Hero Worship
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| My Dad was my hero when I was a boy! |
I have taken some of what I will write from Sr Reyna Aburto of the General Relief Society Presidency, and I have also borrowed some themes and paraphrased some ideas from a book title the Crucible of Doubt, by Fiona and Terryl Givens. I will also quote some paragraphs from The Living Christ - The Testimony of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, published some 21 years ago.
Most cultures around the world have developed some form of
hero worship. This possibly started when the biggest and strongest man helped
his tribe win territory over competing tribes. Or perhaps he was the best
hunter. Perhaps that hero worship became so pervasive that the hero became the
king. And the Kings eldest son became the next king and so forth. We see this
pattern in the Holy Scriptures. And, as was the case in the Japanese culture,
the king or emperor can become a god. It wasn’t until after WWII, with the American
influence, that the Japanese had to accept that their emperor was not a god.
Hero worship can possibly be a good thing in a culture. The
hero may be a great statesman or military man, perhaps a renowned artist or
musician, or a great architect or builder. They can be very impressive people
who have made great contributions to their society and culture. They can,
therefore, lift and inspire others to reach their full potential.
But the danger of hero worship is that our heroes really are
just human beings, men and women who, while they may excel at something, are still
prone to failure. They will quite possibly fail at some point, and they will
fall off the pedestal that we have put them on, and that can be disheartening
in the least and for some it will be devastating.
I fear that this can be dangerous ground for those of us who
are led by a prophet. We may mistakenly assume that prophets are infallible.
But that is not the case. Over the millennia, prophets have made mistakes.
These mistakes are not hidden, they are in the scriptures for all of us to
read. Abraham lied to the Egyptians about Sarai being his wife (she was his half
sister), Jacob was deceitful in obtaining Esau’s blessing, Moses killed an
Egyptian and buried him in the sand. Paul confronted Peter over his treatment
of Gentiles and pretty much accused him of hypocrisy.
The lead prophet of this dispensation, Joseph Smith, said “I
don’t want you to think I am very righteous, for I am not very righteous.” He
also said “I frequently fell into many foolish errors, and displayed the
weakness of youth, and the corruption of human nature.” He even had some of his
mistakes canonized in scripture. In Doctrine and Covenants Sections 3 where he
was told “how aoft you
have btransgressed the
commandments and the laws of God”, and in Section 24 “thou
art not excusable in thy atransgressions;
nevertheless, go thy way and sin no more.” If Joseph wanted to paint a
perfect picture of himself and fool his followers, I don’t think he would have
preserved his weaknesses in scripture.
Brigham Young, ever a staunch support of Joseph said of him
“I admitted in my feelings and knew all the time that Joseph was a human being
and subject to err. . . . He had his weakness,” he noted. “Still, it
was none of my business to look after his faults.”
Latter-day Saints have at times been guilty of thinking that
our prophets are infallible. In fact, there is a common saying that the
Catholic Church teaches that the Pope is infallible but they don’t believe it,
and conversely, Latter-day Saints are taught that their prophet is fallible and
they don’t believe it either!
The danger in hero worship of our prophet or any other
leaders (or even just other families or individuals) in the Church should be
obvious. They are only human and prone to make mistakes. They are not perfect.
From the President of the Church, all the way to our Bishop and the Sunday School
teacher – all are human and therefore prone to human error. I have made
mistakes in my life and so have you. Isn’t it heartening that the Lord can use
very imperfect vessels, like you and I, to further His work?
What qualifications do men and women need to be called to
some leadership, teaching or administrative position in the Church? From
Section 4 of the Doctrine and Covenants, we read that they need “faith, hope,
charity, and love with an eye single to the glory of God”. This is a warning
for us all. There is no reason to believe that anyone must be perfect because they
were called to this or that position. It is also a warning to the person called,
that they must keep their eye single to the glory of God. They need to resist
taking any glory for themselves, and give all the glory to God. They must
resist putting themselves on a pedestal otherwise God may just push them off.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said in General Conference, “Imperfect
people are all God has ever had to work with. That must be terribly frustrating
to Him, but He deals with it. So should we.”
