A Modern Day Korihor?

Social media is an interesting place for friends to sort out issues… and for folks who’re not so friendly. That said, I remember reading how families fought on either side, North and South, during the Civil War. Maybe that’s the purpose of Facebook; to sort out what we’re willing to stand up for… or is it simply a distraction, something to waste time that could have been spent more productively?

This entry sparked some interesting comments, “What if, hear me out here, not every policy with which you don’t agree is morally equivalent to the policies of the worst mass murderers in history?”

The political spectrum, unlike white light separated through a prism into equal bands of visible light; …the political spectrum has become loaded left and right with almost nothing discernable in the middle. Folks are pretty sure that anyone who doesn’t agree with their particular ideology are direct descendants of Satan or consider them so dense as to have fallen off the proverbial turnip truck in the last twenty-four hours.

The image selected is from Pink Floyd’s, Dark Side of the Moon, album.

One of my Friends, more adversarial in nature; but generally civil during discussions…where was I… My friend leans toward socialism as he’s the beneficiary of near total indoctrination by schools pretending to educate young minds. I on the other hand believe in our constitutional republic as originally founded and would love to see our nation return, at least incrementally, toward such a lofty goal.

While exchanging ideas my friend boasted about how much better some socialist countries in Europe treated their citizens (subjects) and how Americans should consider moving in that direction.

My response, omitting his name out of respect for his privacy, “…there is no such thing as a socialist country that respects individual God given inalienable rights. While there are some that infringe on them less than others, the constitutional republic established by our founders with Divine intervention is by far much more desirable. How about we, as individuals, how about we work at restoring that “more perfect union” rather than seeking a replacement.”

His flippant response bothered me, enough to pursue and expand on the topic, and yet I’ve considered his attitude on other important issues as, “Well, that’s just the way he expresses his sarcasm”; but I fear it’s much deeper than sarcasm, he must really feel this way.

“There is no such thing as God given inalienable rights. Those are words written by men to comfort other men. They do not necessarily comfort me. Replace divine intervention with French intervention, and you may be getting somewhere.”

My friend thinks our founding documents are nothing but fancy words intended to make simple minded folks (that would be me… and anyone else who falls for this nonsense), words intended to make us feel better.

It’s far more than a casual rewrite of history. If you don’t believe that we have a nation whose foundation started with God given inalienable rights then nothing, and I mean nothing America stands for is legitimate.

All those precious God given rights; to include freedom of speech, freedom to peacefully assemble, freedom from unwarranted searches, the right to own and bear arms…these are nothing more than government entitlements which are determined by which political party happens to be in power.

Everything I believe tells me that my friend is mistaken. I’m fairly certain my point of view is lost on him; but I’ll share some of my reasons anyway.

J. Ruben Clark, a President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, stated:

“We may first observe that communism and socialism – which we shall hereafter group together and dub Statism – cannot live with Chistianity nor with any religion that postulates a Creator such as the Declaration of Independence recognizes. The slaves of Statism must know no power, no authority, no source of blessing, no God, but the State…” (Church News, September 25, 1949, pp. 2, 15.)

David O. Mckay, another President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, recorded a similar warning:

“Communism is antagonistic to the American way of life. Its avowed purpose is to destroy belief in God and free enterprise. In education for citizenship, therefore, why should we not see to it that every child in America is taught the superiority of our way of life, of our Constitution and the sacredness of the freedom of the individual. Such definite instruction is not in violation of either the federal or the state constitution. . .” (Treasures of Life, pp. 501-503.)

My friend isn’t simply disregarding my political philosophy; he’s discounting the foundations of our nation along with our inseparable ties to our Creator, the individual we know as the Word, the Son of God, our Savior and all that is associated with Christianity.

In the Book of Mormon there’s an individual named Korihor, found in Alma 30. He came to mind as I reviewed the comment thread. This is not a good thing for my friend if you’re familiar with how it played out for this particular non-believer.

Korihor was gifted in language skills and went about tearing down the foundations of society by telling folks they were ignorant fools for going along with the nonsense that was being foisted off on them. He did such a good job that a prophet of God was sent to confront him, to challenge the false teachings in order that the people would be saved from going down the path to hell.

In the end, Korihor was forced to admit that he knew all along that God did indeed exist, that everything testified of His blessing and being involved in the lives of the people. He’d been duped by Satan and had to face the consequences of his actions. I’ve provided a link if you’d like to get more then my Cliff Notes version of this important lesson.

I’ll finish with a quote by J. Edgar Hoover, yet another warning to Korihor’s followers of today: