, frightened me.

I was afraid for her, that she could hold so much hate.

How to proceed, and still follow the credo left by Thumper's father... hmmm... I responded to her e-mail. Please, dear reader, tell me what you think of my response. My goal was to be patient, understanding, but request a bit more respect when she sends things to me.

I received your mass e-mail today, and I would like to respectfully request that unless you have verified your facts, please do not forward me political articles. If if you have verified the facts, please attach the proof to the e-mail. That being said, to further give you some light and knowledge on the e-mail you forwarded to me, I went to a website called snopes.com. The purpose of this website is to factually prove or debunk internet "rumors." I suggest you take the time to read this link I am sending you, in the hopes that you will understand why I made this request.

In the Articles of Faith it says that "We believe in being subject to kings, PRESIDENTS, rulers and magistrates in obeying, honoring and sustaining the law." Whether or not you approve of President Obama is your choice, however, to force your opinions that he is evil upon me, unsolicited, is not welcome or okay. President Obama is still a child of God, and did, in the pre-mortal world make a decision to follow the Savior, just as you and I did. If you choose not to think of him as a child of God, just remember the promises and covenants you have made, and the commandments from the Savior to “Love thy neighbor as thyself” and then remember who Christ defined as our neighbors from the parable of the Good Samaritan.

That being said, and because, by sending this e-mail you solicited my response, please consider my opinion on President Obama. I do not believe that he is evil. I believe that he is governing the country to the best of HIS ability. My concern with Mr. Obama is that he is not going to the Lord for their instruction about what should happen in this country. That does not make him evil; it just makes him not relying on the arm of the Lord. The only way he is going to change his attitudes is if we, as an American public, go to him and force the changes through the APPROPRIATE POLITICAL PROCESSES. We write letters and e-mails to our leaders about specific issues and choices, not involving character. We can’t control how they behave; we can control how they vote IN OUR BEHALF.

Please understand that I do not mean any disrespect, and that is why I share these things with you. We need to respect our leaders, and check our facts, before we go accusing people of things of which they may or may not be guilty.

President Spencer W. Kimball gave a speech in 1979, that, in recent months, I have heard quoted on many occassions. I'd like to quote part of it now.

How special it is for Latter-day Saint women to be given the lofty assignments they have been given by our Father in Heaven, especially those of you who have been privileged to be born in this part of this last dispensation. Let other women pursue heedlessly … their selfish interests. You can be a much needed force for love and truth and righteousness on this planet. …

… My dear sisters, may I suggest to you something that has not been said before or at least in quite this way. Much of the major growth that is coming to the Church in the last days will come because

Many of the good women of the world

(in whom there is often such an inner sense of spirituality)

will be drawn to the Church in large numbers.

This will happen to the degree that

the women of the Church reflect

righteousness and articulateness in their lives

and to the degree that

the women of the Church are seen as

distinct and different—in happy ways—

from the women of the world.

… Thus it will be that female exemplars of the Church will be a significant force in both the numerical and the spiritual growth of the Church in the last days. …

We love you sisters. We have confidence in you. We rejoice in your devotion. We are greatly heartened by your presence … in this portion of this dispensation wherein your talents and spiritual strength are so desperately needed.. Ensign, Nov. 1979, 103–4

President Kimball stipulated that we need to be righteous, articulate, distinct and different in happy ways. We need to stand for the good there is in this world. That will separate us from the others, and they will be drawn to us because of the difference.

Sisters, my call today is for us to be more righteous, articulate, distinct, different and happy. When the time comes for us to say something... let it be nice... let it be positive... let it be uplifting, and let us be known as a sisterhood that looks for the best, and welcomes with open arms. If changes must be made, let us please look for the way to adjust without offense, relying on the example of the Savior. We are all chidlren of our Heavenly Father, and deserve that respect. Remember...

We can not like choices that are made,
but we can still love the person.

Jesus did... and so can we.