society's slippery slope

The following is the conclusion to my homily on Helaman 13, To read the entire homily, go to the "Just Society"  page of this site.

In beginning to read Samuel the Lamanite’s warning against unspecified Nephite “wickedness and abominations,” all sorts of sordid and exotic possibilities fill our imaginations as we contemplate the exact nature of that wickedness and those abominations. Samuel never does get around to saying, directly, of what the wickedness and abominations consists. We only come to understand the specifics of Nephite wickedness and abominations by applying the principles that form the important “law” or “plan of restoration.” This law or plan allows us to surmise a cause from its consequence. If we know the consequence of an unspecified attitude or action, we can then confidently identify the cause.

The consequence of Nephite wickedness and abominations is a curse. The curse is directed against Nephite “treasures and riches.” The curse is both private and corporate, individual and societal. Notwithstanding the false hope of false prophets who falsely promise economic prosperity, individual and societal economic efforts will become ineffectual, and economic resources will disappear. In Samuel’s language treasures and riches will become “slippery.” Economic resources will be “lost,” “gone,” and “taken.” Irredeemable, there will be no “holding onto” or “retaining” them. Nephite society “shall find them again no more.”

The curse falls upon Nephite society’s treasures and riches because of a hardness of heart that, like a contagion, has spread throughout society. The hardness of heart is reflected in the individual’s and society’s “setting their hearts upon their riches.” In setting their heart upon treasures and riches, individuals and society spend their best and most heart-felt efforts on accumulating material resources in order to gratify personal and societal lusts. As the resources grow, so do the lusts. While hardly a minute passes without economic considerations, the heart of individuals and of society at large are far from God or his interests. God’s driving interest is the advancement of beings who are less than he; to advance them to become as he. But Nephite society gives little thought to how economic effort and resources can be, indeed, must be used to advance individuals and other societies that have been left behind and are vulnerable to hurt, pain, and even death because of their dearth of economic resources.

Samuel’s warnings are as pertinent today as they were then. Most likely, they are more pertinent today. It seems as near certain as anything that the self-indulgent materialism of today’s society goes far, far beyond anything the Nephites could have even imagined. Society’s current self-gratifying materialistic fetish is something beyond “unwise.” It is something beyond “dangerous.” It is something beyond “evil.” It is “wicked.” It is an “abomination.” Samuel puts this final label, appropriately, in the plural—“abominations.” It is the mother of all “abominations.”

The unbridled and epidemic materialism of today’s society is curse-inducing. Society must repent this self-indulgent materialistic fetish or it will not long survive. It will not be enough for an individual here and an individual there to resist materialism’s idolatrous onslaught. The here and there individual must unite his or her efforts with other like-minded individuals. They must demand that society legislate; passing and enforcing laws that are consistent, not only with the divine plan of lifting the other, but with principles that tend toward societal survival through risk avoidance.
 
“They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
 
By reducing materialism, individuals and societies can avoid the “snare" of “hurtful lusts” that bring “destruction and perdition"—translation: “Individuals were not made to be rich. They can’t handle it.”

What is true for individuals is true in spades for societies.

Though it is highly unfashionable to advance such positions in today’s trendy, twisted, and ungodly Ayn-Rand-style survival-of-the-fittest libertarianism, men are to utilize, rely upon, and be subject to the collective will; for “governments were instituted of God for the benefit of man.” Only through the collective rejection of materialism, encouraged by government actions, can our society avoid Samuel’s slippery curse or the revelator’s destructive vision.
 
“Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.”
 
And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men. And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all. The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying,

‘Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great riches is come to nought.’”