Blinded From The Truth

7 It is an imperative duty that we owe to God, to angels, with whom we shall be brought to stand, and also to ourselves, to our wives and children, who have been made to bow down with grief, sorrow, and care, under themost damning hand of murder, tyranny, and oppression, supported and urged on and upheld by the influence of that spirit which hath so strongly riveted the creeds of the fathers, who have inherited lies, upon the hearts ofthe children, and filled the world with confusion, and has been growing stronger and stronger, and is now the very mainspring of all corruption, and the whole earth groans under the weight of its iniquity.

8 It is an iron yoke, it is a strong band; they are the very handcuffs, and chains, and shackles, and fetters of hell.

9 Therefore it is an imperative duty that we owe, not only to our own wives and children, but to the widows and fatherless, whose husbands and fathers have been murdered under its iron hand;

10 Which dark and blackening deeds are enough to make hell itself shudder, and to stand aghast and pale, and the hands of the very devil to tremble and palsy.

11 And also it is an imperative duty that we owe to all the rising generation, and to all the pure in heart—

12 For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it—

13 Therefore, that we should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness, wherein we know them; and they are truly manifest from heaven—

14 These should then be attended to with great earnestness.

15 Let no man count them as small things; for there is much which lieth in futurity, pertaining to the saints, which depends upon these things.

16 You know, brethren, that a very large ship is benefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm, by being kept workways with the wind and the waves.

17 Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.

This passage is often used by Latter-day Saints to discuss the need to go out and share the Gospel with people all over the world. More particularly, it discusses how there are many people in the world who don't know the truth simply because they don't know where to look. However, after a recent teaching experience, I have begun to take a broader approach to what this passage may mean. In short, I think that all of us are kept from truth because we are blinded by the subtle craftiness of other people. Further, I believe it is our imperative duty to do all we can to overcome this problem.

This problem is especially apparent within the realm of partisan rhetoric. I'm not just talking about political partisanship, either. I am thinking of partisanship in general. The idea of "Us" versus "Them". In social psychology, it is the "In Group" versus the "Out Group". We work so hard at constructing a rhetoric that says, "We are Right and they are Wrong." As we get older, we tend to filter out the rhetoric, or, at least, pretend that we do so. We talk about being unbiased. In reality, one can never be unbiased, because biases are what we use to make sense of the world around us, much like we use generalisations and stereotypes. Of course, biases can be taken to extremes, and cause such things as the fundamental attribution error (switching from social to cognitive psychology). This is the idea that we approach shortcomings in others as saying it is a long-term, internal behavioural problem, whereas our own shortcomings are temporary, external problems. So we say that we don't have a problem, but they do. We are right, and whenever we make mistakes, it is because of something else. But whenever they make mistakes, well they are wrong anyway, so therefore the mistakes are because of them. However, life is not so black and white. There are shades of grey all around us. Trying to divide the world into two categories leads to all sorts of harmful rhetoric--harmful rhetoric that we may not even recognise as harmful until it is too late.

The other day when I was teaching, we were discussing two different presidential addresses. One was delivered on 12 March 1933 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was explaining to the American people why he and Congress had declared a banking holiday after a major break-down of the financial institution. The president also explained the rationale behind the first major law to be passed as part of the New Deal. The second address we read was delivered on the evening of 11 September 2001 by President George W. Bush. This was, of course, the address to the American people discussing the attacks on the World Trade Center. Two very different presidents dealing with two very different problems addressing the American people at two very different times. One of the purposes of this lesson was to discuss the purpose of addressing the American people, and whether or not this purpose was met.

This was when I realised that there was a problem. None of these 5th graders were old enough to understand much about the Great Depression (even though they then were learning about it). They certainly hadn't grown up listening to their parents debating the successes, the failures, the effectiveness, and/or the ineffectiveness of the president. Not so with President Bush. Despite the fact that these kids were barely alive when it happened, and despite the fact that they had, at this point, barely entered into their second decades of being on earth, they all have strong feelings about the president, both the current one and his immediate predecessor. This is because they have grown up listening to their parents spouting out harsh partisan rhetoric. But when we use the party lines, we forget that others don't understand all of the qualifiers that go with it. All they hear are the words. And, children especially, take them at face value. So when we say negative things about the figurehead of the opposition, we may mean the opposition in general, but those who are less aware just hear you talking about the figurehead. Thus, one of the children in the class stated that she "hated President Bush" and therefore didn't even want to read his speech. She completely missed the point of the entire exercise of comparing two speeches by two very different presidents. Then a classmate of hers said, "Oh, yeah? Well I hate Obama!" This didn't have anyhting to do with the lesson, but the rhetoric was already there as the stimulus, and conditioned response manifested itself, just as surely as Pavlov's dogs would salivate at the sound of a bell.

This is when I decided to pause in the lesson to discuss the difference between the message and the messenger. I explained that we were not discussing the president--we were discussing his message to the people of the United States. Unfortunately, the strong feelings about the man sitting in the Oval Office have come from parents who have inadvertently blinded their children from recognising truth when it comes before them. I will be forever grateful for a phrase that is deeply embedded in my being: "Look for, and appreciate, truth wherever you can find it." I am sure this isn't exactly what my mum said, but she said things like this so often that this is how it has come to be expressed in my mind and to others. I see the diamonds in the rough. I see the nuggets of truth. I am always looking for those things that will enlighten and enlarge my understanding.

The truth, as Fox Mulder's poster so succinctly stated, is out there. "If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things." Surely this is the best way to approach our conversations with others and our understanding of the world. Let's look for the best, and stop being blinded, and blinding others, from the truth of the message simply because we dislike the messenger.