Brothers and sisters it is an honour to be able to
speak to you today. To all those that are here and also throughout the world.
Today I wish to speak with you on a subject I have had to learn about a lot
this last week, tolerance! It seems that with suffering with ill health from
time to time, I find that I want to do a whole lot of things, but I can't, I
have had to learn a lot about tolerance. I have had to learn that tolerance is a virtue that
we need in our very turbulent world, a world filled with great chaos and
strife, war and violence, and all manner of things which are trying our faith
left, right and centre. However, at the same time, we must also realise and
spot that there is a difference between tolerance and tolerate. Just because you
may have tolerance toward someone or something, does not grant whatever it is
or whoever they are the right to do wrong, nor does it obligate you to tolerate
any misdeeds which have taken place. It is therefore fundamental that as Latter
Day Mormons, we need to understand this vital virtue, the very virtue of
tolerance!
Jesus
Christ gave us two great commandments, the highest objectives
in this mortal life are summed up in the two greatest commandments, two
commandments which have never before been fully realised by hardly anyone. But,
if we are to understand tolerance, we must also understand what these two great
commandments are, we must also understand the reality of living these in our
own personal lives. These
two great commandments of which I speak are, loving God the Father and also
loving our neighbours, those around us, when we do this then we take on a whole
new outlook on things. When we love both the Father and our fellowmen, we take
on a whole new recognition of our own lives, understanding that we are not free
to do just what we want, but rather, that we must live our lives showing
gratitude, honour, and respect. We need to be obedient to both of these
commandments, which means that when we are obedient to both of these
commandments, then we are also obedient to all the fundamental laws of the
Gospel. But, it also means, just as Mosiah had summed up, that when we are
serving others, we also are in the service of our God.
The Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ reaches out to
all backgrounds. We have been asked by the Saviour to reach out to all nations as told
to us in the holy scriptures when it says "Go
ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; Teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, unto the end of
the world. Amen" (Matthew
28:18-19)
It is our mission therefore to go and to baptise all
nations, teaching them to keep His commandments. With that comes an additional
need for tolerance. This means that we are reaching beyond our own borders, we
are literally reaching hands across borders in fellowship and in love. One of
the hardest things that may come about when we are doing this is to learn to
love those who live in other lands that we might have considered being enemies
to our own people in our own nations. But, rather than looking at it like this,
we need to look at it in terms that they are a part of our own people, the
human race. The real understanding of the two great commandments can only come
when we learn to have tolerance for those not of our own home land. When we
learn to have tolerance for those of other nationalities, when we learn to have
tolerance and love toward those who perhaps in Muslim nations, we then learn
that we can have great concern for them having tolerance for them, while not
tolerating their beliefs, we have great tolerance for them, great compassion
for them, and we want to help them and to fellowship them just as anyone who
has not before had a chance to hear the restoration. Indeed we need to show
that our tolerance is greater than there's, for we say to the world today to
join with Christ of you own free will, gone are the days when men of the west
say convert or die, for this is not the way of the Father or the Son, but the
one whom was cast down. It is for this
reason that intolerance of other nations and people is one reason why we have
wars and conflicts which take place all around the globe, indeed much of the
conflict in the Middle East today is because one set of people are showing
total intolerance for others. The situation that is effect throughout the world
has nothing to do with religion but intolerance. We know that humanity is in
the grip of something which it needs to strive to come out from under, but it
will not be the case until the nations learn that intolerance is nit the answer
and to look for the time when Jesus Christ returns. But for us, as children of
the Father and followers of the Christ we can learn tolerance for other
nations. In our walk along the path of life we may come into contact with those
people that do not share the same beliefs as ourselves, does this mean that we
have no responsibility toward them? No, rather it means that we should still
show love towards them, that we should still have great tolerance for them and show
them the love of God, to educate them in the role and life of the Saviour for the
sake of their own redemption, and in doing so we share with them the truth of
the Restored Gospel and what is holds for them. Then if they desire baptism, we
take them down into the waters of baptism and give them the laying on of hands
for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
There are risks with tolerance, this may sound silly but
let me offer some more important information on the side of caution. There is an
assumption amongst many people that says, that if a little of something is okay,
then a lot of something must be even better, but, this is not always so! For
example, why would one take a prescription medicine that might help to relieve
their earache and because it has helped that earache, take even more, so much
so that they have overdosed? Mercy can also oppose justice, so then, tolerance
with limit can also lead to giving permission for things to go too far. So with
this, we might want to just take a look at how much tolerance we should afford,
especially if we have been wronged numerous times. Remember that while we have
tolerance, it does not mean that we have to continue being wronged. The Lord
has drawn boundary lines upon tolerance. Just as in the early history of the
Church in this dispensation, the Lord has drawn lines with how long the Saints
stayed in an area in the midst of great persecution. So the Lord from time to
time made provisions for the Saints to move around, an event which was symbolised
in the Bible by the forty years in the desert of ancient Israel
Tolerance Demands Mutual Respect. In our desire to commit
to the Saviour, we must scorn sin, yet while scorning sin, we love those around
us. For example, since the attacks on the world trade centre and the London
underground and the continued unrest we find ourselves in today with many of
the Muslim nations within the Middle East there are those who have began showing great hatred and still do and this
anger is turned towards their Muslim neighbours. They hate them with a passion
for the terrorist attacks, for the murder and the bloodshed that many belonging
to this religion have spawned and are still indeed spawning all over the world.
Let it be clear that while we can hate what took place and what is still taking
place, we should never forget that we should love all men and that includes Muslims.
Does it mean that those terrorist attacks represented Muslims or Islam as a
whole? Of course not, so therefore, we should love them as our own neighbours,
we may not agree with their beliefs, indeed we do not, we may not agree with the
way they choose to live and we may have massive cultural and religious differences,
indeed we have, but in the grand scheme of things we are all children of God
and we are all living together on this planet which has to be tended, subdued,
and shared with gratitude. We are all children of our Heavenly Father. Each one
of us is able to help make this world a more pleasant experience if we only
work at it together, therefore, we should never let the sin of our natural man
stand in the way of loving those whom we might think are our enemies, just
because a few are standing as the enemy. It is morally unacceptable for us as
Latter Day Mormons to deny anyone or any group their dignity on the tragic and
abhorrent theory of racial and or cultural superiority, for we are not better
than they, we are but equal with them. Therefore, I urge the Latter Day Church
of Jesus Christ to recommit themselves to the time-honoured ideals of true
tolerance and mutual respect that should be afforded everyone. We acknowledge
that there are more people than us and that they come from differing
backgrounds, cultures, and races and although we know that the gospel of Christ
restored is his plan for us and none other , we should however have great
tolerance for them, desiring to live in peace and coexist together until The
Lord Jesus Christ should return and bring all people under His rule to know
truth.
Remember that we the Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ have
been wronged, many times, indeed we continue to be wronged by many people and
we know that that feeling is not nice nor is it something that we wish to
export to anyone, so therefore, let us reach a hand of fellowship and love
toward others who are different from us. Let us carry this on in our messages
of hope and love toward all people, that they might see that the Lord’s church
is not a church which hates, but a church that loves, a church of peace and tolerance. To this end, I leave
these words with each of you. Amen.
Prophet Matthew P. Gill
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