Episode 120: Not of the World? Not so Fast!
Latter-day Saints talk a lot about the wicked world: how it’s getting more wicked, how it’s a sign of the last days, how we’re supposed to be in but not of it, how we should protect our families and fortify our homes against it. But what do we mean when we talk disparagingly about it? What are we gaining collectively from embracing a distrust of, or desire to disengage from, the world? And could there be unintended consequences from consistently highlighting a fearful view?
Notes & Quotes:
Eboo Patel: Interfaith America is a Potluck Dinner, In Good Faith podcast, Ep. 131, 11/13/2022
To Be in the World but Not of the World, by Elder James A. Cullimore, October 1973
Overcome the World and Find Rest, by Pres. Russell M. Nelson, October 2022
Are We Living in a Sin-Saturated or Christ-Soaked World?, Wheat & Tares, by Elisa, 10/27/2022
Times & Seasons 15 April 1842, The Joseph Smith Papers
Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear, by Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf, April 2017
Breathing Under Water, Falling Upward, and Unlearning Certainty, Unlocking Us podcast, by Brene Brown with Father Richard Rohr, 12/14/2022
“This world is a very wicked world; and it is a proverb that the ‘world grows weaker and wiser’ if it is the case, the world grows more wicked and corrupt. In the early ages of the world, a righteous man, and a man of God, and of intelligence had a better chance to do good, to be believed and received, than at the present day; but in these days such a man is much opposed and persecuted by most of the inhabitants of the earth;” —Joseph Smith, Times & Seasons
“Fear rarely has the power to change our hearts, and it will never transform us into people who love what is right.” —Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf
“All mature spirituality in one sense or another is about letting go and unlearning.” —Richard Rohr