Exaggeration: A Gospel Necessity

A strange title? Yes. An exaggerated one? Perhaps. By the time you're done reading this post, hopefully, I'll have triggered a minature chain reaction in how you understand the purposes of exaggeration...and hence, more sympathy when you see it at home, at church, and for you readers of modern history, even when you read scholarly monographs (though it sickens me to think that I could ever have sympathy for the chattering class).

The gospel we believe is, in its purest form, a gospel of balance. It defies hysterics, insists on coolness, and dodges the doctrinal fire-and-brimstone of traditional Catholicism and Protestantism. At once firm and fragile, the system of principles we accept as truth constitute a delicately-balanced structure of weights and counterweights. Mercy and justice, joy and pain, "there is opposition in all things" (2 Ne. 2:11) (I'll sidestep the question of how evil fits into the plan...for now ;). As Elder Maxwell once noted in his fine work, That Ye May Believe, truth is not homogenous, but rather, competes within itself for the attention of its adherents. Within this context, we must see the gospel not as a monolithic entity but as a system of moving parts...a system that is only oiled by the blessings of the Atonement...

So what is the significance here? I would suggest to you that by understanding this model of gospel interrelatedness, we can better understand some of the teachings we hear. Perhaps, on numerous occasions, you've heard individuals say various principles are the "key" or the "most important" principles for living righteously or receiving God's blessings. I conducted a search on lds.org of the terms "most important" and "principle"; I found that numerous principles have been referred to as the "most important." Here is a small sampling: self-examination,
obedience , and love,

Now obviously, there is a great deal of overlap here; however, if words mean anything at all to us (and they do...otherwise He wouldn't have gone to the trouble of having his prophet translate hundreds of pages into published form), then we must address how all three of these principles (and doubtless others as heard in talks, lessons, etc.) can be the most important at once.

It's a matter of discourse practicality and a little tinge of public relations. If, when asked to speak, all we droned about every time is that the gospel was a system of doctrinal checks and balances, it would become quite tiresome indeed. However, if you examine the teaching methods of the prophets and apostles, both ancient and modern, they are generally quite free-wheeling, even sprawling...touching on this doctrine or that precept without as much regard for transition statements segues as we think of them. Granted the scriptures are not a bunch of random statements, but we seldom see an ideas devopment over the course of a few verses, instead giving a snippet and leaving the reader to sort it out for him/herself. Why is that?

I would suggest that these teachings are meant to be sprawling b/c the gospel in its purest form cannot be viewed in the context of one of its parts. Yet, in order for the idea to become readily accessible to us, we must compartmentalize the teachings. And while this compartmentalization can sometimes have unpleasant side effects (the "laundry list" gospel wherein we, unaware of our inconsistencies, pleasantly go about holding self-contradictory views that are reversible on a dime: "Do what you feel is right" vs. "Keep your promises"--both are correct teachings in given circumstances, but neither are absolute), if we engage the compartmentalization with a knowledge of its side effects, then we can preserve the benefits while discarding the unpleasantries.

So with this in mind, I try not to be confused at the numerous talks that describe some gospel platitude as being the keystone principle (as an example, I've heard that "gospel is there to comfort the irritable and irritate the comfortable"). While we can still isolate principles for individualized analysis, we must still be on guard lest our speech become sloppy...such sloppiness tends to confuse and define faith all at once. And such a tendency is perilous business when a soul is at stake.