I am sure our new Bishop would be horrified if we members of
the Geelong ward placed him on a pedestal. Think of the extra pressure we are
placing on him if he thinks that we think he is not capable of making a mistake!
Likewise with our Stake President. Margot and I are fortunate enough to follow
him around to ward conferences in the Stake and we can testify that he is an
inspired man. But that does not mean that every word he utters and every little
thing he does is inspired. Both our Bishop and our Stake President are good,
inspired men, called to serve us. Our role is to sustain them in their callings
by supporting their decisions whether we personally believe those decisions are
inspired or not. In the extremely rare event that any leader was to lead us
astray, there are processes in place to deal with that. But simple mistakes and
human errors should not be seen as the sign of a downfall, just as a sign of
the Lord’s work in action. We are all here to learn both from the process of
making choices, from our mistakes and the mistakes of others and most
importantly to learn both to repent and forgive.
Can we expect our leaders to hold to a higher standard of
righteousness than us? I don’t think we can, without being hypocritical. Remember,
they didn’t ask to be called to the positions that they hold. We might hope that they are more attuned to
the Spirit and more able to hear the voice of the Lord than we are. But this is
not what they expect of us. One of the primary focusses of President Nelsons
tenure has been encapsulated in the #hearhim hashtag. He wants us to hear the
whisperings of the Spirit just as clearly and just as often as he does.
So, to state the obvious, the danger that comes from putting
someone on a pedestal and therefore expecting more from them than we expect
from ourselves, is that they are prone to failing at times and we are prone to
judging them, (or really mis-judging them), and then if they make a really big
mistake, we are prone to falling along with them, either by saying (or
thinking) the “Church cannot be true if Bro or Sr so-n-so said or did that, or by letting their mistakes
justify our own.
What is the answer to this problem? As I see it there is only
one true hero worthy of our worship.
In the words of our First Presidency and Quorum of theTwelve, He was the Great Jehovah of the Old Testament, the Messiah of
the New. Under the direction of His Father, He was the creator of the earth.
“All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was
made” (John 1:3).
Though sinless, He was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. He “went about
doing good” (Acts 10:38),
yet was despised for it. His gospel was a message of peace and goodwill. He
entreated all to follow His example. He walked the roads of Palestine, healing
the sick, causing the blind to see, and raising the dead. He taught the truths
of eternity, the reality of our premortal existence, the purpose of our life on
earth, and the potential for the sons and daughters of God in the life to come.
In her talk in the last General Conference, Sister Reyna
Aburto spoke eloquently of the love that Jesus disciples had for him. She
described how they mourned and wept as they witnessed him dying on the Cross
for us (though they probably did not comprehend this at the time) and how they
continued to minister to him even after his death, taking his body to a tomb
provided by Joseph of Arimathea, rolling a large rock in the doorway to protect
His body from thieves, and by anointing Him. He was our only true hero, who
rather than falling off a pedestal, died on a Cross in a most cruel, barbaric
and agonizing way, for not only for His worshippers, but for the whole human family,
including even those who crucified him.
Again, hear the words of our Latter-day Apostles –
We
solemnly testify that His life, which is central to all human history, neither
began in Bethlehem nor concluded on Calvary. He was the Firstborn of the Father,
the Only Begotten Son in the flesh, the Redeemer of the world.
He
rose from the grave to “become the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20).
As Risen Lord, He visited among those He had loved in life. He also ministered
among His “other sheep” (John 10:16) in
ancient America. In the modern world, He and His Father appeared to the boy
Joseph Smith, ushering in the long-promised “dispensation of the fulness of
times” (Ephesians 1:10).
In the words of a beloved friend, Stephanie Woodford -
How wonderful is life so
dear,
In spite of all the toils
and fear.
The knowledge of our God
on high
Is comfort as each day
goes by.
So let us turn our
thoughts to Him
Who died to save us from
our sin,
To love all men as He
loves us,
To give our thanks and in
Him trust.
Lift up your voice with
joy and sing
All praises to our God
and King.
We ponder on his message
clear,
And share with all that they may hear.
I bear you my testimony of the reality of the living Christ,
and of the true and living Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I
testify of the Saviours love for us, which is evident in the Scriptures and we
can feel as individuals, especially as we express gratitude for the many
blessings that he does bestow upon us.
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