If there’s a way to make the word Obedience feel itchier for some of us, it’s by combining it with the word Exact. But these words increasingly seem to appear together when we’re holding up Latter-day Saint ideals. What does the phrase “exact obedience” mean? Are there different kinds of obedience, and do they all carry the same rewards? In this conversation, Cynthia and Susan explore the principle of obedience as a means to spiritual growth and personal transformation.
Notes:
Elder Nelson Delivers Spiritual Thanksgiving Feast to MTCs, 12/2013
Revelation for the Church, Revelation for our Lives, Russell M. Nelson, 04/2018
We Are Never Alone in the Lord’s Work, Henry B. Eyring, 07/2013
Scott
This was a timely episode. I have been thinking a lot about this topic as I have a son on a mission, a daughter that just returned from a mission and a teenage daughter entering high school next year. They are all on differing levels of maturity and opinions regarding obedience. The phrase “exact obedience” has been ringing in the chapels of our stake for the last few years and the term has really made me cringe. I have had to seek for why internally. I feel like at the end of the day, perhaps morality is simply doing what seems right regardless of what we’re told and obedience is doing what we’re told regardless of whether or not it is right. I’m left to wrestle with what does it mean to be moral, and why? and what does it mean to be obedient, and why? (let alone exact obedience). The wrestling continues.
Dub
Great discussion and I know this comment is really late. Just found the website from your recent podcast. As far as the the origin of the term “exact obedience” goes, here are a few points. Obeying with exactness of course references the BoM use. That has been a reference point for missionaries forever and you can find occasional similar references in General Conference through the years of obeying with exactness. It certainly picked up steam when the back inside cover of the Preach My Gospel manual included the bullet point, “Be exactly obedient.” With that publication (2005?) we probably created a new way of expressing being obedient and a new base line. Sister Beck references the PMG list in her April 2010 conference talk. President Nelson in December 2013 told the MTC, “Obedience brings success; exact obedience brings miracles.” He has since emphasized obeying with precision in various ways. I think that gets you to the current status. I’ve heard an LDS mental health professional say that this 2013 phrase has created some significant mental health challenges for some of our missionaries when they don’t see the miracles/success they were hoping for. Again, thanks for a great podcast.
Ziff
I really appreciate y’all’s thoughtful engagement with this topic. I especially enjoy the Psalm 119 quote and the idea of “thoughtful obedience.”